A bird that mimicked a black hole. The astronomer that discovered microwave ovens. A telescope that got shot. The science of astronomy is filled with true stories (and tall tales) of the adventures and misadventures that accompany our exploration of the universe. Dr. Levesque, who interviewed over 100 astronomers for her well-reviewed popular book, The Last Stargazers,  takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of life as a professional astronomer. We learn about some of the most powerful telescopes in the world and their cutting-edge discoveries, meet the people behind the science, and explore the crucial role of human curiosity and innovation in the past, present, and future of scientific discovery.  (Recorded on Oct. 20, 2021)Emily Levesque is an astronomy professor at the University of Washington.  She has observed for upwards of fifty nights on many of the planet’s largest telescopes and flown over the Antarctic stratosphere in an experimental aircraft for her research. 

Craig Venter & Daniel Cohen suggested that if the 20th century was the century of physics, the 21st century will be the century of biology on our planet.  Jill Tarter believes that their idea will be extended beyond the surface of our world, and that we may soon have the first opportunity to study biology that developed on other worlds.  In this lecture, recorded in 2017, she talks about her vision of the future of understanding life on Earth and beyond our planet.  And she discusses projects that are underway and are planned to learn more about the possibility of intelligent life among the stars.  The talk also celebrated the publication of the book "Making Contact" (by Sarah Scoles) about Jill Tarter's life and work.

By measuring the rapid orbits of the stars near the center of our galaxy, Dr. Andrea Ghez of UCLA and her colleagues have moved the case for a supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy from a possibility to a certainty.  She reports on her pioneering observations of stars near our galaxy's center (that orbit the monster black hole) and discusses some of the surprising results this work has led to.  The talk was recorded in January 2017; in 2020, Dr. Ghez won the Nobel Prize in physics for this work.

After encountering Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft, for the first time flew by a member of the Kuiper Belt of icy objects beyond Neptune.  This particular object, informally named “Ultimate Thule” (meaning the farthest place beyond the known world,) turned out to be a “contact binary” – two smaller icy worlds stuck together. Dr. Jeff Moore, a planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center,  shares an insider’s view (with great images) of how the mission got there and what we learned at Ultima Thule.  This talk was recorded Oc.t 19, 2019.  Since then this object has been given the official name Arrokoth.

Black holes are one of the most remarkable predictions of Einstein's theory of gravity: so much material is compressed into such a small volume that nothing, not even light, can escape.  In Spring 2019, the world-wide Event Horizon Telescope released the first real picture of gas around a massive black hole and the “shadow” it makes as the gas swirls into the black hole.  Dr. Quataert (University of California, Berkeley) describes how these pioneering observations were made and what they have taught us about black holes.Recorded on Jan. 22, 2020

Dr. Adam Frank (U of Rochester) first discusses the history of our search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI), including the Drake Equation, the Fermi Paradox, and the searches for radio messages from other civilizations that have taken place since 1960.  He then explains how new research and funding is expanding our thinking about the ways we might find evidence of intelligent life among the stars.  He focuses on "techno-signatures" -- ways in which we might identify signs of alien technology.  Dr. Frank summarizes the work in papers he has published and the research and ideas of scientists around the world.  (Recorded May 26, 2021.)

Dr. Brown (whose discovery of dwarf planet Eris led to the reclassification of Pluto) discusses the history of planetary discovery (and demotion), why we think a new, larger Planet 9 is on the verge of being found, and the techniques that we are using to try to find this very faint body lurking in the far reaches of our planetary system.  This was recorded Nov. 11, 2020. 

May 22, 2021,  Dr. Janna Levin (Columbia University's Barnard College)Dr. Levin helps us to understand, and to find delight in, black holes – perhaps the most opaque theoretical construct ever imagined by physicists. She takes us on an exploratory tour of the neighborhood of a black hole, and help us feel the visceral experience of encountering black holes of different masses.  The title of the talk is also the title of her recently published popular-level book.  (Originally scheduled for April, this talk had technical problems, and was re-recorded successfully in May.)

Lick Observatory, the first continuously inhabited mountain-top observatory in the world, has been doing ground-breaking research since its opening in 1888.  30 years after Lick Observatory established itself as a leader in astronomical research, the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic hit the United States.  Research, while hampered by the conditions at the time, continued with the dedicated efforts of some of the notable astronomers of the day.  In 2020, the Observatory was hit by both the current pandemic and one of the worst Northern California wildfires in history.  Dr. Gates compares how astronomers in 1918 and today have coped with these challenges.  [By the way, the public can help these efforts; go to http://bit.ly/lickfriends ]  Dr. Elinor Gates is a staff astronomer at Lick Observatory.  Her current research interests are studying quasars and their host galaxies, discovering dust-obscured quasars, and measuring the masses of central black holes in distant active galaxies.  Asteroid (2650) Elinor is named in Dr. Gates’ honor.

Astronomers today understand that the universe is full of a mysterious substance they call “dark matter” (because it doesn’t give off any light or other radiation we can detect.)  Dr. Tom Shutt (of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) discusses the motivation behind the multi-decade, world-wide effort to test the idea that dark matter is in the form of particles as small as a neutrino but as heavy as an atom.  He describes the experiment he is involved with, that uses 7 tons of liquefied Xenon to measure how these particles interact with normal matter.