Video Lectures

The nature of mathematical thought has been a central concern in the development of artificial intelligence since the creation of the computer in the 1940s. The expansion of AI in the past decade appears to have sharply reduced the distinction...

In this talk, Vera will take the audience on a visual journey through cutting-edge computer simulations that model the evolution of the universe from its earliest moments to the present day. These simulations allow us to explore one of the deepest...

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900–1979) is one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated astronomers, whose role as a “woman in science” is gaining increased attention both within the academy and outside of it. In "Stellar Atmospheres", her famous...

Mathematician Hel Braun, Member (1947–1948) in the School of Mathematics, left a remarkable legacy, despite facing formidable challenges. While Braun's mathematical contributions remain important, her story has been mostly forgotten. In this talk...

In the Western Hemisphere, monetary exchanges have been documented in Mesopotamia and Egypt since the 3rd millennium BCE, using a variety of mediums such as barley, copper, silver, gold, dates, and wool. By the first millennium BCE, weighed silver...

How did dogs become scientific beings? Although it is now widely understood that a Border Collie or a Golden Retriever is a cognitively complex creature meriting advanced nutrition and monthly pharmaceuticals, this way of thinking about dogs was the...

 "We know that we live in a global age, but did medieval people? Historians typically reserve the concept of a 'globalized world' for the fifteenth century and beyond, following the rise of worldwide commercial shipping. But in recent years...

One of the most important events in science dates back to 1687, when Newton published the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. In this masterpiece of human thought, the famous second law of motion is laid out, which concretely and...

In the year AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted with devastating force, burying the nearby town of Pompeii under more than thirty feet of volcanic debris. Pompeii was wiped off the map, yet below the surface the material remains of the town were preserved...