Science (Video)

The introduction of species into new environments has occurred throughout human history. While most introductions fail and most of those few that establish remain environmentally innocuous, a notable minority wildly proliferates in their new ranges. These invaders disrupt ecosystems and burden economies. Environmental impacts associated with invasions are hard to predict and vary in space and time but include ecosystem-level disruptions, species extinctions, and the homogenization of biodiversity. Economic costs, while challenging to quantify, are enormous and growing. Given that established invaders are difficult to eradicate, let alone manage, stopping invasions before they start remains the most effective strategy to limit further costs resulting from invasions. Challenges to implementing this approach include regulating trade and coordinating rapid governmental responses to emerging threats. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 37905]

Beginning with Homo erectus at least a million years ago, hominins have used fire to engineer the world around them. The earliest uses of fire surely included cooking, changing the energy yields of foods. Such innovations altered the course of our evolution, facilitating the evolution of species that could adapt quickly using tools and social ingenuity. Within the last 200,000 years, hominins also used fire to change the material properties of stone, pigments, sap, and wood. While these changes represent a fundamental shift in the role of humans as dominant shapers of their environments through years of evolution and innovation, ecosystems adjusted as early humans remained embedded within them. However, humans are not now simply shifting to another sustainable balance - we are pushing environmental thresholds across one tipping point after the next. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 37907]

This CARTA public symposia addresses specific examples of how humans have drastically altered the planet. Acknowledged experts will discuss clearly defined global-scale negative impacts on planet earth, our life support system (other than climate change, population growth and infectious diseases, which are well-known). Each talk succinctly describes a specific impact, the role that our species has played, and concludes with ongoing or potential approaches to mitigation. In the process, we are coming full circle to Anthropogeny, asking how a single species could evolve the ability to so drastically alter the entire planet. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 38008]

Humans have adapted to meet their water needs across disparate environments over time using behavioral adaptations. Yet, as temperatures rise and freshwater sources become depleted, it is critical to understand 1) how populations modify their environments to meet their water needs, and 2) the consequences of these anthropogenic - or human caused changes - on the environment and further on human health. This talk will provide an overview of different global water challenges and focus on a couple of case studies to highlight how development projects in remote areas that provide easier access to water, which may be high in salt or other contaminants, can unintentionally worsen health outcomes and hasten water depletion. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 37908]

Human-made chemicals with the unexpected ability to interfere with our body’s endocrine system have become prominent contaminants in daily life. Because the hormones produced by our endocrine system create complex signaling networks that control our growth, maturation, fertility, immunity, behavior, and sleep, these endocrine disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, can exert powerful biological effects. Declines in human fertility evidenced by falling sperm counts and increases in the incidence of infertility raise concern that daily exposure to EDC contaminants already is impacting human fertility. By design, all species are responsive to their environment. In humans, this responsiveness means that changes in our environment can affect the production of eggs and sperm, the growth and development of the fetus, and adult susceptibility to disease. Thus, in a 21st century world characterized by environmental crises, EDCs represent a planetary health problem with the potential to affect future generations. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 37912]

The world is facing a health crisis due to increasing rates of obesity and diabetes, and the consequences of this pandemic will accumulate over the coming decades. Simultaneously, climate change is accelerating and is already having devastating effects that will undermine our ability to feed the world’s growing population. In turn, our food systems contribute importantly to greenhouse gas emissions, water and land use, and multiple forms of pollution. Thus, a solution to feeding what will be about 10 billion people by 2050 diets that are both healthy and environmentally sustainable presents an opportunity to mitigate many global challenges.

The EAT-Lancet commission addressed this challenge by defining healthy diets quantitatively, determining whether these can be produced within planetary boundaries for greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental factors, and identifying strategies to achieve these goals. Any solution must assume that we rapidly shift from fossil fuels to green energy. The commission found that global adoption of a flexitarian dietary pattern that could include up to about two servings per day of animal sourced foods, together with improvements in agricultural practices and reductions in food waste, would have major benefits for human health and allow us to stay within planetary boundaries. Achieving this will require the engagement of governments at all levels, civil society, and individuals. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Health and Medicine] [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 37911]

Dilek Colak, PhD, shares the results of recent work identifying aberrant Ca2+ signaling in ASD astrocytes as a mechanism that contributes to specific behavioral and neuronal deficits. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 37673]

California is a pioneer in researching the impacts of and solutions to climate change. Getting to carbon neutral - or net zero carbon emissions - is key to curbing our increasingly warming planet. Dr. Roger Aines of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory talks with Climate Now's James Lawler about the latest research on ways to capture carbon. Series: "Sustainable California" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 37993]

UC Davis's dean of engineering, Richard L. Corsi, Ph.D., P.E., is an internationally recognized expert in the field of indoor air quality, with a specific interest in physical and chemical interactions between pollutants and indoor materials. Corsi discusses "pandemic engineering" and approaches to disrupt transmission by reducing the inhaled dose of respiratory aerosols, including the highly effective and relatively low-cost do-it-yourself air cleaner for respiratory aerosols that has become known as the "Corsi-Rosenthal box." [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 37997]

The Pacific footballfish is a large but rarely encountered deep-sea anglerfish known from only 31 specimens recovered worldwide. Strangely, over the course of last year (2021), three footballfish were found washed up on beaches in San Diego and Orange Counties. Scripps scientists aren't quite sure why these rare creatures are suddenly showing up on our beaches, but were lucky enough to collect, preserve and archive one of these unusual animals in Scripps world class oceanographic collections. This specimen, a true oddity, is now on display for a very limited time at Birch Aquarium. To see the footballfish and learn more about it, join us and Scripps Collections Manager, Ben Frable, for a deep dive into the fascinating story of this mysterious fish, where and how it lives, the biology of anglerfishes, and how Scripps scientists are preserving this animal for future research. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Science] [Show ID: 37914]