Popular TalksFrom MicaMICA Popular TalksThis is our ongoing series of more than one hundred popular talks. Originally known as Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy because Dr. Knop was giving the majority of them, they've since expanded to feature a wide range of speakers. They are held on Saturdays at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time), during the academic year, at the Large Auditorium in the sim named StellaNova. See Upcoming Public Events for talks that will be coming in the near future. Previous Talks
June 9, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Nomad Planets June 2, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, Planets and Perception II - Saturn and Mars May 26, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Jatila van der Veen, The Planck Mission: Listening to the Oldest Light of the Universe May 19, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, Planets and Perception May 12, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Paul Doherty, Tides Across the Universe May 5, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Pamela Gay, Venus Oven April 28, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Matt Strassler, A Ring Of Truth - Seeking Answers to Big Questions at the Large Hadron Collider April 21, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Paul Doherty, Eclipses and Transits April 14, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Pamela Gay, Human Space Exploration (and Politics) April 7, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: George Djorgovski, A Short History of Modern Cosmology March 31, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, The Forgotten Revolution - Part II March 24, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Pamela Gay, Report on the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference March 17, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, The State of the Universe: A Report March 10, 2012 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Forgotten Revolution - Part I March 3, 2012 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, Whence Supernovae? The February 2012 Update February 25, 2012 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Mayan Prophecy February 18, 2012 at 10:00AM PST: Pamela Gay, Non-Governmental Space Exploration February 11, 2012 at 10:00AM PST: Paul Doherty, Dark Matter February 4, 2012 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, Pluralism from Bruno to Kubrick - Part II - Sociology January 28, 2012 at 10:00AM PST: George Djorgovski, Science in Cyberspace January 21, 2012 at 10:00AM PST: Pamela Gay, On Craters January 14, 2012 at 10:00AM PST: Vahe Gurzadyan, Soviets in Space - 1930s to mid-1960s December 17, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Christmas Star: What Does The Astronomy Say About It? December 11, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, From Giordano Bruno to Stanley Kubrick: a Short History of Pluralism December 3, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos? November 26, 2011 at1 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, The Discovery of the Accelerating Universe November 19, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, Water on Mars - Again November 12, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Patio Plasma, Boundaries of Science November 5, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, Islamic astronomy: a space time bridge between two worlds October 29, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, Europe in Space - Part III October 22, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Pamela Gay, Looking for Life Beyond Earth October 15, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, Europe in Space - Part II October 8, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: George Djorgovski, Dark Energy: From Einstein to the Nobel Prize September 24, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, The Recent Bright Supernova in M101 September 17, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Spacetime Geometry Near a Black Hole September 10, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Understanding relativity with spacetime diagrams May 28, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, A Short History of Europe in Space May 21, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Galaxies in Collision (Revised) May 14, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Pamela Gay, Lunar Frontiers May 7, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Jeremy Bailenson, Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution April 23, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Alan Boyle, From the Shuttle to Mars April 16, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Gravitational Waves April 9, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, The Cosmic Ray Universe - Part II April 2, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Alan Boyle, Controversies in Astrobiology: The X-Files Just Keep Growing March 26, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Paul Doherty, A few bits about Quantum Theory Part 2 March 19, 2011 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Away from the Center: the Continuing Copernican Revolution March 12, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Cosmic Ray Universe - Part I March 5, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, The History of Star Formation in the Universe February 26, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Great Debate: How Mistakes Can Correct Each Other, Part 2 February 19, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Paul Doherty, A Few Bits about Quantum Theory February 12, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Alan Boyle, Extrasolar planets and the new Kepler results February 5, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, Neutrino: Placeholder Particle January 29, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Great Debate, Part I January 22, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, Colliding Galaxies and AGN: Not as Connected As We Thought? January 15, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Moon III. Formation and Evolution January 8, 2011 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, Observational Evidence for Black Holes December 18, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Dr. Michael Kurtz, The Emerging Scholarly Brain December 11, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, The Most Likely Dark Matter Candidate December 4, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Moon: Part II - The Space Age November 20, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, The Most Massive Neutron Star November 13, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Charles White, Knowledge Management from an IT Perspective November 6, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, The Moon, Part I - History of Observations October 30, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, The Standard Model of Particle Physics October 23, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: S. George Djorgovski, Things That Go *Bang!* in the Night October 16, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, The Beginnings of Sidereal Astronomy, Part III October 9, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Discovery of a Possibly Earthlike Planet - Gliese581g October 2, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, The Beginnings of Sidereal Astronomy, Part II September 25, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Parallel Universes September 11, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Whence Supernovae? June 5, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, From Fixed Stars to Sidereal Astronomy May 22, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, A History of the Universe May 15, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Were the Fundamental Constants of Physics Different in the Early Universe? May 8, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, The "Paradoxes" of Special Relativity May 1, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Alan Boyle, The Case for Pluto April 24, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: V.G. Gurzadyan, Astronomy and Dating the Fall of Babylon April 17, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, The Beginnings of Planetary Observations April 10, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Understanding Relativity With Spacetime Diagrams April 3, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Arjen van Elteren and Piet Hut, Panel Discussion on Joint Software Development for Simulations - the case of AMUSE March 20, 2010 at 10:00AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo, Scientific Frauds? A tour of some types of “true” or presumed scientific hoaxes March 13, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Dave Goldberg, The Physics of Time Travel March 6, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Jeff Kanipe, The Cosmic Connection: How Astronomical Events Impact Life on Earth February 27, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, The Shape of the Universe February 20, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Space Astronomy and Time Astronomy, an open discussion led by Piet Hut and Rob Knop February 13, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Pamela Gay, Ten Weird Things About the Solar System That We Don't Understand February 6, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Sean Carroll, From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time January 30, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: John Mather, From the Big Bang to the Nobel Prize and the End of the Universe January 23, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Ancient Roots of Astronomy January 16, 2010 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, Black Holes and the Formation of Galaxies December 26, 2009 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The Christmas Star: What Does The Astronomy Say About It? December 20, 2009 at 10:00AM PST: Giuseppe Longo, The CRAB Supernova cover-up: SN1054 between science and history December 12, 2009 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, Black Holes: Misconceptions, and the Startling Truth November 28, 2009 at 10:00AM PST: Rob Knop, Understanding Redshift: Doppler, Gravitational, Cosmological November 14, 2009 at 10:00AM PST: Pamela Gay, Understanding Where the Stars Are Tonight October 31, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, Nebulae in Space: What Makes them Glow? October 24, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: George Djorgovski, Dark Mysteries: What is the Universe Made of? October 17, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT : Rob Knop, Whence Cosmic Rays? October 10, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Giuseppe Longo (University of Naples Federico II, Italy), William Herschel and the Birth of Modern Astronomy October 3, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Pamela Gay, How we know the Big Bang is true September 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, Double and Triple Stars: Solving the 3-Body Problem September 5, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, The Stars in a Galaxy August 22, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Pamela Gay, Citizen Science August 8, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, Comets Crashing into Jupiter June 27, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, Superluminal Jets in Quasars June 13, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: George Djorgovski, The World of Galaxies May 30, 2009 at 10:00AM PDT: Rob Knop, Time Dilation and Simultaneity in Special Relativity May 16, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, The Most Distant Explosion: Gamma Ray Burst 090423 May 2, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, How we know that Dark Matter exists April 18, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, Neptune and Vulcan: Dark Matter in the Solar System April 4, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, The Discovery of the Accelerating Universe March 21, 2009 at 10:00 AM PDT: George Djorgovski, Black Holes, Bright Lights: Quasars as Probes of the Early Universe March 7, 2009 at 10:00 AM PST: Rob Knop, A Snapshot of the Early Universe: The Cosmic Microwave Background February 21, 2009 at 10:00 AM PST: Rob Knop, Hamlet's Supernova: the 1572 Explosion in Cassiopeia January 31, 2009 at 10:00 AM PST: Rob Knop, Colliding Galaxies in a Virtual Universe December 20, 2008 at 10:00 AM PST: Rob Knop, Nature's Telescope, Nature's Scale: Gravitational Lensing December 6, 2008 at 10:00 AM PST: Rob Knop, Supermassive Black Holes at the Cores of Galaxies November 22, 2008 at 10:00 AM PST: Rob Knop, Direct Imaging of Extrasolar Planets November 8, 2008 at 10:00 AM PST: Sean Carroll, The Origin of the Universe and the Arrow of Time October 25, 2008 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, Galaxies in Collision October 10, 2008 at 8:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, We Are Starstuff: the Cosmic Origins of the Chemical Elements September 19, 2008 at 8:00 AM PDT: George Djorgovski, Dark Mysteries: What is the Universe Made of? September 5, 2008 at 8:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, The Continuing Copernican Revolution: from Heliocentricity to the Cosmological Principle August 1, 2008 at 8:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, Planets Around Other Stars June 27, 2008 at 8:00 AM PDT: George Djorgovski, Virtual Observatory, and Information-Rich Astronomy in the 21st Century June 12, 2008 at 10:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein : "Wrong" theories and the progress of science May 2, 2008 at 8:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, In Fire and In Ice : The Death of Stars April 4, 2008 at 8:00 AM PDT: Rob Knop, The Power of the Dark Side: How Dark Matter and Dark Energy dominate our Universe Bonus Talks (Partial Listing)May 10, 2008 at 1:00 PM PDT: George Djorgovski, The Dark Mysteries: What is the Universe Made Of? (Link is to a PDF file with the slides). (This talk was given as part of a special festival to celebrate Richard Feynman's birthday on May 11.) April 29, 2009 at 9:00 AM PDT: Troy McConaghy - "SL is Already Fairly Interoperable" - Audio Recording May 6, 2009 at 9:00 AM PDT: Wagner James Au (author of the SL blog "New World Notes") talked about his history with SL and the future of SL. Audio Recording May 20, 2009 at 9:00 AM PDT: Pooky Amsterdam talked about "SL as a Media Platform" - Audio Recording June 3, 2009 at 9:00 AM PDT: Max Chatnoir talked about her experiences using SL to teach genetics to university students - Slides (PDF) - Audio recording (MP3) June 10, 2009 at 9:00 AM PDT: Hackshaven Harford from NOAA talked about government in Virtual Worlds - Poster - Slides (PPTX) - Movie 1 - Movie 2 - Movie 3 - Audio recording (MP3) June 24, 2009 at 9:00 AM PDT: David Burden (RL name), CEO of Daden gave a talk titled "Datascapes and Semantic Virtual Worlds" - Audio Recording (MP3) July 1, 2009 at 9:00 AM PDT: Damon Hernandez on X3D and Web3D standards - Audio Recording (MP3) July 8, 2009 at 9:00 AM PDT: Aaron Walsh, founding director of The Grid Institute talked about The Media Grid - Audio Recording (MP3) - Slideshow July 27, 2009 : George Djorgovski, MICA, Science and Scholarship in Virtual Worlds . (This talk was given at the Facets of Virtual Worlds conference-Berlin July 2009) |