University of California Video Podcasts (Video)

From the beautiful to the strange, the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology has one of the largest insect collections in North America. Take a tour through the collections and its highlights with director Lynn Kimsey in this behind-the-scenes video. The museum is free and open to UC Davis students, staff and faculty, as well as the public. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 39209]

Surgeons and prosthetists-orthotists at UC Davis Health are working with amputee patients to improve the functionality of their prosthetic devices through surgical techniques and new technology. They've also teamed up with a multidisciplinary team at UC Davis in an overall effort to make prostheses more intuitive and prevent prosthetic abandonment.

Series: "UCTV Prime" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 39207]

Research on food security programs at UC Davis is showing the positive impact that access to healthy foods has on students' nutrition and mental health as well as identifying the need for more food access resources on college campuses. Marcela Radtke from the Nutritional Biology Graduate Group utilized tools like the veggie meter to measure students' fruit and vegetable intake and then looked at how that changed when they used campus resources such as The Pantry. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 39215]

Welcome to our wine processing course — a hands-on journey into the art and science of winemaking. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how students learn to taste, blend, age, fine, filter and package their own wines, all under the guidance of industry professionals and seasoned faculty. Our students’ coursework transforms into practical skills needed in the wine industry. The course, a part of the university’s viticulture and enology program, is held in our Teaching and Research Winery, the most advanced and sustainable winery in the world. Sustainability is a recurring theme, with students exploring every opportunity to make their process greener. Stay tuned for the opportunity to taste the fruits of our students’ hard work and innovation. With new state legislation that recently passed, UC Davis will soon be able to sell student-made wine, bringing the vineyard to your table. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 39217]

Wind turbine blades are a major source of environmental pollution and waste. Learn how UC Davis is creating an ecologically sound solution for their disposal. Students, faculty and researchers in the Advanced Composites Research, Engineering and Science (ACRES) lab in the UC Davis College of Engineering are building compostable wind turbine blades from bamboo and mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms. While the researchers are currently focused on building a wind turbine blade prototype, incorporating mycelium into building materials could have larger implications for sustainable structures. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 39206]

Learn about UC Davis’ innovative approach to growing crops with less groundwater in drought-prone regions like California. The UC Davis Agricultural Water Center is working with farmers in California and the Southwest to find solutions that address groundwater overdraft so they can farm sustainably for a better future.

Series: "UCTV Prime" [Agriculture] [Show ID: 39212]

Explore UC Davis discoveries that have improved modern life in unexpected ways. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 39210]

In the foundational texts of Western civilisation (the Bible, Iliad), plagues are symbols of divine retribution, signifying Godly displeasure with human misdeeds. But in Thucydides’ classic account of the mysterious plague that swept Athens in 430 BC, Camus’s La Peste, and Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven, literary accounts of plagues and pandemics are also morality tales and metaphors for the dissolution of the social bonds necessary for the functioning of modern societies. In this talk, I bring the history of plague writing into dialogue with the history of trust, to examine what plague texts tell us about our foundational myths and our obsession with calamities and crises. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 39002]

Lucy Fischer (English and Film Studies, University of Pittsburgh) joins moderator Patrice Petro (Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center) in a post-screening discussion of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, a psychological thriller about the rivalry between aging Hollywood sisters. In their conversation, they illuminate the similarities between the film’s themes and the much publicized behind-the-scenes drama between stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Fischer reflects on the film’s playful incorporation of conventions from Gothic horror and melodrama, as well as its status as a camp classic. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 39049]

As the global response to climate change drives a profound reevaluation of our interaction with fire, there's a timely opportunity to delve into the roots of our connection with combustion. Archaeologist Michael Chazan uncovers early traces of human fire usage at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa and Evron Quarry in Israel. Chazan contends that it's more apt to consider the emergence of a dynamic bond between humans and fire rather than pinpointing a singular origin. This symbiotic relationship is defined by how fire intertwines technology and society, the tangible and intangible, adaptation and the sacred. Join us in exploring this intricate interplay, shedding light on the fusion of humanity and the elemental force that has shaped civilizations. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 39001]