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October 13, 2017
Michael Sims, Founder and CEO, Ceres Robotics; hosted by Jason Preston, Co-Founder, Dent
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October 12, 2017
Trevor Rudderham, President and CEO, Haydale Technologies Inc.: Shane Fox, Co-Founder and CEO, LINK3D; and Philip Vafiadis, Executive Chairman, Innovyz and Innovyz Institute; hosted by Steve Waite, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Graphene Stakeholders Association
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October 11, 2017
Larry Smarr, Founding Director, Calit2 (a UC San Diego / UC Irvine partnership), and SNS Ambassador for Pure Science; hosted by Mark Anderson
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October 11, 2017
Andrew Connolly, Director, DIRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington; hosted by Mark Anderson
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October 11, 2017
Bryan William Jones, Retinal Neuroscientist and Principal Investigator/Director, Marclab for Connectomics, University of Utah; hosted by Mark Anderson
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October 11, 2017
I. “Pictorial Processing in Nature I”: Chris Johnson, Director, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (SCI), and Distinguished Professor, School of Computing, University of Utah
II. “Pictorial Processing in Nature II”: Valerio Pascucci, Endowed Chair Professor of Computing and Founding Director, CEDMAV, University of Utah
Hosted by Mark Anderson
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September 29, 2016
With Jonathan Carter, Deputy Director of Computing Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab; hosted by Brett Horvath, Co-Founder and Head of Product, Scout
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September 29, 2016
With James "Ben" Brown, Dept. Head, Molecular Ecosystems Biology, and Chair, Environmental Bioinformatics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Birmingham; hosted by David Morris, VP Business Development, Strategic News Service
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September 28, 2016
With Benjamin Smarr, NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley; hosted by Ed Butler, Presenter and Senior Broadcast Journalist, BBC
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September 28, 2016
With Brad Holtz, CEO, Cyon Research, and Chief Nexus Officer, Coventry Computer; and Murray Cantor, CTO, Aptage, and past IBM Distinguished Engineer; hosted by Mark Anderson
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September 28, 2016
With Chris Johnson, Director, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (SCI), and Distinguished Professor, School of Computing, University of Utah; Alexander Lex, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (SCI) and the School of Computing at the University of Utah and Bei Wang Phillips, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (SCI), University of Utah; Hosted by Mark Anderson
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October 7, 2015
A Centerpiece Conversation: "Creating a Blended Reality: 3D Transformations": With Shane Wall, CTO, Hewlett-Packard; Hosted by Ed Butler, Senior Broadcast Journalist, BBC
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July 1, 2015
Volume 18, Issue 25Week of June 29, 2015In This IssueFeature: Special Letter: The Graphene Revolution: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly- Background: Major Industrial Revolutions Driven by New Materials
- The Good: Why Graphene Is Important and How to Assess Its Real Potential
- The Bad: Solutions Looking for a Problem
- The Ugly: Risk Factors for Technology Companies, Investors, and Corporate Partners
- Where Are the Killer Apps? Opportunities in the Sensor Space
- Nanotech Biomachines: From Material Supplier to Value-Add Product Developer
- About Nanotech Biomachines
- About Will Martinez
----
Publisher's Note: I suspect that many of our members first read about graphene in the SNS Global Report. Today, there are startups worldwide, national programs in graphene commercialization and research, new laboratories for certifying graphene purity and chemical composition, a new Center of Excellence planned for creation in California, and the Graphene Stakeholders Association, co-founded by SNS member Steve Waite. (Disclosure: I am an advisory board member.)While much has been done to accelerate research and compress development times, we are still in the early days of this long-term story - which should create excitement among the entrepreneurs in the crowd. It seems as though hardly a week goes by without a new scientific discovery about graphene's growing list of electrical, chemical, and physical properties, and of their potential commercial applications.Amid all this excitement, it is important to remain aware of what is real and what is hype, and one of this year's FiReStarter companies - Nanotech Biomachines - is in the perfect position of knowing what its customers are doing with, and paying for, graphene in its many applications.Whether you are interested in computer transistors, RF transistors for cellphones, high-power batteries, more-efficient solar cells, printable electronics, flexible touch displays, wearable smart devices, or a host of other industries in which graphene now has an edge, this week's discussion by Nanotech CEO Will Martinez will likely whet your appetite for more information and steer you away from the wrong path. - mra.
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June 25, 2015
Volume 18, Issue 24Week of June 22, 2015In This IssueFeature: The Perfect Union: Biology And Computing- The Perfect Venn Intersection
- What Is Biology?
- What Is Evolution?
- Computers Applied to Biology
- Making Biology with Computers
- Using Biology to Make Computers
Quotes Of The WeekTakeout Window- 3D Printing Human Skin
- You Have It Backwards, Ginny: Chinese Firms Need You
- MSFT Brings 1st Chinese University into the US; Target: University of Washington
- Neural Lace: No Longer Just Science Fiction
Upgrades And Numbers- Grexit
- The Pope Effect
- The OPM Hack
- China Whistles, US Tech Firms Fetch
Ethermail----
I was talking with my friend and colleague Larry Smarr the other day, and we found ourselves discussing the ways in which biology is today informing computer design. We started listing all the ways in which biology does things better than the old von Neumann computer structures of today, and the more we talked, the more absurdly huge these differences loomed. After a while, we just couldn't stop laughing ---There is no comparison; biology is infinitely better at what computers do than today's computers.In this week's discussion, we're going to look at how biology will inform computer design - and how compute systems will change biology.
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April 30, 2015
Volume 18, Issue 15
Week of April 27, 2015
In This Issue
Feature: From Finches to Hawking: Giving Voice to the Brain's Whispers
-----
Publisher's Note: In a world full of interesting people, Philip Low stands out. With expertise ranging from neuroscience to mathematics, physics, electronics, business, and - close to all of our hearts - the brains of killer whales and other animals, Philip has managed to craft a career for himself that melds these into great work, great products, and high-impact discoveries. His goal: to help everyone from Stephen Hawking to big-pharma test-animals in having better lives. -mra
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March 4, 2015
Volume 18, Issue 9Week of March 2, 2015In This IssueSNS: Special Letter: An Innovator's Handbook: Dealing with the FDA- Step 1: Concept Definition
- Step 2: Product Risk
- Step 3: Dialog with the FDA
- Step 4: The Paperwork
- Step 5: Getting to Market
- Conclusion
- About Corinna E. Lathan
-----
Publisher's Note: We have been delving into the future of biology, genetics, healthcare, evolutionary theory, biofeedback systems, neurophysiology, brain-inspired computing, the Quantified Self, and medical software and devices for at least a decade. But nowhere during this thread have we touched on what is often the life-or-death issue for entrepreneurs in these arenas: dealing with US regulatory agencies.In this discussion, for the first time in our history, we're providing a deep dive into the do's and don'ts of this process, in perhaps the toughest product approval agency: the Food and Drug Administration. As many SNS members are aware, the challenges behind gaining entry to the US markets where this agency has sway are so daunting that many companies, both large and small, have turned to other international markets (Germany perhaps being first) as a quicker, cheaper way to early markets.What do entrepreneurs - and F500 CEOs - need to know about getting this done right? Read on. -
mra.
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February 4, 2015
Volume 18, Issue 5Week of February 2, 2015In This IssueFeature: The Ultimate Biocomputer: Brain or Cell? Part II- The Real Story of Cells
- Zooming Down Through Layers of Complexity
- Complexity Through Multitasking
- The Cell As Computer
- The Cytoskeleton
- The 3D WBSS Computer / Manufacturing Platform
- The Many RNAs
- Things About RNA That Should Blow Your Mind
- From Computer to Network to Computer
- The Real Brain-Inspired Compute Environment
Quotes of the WeekTakeout WindowUpgrades and Numbers- Samsung Korea: The Copier Gets Copied
Ethermail----
The cell is often portrayed improperly, in terms of parts, size, and dynamic processes. In starter classes, it is often displayed as a static thing with outsized parts one can memorize: nucleus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum.
Students of all ages recall these things, with their one-paragraph descriptors, much in the vein of "the mitochondria supply energy to the cell via ATP; they are the cell's little power plants. "On this rudimentary level of understanding (which is about all I had, leaving Stanford in earlier days), the cell is seen as being relatively simple. The prevailing dogma goes something like this: DNA is a double-stranded molecule containing the instructions for life RNA copies these instructions, and runs over to the endoplasmic reticulum, where, using ribosomes, it makes proteins, which, acting as catalysts, run the cellular machine. Mitochondria provide the energy for all of this, via ATP molecules, and mitosis occurs when cells need to start over again, by dividing. The cell is a kind of wet bag of stuff, enclosed in a membrane made of lipids and other things, which lets some things in and some out.
For most of us who were exposed to this level of education, it might be best just to wipe the blackboard clean and start over again. Yes, all of the above descriptions are essentially true; they are just drastically incomplete. So, let's reboot:
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January 21, 2015
Volume 18, Issue 3Week of January 19, 2015In This IssueFeature: The Ultimate Biocomputer: Brain or Cell? Part I- Understanding Neurons
- The Internal Design
- The Grand Design
Quotes of the WeekTakeout Window- Malware Going Exponential
Upgrades and Numbers- Russia at War: Ukraine
- Elon Musk Re-Visions Teledesic
EthermailIn Case You Missed It...SNS Members Making News----
We have been writing about the importance of pattern recognition since 1995 - and, more recently, about the need for Pattern Recognition Processor (PRP) chips to do this specific task in computing ("SNS: The Most Important Chip Not Yet Invented," 2.12.13). SNS members have followed the recent spate of announcements in the fields of neuromorphic processors, brain-inspired design, neural networks, and artificial intelligence (which still seems like a misnomer). Clearly, from DARPA to Google, from IBM to Qualcomm, from the Allen Institutes to the EU Brain Project, something is afoot: the world has decided that biomimicry is the way to go in moving computing forward. We're copying (or "inspired by") the brain.
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January 15, 2015
Volume 18, Issue 2Week of January 12, 2015In This IssueFeature: Special Letter: On the Commercialization of Graphene and Other Nanomaterials- "Wonder Materials"
- The Rise of MPM
- Addressing the Environment, Health, and Safety
- The Nanomaterials Road Ahead
- About Ray Gibbs
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Publisher's Note: We have been writing about graphene's potential for many years now. As SNS members know, I am on the Advisory Board of the Graphene Stakeholders Association and, more recently, of the first Graphene Center of Excellence. So I, and SNS, have put our time and money where our publications have been, working to understand and accelerate the commercialization and market uptake of this most amazing material.Recently, I had a chance to meet with Ray Gibbs, CEO of Haydale Plc, and talk with him at length about how this commercial transition will occur. He may be the best-informed person in the world on this subject, since it is his company's chosen charter, and the subject itself may be among the most important in the world. All in all, it's easy to understand why we leaped at the chance to have Ray explain his views on how and when this will happen.If members think that graphene will not impact their corner of technology, whatever it may be - from chips to planes, screens to 3D printing, future cars to wearables, fuel cells to desalinization - graphene will be there. And so will the SNS members who saw it coming, early. -
mra.
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November 26, 2014
Volume 17, Issue 43Week of November 24, 2014In This IssueFeature: Celebrating The First PRP ChipQuotes of the WeekTakeout Window- Core of the TrueNorth Chip in Action
- The Supporting Technologies In and Behind TrueNorth
Upgrades And Numbers- "Ideas into Actions: Global Threats / Global Solutions"
EthermailIn Case You Missed It...SNS Members Making News----
Cognitive computing has received an increasing amount of attention recently, as those who have been touting the Big Data problem /opportunity have come up against the rather obvious challenge: how to deal with it most effectively? The scientists, academicians, policymakers, and business leaders who worry about these things have been working for years on a large problem set, essentially under the rubric of "brain-inspired computing." These new efforts include new theories about brain function, new MRI and fMRI studies, new work in neural networks and asynchronous computing, new chips, new languages, and new hardware and software on every level.In a sense, these experts have approached the problem by assuming that the brain, as a product of evolution, has achieved goals in low-power, high-performance computing that are so advanced as to deserve biomimetic engineering; and by working to emulate a number of the brain's structures and functions in order to vault modern computing forward by some huge factor.
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May 21, 2014
A discussion with Peter Lee, Corporate VP and Head of Microsoft Research, Microsoft; hosted by Ed Butler, Presenter, BBC
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May 21, 2014
FiRe 2014: "Commercializing Space: From the Moon to Mars": Patti Grace Smith and Michael Sims; hosted by Larry Smarr
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May 20, 2014
FiRe 2014: Dinner Presentation: "Outer Space Commerce: Increasing Humanity's Prosperity on a Global Scale": Chris Lewicki; hosted by Mark Anderson
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May 15, 2014
Volume 17, Issue 19Week of May 12, 2014In This IssueFeature: Special Letter: Decoding DNA: The Other 97%, In Real Time- The Historic Standard
- The Four Bases of DNA
- "Transcription" and "Translation": Reading DNA and RNA
- Epigenetics
- Genomics, Non-Coding Portions, and Cancer
- The Influence, and Limitations, of Sanger Sequencing
- Current Limits
- A Bacteria-Derived Polymerase: "A Puzzle in Which All Pieces Are Square"
- The Importance of the Non-Coding Protein Region
- Enter Exonucleases
- Adaptation to Direct Sequencing of RNA
- Looking Beyond the Exome
- About Edward Arvisais
---
Publisher's Note: This week's issue is an absolute Must Read for anyone interested in the future of genetics, healthcare, biomedicine, and related issues. If you need to understand how DNA works, and - more important from a pragmatic perspective - how our current techniques fail to reveal real DNA sequences, and how to fix the problem, read on. SNS members are aware that we long ago warned about the use of the term "junk" DNA: nature, in its evolutionary cloak, abhors not only a vacuum, but also any waste in energy or structure. This week's issue will help members understand why all base pairs should be considered to have been conserved for a purpose, and how important it is to read them - and How to read them.We are now leaving the first- and second- generation worlds of genetic decoding, when we all picked the low-hanging fruit and just ignored the rest. Thanks to companies like NorthShore Bio, a company we are proud to have as a FiReStarter Company this year, we are now going to go back, go deeper, and get the real story, the whole story, the complete read of our genetic codes. -
mra.
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April 9, 2014
Volume 17, Issue 14Week of April 7, 2014In This IssueFeature: Science Into Technology- Genetics
- Cancer
- Fixing Healthcare I
- Fixing Healthcare II
- Graphene, Graphene, Graphene
- Advanced Weapons I
- Advanced Weapons II
- Deep Science I
- Deep Science II
Quotes of the WeekUpgrades- Chinese IP Theft: The Economist Gets It; CEOs Don't
- Stock Values #1: A Tech Wreck, or Just "Zucked"?
- Stock Values #2: The China Syndrome
Takeout Window- We Told You Fox News Coverage Was Neither Fair Nor Balanced - Nor True
- Lasers Go to Sea
EthermailIn Case You Missed It...SNS Members Making News---
Although it takes less than a genius to add time-lining to a social networking site, it is still hard not to feel a bit amazed at the pace of scientific discovery and its subsequent conversion into useful applications. For technoids, the pace of real innovation used to be centered around personal computers, servers, pads, and smartphones - i.e., computing and communications device features. But for the last few years, that innovation has gone instead into making things smaller and cheaper, but not terrifically different.
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May 23, 2013
"Taking Voice Digitization Beyond Words":
A conversation with Peter Mahoney, CMO, Nuance Communications; Cary Bran, Senior Director, Innovation and New Ventures, Plantronics; and Kirsten Bay, President and CEO, Attensity Group; hosted by Stephen Socolof, Managing Partner, New Venture Partners
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February 14, 2013
Volume 16, Issue 6Week of February 11, 2013In This IssueFeature: The Most Important Chip Not Yet Invented- Reducing the Instruction Set
- PRPs
- The Importance of Patterns
- Be the Pattern
- Evolved Clues
- Find the Element
- Patterns in Space
- Patterns in Time
- Complexity
Quotes of the WeekUpgrades- Lenovo Put SNS' "Wall Computing" on the Table
Takeout Window- A Prototypical Digital Signal Processor Chip
- Solar Canals: Implementing a FiRe CTO Design Challenge
EthermailIn Case You Missed It...Members Making News---
Reducing the Instruction Set
Imagine a blank touchscreen. You draw an irregular line across it, from edge to edge. Then you turn over the 5-minute sand clock next to you. Your life depends upon finding the area under that line.Now let's say you are a Ph.D. in advanced mathematics. Obviously, you are going to apply some form of calculus to describe each portion of this constantly changing curve, set various rectangular artificial box boundaries with finite known areas below it, and then calculate the remaining areas in ever-smaller increments, depending on the computing power and time at your disposal.
Or, you could do finite-element analysis, or try to fit Fast Fourier transforms into the shape of the line on ever-smaller sections, or find one of a thousand other clever ways to solve this problem. In each case, you would be able to use a computer for assistance, which helps. You could program the computer to look at the line from the aspects described above, turning it into finite elements of varying lengths, each with its own straight-line tangential slope approximation. Or you could run other programs to fit your other ideas.In virtually every instance, however, the computer would need to use sensors - and probably some form of analog/digital converter, most likely a digital signal processor (DSP) chip in the middle - perhaps then reconvert the answer into analog, and format appropriate outputs, while doing all of the serious math in the digital domain, for every data point. So, add a bit of latency here per each calculation. Not much sand left. Or (aha!) you could just ---
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January 30, 2013
Volume 16, Issue 4Week of January 28, 2013In This IssueFeature: Special Letter: Graphene And Global Warming- What Is the Problem? or, The Legacy of Bubbles
- We Are a Bubble
- Bursting the Bubble of Denial
- The Role of Graphene
- Understanding Graphene's Potential
- A Cause for Hope and "Right Action"
- About Jon Myers
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Publisher's Note: It is often said that the average human being literally lacks the ability to comprehend second-order rates of change: straight lines, OK - but increasing increases, no. That's too bad, as this is the shape of most human-caused problems. Worse, this shape, representing self-reinforcing problems, gets out of control much faster than do straight-line problems, often ending up in a veritable black hole from which there is no chance of solution.Another issue most people face in understanding complex problems is quite direct: the solutions are also complex. And, it seems, most people are not very good at understanding, or supporting, solutions that have more than one moving part.
This is exactly the case for solving the problem of Global Warming. Energy-based solutions alone (e.g., reduce coal burning, when possible) won't do it. We know from past work by the CTO Design Challenge results at FiRe that even a single set of answers isn't enough: there will need to be a set of transition ("good enough") solutions put into practice immediately, followed by a second set of solutions that are better yet.
Last year, SNS members read about a new proposal from us called "Twinning," which involves linking the problems caused by CO2 created during coal and petro burning for energy, with the idea of a vast new sustainable materials cycle. By taking the carbon from CO2 and creating a new planetary economy in an amazing new class of superior, carbon-based construction materials, we suggested that we could solve the global warming problem, solve the problem of constant resource exhaustion and waste, and make some money for those taking the risk.
At that time, I thought the answer was carbon nanotubes, but a review of a combination of potential health issues gave me (and others) pause: small fibers, after all, caused asbestosis. At the same time, a second look at the requirement for a universal geometry on the nano scale convinced me that I was wrong, and that the best solution would be flat sheets of carbon, 1 atom thick - or "graphene."Last month, the UK made the same decision, announcing a new government-sponsored R&D effort focused in Manchester (and quickly picked up by Cambridge). Two weeks ago, the EU followed suit. Having been in touch with the White House on this question since last November, we have strong hopes that the US, too, will get into this game, before it's too late.
If we're right about the potential of graphene, it will be the building block with which a very large part of the future world is created. Jon Myers, CEO of Graphene Technologies (a 2013 FiReStarter Company), saw this problem early, and has created a novel, proprietary solution which will hopefully accelerate the idea of placing a graphene plant next to every coal plant in the world, turning 100% of the CO2 into a valuable graphene feedstock, the centerpiece of the Twinning concept.
At the end of this issue, members will note a new feature which we felt would be particularly helpful in this discussion: a Resource List of articles on graphene from the UK and US, the latter a part of a longer list recommended to us by the White House. I believe everyone should read this letter carefully, regardless of one's current job or interests: it addresses the creation of a new path for the survival of our species.
- mra.
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October 4, 2012
An SNS Weekly Report, including Building the Sensor Planet; M2M and Nature; Earth II and World Wind; Commercial vs. Academic Earths; Uniting Worlds; and The Reality Machine and the Global Prediction Machine
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August 28, 2012
Mark Anderson discusses how the "August 5th Mars landing is more than just another triumph for NASA; it's a reminder that science is reality," with KPLU's Dave Meyer and in an SNS Special Alert.
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May 25, 2012
Histories of Exceptional Individuals and Scientific Breakthroughs”: With George Dyson, historian of technology, and author of the new book of the same name; hosted by Don Budinger, Chair and Founding Director, The Rodel Foundations
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May 24, 2012
With David Sarna, CEO, WoodallTech; and Dan Simon, President and CEO, Heliae; hosted by Glen Hiemstra, Founder, Futurist.com
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May 24, 2012
A conversation with Con Slobodchikoff, Professor Emeritus of Biology, Northern Arizona University, and CEO, Animal Communications Ltd.; hosted by Roger Payne, Founder and President, Ocean Alliance
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May 22, 2012
J. Craig Venter, Chair, CEO, and Co-Chief Scientific Officer, Synthetic Genomics
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March 13, 2012
An SNS Weekly Report, including Multiple Input Genetics: An Evolutionary Theory; What Steve Saw; The Act of Creation; and Accelerating
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September 29, 2011
An SNS Special Letter, written by Pure Science Ambassador Larry Smarr
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July 28, 2011
The Unification of Relativity and Quantum Physics Through the Electromagnetic and Mass Properties of Empty Space
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May 27, 2011
With John Delaney, Professor, School of Oceanography and Paros Endowed Chair for Sensor Networks, and Director and PI for the Regional Cabled Observatory of NSF’s OOI; and Doug Stanley, CEO and Co-Founder, Ridgeline Entertainment; hosted by Michael Pfeffer, Managing Partner, Kolohala Ventures
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May 26, 2011
A KCPQ-TV production: How SNS’ Orca Relief contributed to new federal protection for Killer Whales; with Pam Pearson, SVP/General Manager, KCPQ/KZJO-TV and Tribune Broadcasting Co.; hosted by Mark Anderson
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April 7, 2011
An SNS Weekly Report on Convergent Evolution and Changing Systems
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March 9, 2011
An SNS Weekly Report on "The Role of Science," including Intellectual Property; A Closer Look at Science Today; and Can Science Be Fixed?
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November 11, 2010
The longest longitudinal study of the world's most hunted whales; with Jonathan Stern, Minke Whale Project Lead and Professor, Marine
Ecosystems, San Francisco State University; hosted by Russ Daggatt, General Partner, Denny Hill Capital
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May 14, 2010
With Steve Squyres, Principal Investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, and Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University; hosted by Larry Smarr, Director, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), UCSD and Irvine
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May 20, 2009
A conversation with Elon Musk, CEO, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Tesla Motors; hosted by Mark Anderson
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May 23, 2007
A conversation with Janine Benyus, President, Biomimicry Institute; hosted by Cynthia Figge, EKOS International.
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May 22, 2007
Dinner Presentation: J.Craig Venter, Founder, Chairman and President, J. Craig Venter Institute
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