All Videos — March 30, 2011

Trees That Bleed Oil

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The promise of biotechnology is essentially limitless, says Silver, describing biotech “bad boy” Craig Venter’s plan to engineer trees that create liquid fuel instead of sap.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Comparison of early Mars with abundant water and a thicker atmosphere versus the dry and arid Mars of today, much like Venus, which also died in terms of its potential to support life.

Starts With A Bang

What was it like when Venus and Mars both died?

In the early stages of our Solar System, there were three life-friendly planets: Venus, Earth, and Mars. Only Earth thrived. Here’s why.

An old photograph of a man sitting under an apple tree.

Business

How Isaac Newton and the “salience network” can unleash your creativity

Neuroscience supports the notion that an escape from conventional perspectives can be a gateway to spectacular insights.

A model of the Colossus depicting the grandeur of ancient Rome.

The Past

This virtual 3D model lets you wander the streets of ancient Rome

Archaeologist Bernard Frischer spent decades uploading the ruins of the Eternal City to the cloud. Here’s what it looks like.

Starts With A Bang

How much energy does the Sun produce?

Figuring out the answer involved a prism, a pail of water, and a 50 year effort by the most famous father-son astronomer duo ever.

A server room with the word frontier on it.

The Present

Supercomputer Frontier sets new record with 9.95 quintillion calculations per second

Frontier, the ORNL supercomputer, used machine learning to perform 9.95 quintillion calculations per second.

Up Next

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Why Energy Independence Is So Crucial

President Obama announced a plan to cut dependence on foreign oil by one-third by 2021. Retired four-star general Wesley Clark explains just how detrimental our addiction to oil is and […]