Earnest C. Watson Lecture Series

Watson conducting his famous "liquid-air" experiment at Caltech in 1953 during a Friday Evening Demonstration Lecture.

Established in 1922, the Watson Lectures bring Caltech's most innovative scientific research to the public.

Originally known as the "Friday Evening Demonstration Lectures," this public lecture series was started by Earnest C. Watson, a professor of physics at Caltech from 1919 to 1959, in order to share modern scientific advances with the public. Eventually renamed in his honor, the Watson Lectures continue to spotlight the pioneering research Caltech's faculty is currently conducting.

Watson Lectures are free and open to the public.

Jump to: Upcoming Lectures • Past Lectures

Watch Live

Lectures will be live-streamed here so that you can watch them in real time. Virtual audience members can submit questions during the broadcast via the YouTube chat feed.

Upcoming Lectures

Stay tuned!

Explore Past Lectures

ChatGPT has rocked the general public's perception and expectations of artificial intelligence (AI). In this lecture, Abu-Mostafa explains the science of AI in plain language and explores how the scientific details illustrate the risks and benefits of AI. Between the extremes of "AI will kill us all" and "AI will solve all our problems," the science can help us identify what is realistic and what is speculative, and guide us in our planning, legislation, and investment in AI. (Lecture starts at 12:47)

Advances in materials science, manufacturing, and computer science have enabled transformative innovations in wearable materials, with designs that can monitor metabolic activity, change stiffness on command, and even interpret our mood. These new materials will allow garments and fashion to bring together the physical and digital worlds. In this lecture, Daraio shows examples of how these materials will help us stay healthy, how they will revolutionize the way we communicate, and how they will adaptively support our everyday needs. (Lecture starts at 12:14)

There is a significant carbon footprint behind the physical world, including the fabrics we wear, the foods we eat, and the disinfectants we spray. This problem presents the need to find ways to synthesize chemicals and materials in a sustainable manner that eliminates greenhouse gas emissions from these products. In this lecture, Manthiram discusses how his lab is developing an approach that uses electricity to convert air and water into the useful chemicals and materials we rely on every day. (Lecture begins at 13:13)

Our circulatory system's 500 million years of evolution is on full display during the nine months of human embryonic heart development. The hallmark of this evolution is a beating, complex, autonomous muscular pump that sustains life. In this lecture, Gharib explains the concept of a wave system established by the beating heart that moves through the human body, which can provide a window to the health of the cardiovascular system and early diagnoses of its devastating diseases by utilizing modern data science. (Lecture begins at 12:53)

Since it began its scientific mission in July 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided the first detailed glimpses of the most distant reaches of the observable universe, when the first galaxies were emerging more than 13 billion years ago. History suggests that opening new observational windows leads to entirely unanticipated discoveries, and JWST has already begun to fulfill that promise. In this lecture, Steidel explores what enables the unprecedented power of JWST for studying galaxy formation in its infancy and what we can expect to learn from JWST images and spectra over the next several years. (Lecture begins at 13:16)

Earth's climate has not been constant throughout history. Oxygen levels in the atmosphere, for example, have increased by many orders of magnitude over time, profoundly affecting biologic and chemical cycles at the surface of the earth.These changes in Earth's climate can be traced through the imprints left behind inside the planet. In this lecture, Bucholz explores how such shifts in atmospheric oxygen concentrations altered Earth's inner workings. (Lecture begins at 10:56)

Human and animal embryos are built from three types of stem cell that are established by the sixth day after fertilization and before the embryo implants into the womb. These three stem cell types can also be grown indefinitely in cell culture. In her lecture, Zernicka-Goetz describes how she and her research group have been able to assemble embryo models not from eggs and sperm but from these stem cell types, and what those models are teaching us about human development. (Lecture begins at 11:00)

Research in the field of neuroeconomics finds the brain mechanisms that underlie computation during economic decisions. For example, the brain differentiates losses from gains, and really dislikes losing. In his lecture, Camerer discusses how aversion to loss and our emotional response to such events can explain aspects of stock trading, sports, and politics, as well as how measurements of brain activity can improve decisions and cooperative outcomes. (Lecture begins at 15:39)

Global sea level rise is one of the major environmental challenges of the 21st century. As lead scientist for multiple NASA JPL projects, Josh Willis and team are addressing this urgent problem from above and below. The Jason and Sentinel-6 satellites are measuring sea levels from space, and Oceans Melting Greenland, an airborne mission, is probing the island’s warming coastal waters to help better predict the rising seas of the future. In this lecture, Willis discusses how these missions will provide revolutionary data for modeling ocean and ice interactions and lead to improved estimates of global sea level rise. (Lecture begins at 22:20)

Entanglement refers to a connection that can occur between quantum particles even when they are far apart from each other. Entanglement underpins everything from quantum teleportation to the quantum computation revolution. In this lecture, Scott Cushing discusses a less explored aspect of entanglement: what we can learn about both small and somewhat larger objects when they are forced to interact with entangled photons. The knowledge gained from these new tools could lead to cutting-edge technologies. (Lecture begins at 21:50)

Watch more past Watson Lectures on Caltech's YouTube channel.

Past Watson Lectures and Speakers:

2022-2023

October 12, 2022: "The Brain Hates Losing (and Other News from Neuroeconomics)" Colin Camerer, Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics; Director, T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience

November 12, 2022: "The Dance of Life: How Do We Become Ourselves?" Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering

January 18, 2023: "When Earth Breathed Deeply," Claire E. Bucholz, Assistant Professor of Geology; Biedebach Memorial Lecturer

February 8, 2023: "Galactic Paleontology with JWST: Finding Living Fossils in the Ancient Universe," Chuck Steidel (PhD '90), Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy

March 1, 2023: "Enigma of the Heart," Morteza (Mory) Gharib (PhD '83), Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Medical Engineering

April 19, 2023: "Electrifying and Decarbonizing Chemical Synthesis," Karthish Manthiram, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, William H. Hurt Scholar

May 10, 2023: "Making Wearable Materials Smarter," Chiara Daraio, G. Bradford Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics

May 24, 2023: "Artificial Intelligence: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," Yaser Abu-Mostafa (PhD '83), Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Division of Engineering and Applied Science

2021-2022

October 20, 2021: "Megasupramolecules: From Disaster to Discovery" Julia Kornfield, Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemical Engineering

November 10, 2021: "Quantum Matter: Why It Matters" Xie Chen, Professor of Theoretical Physics

April 13, 2022: "The Rhetoric of Change in the Age of Pandemic" Jennifer Jahner, Professor of English

May 11, 2022: "What Entanglement Can Tell Us About Our World," Scott Cushing, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

June 29, 2022: "Rising Tide: Tackling Sea Level Rise From Above and Below," Josh Willis, Project Scientist, JPL

2020-2021

October 7, 2020: "Can America Have a Safe and Secure Presidential Election?," Michael Alvarez, Professor of Political and Computational Social Science

November 11, 2020: "The Power of Nonlinearities: Unlocking Opportunities for Sensing and Computing with Light," Alireza Marandi, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics

December 9, 2020: "The Inner Life of the Brain: Fear, Sex, and Violence," David Anderson, Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology; Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience Leadership Chair; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Director, Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience

January 13, 2021: "Artificial Intelligence: How It Works and What It Means for the Future," Yisong Yue, Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences

February 17, 2021: "What Cosmic Fireworks Unveil About the Universe," Mansi Kasliwal, Assistant Professor of Astronomy

March 10, 2021: "Perseverance on Mars," Kenneth Farley, W.M. Keck Foundation Professor of Geochemistry at Caltech, and Mars 2020 Project Scientist for NASA/JPL

April 21, 2021: "Sunlight to Everything: Catalyzing a Sustainable Future," Jonas Peters, Bren Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute

May 12, 2021: "From the Soil to the Clinic: How Infection-Causing Microbes Thrive Without Oxygen," Dianne Newman, Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology and Executive Officer for Molecular Biology

2019-2020

October 16, 2019: "Causality: From Aristotle to Zebrafish," Frederick Eberhardt, Professor of Philosophy

November 6, 2019: "Opportunities in Atomic-Scale Legoland: From Novel Electronic Phases to Quantum Devices," Stevan Nadj-Perge, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, KNI-Wheatley Scholar

December 11, 2019: "How to Deceive Society: An Insect Masterclass," Joseph Parker, Assistant Professor Biology and Biological Engineering (Biedebach Memorial Lecture)

January 29, 2020: "The Legacy of the Spitzer Space Telescope," Tom Soifer, Harold Brown Professor of Physics, Emeritus; Director, Spitzer Science Center

2018-2019

October 31, 2018: "Space Solar Power: A New Beginning," Sergio Pellegrino, Joyce and Kent Kresa Professor of Aerospace and Civil Engineering; Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Research Scientist; Co-Director, Space-Based Solar Power Project

November 28, 2018: "World's Deepest-Penetration and Fastest Optical Cameras," Lihong Wang, Bren Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering

January 16, 2019: "The Long Run Behavior of Random Walks," Omer Tamuz, Assistant Professor of Economics and Mathematics (Biedebach Memorial Lecture)

February 13, 2019: "Plant Growth: How Stem Cells Make Stems," Elliot Meyerowitz, George W. Beadle Professor of Biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

February 27, 2019: "My Half Century Romance with Caltech and Black Holes, Wormholes, Time Travel and Gravitational Waves," Kip S. Thorne, Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus; 2017 Nobel Laureate

April 3, 2019: "Tiny Chips for Brain-Body-Machine Interfaces," Azita Emami, Andrew and Peggy Cherng Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering; Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator; Executive Officer for Electrical Engineering

April 24, 2019: "Clouds and Climate Tipping Points," Tapio Schneider, Theodore Y. Wu Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering; Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Research Scientist

May 29, 2019: "Sugars: The Underappreciated Building Blocks of Life," Linda C. Hsieh-Wilson, Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor of Chemistry

2017-2018

November 1, 2017: "Going Out in a Blaze of Glory: Cassini Mission Highlights," Linda J. Spilker, Cassini Mission Project Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

November 15, 2017: "The Grand Tour: Exploring Planets Outside the Solar System," Heather A. Knutson, Professor of Planetary Science

December 6, 2017: "Toward the Robots of Science Fiction," Aaron D. Ames, Bren Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, and Control and Dynamical Systems

January 17, 2018: "Flat Metasurface Optics," Andrei Faraon, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, KNI-Wheatley Scholar

February 14, 2018: "Using the Brain of a Modern Fly to Reconstruct the Behaviors of an Ancient World," Michael H. Dickinson, Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of Bioengineering and Aeronautics

March 14, 2018: "Searching for Earth-like Planets," Andrew W. Howard, Professor of Astronomy

April 11, 2018: "Microbial Life Support: The Invisible Living Networks That Shape Our Oceans," Victoria J. Orphan, James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science and Geobiology

April 25, 2018: "Negotiations and Group Decisions: Passing Bills with Backroom Deals," Marina Agranov, Professor of Economics

May 23, 2018: "Talking to Cells," Mikhail G. Shapiro, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute (Biedebach Memorial Lecture)

2016-2017

October 26, 2016: Rustem F. Ismagilov, Ethel Wilson Bowles and Robert Bowles Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering; Director of the Jacobs Institute for Molecular Engineering for Medicine

November 9, 2016: Carol A. Raymond, JPL

December 7, 2016: Konstantin Batygin, Assistant Professor of Planetary Science (Biedebach Memorial Lecture)

February 1, 2017: William L. Johnson, Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Engineering and Applied Science

February 22, 2017: David Prober, Assistant Professor of Biology

April 5, 2017: Dimitri Mawet, Associate Professor of Astronomy

April 19, 2017: Adam C. Wierman, Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences; Executive Officer for Computing and Mathematical Sciences; Associate Director, Information Science and Technology

May 10, 2017: Nicolas Wey-Gomez , Professor of History

2015-2016

October 14, 2015: "Back to the Beginning: The Rosetta Comet Rendezvous Mission," Paul Weissman, JPL

November 18, 2015: "Choosing the T-Cell Profession: Higher Education for Stem Cells," Ellen Rothenberg

December 2, 2015: "Complex Quantum Cosmos: Science Puzzles and Technology Solutions," Maria Spiropulu

January 20, 2016: "Algorithmic Magic: Behind the Scenes of Modern Computer Science," Chris Umans

February 10, 2016: "Chasing Extrasolar Space Weather," Gregg Hallinan (Biedebach Memorial Lecture)

March 9, 2016: "Listening to the Thunder of Gravity in the Cosmos," Rana Adhikari

April 20, 2016: "What Columbus Discovered," Nico Wey-Gomez

May 11, 2016: "Signed, Sealed, Delivered: How Proteins Get Where They're Supposed to Go in Cells," Tom Miller

May 25, 2016: "DNA Origami: Folded DNA as a Building Material for Molecular Devices," Paul Rothemund

2014-2015

October 15, 2014: David Hsieh, Assistant Professor of Physics

November 19, 2014: Woodward (Woody) Fischer, Assistant Professor of Geobiology

December 17, 2014: Andrei Faraon, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science

January 7, 2015: William M. (Bil) Clemons, Jr., Professor of Biochemistry

January 21, 2015: Julia R. Greer, Professor of Materials Science and Mechanics

February 4, 2015: John P. O'Doherty, Professor of Psychology; Director, Caltech Brain Imaging Center

April 1, 2015: Pamela J. Bjorkman, Max Delbruck Professor of Biology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

May 6, 2015: James L. (Jamie) Bock, Professor of Physics; Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Research Scientist

May 20, 2015: Katherine Faber

2013-2014

Richard Ellis

Axel Scherer

Fiona Harrison

Jean Ensminger

Ali Hajimiri

Dennis Kochmann

Michael Lamb

Sarkis Mazmanian

Sarah Reisman

2012-2013

October 24, 2012: "Engineering with Impact," Guruswami (Ravi) Ravichandran, John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aerospace and Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Director, Graduate Aerospace Laboratories

November 28, 2012: "Seeing the World in a Grain of Sand," Jose E. Andrade, Associate Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering

December 5, 2012: "Brain Control with Light," Viviana Gradinaru, Assistant Professor of Biology (Biedebach Memorial Lecture)

January 9, 2013: "Physics at the Large Hadron Collider: A New World on Matter, Spacetime and the Universe," Harvey B. Newman, Professor of Physics

January 30, 2013: "For Love or Money: Marriage and Economic Development in the Past," Tracy K. Dennison, Professor of Social Science History

February 13, 2013: "Under the Hood of the Earthquake Machine," Nadia Lapusta, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Geophysics

April 3, 2013: "Quantum Entanglement and Quantum Computing," John P. Preskill, Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics

April 24, 2013: John P. Grotzinger, Fletcher Jones Professor of Geology

May 22, 2013: Shu-ou San, Professor of Chemistry

2011-2012

October 12, 2011: "NEUROECONOMICS: HOW DOES YOUR BRAIN MAKE DECISIONS?," Antonio Rangel

November 2, 2011: "CATCHING COMETS CLOSE UP – CHEAPLY," Kenneth P. Klaasen

December 7, 2011: "DESIGN BY EVOLUTION: Engineering Biology in the 21st Century," Frances H. Arnold

January 18, 2012: "ELECTRONS IN FLATLAND," James P. Eisenstein

February 15, 2012: "WHAT PARENTS WANT: Evidence From Child Adoption," Leeat Yariv

February 29, 2012: "THE ISOTOPE TIME MACHINE," John M. Eiler

March 14, 2012: "MAKING MOLECULES," Jonas C. Peters

April 25, 2012, "AN EXPLOSION OF EXPLOSIONS," Shrinivas R. (Shri) Kulkarni

May 16, 2012: "TAMING TURBULANCE," Beverley J. McKeon

2010-2011

October 27, 2010: "RISING MOUNTAINS AND SINKING OCEANS: Earthquakes That Shape the Earth," Jean-Philippe Avouac

November 17, 2010: "RECREATING THE GREAT FORT TEJON EARTHQUAKE OF 1857," Swaminathan Krishnan

December 1, 2010: "PERSONALIZED MEDICINE, MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS, AND CANCER," James R. Heath

January 26, 2011: "THE DESIGN OF INFORMATION AGGREGATION MECHANISMS: Collecting and Using the Wisdom of Crowds," Charles R. Plott

February 9, 2011: "ENCEDLADUS: The Hottest Little Moon in the Solar System," Andrew P. Ingersoll

March 9, 2011: "REAVEALING THE COLD UNIVERSE," James J. (Jamie) Bock

April 13, 2011": "GOOD VIBRATIONS INSIDE THE EARTH," Jennifer M. Jackson

April 27, 2011:" "NEURAL PLASTICITY: What Is It and What Can It Do For You?," Mary B. Kennedy

May 25, 2011: "PROBING THE VERY EARLY UNIVERSE WITH THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION," Anthony C. Readhead

2009-2010

October 14, 2009: "EXPLORING THE ULTRAVIOLET UNIVERSE," Christopher Martin

November 11, 2009: "WHERE THE WIND COMES FROM, ON EARTH AND OTHER PLANETS," Tapio Schneider

December 2, 2009: "REMEMBRANCE OF FINANCIAL CRISES PAST," Jean-Laurent Rosenthal

January 13, 2010: "PHYSICS AT THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER: A New Window on Matter, Spacetime and the Universe," Harvey B. Newman

January 27, 2010: "DNA-MEDIATED SIGNALING," Jacqueline K. Barton

February 17, 2010: "INTERSONIC EARTHQUAKES: What Laboratory EarthquakesTeach Us About Real Ones," Ares J. Rosakis

April 7, 2010: "THE ANCIENT CALIFORNIA RIVER AND HOW IT CARVED THE GRAND CANYON IN THE AGE OF T. REX," Brian P. Wernicke

May 5, 2010: "FROM NEWTON'S CRADLE TO NEW MATERIALS," Chiara Daraio

May 19, 2010: "NEURONAL MECHANISMS OF MEMORY FORMATION," Athanasios G. (Thanos) Siapas

July 7, 2010: "THE VOYAGER JOURNEYS TO INTERSTELLAR SPACE," Ed Stone

2008-2009

October 15, 2008: "THE NEUROSCIENCE OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: From Looking at Faces to Understanding Autism," Ralph Adolphs

November 12, 2008: "THE PHOENIX MISSION." Leslie K. Tamppari, JPL

December 3, 2008, 2008: "PROTEIN RECYCLING: ITS ROLE IN HUMAN BIOLOGY AND DISEASE," Raymond J. Deshaies

January 21, 2009: "THE QUANTUM INTERNET," H. Jeff Kimble

February 18, 2009: "POWERING THE PLANET WITH SOLAR FUEL," Harry Gray

March 11, 2009: "A WILD RIDE ON THE ROAD TO THE THOUSAND DOLLAR HUMAN GENOME SEQUENCE: From Gene Networks to Autism," Barbara Wold

April 1, 2009: "EXPLORING THE DEEP-SEA FOR CORALS AND CLUES TO OUR CLIMATIC PAST," Jess Adkins

April 22, 2009: "JELLYFISH-INSPIRED ENGINEERING", John Dabiri

May 20, 2009: "IN PURSUIT OF PROGRAMMABLE MOLECULAR TECHNOLOGIES," Niles Pierce

2007-2008

October 17, 2007: "HUBBERT'S PEAK: The Question of Coal and Climate Change," David B. Rutledge

November 7, 2007: "ISAAC NEWTON, SOLOMON'S KINGDOM, AND THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION," Jed Z. Buchwalk

December 5, 2007: "GENES AND CIRCUITS FOR EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR IN MICE AND FLIES," David J. Anderson

January 23, 2008: "THE PACIFIC-NORTH AMERICA PLATE BOUNDARY, MEXICAN STYLE," Joann Stock

February 20, 2008: "EARTH ATTACKS! NEW RESULTS FROM THE PLANET MARS," Richard W. Zurek

March 12, 2008: "NEXT-GENERATION NEURAL IMPLANTS: Let's Start with Retinal Implants," Yu-Chong Tai

April 16, 2008: "CARMA—RAISING OUR SITES," Anneila I. Sargent

May 14, 2008: "FIGHTING CANCER WITH NANOPARTICLE MEDICINES," Mark E. Davis

2006-2007

October 18, 2006: "NATURAL DISASTERS: What We Know vs. What We Do," Kerry E. Sieh

November 8, 2006: "THE AMAZING WORLD OF BUBBLES," Christopher E. Brennen

December 6, 2006: "WHY DID EUROPEAN STATES CONQUER THE WORLD? How Politics and Economics Created a Comparative Advantage in Violence," Philip T. Hoffman

January 17, 2007: "BOOMING SAND DUNES," Melany L. Hunt

February 14, 2007: "SNOWBALL EARTH," Joseph L. Kirschvink

March 7, 2007: "GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE," John H. Seinfeld

April 25, 2007: "CASSINI-HUYGENS AT SATURN: Discovery of New Worlds, Some Familiar and Some Alien," Dennis L. Matson

May 9, 2007: "BRAIN PLASTICITY DURING LEARNING AND MEMORY," Erin M. Schuman

2005-2006

October 5, 2005: "MATH BY THE NUMB3RS: How Caltech Helps a CBS Television Show Do the Math," Gary A. Lorden

November 2, 2005: "SPIRIT AND OPPORTUNITY'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE IN MARS GEOLOGY," Joy A. Crisp

November 16, 2005: "EINSTEIN'S GENERAL RELATIVITY, FROM 1905 TO 2005: Warped Spacetime, Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and the Accelerating Universe," Kip S. Thorne

January 18, 2006: "THE COMING REVOLUTION IN PHARMACEUTICALS," William A. Goddard, III

February 22, 2006: "BEYOND PLUTO: Discovery of the 10th Planet," Michael E. Brown

April 12, 2006: "BACTERIAL BIOFILMS: Far More Than a Collection of Germs," Dianne K. Newman

May 3, 2006: "WHY ARE PRICES SO BIZARRE?," R. Preston McAfee

May 17, 2006: "CAN ONE MAKE A MOUSE MODEL OF MENTAL ILLNESS, AND WHY TRY?," Paul H. Patterson

2004-2005

October 13, 2004: "OUT OF GAS: THE END OF THE AGE OF OIL," David Goodstein

October 27, 2004: "HOW FLIES FLY," Michael Dickinson

November 10, 2004: "THE QUEST FOR CONSCIOUSNESS: A Neurobiological Approach," Christof Koch

January 26, 2005: "THE SHUTTLE FLEET, COLUMBIA, AND PRESENT AND FUTURE SPACE ACCESS," Paul Dimotakis

February 23, 2005: "THE SENSE OF SMELL: A WINDOW INTO THE BRAIN AND MEMORY," Gilles Laurent

March 9, 2005: "LIFTING THE COSMIC VEIL: THE INFRARED UNIVERSE REVEALED BY THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE," Michael Werner

April 13, 2005 "ART AND SCIENCE: A DA VINCI DETECTIVE STORY," John Brewer

May 25, 2005: "POWERING THE PLANET: WHERE IN THE WORLD WILL OUR ENERGY COME FROM?," Nate Lewis

2003-2004

October 15, 2003: "VIRUSES, VIRUSES, VIRUSES," David Baltimore

November 15, 2003" "FROM PCs TO PETAFLOPS: The Future of Really Big Computers," Thomas Sterling

November 19, 2003: "EXPERIMENTING WITH SOCIAL NORMS," Jean Ensminger

January 14, 2004: "NANOSYSTEMS BIOLOGY," James Heath

February 11, 2004: "STRING THEORY: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE," John Schwarz

March 3, 2004: "INVENTING HISTORICAL TRUTH ON THE SILVER SCREEN," Robert Rosenstone

March 31, 2004: "TEAM CALTECH: Racing to Win the Darpa Grand Challenge," Richard Murray

April 28, 2004: "CHALLENGES AND EXCITEMENT OF SPACE EXPLORATION," Charles Elachi

2002-2003

October 9, 2002 "COUNTERING TERRORISM: THE ROLE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY," Jack Beauchamp

October 23, 2002: "THE RESPONSE TO NICOTINE," Henry Lester

November 6, 2002: "THE VOYAGER JOURNEYS TO INTERSTELLAR SPACE," Edward Stone

January 15, 2003: "SUPERCONDUCTIVITY—RESISTANCE IS FUTILE," Nai-Chang Yeh

January 29, 2003: "FUEL CELLS: POWERING PROGRESS IN THE 21ST CENTURY," Sossina Haile

February 19, 2003: "CLEAN WATER: The Oil of the 21st Century," Janet Hering

March 5, 2003: "CATCHING THE WAVES WITH LIGO," Barry Barrish

April 23, 2003: "VOTING: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going," Michael Alvarez

May 5, 2003: "ALL THE FAULTS IN THE WORLD: The Cutting Edge of Tectonic," Brian Wernicke

May 21, 2003: "ALL QUAOAR AND THE EDGE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM," Michael Brown

2001-2002

October 10, 2001: "MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR MISSION—A SUCCESS BY ANY MEASURE," Arden Albee

November 14, 2001: "THE QUANTUM-CLASSICAL TRANSITION ON TRIAL: IS THE WHOLE MORE THAN THE SUM OF THE PARTS?" Hideo Mabuchi

January 9, 2002: "COSMIC BACKGROUND IMAGER: READING THE UNIVERSE'S EARLY HISTORY," Anthony C.S. Readhead

January 23, 2002: "ROBOTICS: MOVING BEYOND THE FACTORY FLOOR," Joel Burdick

February 20, 2002: "FORMATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM," Marianne Bronner-Fraser

March 6, 2002: "NEW MATERIALS FOR PERFECT VISION," Julia Kornfield

April 3, 2002: "PLANETS ORBITING NEARBY SUNS," David Charbonneau

April 24, 2002: "CAN A MACHINE LEARN TO PLAY ‘WHERE'S WALDO?'," Pietro Perona

May 8, 2002: "THE WIND AND RAISING THE OBELISK," Morteza Gharib

May 22, 2002: "EINSTEIN AT CALTECH: PUBLISHING THE COLLECTED PAPERS OF ALBERT EINSTEIN," Diana Buchwald

2000-2001

October 4, 2000: "COMBINED-VALUE MARKETS," John Ledyard

October 18, 2000: "THE EVOLUTION OF BIG BRAINS," John Allman

November 1, 2000: "KECK: THE EARLY CHILDHOOD OF A SCIENTIFIC GIANT," Judith Cohen

November 15, 2000: "MEMORIES OF CALTECH PAST," Judith Goodstein

January 17, 2001: "THE PHYSICS OF SNOW CRYSTALS," Ken Libbrecht

February 21, 2001: "PLANETARY PHRENOLOGY—THE LUMPS AND BUMPS OF THE EARTH," Michael Kobrick

March 14, 2001: "CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE FUTURE OF STRATOSPHERIC OZONE," Paul Wennberg

April 11, 2001: "UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD, ONE MOLECULE AT A TIME," Stephen Quake

May 9, 2001: "IN PRAISE OF PERMISSIVENESS: COAXING CELLS TO MAKE NOVEL MACROMOLECULES," David Tirrell

May 23, 2001: "THE COMING REVOLUTION IN PHOTOGRAPHY," Carver Mead

1999-2000

October 6, 1999: "Where Fundamental Science Can Take You," Robert Grubbs

October 20, 1999: "Stem Cells and the Future of ‘Regenerative Medicine'," David Anderson

November 3, 1999: "Options and Financial Derivatives," Peter Bossaerts

November 17, 1999": "The Y2K Problem: Solved?," Robert Neary

January 12, 2000: "Aeronautics 1899-1909: The French-American Connection," Fred Culick

February 9, 2000: "Sampling the Universe," Edward Stone

April 12, 2000:" "Acts of God, Acts of Man: How Humans Make Natural Hazards into Disasters," Kerry Sieh

May 3, 2000: "Images of the Early Universe," Andrew Lange

May 17, 2000: "A Different View of the DNA Double Helix: A Conduit for Charge Transport," Jacqueline Barton

1998-1999

October 7, 1998: "Cell Life and Cell Death," David Baltimore

October 21, 1998: "The Search for Extraterrestrial Life: Lessons from the Earth," Ken Nealson

November 4, 1998: "A New Mars Revealed by Mars Global Surveyor," Glenn E. Cunningham

November 18, 1998: "Unnatural Selection: The Future of Proteins," Frances Arnold

January 13, 1999: "Is There Such a Thing as Pseudo-Science? Lessons From the History of Mesmerism," Alison Winter

February 10, 1999: "Inside of Earth: A Top-Down Approach to Deep Earth Science," Don L. Anderson

March 3, 1999: "Supercomputer Simulations: A New Tool for Science and Engineering," Steven Koonin

April 21, 1999: "From Dust to Us: The Births of Stars and Planets," Anneila Sargent

May 5, 1999: "Markets as Information-Gathering Tools," Charles Plott

May 19, 1999: "Freezing Time: The Six Millennia Race to Femtoseconds," Ahmed Zewail

1997-98

October 29, 1997: "Earnest Watson and the Amazing Liquid Air Show," David & Judith Goodstein

November 5, 1997: "Gamma-Ray Bursts: Dying Cries from the Deep Universe," Shrinivas Kulkarni

November 19, 1997: "Touching Mars," Donna Shirley

January 14, 1998: "The World of Our Grandchildren: Visualizing the Alternatives with the World Wide Web," Bruce Murray

February 25, 1998: "El Nino and Global Warming: What's Happening to Our Weather?," Andrew lngersoll

April 8, 1998: "Can We Use Chemistry to Change the Way Our Genes Work?," Peter Dervan

May 6, 1998: "Los Angeles, City of the Future?," William Deverell

May 20, 1998: "Learning from a Tragedy: Explosions and Flight 800," Joseph Shepherd

1996-97

October 9, 1996: "Wireless Communication in the 21st Century," Andrea Goldsmith

November 6, 1996: "Learning How the Brain Learns," Erin Schuman

January 15, 1997: "Quantum Information and Quantum Computation," John Preskill

January 29, 1997: "Cardiac Fluid Dynamics: Vortices in the Heart," Morteza Gharib

February 19, 1997: "Return to Mars --Twenty Years After Viking," Arden L. Albee

April 9, 1997: "The Mystery of Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts," Fiona Harrison

April 23, 1997: "Geophysical Secrets Beneath Antarctic Waters," Joann Stock

May 7, 1997: "Genes, Eggs, and Embryos," Eric Davidson

May 21, 1997: "Taxing Women," Edward McCaffery

1995-96

September 22, 1995: "Science with the Keck Telescope," George Djorgovski

October 11, 1995: "Heart Attack or Heartburn: New Chemical Diagnostics," Thomas J. Meade

November 15, 1995: "The Caltech Electric Nose Project," Nathan S. Lewis

January 10, 1996: "Global Climate, Mass Extinctions, and the Fallout ... to the Earth," Kenneth Farley

January 24, 1996: "The Hopes (Amidst the Hype) of Nanotechnology," Michael L. Rourkes

February 21, 1996: "Imaging the Infant Universe," Anthony Readhead

March 6, 1996: "Unraveling the Mysteries of Flower Development," Elliot M. Meyerowitz

April 10, 1996: "Taxi Drivers and Beauty Contest Games," Colin Camerer

April 24, 1996: "Seismological Tools for the 21st Century," Thomas H. Heaton

May 22, 1996: "Quantum Gases: The Coldest Stuff on Earth," Kenneth Libbrecht