Big Ideas: Science

Focusing on the work of Galileo, Newton, Descartes and Einstein, Harvey Brown examines the evolution of thinking about the surprisingly difficult concepts of time and motion.

Daniel Gottesman of the Perimeter Institute discusses quantum computing and the cryptographic protocols that use quantum physics, and that one day will protect all that which we would want to stay secret.

The author of Struck by Lightning - and the statistician who crunched the numbers to reveal that a statistically improbable number of lottery retailers were winning major prizes in Ontario - Jeffrey Rosenthal guides us through the maze of numbers and percentages to show us to how calculate correct probabilities.

Janna Levin on her book Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, the story of two great mathematicians, Kurt Godel and Alan Turing. They were men who had the capacity to think about the most abstract of mathematical truths but had very limited abilities when it came to confronting the mundane aspects of life. Both committed suicide.

Nima Arkani-Hamed on the Large Hadron Collider and the Future of Fundamental Physics. Located on the Swiss-French border, the Large Hadron Collider is a circular tunnel 27 km in circumference. It will allow physicists to probe the constituent parts of the proton, looking for new forms of matter and insights into the formation of the universe.

Ecological footprint is an idea originated by William Rees, an environmental economist from the University of British Columbia. If you need a primer in environmental economics, this lecture is for you.

Marc Abrahams, editor of The Annals of Improbably Research and one of the organizers of the annual Ig-Nobel Prize ceremonies at Harvard University, discusses the work of scientists and academics that, "first makes you laugh, and then makes you think".

Ken Cramer - Psychology, University of Windsor -on Alfred Adler: The Most Famous Personality Theorist You Likely Never Heard Of

University of Toronto Zoology researcher, Susannah Varmuza, discusses the evolving field of Epigenetics and what research into such things as mouse coat colour is telling scientists about the age-old "nature versus nurture" debate.

Clare Hasenkampf of the Biology Department at University of Toronto Scarborough presents her lecture Chromosomes Dividing: How It Is Done and Why It Matters.

Clare Hasenkampf from the Biology Department at University of Toronto Scarborough is profiled. Hasenkampf's plant biology research and her passion for New Orleans cooking are featured.

Neurologist and best-selling author, Oliver Sacks, discusses his book Musicophilia. and the ways our brains interact with and understand music.

Dr. Jill Tarter, Director at the Centre for SETI Research, discusses the ongoing Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence and how new tools including the Allen Telescope Array and the Keplar Spacecraft are helping to make the search much more likely to succeed.

Rupinder Brar (Physics - University of Ontario Institute of Technology) is profiled, focusing on his interest in astronomy, his desire to be an astronaut and his political aspirations.

Rupinder Brar lectures on the topic of Einstein's special relativity theory and it's explanation of time dilation and simultaneity. The lecture is entitled Relativity, Einstein, the Speed of Light and How to Stay Young.

Julian Barbour, visiting professor at the University of Oxford and the author of The End of Time, addresses the question, Does Time Exist? Barbour explores the history of scientific thought on the concept of time and presents his own interpretations of what time is.

Jacalyn Duffin from the Department of Medicine at Queen's University is profiled. She discusses her teaching style and how she ended up researching the history of medicine.

Jacalyn Duffin of the Department of Medicine at Queen's University on History of the Stethoscope and the Meaning of Life.

Doug Richards from the Physical Education & Health department at University of Toronto St. George on Stretching: The Truth. Richards discusses the science and the fiction of the benefits of stretching prior to exercise.

Doug Richards from the Physical Education & Health department at University of Toronto St. George is profiled. Richards' concussion research, his passion for photography and cycling are featured.

Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a renowned psychiatrist and author. Drawing from his book, "The Master and his Emissary", McGilchrist explores how the divided brain is shaping modern civilization. His lecture was delivered at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, on March 7, 2012.

Don Kurtz, of the University of Central Lancashire, discusses asteroseismology in a lecture entitled Songs of the Stars: The Real Music of the Spheres. He explains how sound waves are helping to locate distant Earth-like planets, study solar storms and explain what happens in the core of stars.

Virginia Walker from the Biology Department at Queen's University presents her competition lecture entitled HIV, Parasites and the Exhausted Immune System.

Virginia Walker discusses her involvement in women's hockey, attending school in Nova Scotia and her love of research.

Dr. Michael Persinger, (Laurentian University - Neuroscience) winner of the 2007 Best Lecturer Competition, on Psychotropic Drugs.

Profile of Dr. Michael Persinger focussing on his research into brain stimulation to recreate drug experiences.

Dr. Leon Kass, Chair of the President's Council on Bioethics, examines the ethical dilemmas surrounding stem cell research. Dr. Kass addresses the philosophical question: Why not immortality?

Leroy Hood, of the Institute for Systems Biology, on Emerging Technologies and the Transformation from Reactive to Proactive Medicine.

Vaclav Smil of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Manitoba, discusses Energy Transitions in this lecture which was part of the Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI)Equinox Summit, hosted by the Perimeter Institute.

Primatologist Jane Goodall delivers a lecture on the similarities between chimpanzee and human emotions, preserving the environment, and hope.

Stanford University professor of Physics, Leonard Susskind, on ?The Black Hole Wars?, the scientific disagreement between Susskind and Stephen Hawking.

Natalia Toro explains how complex collision data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being digested and examined and how it may set the course for the science of the future. Her lecture was delivered at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo on September 18, 2011.

Seth Llyod is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His talk, "Programming the Universe", is about the computational power of atoms, electrons, and elementary particles.

University of Ontario Institute of Technology professor Christopher diCarlo (Health Sciences and Criminology) delivers his competition lecture entitled The Relations of Natural Systems.

Physicist Paul Steinhardt discusses the creation of "Impossible crystals": quasi-crystals with five-fold symmetry previously believed impossible.

Marc D. Lewis answers questions following his lecture based on his book Memoirs of an Addicted Brain.

Dr. Marc D. Lewis discusses the story and the science behind his book Memoirs of an Addicted Brain. Lewis is a professor at the Behavioral Science Institute, part of Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Lewis's book documents the years he spent addicted to drugs including morphine and heroin, and links his first-hand drug experiences to his current behavioral science research into the interaction between drugs and brain chemistry.

Lisa Harvey-Smith of CSIRO discusses the mega-telescope known as the Square Kilometre Array. CSIRO, the Australian Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation, is part of the continent-spanning next-generation radio telescope project which is due to be completed in 2019.

Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and best-selling author, Dr. Norman Doidge, on his book, The Brain that Changes Itself, an examination of the most important breakthrough in neuroscience: the discovery of neuroplasticity. His lecture was delivered at the University of Toronto on March 29th, 2008.

Shawn Lehman from the Anthropology department at the University of Toronto St. George delivers his competition lecture entitled "Primate Infanticide: Adaptation or Social Pathology?"

"Time and Einstein in the 21st Century: The Coolest Stuff in the Universe" is the title of this exceptionally entertaining lecture. Phillips, who works with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, demonstrates the cooling potential of liquid nitrogen, the laser based technique known as "optical molasses" and shows how magnetic bottles can help science built more accurate atomic clocks.

Winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, University of Toronto professor John Polanyi delivers his 2002 lecture on the world that science has built.