UC Santa Barbara (Video)

Ernst Lubitsch’s controversial anti-Nazi political satire "To Be or Not To Be" is celebrated as one of the most subtle meditations on power, politics, and performance to emerge from Hollywood during the war. Professor Emily Carman (Film and Media Arts, Chapman University) joins Carsey-Wolf Center Director Patrice Petro for a discussion about the original ambivalent reviews and how perceptions have changed since its 1942 release. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33093]

A legendary director noted for his uncompromising passion, Werner Herzog joins Carsey-Wolf Center Director Patrice Petro for a discussion about his 1979 film “Nosferatu The Vampyre” which he says is a tribute to the classic 1922 film "Nosferatu” by F.W. Murnau. Herzog also discusses his career and the film’s significance as a bridge to the masterworks of interwar cinema. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33062]

Before we learned to make antimicrobial medicines and vaccines, before we had disinfectants and chemotherapies, we had interferons to thank for protection from viral infections. UC Santa Barbara Distinguished Professor Charles Samuel, an internationally recognized pioneer and leader in the study of interferons, explores why they remain a critical and significant field of research, especially in an age of powerful and constantly evolving viruses that spread rapidly.

Series: "Scientific Horizons" [Science] [Show ID: 33097]

Author, Tova Mirvis, discusses her book, The Book of Separation, which describes a woman who leaves her Orthodox Jewish faith and her marriage and sets out to navigate the terrifying, liberating terrain of a newly mapless world. She is the author of three novels and her essays have appeared in various anthologies and newspapers. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33053]

Engineers are often tasked with building the physical infrastructure capable of serving the underlying societal demands. Examples include transportation networks, power grids, data centers, and many more. A fundamental challenge associated with these "socio-technical" systems is that their underlying performance is largely impacted by how society chooses to use them, and unfortunately society tends to use such systems in a highly inefficient way. Jason Marden sheds some light on the unique challenges that surface when seeking to design and control such systems. Series: "GRIT Talks" [Science] [Show ID: 32754]

Do complex systems exhibit fundamental properties? This talk looks at tradeoffs between robustness and fragility that occur in biological, ecological, and technological systems that are driven by design, evolution, or other sorting processes to high-performance states which are also tolerant to uncertainty in the environment and components. Series: "GRIT Talks" [Science] [Show ID: 32758]

Mary Karr, one of the most celebrated memoirists, poets and essayists of her generation, talks about her craft and the revelations found along the way. Her most recent publication, The Art of Memoir, features excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experiences. She is the recipient of prizes from PEN and Best American Poetry, and she has won Pushcart Prizes both for poetry and essays. Series: "Voices" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32831]

Seven and a half billion humans are changing the way we relate to the oceans. In this fast-changing world, marine animals and plants must adapt fast to a warmer and corrosive environment as ocean acidification, pollution and deoxygenation continue. This global crisis is causing humans to be anxious about the safety of our oceans for recreation and as a source of food. Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez discusses how humans can contribute to ameliorate current ocean problems and eventually return the oceans to a more sustainable state. Series: "Women in Science" [Science] [Show ID: 32756]

The growth of computer processors has shaped modern life and yet we still have so many important and fundamental questions remaining. UCSB Professor Tim Sherwood discusses the state of the art in computing and how the demands for energy efficient and intelligent systems is driving the creation of entirely new approaches to the problem. Series: "GRIT Talks" [Science] [Show ID: 32753]

Patients are frequently given the wrong antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, but it is not the physician who is at fault. The standard antibiotic test used worldwide is flawed since it is based on how well drugs kill bacteria on petri plates — not how well they kill bacteria in the body. Mike Mahan describes an “in vivo” antibiotic test that mimics conditions in the body. Drugs that pass the standard test often fail to treat bacterial infections, whereas drugs identified by the test are very effective. Series: "GRIT Talks" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 32759]