Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita

Stem cell research is a controversial topic these days. The morality here is very grey and many arguments are made against, however most of those for political purposes not really moral or ethical ones. This story is told from a perspective of a neurologist and a stem cell biologist.

TED - Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions

Can science answer to the questions of morality? A common answer would be that science is not concerned about morality, but however can it still give us moral answers. Sam Harris advocates that it can and it should, as science can answer to the questions of real consequences of certain actions, therefore it can give answers to moral questions in a way.

TED: Craig Venter unveils "synthetic life"

TED Talks gives us the lecture of Craig Venter who, along with his team, created the first fully functioning, reproducing cell controlled by synthetic DNA. In his words he describes this life form as the first life form on this planet whose parent was a computer.

Zeitgeist Europe 2010 - Tomorrow's World

A lecture about the predictions of near-future technologies, some of what actually already exist. Such as "Augmented reality", a new emerging media used in cell phone applications that is gaining popularity fast and is almost certain to become a part of our daily lives, the same way cell phones, internet or GPS did.

Human Body - Pushing The Limits: Brain Power

Our bodies are amazingly complex machines, which this production presents with great detail. I must say I'm rarely surprised by the CGI animations but this time, I'm amazed. Great presentation, great detail, great information on a great topic, most complex organ of our complex machines, the brain.

Do You Want To Live Forever?

Question as old as sentient life is. Stopping aging was always one of the central motives explored in all medias. From Biblical stories and religion to modern day film-making as shown in the Fountain. Average human life span has already doubled or perhaps even tripled so the question is how far can it go? Dr. Aubrey de Grey is a central figure of this story. Computer scientist turned biologist now Cambridge biomedical gerontologist, he gathered as many experts in all fields of science in an attempt to break the puzzle of aging. His opinion is that we could extend life indefinitely by addressing seven major factors in the aging process. He describes his work as Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS).

The Universe: Alien Faces

The Universe: Alien Faces, a History Channel production about the possible appearances of alien life-forms on other planets. It goes through 5 types of planets that could support life of some kind and analyzes how that life would actually look like.

Nanotechnology at Berkeley

Alex Zettl [Professor of Physics, UC Berkeley], demonstrates recent advancements his research team has made in nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is often described as sci-fi or far future, yet there are experimental nano-devices that actually work today as presented here. Crystal powered nanomotor and single-moleculed radio receivers and transmitters.