HHMI 2014 Holiday Lecture Series

 

# 9523

 

Five years ago I highlighted an online (and free) holiday lecture series  offered by HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) that focused on Infectious Diseases. Those four (roughly 1 hour lectures) were geared for and delivered to an audience of high school science students.

 

In HHMI’s Holiday Lecture Series: 2012, I highlighted this series again, this time featuring four lectures on our changing planet, while in 2013, the focus was on medicine in the Genomic Era.

 

These lecture series are a yearly event, and for nearly two decades  they have focused on a variety of topics, including: Cancer, Genomics, Biodiversity, Immunology, Neuroscience, and Infectious Diseases. This year, the focus is on Biodiversity in the Age of Humans, with a half dozen 30-minute lectures available.

 

A link, with a brief description, follows:

 

The 2014 Holiday Lectures on Science

Biodiversity in the Age of Humans

Now available for on-demand streaming!

Lecture 1: Learning from Past Extinctions, by Anthony D. Barnosky PhD

Lecture 2: Humans, Biodiversity, and Habitat Loss, by Elizabeth A. Hadly PhD

Lecture 3: Rescuing Species, by Elizabeth A. Hadly PhD

Lecture 4: Extreme Life of the Sea, by Stephen R. Palumbi PhD

Lecture 5: Ocean Species Respond to Climate Change, by Stephen R. Palumbi PhD

Lecture 6: Dodging Extinction, by Anthony D. Barnosky PhD

---

Are we witnessing a sixth mass extinction? What factors threaten ecosystems on land and in the sea? What are researchers doing to try to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems such as tigers in Asia and coral reefs around the world? What tools do we have to avoid a global catastrophe? In six half-hour lectures, three leading scientists describe the state of biodiversity on our planet and how to face the great challenges that lie ahead.

Our lecturers are:

Anthony D. Barnosky, University of California, Berkeley (link to lab page)
Elizabeth A. Hadly, Stanford University (link to lab page)
Stephen R. Palumbi, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University (link to lab page)

 

For those who would like to sample the earlier lectures, their are 86 of them available as free podcasts through iTunes.

The rest of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute  website is well worth exploring as well, for it contains numerous short science films, virtual laboratories, and interactive mini-lessons, all designed to feed your `inner science geek’.

This is a veritable treasure trove for science geeks everywhere, and I’m looking forward to sampling many of these lectures over the holiday

HHMI’s Holiday Lecture Series: 2013

 

 

# 8110

 

In 2010 I highlighted an online (and free) holiday lecture series  offered by HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) that focused on Infectious Diseases. These four (roughly 1 hour lectures) were geared for and delivered to an audience of high school science students.

 

Last year, in HHMI’s Holiday Lecture Series: 2012, I highlighted this series again, this time featuring four lectures on our changing planet.

 

These lecture series are a yearly event, and for nearly two decades  they have focused on a variety of topics, including: Cancer, Genomics, Biodiversity, Immunology, Neuroscience, and Infectious Diseases. This year, the focus is on Medicine in the Genomic Era, again with 4 hour-long lectures available. 

 

A link, with a brief description, follows:

 

 

The 2013 Holiday Lectures are now available
via on-demand streaming! Click the thumbnail above
or follow this link to view!

Sixty years after James Watson and Francis Crick revealed the structure of the DNA double helix and only a decade after scientists published the first complete read-through of all three billion DNA bases in the human genome, the ability to routinely sequence and analyze individual genomes is revolutionizing the practice of medicine—from how diseases are first diagnosed to how they are treated and managed.

In the 2013 Holiday Lectures on Science, Charles L. Sawyers of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Christopher A. Walsh of Boston Children’s Hospital will reveal the breathtaking pace of discoveries into the genetic causes of various types of cancers and diseases of the nervous system, and discuss the impact of those discoveries on our understanding of normal human development and disease.

 

 

For those who would like to sample the earlier lectures, their are 80 of them available as free podcasts through iTunes.

The rest of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute  website is well worth exploring as well, for it contains numerous short science films, virtual laboratories, and interactive mini-lessons, all designed to feed your `inner science geek’.

 

This is a veritable treasure trove for science geeks everywhere, and I’m looking forward to sampling many of these lectures over the holidays.

Online Virology Course: 2013

Virology Course 2013

# 6905

 

A little more than 3 years ago in an Online Virology Course, I wrote about Vincent Racaniello’s taping and sharing on the internet of his spring virology lectures.

 

Racaniello, who pens the excellent virology blog and hosts the always fascinating This Week In Virology (TWiV), This week in Parasitism (TWiP) and This week in Microbiology (TWiM) podcasts, is a professor of virology at Columbia University.

 

On Friday Dr. Racaniello announced the start of his 4th year posting his lectures in A virology course for all, explaining:

 

Readers of virology blog can watch every lecture in the course. You will find a videocast of each lecture at the course website, at my YouTube channel, and at iTunes University. The complete 2012 version of this course is available online, at iTunes University, and YouTube.

 

Follow this link to Vince’s blog for more details. 

 

I watched many of the first season of lectures, but as age and time conspire against one’s memory, I look forward to this year’s offerings as a refresher course.

 

The first three lectures for 2013 are now up, and ready for viewing – something I’ll be doing later today.

  

While these lectures are geared towards advanced undergraduates, and parts may be a bit advanced, the great thing about the internet is you can pause and look up terms you don’t fully understand.

Based on the videos I saw in 2010, I happily recommend these lectures to disease and science geeks everywhere.

Dr. Richard Webby Lecture: Emerging Flu Viruses In The Animal World

Photo Credit- St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

 

# 6146

 

 

When it comes to the study of influenza, New Zealand has produced two of the world’s most famous researchers; Robert G. Webster, PhD and Richard J. Webby, PhD.

 

Webby, who in 2008 became director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tn. returned to Wellington, New Zealand this week to give a lecture at the University of Otago, where he received his PhD.

 

The subject of his talk was Emerging influenza viruses in the animal world: Should humans be worried?, which was presented on February 14th, 2012.

 

I am happy to report that the audio of this presentation has been posted online, so we can all listen to his lecture.  

 

This from the Science Media Centre website.

 

 

Dr Richard Webby on following the ‘flu

Posted in Briefings on February 15th, 2012.

Dr Richard Webby, a New Zealand virus researcher based in the US, this week gave a public lecture on influenza at the University of Otago Public Health Summer School in Wellington, explaining the research behind the major flu outbreaks in recent years.

(Continue . . .)

 

In addition to Webby’s lecture you’ll find a Q&A session, and some closing comments by Dr Marc-Alain Widdowson from the CDC’s Influenza Division.

 

Webby discusses the H5N1 research controversy, the emergence of H3N2v viruses from swine, and what the H5N1 virus needs to do to become a serious pandemic threat.

 

Entertaining and informative, this lecture is highly recommended.