Lee Cronin: Making matter come alive

Before life existed on Earth, there was just matter, inorganic dead "stuff." How improbable is it that life arose? And -- could it use a different type of chemistry? Using an elegant definition of life (anything that can evolve), chemist Lee Cronin is exploring this question by attempting to create a fully inorganic cell using a "Lego kit" of inorganic molecules -- no carbon -- that can assemble, replicate and compete

Richard Resnick: Welcome to the genomic revolution

In this accessible talk from TEDxBoston, Richard Resnick shows how cheap and fast genome sequencing is about to turn health care (and insurance, and politics) upside down.


Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the human genome. (Applause) Chromosome one, top left.Bottom right are the sex chromosomes. Women have two copies of that big X chromosome; men have the Xand, of course, that small copy of the Y. Sorry boys, but it's just a tiny little thing that makes you different.So if you zoom in on this genome, then what you see, of course, is this double helix structure -- the code of life spelled out with these four biochemical letters, or we call them bases, right: A, C, G and T. How many are there in the human genome? Three billion. Is that a big number? Well, everybody can throw around big numbers. But in fact, if I were to place one base on each pixel of this 1280 by 800 resolution screen, we would need 3,000 screens to take a look at the genome. So it's really quite big.

Two personalities in one brain make one person. Any connection to religion?

 

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story

Can Evolution Exist with Religion?

 

This is a very interesting discussion.  Where do you stand on these issues, and why?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLhxCpzoeJM  Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkUXYFRxuPk&NR=1   Part 2

 

Speaking of Faith

 

The New Site for Krista Tippett:  http://being.publicradio.org/index.shtml

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 An example of Krista Tippett's interviews: 

 

September 9, 2010

http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2010/from-faith-to-being/

We listen backward as we look forward to a new, spacious name for this radio and online adventure. We'll trace ideas and voices that have moved and changed us — from encountering Islam in the wake of September 11 to new questions the 21st century is raising about what it means to be human and how we want to live.   

 

 

Magician Penn Jillette Says 'God, No!' To Religion

EnlargeMichael Cogliantry/Simon & Schuster

Penn Jillette is one half of the magic duo Penn & Teller. He co-hosts a Showtime series, as well as the Discovery Channel'sPenn & Teller Tell A Lie.

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Listen to this now!

Even if you believe in God, you might still be atheist. That's what Penn Jillette argues in his new book God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales.

The louder half of the magician duo Penn & Teller — of Showtime's Pen & Teller: Bull - - - -— frames his new book as the atheist's Ten Commandments. In it, he wanders from rants about the war on drugs to stories of eating shellfish and bacon cheeseburgers with Hasidic Jews.

Justice in Moral Reasoning

Justice: A Journey in Moral Reasoning, Michael J. Sandel

Hundreds of students pack Harvard's Sanders Theater for Michael Sandel's "Justice" course—an introduction to moral and political philosophy. They come to hear Sandel lecture about great philosophers of the past—from Aristotle to John Stuart Mill—but also to debate contemporary issues that raise philosophical questions—about individual rights and the claims of community, equality and inequality, morality and law.

Despite the size of the course, Sandel engages students in lively discussion on topics including affirmative action, income distribution, and same-sex marriage, showing that even the most hotly contested issues of the day can be the subject of reasoned moral argument. This film, which contains excerpts of several classes, is part of a project to make this legendary course an educational resource that reaches beyond the Harvard classroom.