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Cambridge Science Festival: Innovations Series

We offer a series of lectures on many of the innovations in biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and information technology in connection with the Cambridge Science Festival.

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Media & Technology | Science & Nature

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Inventing Modern America: Microwave to the Mouse

November 27, 2001

This lively panel, discussing Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse, celebrates the best of American ingenuity and inventiveness.

Boston Firsts: Innovations and Inventions in Beantown

Lynda Morgenroth

November 2, 2006

Author Lynda Morgenroth describes the scientific advances and breakthroughs in culture that are woven in Boston's fascinating and quirky history. The first ready-made suit, automatic bargain basement and subway all belong to Boston.

Meeting of the Academy of Arts and Sciences

Alan Lightman outlines the intellectual and emotional landscape of the groundbreaking discoveries of the 21st century, and explores how scientists think, whether there are common patterns of discovery

Great Scientific Breakthroughs of the 20th Century

December 2, 2005

Alan Lightman and Christopher Lydon discuss the 25 most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century. The last century brought us washing machines and the Internet, relativity and the Big Bang. What are the 25 most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century?

Bioviolence: Preventing Biological Terror and Crime

October 4, 2007

Barry Kellman, discusses his book, Bioviolence: Preventing Biological Terror and Crime, and describes how diseases such as smallpox, anthrax, or ebola might be used for hostile purposes. His book explores developers of disease weapons including rogue states and groups such as Al-Qaeda.

Alan Turing's Contribution to World History

November 30, 2006

Jack Copeland help celebrate the 70th anniversary of Alan Turing's seminal paper "On Computable Numbers".

NOVA: Cracking the Code of Life Series

NOVA: Cracking the Code of Life Series

Lectures curated around NOVA: Cracking the Code that chronicles the race to capture one of the biggest prizes in scientific history: the complete letter-by-letter sequence of the human genome.

NOVA: The Great Robot Race Series

NOVA: The Great Robot Race Series

Lectures curated around NOVA: The Great Robot Race, which follows this raucous robotic race sponsored by the Pentagon.

Media Shift: Digital Media Series

Media Shift: Digital Media Series

Lectures curated around MediaShift: Your Guide to the Digital Media Revolution, which tracks how digital media, from blogs to podcasts to citizen journalism, are changing society and culture, and raising legal and ethical questions in connection with their use.

FRONTLINE: Storm Over Everest Series

FRONTLINE: Storm Over Everest Series

Lectures curated around FRONTLINE: Storm Over Everest, which reflects on the fateful storm that killed five climbers three years earlier.

Our Bodies, Our Technologies

Raymond Kurzweil

Inventor and writer Ray Kurzweil lectures on the topics found in his his forthcoming book The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. How close are we to a world in which the abilities of machines are indistinguishable from those of the species that invented them?

Growing New Body Parts

Tissue engineering involves the application of the principles and methods of engineering and the life sciences towards the development of biological substitutes to restore, maintain, or improve functi

Tissue Engineering: Challenges of Imitating Nature

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic imagines a world where we could engineer living tissues to cure a disease, heal an injury, or fix a broken heart. Tissue engineering combines the principles of biology, engineering and medicine to create biological substitutes of native tissues.

From New Biology to Novel Therapies

Alfred Goldberg

January 27, 2004

Alfred Goldberg portrays the flavor and rewards of contemporary biomedical research and illustrates how the recent revolutionary progress in understanding living cells at the molecular level is leading to new therapies.

Using Reverse Engineering to Go Forward

James J. Collins

James J. Collins discusses his research, which focuses on developing techniques and devices to characterize, improve and mimic biological function. Dr.

Angela Belcher: Nature to Nanotechnology and Back

Angela Belcher discusses her work as a materials chemist with expertise in the fields of biomaterials, biomolecular materials, organic-inorganic interfaces and solid state chemistry.

Nanotechnology: The Next Small Thing?

Nancy A. Burnham

January 21, 2004

Nancy A. Burnham, W. Grant McGimpsey, and William Durgin discuss consumer products that take advantage of the possibilities of nanotechnology, and what we can expect to see on the market in the near future.

Adding Years to Your Life

Leonard P. Guarente

Dr. Guarente discusses his research, which focuses on issues surrounding aging. Leonard P. Guarente has written numerous papers and books, the latest of which, Ageless Quest, was published in 2003.

Alexis Borisy: Building New Medicines

October 6, 2005

Alexis Borisy, a chemist who has helped to grow a variety of pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and the founder and CEO of CombinatoRx, discusses developing new medicines built from synergistic combinations of approved drugs. This lecture is part of the 2005 Boston IDEAS conference.

Promise and Peril: The Future of the Brain

Steven Rose lectures on the potentially dangerous future of neurosciences, and the possible impact it may have on the definition of humanity.

Crab Wars: Horseshoe Crabs, Bioterrorism, and Health

William Sargent

William Sargent, environmental author and NOVA consultant, reveals intense debates currently surrounding horseshoe crabs.

Linked: Networks from Biology to the World Wide Web

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

September 27, 2005

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, a Notre Dame University physics professor, explores the relationships of various kinds of complex networks from cells and epidemics, to the World Wide Web, with a bit of 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' in between.

Cinema, Science, and Invention

John Underkoffler

John Underkoffler, science and technology advisor to major motion picture productions, gives a behind the scenes look at technology in the entertainment industry.