Nobel Laureates (Audio)

Berkeley Lab's Science at the Theater traveled across the Bay to San Francisco's Herbst Theater for a star turn by two of the Lab's Nobel laureates. George Smoot received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for the "discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation." Saul Perlmutter received the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae." The host for the conversation was KQED's Michael Krasny. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 24902]

As late as the mid-twentieth century science and technology were celebrated as instruments of progress, but by the early twenty-first century they were viewed increasingly as threats to life on Earth. Vivek Wadhwa, Washington Post and Bloomberg Businessweek columnist, and Ahmed Zewail, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, discuss how science and technology may be managed to advance humanity. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Science] [Show ID: 24776]

The University of California, Berkeley hosted a gathering of experts in the fields of population, sustainability, and global health. Malcolm Potts, director and founder of the Bixby Center for Population, Health & Sustainability at UC Berkeley, kicks off this plenary on population, consumption, and human wellbeing that includes a keynote address by Sir John Sulston, a Nobel Laureate and chair of the UK Royal Society Working Group People and the Planet, a project studying the relationship between changes in population size, age structure, consumption, and human well-being and a panel that includes Dr. Ndola Prata and Dr. Jaime Sepulveda. Series: "UC Global Health Institute" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 23514]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama joins esteemed scientists Richard Somerville and Veerabhadran Ramanathan at UC San Diego to discuss the need for humanitarian values and universal responsibility in responding to the impacts of climate change on communities and ecosystems. This lecture is part of the Dalai Lama’s “Compassion without Borders” symposium in San Diego. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 20669]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama engages with Larry Hinman of the University of San Diego, V.S. Ramachandran of UC San Diego and Jennifer Thomas of San Diego State University in a scientific and philosophical discussion of human consciousness. This is the final event of the Dalai Lama’s “Compassion Without Borders” tour sponsored by San Diego’s three largest universities. Series: "Dalai Lama" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 23653]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama continues his “Compassion without Borders” tour in San Diego with “Cultivating Peace and Justice,” a public lecture at the University of San Diego addressing escalating violence among nations and alternatives that emphasize shared human values across societies. Series: "Peace exChange -- Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 22480]

In a public talk in front of the Great Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza, Berkeley Lab's Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist George Smoot discusses the remarkable precision that ancient Mayan astronomers achieved solely with the naked eye and comments on the significance of the approaching end of the current World Age of the 5,000-year-long Mayan Long-Count Calendar, due to conclude on the 2012 winter solstice. No, the end of the world is not at hand, Smoot says, but it's true that we're undergoing a fantastic transition in cosmology. The Mayan view of the universe was based on the sun and moon, a handful of planets, and a couple of thousand stars. Ours is an evolving cosmos reaching back over 13 billion years, based on a cornucopia of data accumulating almost daily and including hundreds of billions of galaxies. Series: "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory " [Science] [Show ID: 23616]

Sir Harold Kroto is an English chemist and the 1996 Nobel Prize recipient in Chemistry. He currently serves as Francis Eppes Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University. He researches the high-resolution electronic spectra of free radicals produced by flash photolysis (the breaking of chemical bonds by light), as well as carbon dioxide and the molecules that contain chains of carbon atoms with numerous multiple bonds. Kroto's Nobel Prize was based on his co-discovery of buckminsterfullerene, a form of pure carbon better known as "buckyballs." He is presently researching nanoscience and nanotechnology. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 23326]

Shirin Ebadi received the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting human rights, in particular, the rights of women, children, and political prisoners in Iran. She was the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and only the fifth Muslim to receive a Nobel Prize in any field. Ebadi was also one of the first female judges in Iran. She served as president of the city court of Tehran from 1975 to 1979, but was dismissed from her position after the Islamic Revolution in February 1979. After obtaining her lawyer’s license in 1992, Ebadi entered private practice. She has taken on many controversial cases defending political dissidents and, as a result, has been arrested numerous times. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 23039]

A champion of women’s empowerment around the world, Leymah Gbowee is an African peace activist often credited with aiding the cessation of the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003 through her extraordinary women-led peace movement. Currently the Executive Director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa, Gbowee’s work was the subject of the 2008 award-winning documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which has been used as a tool to mobilize African women to petition for peace and security. In October 2007, the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government honored Ms. Gbowee with the Blue Ribbon Peace Award for her significant contribution to peace-building. Two days after this talk was recorded, Gbowee became the co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Series: "Voices" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 23061]