La Jolla Symphony and Chorus Brings the Magic of Classical Music to a Young Audience

8232“One of the things I love most about music is how it helps us remember our lives.” – Conductor, Steven Schick

So begins the second annual Young People’s Concert as Schick guides an audience of children and their families through a presentation of selections from Gustav Mahler’s celebrated Fifth Symphony.

“Gustav Mahler’s symphony number five is a piece about memory,” explains Schick. “Let’s do this, let’s close our eyes… I want you to imagine a person at the end of his life…”

With eyes shut and imaginations open, the young audience is taken on a journey of Mahler’s life, which is the inspiration for his symphony. Schick introduces featured instruments and melodic themes, emphasizes the unique connections both composer and listener draw from musical expression and personal experience, and fields questions from the audience.

In addition to piquing the students’ interest and enriching their musical knowledge, La Jolla Symphony and Chorus hope that the program will, in Schick’s words, “encourage our future Symphony members to pursue their musical education.”

As funding for the arts in San Diego area schools continues to languish, outreach by arts presenters has become a vital component in public education and awareness. It is in this spirit that the community-based La Jolla Symphony and Chorus inaugurated their Young People’s Concert.

Don’t miss this fun and inspiring concert. Watch the Young People’s Concert, Featuring Gustav Mahler.

Find the Right Path to Your Medical Career

8232Approaches to a successful career in medicine can be many and varied.

UC San Diego Extension’s Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program is one such avenue highlighted in The Persistence Factor: Alternative Pathways to Your Medical Career. This informative panel discussion features four experts in medical education as well as a recent graduate of this exciting new program.

Geared toward students and working professionals who, for whatever reason, missed out on the most direct route to medical school admission, The Persistence Factor gives viewers insights into what the medical school experience is really like and offers the all-important advice on how to get there.

Watch The Persistence Factor: Alternative Pathways to Your Medical Career.

Browse other programs on The Career Channel.

Understanding and Protecting the Planet, Enriching Human Life and Society — UC San Diego Founders Symposium 2014

8232This annual celebration of UC San Diego’s founding in 1960 highlights guest speakers showcasing the knowledge and innovation originating on this dynamic campus.

Areas of research cover various topics, from air quality and the environment, economics of energy costs and climate change, to personalized cancer treatment and big data.

The 2014 Founders Symposium features top UC San Diego faculty presenting their latest research, including:

Matthew Alford of Scripps Institution of Oceanography on “Chasing Waves: Measuring Skyscraper-High Waves Beneath the Sea and Their Importance for Submarines, Coastal Ecosystems and Climate”

Eugene Pawlak from the Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering on “Turbulence: Chicken Soup for the Coral Reef Soul”

Economist Richard Carson on “China: Consumption, CO2 and Climate Change”

Dr. Razelle Kurzrock of the Moores Cancer Center on “Personalized Cancer Therapy: Promise and Challenge”

William Griswold of Computer Science and Engineering on “Pervasive Air-Quality Monitoring via the Crowd”

Dr. Lucila Ohno-Machado, associate dean for Informatics and Technology on “Big Data: What it Means To You“

Watch this program online or browse more programs from The UC San Diego Founders’ Symposium.

Profiles in Discovery: Nick Spitzer – The Ever-Changing Brain: From Embryo To Adult

8232Early neurological dogma was that a brain’s neurons were hardwired to be only one type of signaling molecule and nothing else. Turns out, this belief was wrong. Nick Spitzer, UC San Diego professor and director of the UCSD Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, proved that neurons could change from one type of transmitter to another. When the environment changes acutely, the brain changes also.

How the embryonic nervous system is assembled and the adult brain is modified depend on both genes and the environment – experiences such as learning and memory that can radically change the brain’s wiring or neuronal function. Professor Spitzer discusses his studies that have provided a new look at how neuronal wiring is assembled in the developing brain and the impact that environment has on continually shaping the brain later in life.

Tune in to this presentation of Profiles in Discovery: The Ever Changing Brain – From Embryo to Adult, with Nick Spitzer on UCSD-TV.

The Domestication of Animals and Human Evolution

8232What can the changes that made cuddly pets from steely predators tell us about ourselves? What do differences such as pointy ears or floppy ears, a long snout or a short one, a protruding jaw or a child-like face, or the timing and pace of brain development tell us?

These are just a few of the characteristics that a convergence of views in the study of animal domestication may tell us about our own evolution as a species in the more distant past. Specifically, it has been suggested that a number of the unique anatomical, neural, developmental, social, cognitive and communicative traits that define our species may be attributable to selection for lack of aggression and to a process of self-domestication.

Join another fascinating exploration of ourselves as this symposium brings together researchers from a variety of research backgrounds to examine these concepts and to elucidate further the possible role of domestication in human evolution.

Watch CARTA – Domestication and Human Evolution.