Bridging the Gaps: A Portal for Curious Minds

False Memories, Misinformation Effect and Eyewitness Testimony: Professor Elizabeth Loftus by Dr Waseem Akhtar

Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age with Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger by Dr Waseem Akhtar

Human Consciousness is a fascinating research topic. Discussed previously in a number of Bridging the Gaps conversations, cutting edge research on consciousness – an ungrasped concept and an unsolved problem in science today – will keep appearing here at this Portal for Curious Minds. It is widely accepted that consciousness arises as an emergent property of the human mind. An important question is where does consciousness arise; does this arise from a single seat in the brain or is this a distributed phenomenon involving various interconnected parts and networks of the brain. Whatever is the answer to this question, most researchers relate this phenomenon with the working of human brain. Alva Noe – part philosopher, part cognitive scientist, part neuroscientist – restates and re-examines the problem of consciousness and proposes that we should abandon “200-year-old paradigm that places consciousness within the confines of the brain”. Alva Noe is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences and the Center of New Media. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1995. The focus of this conversation with Alva Noe is his book “Out of Our Heads: Why You are Not Your Brain and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness”. One of the main concepts that Alva Noe presents in this book is that consciousness does not happen in the brain and it is not located in our brains; he suggests that rather than being something that happens inside us, consciousness is something we do. In this conversation we discuss in detail this “fresh attempt at understanding our minds and how we interact with the world around us”.

When Galileo pointed his telescope towards Saturn (circa 1610), he was not able to fully understand what was around the planet; in 1659 Christian Hygen published a drawing of the rings of Saturn and suggested there was thin, flat ring around the planet. He observed that the ring was inclined to the ecliptic and didn’t touch the planet. In 1675, Giovanni Domenic Cassini described that Saturn’s ring was composed of multiple smaller rings with gaps between them. In 1787, Pierre-Simon Laplace suggested that the rings were composed of a large number of solid ringlets. Research on the rings around Saturn continued and in 1859 James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated that the rings could not be solid or they would become unstable and break apart. When looked at from a distance, rings around Saturn appear thin with smooth surfaces; however close up images captured by various robotic space missions and additional data collected by sensors onboard several spacecraft visiting and flying-by Saturn show that there are number of dynamic processes happening in these ring systems, and there are horizontal as well as vertical surface features. When sunlight hits the surface of these rings at an angle, dark shadows of mountains and dark valleys become visible and various patterns become noticeable; this informs us that these surfaces are not smooth as previously thought. Also, it has been observed that the tilt of the ring system is not fixed. Research shows that if something has changed the tilt of a ring system, an analysis of the ripple patterns exhibited by the particles forming these rings can inform us the cause of this change. Thus by observing and studying the structure of rings and the dynamic processes going on in these rings, one can learn a lot about the history of the host planet and the system within which the planet exists. An interesting aspect of studying planetary ring systems is the question that can an understanding of dynamic processes that occur in planetary ring systems inform us about the similar processes that occur during the formation of solar systems and spiral galaxies. Dr Mark Showalter works on some of NASA’s highest profile missions to outer planets. He has been a member of Cassini Mission Science Team for nearly a decade, and has been involved in the observations of Jupiter’s rings using New Horizons spacecraft. A frequent user of Hubble Space Telescope, Dr Showalter has to his credit the discovery of Jupiter’s outer most ring, Saturn’s moon PAN, and two moons and two faint rings around the planet Uranus. In a presentation Dr Mark Showalter describes himself as a ring geek. In this podcast Dr Showlater discusses planetry ring systems in detail; this podcast is about everything that a curious mind should know about planetary ring systems.

Dr Edgar Mitchell discusses his journey to the moon on board Apollo 14 in this very interesting conversation at Bridging the Gaps. He describes when and how he joined NASA, talks about the "Original 19" and discusses interesting details of his mission to the moon, and ten hours that he spent on the lunar surface. He also touches upon the incident with Apollo 13. In this podcast we also discuss Dr Mitchell's two books: The Way of the Explorer and Psychic Exploration. Dr Mitchell talks about a number of concepts that he presents in his books; some of these views are considered controversial by many. These contested views of this great explorer are relayed to the listeners in this podcast without any editing.

An in-depth conversation with Professor Wendy Freedman on the topic of space exploration with ground based telescopes. We discuss the history of space exploration using ground based telescopes, and try to imagine the future that what is next. Professor Wendy Freedman gives a detailed description of the features of the Giant Magellan Telescope, a ground based extremely large telescope under construction. We discuss the challenges involved in constructing the GMT and talk about the research opportunities that this extremely large telescope, once completed, will present. Professor Wendy Freedman is one of the world’s most influential astronomers. Freedman is a professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. She was also the chair of the board of directors of the Giant Magellan Telescope project from its inception in 2003 to July 2015. More than a decade ago, Wendy Freedman led a team of 30 astronomers who carried out the Hubble Key Project to measure the expansion rate of the universe. Her research now focuses on measuring both the past and present expansion rates of the universe, and on characterizing the nature of dark energy – the mysterious force that causes the universe to accelerate its expansion. A Correction Note (Audio at 14:10 minutes): While discussing 60-inch telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, we got the dates mixed up. The telescope was commissioned in 1908; the 'First Light' was on December 8, 1908. Astronomer Harlow Shapely used this telescope to make a number of observations about our galaxy the Milky Way. However it was not until 1917-18 that he concluded, based on his observations, that the Sun was not at the centre of our galaxy.

Evaluating the quality of teaching and learning in our schools, and assessing the effectiveness of our school systems and primary education frameworks is an important research area that focuses on questions such as “what works and what does not work in our schools”. An important aspect of this research is to evaluate the impact of factors such as class size, homework, use of digital technologies, duration of academic year, teaching very bright and weak learners in same cohorts on the quality of teaching and learning in our schools. Such research also focuses on measuring the effect-size of these and other factors on the performance of our education systems. Professor John Hattie has spent fifteen years synthesizing over 60,000 studies, involving about a quarter of a billion students. This meta-analysis – analysis of analyses – focuses on the questions that what works and what does not work in our schools and what matters in teaching. This is perhaps the biggest ever evidence-based research project in education. In this podcast I discuss with Professor Hattie the origin of this project, the studies that he has used in this project, and the approach that he has adopted to combine and consolidate data from these studies to perform this meta-analysis. We discuss in detail the findings of this meta-analysis. We also discuss the impact of “out of school factors” such as home environment on the performance of young learners. We discuss the concept of “Visible Learning” that Professor Hattie presents in his books and presentations, and try to explore how the education at primary level must evolve and should be aligned with the needs and expectations of twenty-first century learners. In his books Professor Hattie discusses eight mind frames or ways of thinking that must underpin every process and action in schools and school systems; I ask Professor Hattie to describe these eight mind frames in detail. An important finding that Professor Hattie highlights in his presentations is that the “biggest effect on student learning occurs when teachers become learners of their own teaching, and when students become their own teachers”; we discuss this statement in detail. Professor Hattie highlights that increase use of internet and communication technologies in schools presents an opportunity for the parents to get more involved in school affairs. Professor John Hattie is a researcher in the field of education, and is the Director of the Melbourne Education and Research Institute at the University of Melbourne. His research interests include performance indicators, models of measurements and evaluation of teaching and learning. He has written more than four hundred articles on these and related topics. His two very interesting books on these topics are: “Visible Learning” and “Visible Learning for Teachers”.

One of the most existing developments of the last two decades in the field of astronomy is the discovery of exoplanets: planets that orbit around the stars other then our sun. The idea of finding planets outside our solar system is not new; philosophers and scientists have imagined exoplanets for centuries. Giordano Bruno, an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer theorised exoplanets in sixteenth century. However for centuries there was no mechanism available to detect exoplanets. The first two confirmed exoplanets were discovered in 1992. Since then the detection of new exoplanets continues. By September 2015 the number of confirmed exoplanets has reached 1892. In this podcast I discuss, in detail, with Professor Sara Seager, the fascinating research in the field of exoplanets. Professor Sara Seager is an astrophysicists and planetary scientist at MIT. Her science research focuses on theory, computation, and data analysis of exoplanets. Her research has introduced many new ideas to the field of exoplanet characterization, including work that led to the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere. She is the author of two textbooks on these topics. She was part of a team that co-discovered the first detection of light emitted from an exoplanet, and the first spectrum of an exoplanet. In twenty thirteen she was awarded a MacArther Fellowship.

As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft approaches Pluto, Dr Mark Showalter describes in detail the nature of the mission and what to expect in terms of scientific findings. Dr Showalter discusses in detail the features of the spacecraft and the challenges involved as it approaches Pluto.

Multiple intelligences, future minds, and characteristics and expectations of 21st century learners with Dr Howard Gardner.