This Saturday: Tinseltown Lit

Many of Hollywood’s great classic movies were screen adaptions of time-honored works of literature. This Saturday, UCSD-TV celebrates these representations of classics with Tinseltown Lit Movie Night!

The saga begins at 4 pm with Of Human Bondage, a movie based on the W. Somerset Maugham’s masterpiece novel. UCSD-TV will be showing the first of the three film adaptions of the story, released in 1934, featuring Bette Davis and Leslie Howard.

Then, things turn tragic in A Farewell to Arms, a 1932 film based on Ernest Hemingway’s World War 1 novel.

The 1934 film adaption of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre begins at 7 pm.

In case you missed the first two classics, Of Human Bondage and A Farewell to Arms will play again at 8:30 pm and 10 pm, respectively.

To find out more about Tinseltown Lit Night, check out the upcoming UCSD-TV movies!

Adventures on an Ultrasmall Scale

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) defines nanotechnology as “science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers.”

Wait, the United States has a research and development program dedicated to this tiny field? Yes, we do. The NNI was established in 2000 to assist in the collaboration of new nano sciences and to ensure responsible development.

This small scale science can be applied to all other fields of science, from chemistry to engineering, aiming to study and manipulate molecules and atoms at an individual level. Nanotechnology has only been around for abut 30 years, because without today’s ultraprecision machines and microscopes, we could not see such small particles.

One of the most popular recent nano-inventions is graphene, a crystalline form of carbon one atom layer thick. Learn more about the developments of nanotechnology from Buford Price, Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley, in “Adventures on an Ultrasmall Scale,” as he takes us through nuclear tracks in solids to microbial life in polar ice.

If you like this video, check out the other programs in the Frontiers of Knowledge series!

Women in Science

Our recent series, “Women in Science” was so popular, it has been given it’s own subject page!

UCSD-TV wants to acknowledge the accomplishments of women in science, with the hope of nurturing more female scientists and encouraging other women to get involved in this exciting field.

There have been many great women scientists whose discoveries have been undercut based on their gender. For example, Rosalind Franklin remains the unsung hero who played a pivotal role in the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure with her X-ray diffraction images. She was out-shined by Watson and Crick, the two men who took full credit for the discovery.

And Rachel Carson, the author of “Silent Spring,” faced many personal attacks on her intelligence and credibility because she was smart enough to recognize and brave enough to tell about the devastation caused by large chemical companies. These corporations claimed that because she was a woman her facts were not to be trusted.

Although we would like to think that these sort of prejudices have faded from society, it is important to remember heroes like Franklin and Carson to celebrate women’s scientific accomplishments of the past and support women’s future in science.

Available_on_iTunes_Badge_US-UK_110x40_0824Check out the Women in Science subject page and the podcasts available on iTunes!

Skin Cancer Treatment and Prevention

Have you been wearing sunscreen this Summer? Sunburns might not be so bad, but the damage done to your skin can turn into something much more deadly.

Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer and is the number one cause of death from skin disease. It accounts for 5% of all cancer cases in men and 4% of all cancer cases in women.

According to medical oncologist Gregory A. Daniels, MD, PhD, the Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at UC San Diego School of Medicine, the lifetime probability of developing Melanoma, is 1 in 36.

Unfortunately, the incidences of this disease are increasing. One hundred years ago, Melanoma was not a common problem. At that time, Daniels says the probability of developing Melanoma was more like 1 in 1,000 or even 1 in 1,500.

Watch “Skin Cancer Treatment and Prevention – Research on Aging” to find out why incidences of Melanoma are increasing and what you can do to treat or prevent this disease.

Watch other videos presented by the Stein Institute for Research on Aging!

Shark Conservation: Safeguarding the Future of Our Ocean

On the surface, it might seem like an ocean without sharks would be a more enjoyable place. But, these predators play a very important role in the ocean ecosystem and they need our protection just like many other ocean dwelling creatures.

Sharks have been at the top of the food chain for hundreds of millions of years, but today their populations are in danger because of human activities, such as overfishing and finning (this is when people catch sharks, remove the fins, and dump the carcass overboard).

Andrew P. Nosal, Ph. D, Birch Aquarium’s new DeLaCour Postdoctoral Fellow for Ecology and Conservation, shares his shark expertise with the Perspectives on Ocean Science series in order to explain that all sharks are not the evil villains seen in movies, but are essential in maintaining a balanced ocean.

Watch “Shark Conservation: Safeguarding the Future of Our Ocean” to hear about all of the benefits sharks provide and why they deserve our protection.

Watch more videos on sharks, or browse other videos in Perspectives on Ocean Science presented by Birch Aquarium and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.