Rate of Change

Lightning has been striking the Earth for billions of years, but it’s only in the past few decades that scientists have started to uncover its flashiest secrets. Is lightning the same everywhere in the world? Does harvesting its energy to power our society—or a time machine—make any sense? From enormous bolts streaking toward space to powerfully mysterious gamma ray bursts, we explore this common but little understood natural phenomenon with one of the world’s leading researchers on the topic Professor Steve Cummer.

Transcript: pratt.duke.edu/news/lightning-talks

In this episode, Jamal sat down with Ernesto Escobar, the Executive Director of Duke's Game Design Development and Innovation Master's Program, and founder of Fanaticus XR. Together, they explore the positive impact of video games, debunk common misconceptions, and discuss the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the gaming industry.

Transcript: https://pratt.duke.edu/news/game-changer

When Becky Simmons first got to Duke in the 1990s, she wouldn’t have guessed it then, but a future awaited her that included graduate school, a husband, two daughters, professorship and ties that would bind them all to Duke for decades.

Transcript: pratt.duke.edu/news/blue-devil-family

Andrew Van Horn and Debopriyo Biswas, two grad students from the Duke Quantum Center, chat about how quantum technology is portrayed is popular film and tv. What does pop quantum get right? What does it get wrong? And why does it even matter?

Transcript: pratt.duke.edu/news/pop-quantum

Duke CEE faculty member Andrew Jones investigates how and where bacterial communities thrive in the built environment—and imagines a future water smart grid that’s accessible to everyone.

Transcript available at https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/podcast/what-makes-happy-community

Today, researchers use a variety of imaging techniques to visualize and analyze biological systems, but there are limits to how much—and how well—these tools can see. But Duke BME’s Roarke Horstmeyer and his team are creating new microscopes and imaging algorithms to capture biomedical images at never-before-seen scales.

Transcript available at https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/podcast/multiplying-microscopes

She’s an analyst. He’s an algebrist. She loves displays of unbridled creativity; he has journaled every day for thirty years. Between the two of them, Duke power couple Ingrid Daubechies and Robert Calderbank have changed the way society shares and processes information.

Transcript available at https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/podcast/resonance

Duke Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science professor Adrian Bejan escaped the Iron Curtain to pursue his dreams. Listen to discover how his freedom led him to formulate constructal theory, which connects physics to evolution through the freedom of change.

Transcript available at https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/podcast/inescapable-need-freedom

What’s in our drinking water? Duke professor of civil and environmental engineering Lee Ferguson uses non-targeted analysis to gather clues about chemical contaminants, making it possible to identify them and trace them back to their points of origin.

Transcript available at pratt.duke.edu/about/news/podcast/chemical-detective

Current drugs for osteoporosis can only slow or stop progression of bone loss. What’s gone is gone. Duke University Professor Shyni Varghese has built a new molecule that rebuilds bone—and may transform osteoporosis treatment.

Transcript available at https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/podcast/reversing-bone-loss-due-osteoporosis