Videos

Topology is the only major branch of modern mathematics that wasn't anticipated by the ancient mathematicians. Throughout most of its history, topology has been regarded as strictly abstract mathematics, without applications. However, illustrating...

Thomas Crow, Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at New York University, examines the displaced and wandering existences of Jacques-Louis David and Théodore Géricault, both in geographical and psychological exile, during which each was forced to reexamine and reconfigure the fundamentals of his artistic life. 

Mathematics has proven to be "unreasonably effective" in understanding nature. The fundamental laws of physics can be captured in beautiful formulae. In this lecture, given at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Robbert Dijkgraaf...

Johannes Krause, Professor of Archaeology and Paleogenetics at the University of Tübingen and Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, will discuss ancient human genomes and how they suggest three ancestral...

Jo Bovy, John N. Bahcall Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences, explores the stars, planets, and gases that make up galaxies, the dark matter that holds them together, and the history of our own Milky Way.

What do quantum interference, flocking of birds, Facebook communities, and stock prices have in common?

Many natural and social phenomena may be viewed as inherently computational; they evolve patterns of information that can be described...

How have the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act impacted the nation?

One of the biggest discoveries of humankind is yet to come: Finding compelling evidence for life on another planet. In this lecture, Hanno Rein, former Member (2010–13) in the School of Natural Sciences, discusses the many places to look for...

Joan Breton Connelly, former Member (2010–11) in the School of Historical Studies, discusses how the Parthenon sculptures conveyed genealogical myths that answered for the Athenians the most basic human questions. 

Developing countries, led by Asia, have grown ­significantly more rapidly than mature economies over the last two decades, closing the gap between them. This experience is quite anomalous, since ­historically economic convergence has been the...