SETI: Are We Alone?
Are you interested in the search for life beyond Earth? If so, then you should check out our weekly science radio show, the SETI Institute's Are We Alone?
As astronomers find planets whirling about other suns, and hi-tech rovers scour the sands of Mars in search of ancient lakes, scientists are asking fundamental new questions about the origins of life on this planet and the prevalence of life in the cosmos.
This is the exciting science of astrobiology - and we cover it every week on Are We Alone?
Copyright: ℗ © SETI Institute May 2005
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Humans have not gone unnoticed on this planet. We´ve left our mark with technology, agriculture, architecture, and a growing carbon footprint. But where is this trajectory headed?
In the first of a two-part series: what will be lost and what will still be around 100 years from now? James Lovelock says a hotter planet will prompt mass migrations. And Cary Fowler urges us to save our seeds the health of future farms may depend on it.
Plus, from antibiotics to sewage systems: why human ingenuity ultimately saves the day.
And, sure, humans will be around in a century, but with bionic limbs and silicon neurons would we recognize them?
Guests:
- James Lovelock – Independent scientist and author of The Vanishing Face of Gaia
- Cary Fowler – Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust
- Russell Blackford – Philosopher, writer, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Evolution and Technology.
- James Lovelock – Independent scientist and author of The Vanishing Face of Gaia
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Hollywood has a few ideas of how the world will end: killer asteroids ... lethal pandemics ... deadly ice-ages. These themes have all played out on the big screen. But, hey, they´re only movies, right?
We´ll separate the science from the fiction in doomsday movies. From the 2012 prophesy of the Mayans ... to colliding worlds ... to abrupt climate change, find out which among this crowd of cinematic scares are for real, and which aren´t worth the price of popcorn.
Guests:
- Dave Morrison – Astrobiologist, NASA Ames Research Center
- Phil Plait – Astronomer, keeper of badastronomy.com, and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .
- Lynn Rothschild – Astrobiologist, NASA Ames Research Center
- Ken Caldeira – Scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology
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We could choose not to pay income tax and suffer the consequences. But we can´t avoid death. The biological functions of all organisms eventually cease. But why should this be? Find out why animals die and meet one creature that is biologically immortal.
Plus, a trip to the Body Farm where decaying bodies help science...how we might cheat the Big Sleep with drugs... why Mexican cemeteries look like villages... and a doctor´s fight against one of the world´s deadliest diseases.
Guests:
- Bill Bass – Forensic Anthropologist, founder of the University of Tennessee Forensic Research Facility. Author of Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science
and fiction, written under the pen name, Jefferson Bass. The latest: Bones of Betrayal: A Body Farm Novel
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- Stanley Brandes – Cultural Anthropologist, University of California, Berkeley, author of Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead: The Day of the Dead in Mexico and Beyond
- Matt Kaeberlein – Pathologist, University of Washington
- Ross Donaldson – Doctor and author of The Lassa Ward
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- Bill Bass – Forensic Anthropologist, founder of the University of Tennessee Forensic Research Facility. Author of Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science
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ENCORE From iPods to Google to Facebook – information swims at our fingertips and friends are just a txt msg away. Digital devices have re-defined what it means to be connected – but how else are they shaping behavior? Join us for the second of a two-part series on how the network is changing how we think and act.
Part II: Behavior: how computers compel us to interact with them… why your iPod may improve your health… why Facebook may leave you friendless… the unintended consequences of past innovation… and the growing threat of “videophilia.”
Guests:
- BJ Fogg – Experimental Psychologist and Director of Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab
- James Levine – Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic
- Andrew Keen – Author of The Cult of the Amateur; How the Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting our Economy
- Patricia Zaradic – Conservation Ecologist with the Red Rock Institute
- Edward Tenner – Writer and consultant on technology and culture at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, and author of Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences and, most recently, Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity
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ENCORE From iPods to Google to Facebook – information swims at our fingertips and friends are just a txt msg away. Digital devices have re-defined what it means to be connected – but how else are they shaping behavior? Join us for the first of a two-part series on how the network is changing how we think and act.
Part I: Thought: whether Google is making us stupid… how the Internet is curtailing creativity… and the future of a hyper-networked world that does all our thinking for us.
Guests:
- Nick Carr – Journalist and author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
. His article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” is the cover story of the July/August 2008 issue of Atlantic Monthly
- Jonathan Grudin – Researches human-computer interaction at Microsoft Corporation
- David Kirsh – Cognitive scientist, University of California, San Diego
- Jonathan Zittrain – Author of The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It
and co-founder of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society
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- Nick Carr – Journalist and author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
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Medicine´s back.. and this time it´s personal. Get ready to have your genome read... your brain scanned... and undergo a chemical analysis so detailed, it´ll reveal the Twinkie you had for lunch. Everyone´s different, and reading those differences at the level of the gene may provide a more accurate profile of health and how to treat disease. But are you ready to know what´s wrong with you?
Discover the future of personalized medicine with biologist Craig Venter, as well as a man who turned his body over to the new science. Learn what his tests revealed.
Plus, why stem cell research really is a horse race. And, why getting sick is sometimes the best thing.
Guests:
- Craig Venter – Genome scientist
- Frank McCormick – Director of the Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco
- David Ewing Duncan – Journalist and author of Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World
- Sharon Moalem – Neurogeneticist and Evolutionary Biologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and author of Survival of the Sickest
- Sean Owens – Director of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis
- Julie Burges – Animal Health Technician, Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, University of California, Davis
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Watch out, the moon is full... of intrigue. Our lovely satellite is blamed for all sorts of Earth-bound mischief from robberies to shape-shifting to general nutty behavior. It´s also the setting for more than one loony tale. In this hour, as NASA spacecraft return to the moon, a look at the mythology it inspires.
Discover the true correlation between crime and a full moon... the 1835 reports of unicorns and man-bats living on moon... and, our favorite hair-raising howler: the werewolf! Also, why some still insist the Apollo moon landing is a hoax.
Plus, space travel boxed and bundled.
Guests:
- Phil Plait – Keeper of the skeptical website badastronomy.com and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .
- Matthew Goodman – Author of The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
- Jim Underdown – Executive Director for the Center for Inquiry West, Los Angeles and keeper of the blog Hollywood Reality Check
- June Pulliam – English professor, Louisiana State University
- Cynthia Phillips – Scientist at the SETI Institute and author, most recently, of Space Exploration For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science))
- Paul Spudis – Senior scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute
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- Phil Plait – Keeper of the skeptical website badastronomy.com and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .
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ENCORE When the economy's down, will humans still be going up – into space, that is? We investigate the future of human spaceflight at the International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow, Scotland and find out whether sending Homo sapiens to the Moon and Mars is still a good idea. Also, the chief of Virgin Galactic is happy to send you into space on a private flight – but it may max out your credit card.
Plus, an Apollo astronaut's view from orbit… dining with South Korea's first astronaut… and one of Britain's great science fiction authors on how space science fuels the imagination.
Guests:
- Rusty Schweickart – Former NASA astronaut and Chairman of the Board of the B612 Foundation
- John Mankins – 25-year NASA veteran who managed the Agency's exploration technology activities
- Sanjoy Som – Planetary scientist at the University of Washington, Seattle
- Will Whitehorn – President of Virgin Galactic
- Yi So-yeon – Biomechanical engineer and South Korean astronaut
- Stephen Baxter – Science fiction author, most recently of Weaver: Time's Tapestry, Book Four
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Are humans unique or do we just do some things a little better than other species? In the second of our two-part series how our ability to adapt has shaped our evolution.
Find out how throwing a burger on the grill has transformed our species... the 1% genetic difference that separate us from chimps... why we´re poorly adapted and stressed out ... and why human evolution is not only on the move, but picking up the pace.
- Richard Wrangham – Biological anthropologist at Harvard University and author of Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
- Katherine Pollard – Biostatistician at the Gladstone Institutes at the University of California, San Francisco
- Robert Sapolsky – Biological scientist at Stanford University and neurologist at Stanford´s School of Medicine. Author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition
and, more recently, Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals
- Gregory Cochran – Anthropologist at the University of Utah and co-author of The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution
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- Richard Wrangham – Biological anthropologist at Harvard University and author of Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
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Are humans unique or do we just do some things a little better than other species? In the first of our two-part series on the nature of humanity: how the influence of others has shaped our evolution.
Find out how baby talk gave root to human language and why social isolation can make us sick. Plus, the joke´s on us new research says we´re not the only laughing species: meet your giggling gorilla cousins.
And, what a writer´s visit to a chimp retirement center revealed about human discomfort with our animal ancestry.
- Dean Falk – Anthropologist at Florida State University and author of Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants, and the Origins of Language
- John Cacioppo – Director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago and co-author of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection
- Lori Marino – Biologist at Emory University
- Kathryn Denning – Anthropologist at York University
- Charles Siebert – Author of The Wauchula Woods Accord: Toward a New Understanding of Animals
- Marina Davila-Ross – Psychologist at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K.
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- Dean Falk – Anthropologist at Florida State University and author of Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants, and the Origins of Language
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Feel the need for speed? Well, you´ll need an extra helping of speed if you plan to leave the Earth and explore other parts of the solar system. On the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, and as part of our series for the International Year of Astronomy: what it´s like to travel in a rocket (why you won´t feel any motion), and NASA´s plans for returning to the moon.
Also, life in an accelerating universe and why a spacecraft´s quirky trajectory may mean that the laws of motion need tweaking. And we revisit Stanley Kubrick's epic film 2001: A Space Odyssey
Plus, Seth gets around … and around ... when he takes a spin in a gravitational centrifuge.
Guests:
- John Keller – Deputy project scientist for NASA´s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
- Robert Kirschner – Astronomer at Harvard University
- Jaime Mateus – Graduate student at M.I.T.´s Manned Vehicle Laboratory
- Mark Frank – Astrodynamicist in California
- Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood – Stars of the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey
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Dr. Robot, I presume? Your appendix may be removed by motor-driven, scalpel-wielding mechanical hands one day. Robots are debuting in the medical field... as well as on battlefields. And they´re increasingly making important decisions on their own. But can we teach robots right from wrong? Find out why the onslaught of silicon intelligence has prompted a new field of robo-ethics.
Plus, robo-geologists: NASA´s vision for autonomous robots in space.
Guests:
- P.W. Singer – Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and the author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
- Wendell Wallach – Chair of a technology and ethics working group for Yale University´s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, and the co-author of Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong
- Pablo Garcia – Principal engineer working on medical robotics at SRI International, Menlo Park, California
- Robert Anderson – Planetary geologist, NASA´s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Robyn Asimov – Daughter of author Isaac Asimov
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- P.W. Singer – Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and the author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
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A new herbal supplements is on the shelf, and it claims to improve memory. Should you take it? It´s not easy to sort through the firehose of health and nutrition advice that comes at us daily. Find out how to get healthy about health advice, plus hear the story of Bernarr Macfadden, the eccentric who kicked off America´s fitness craze; he believed that eating less was good for you, but he didn´t believe germ theory.
Plus, our Hollywood skeptic spills his guts and other entrails for a phony class for nurses and Phil Plait gives us the latest lapse in critically-thinking brains.
It´s Skeptic Check... but don´t take our word for it.
Guests:
- Phil Plait – Author, badastronomy.com and Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .
- Mark Adams – writer and editor, and author of Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet
- Jim Underdown – Executive Director, Center for Inquiry, West – Los Angeles
- Steven Novella – Assistant professor of neurology at Yale School of Medicine
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- Phil Plait – Author, badastronomy.com and Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .
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ENCORE We see a man laughing and we smile in response. Our heart goes out to the sad-looking woman on the train. Humans are empathetic creatures – we feel what others feel, even the emotions of strangers. And it may be due to brain cells that researchers have only recently discovered: mirror neurons. Find out how these mimicking cells help us survive cocktail parties, keep society humming, and even give rise to the concept of self.
Also, are humans born with a moral code? And, if human behavior is hard-wired – whatever becomes of free will?
Guests:
- Marc Hauser – Evolutionary psychologist and biologist at Harvard, author of Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong
Take Marc's Moral Sense Test - Marco Iacoboni – Psychologist and neuroscientist at UCLA and the author of Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others
- Allen Stairs – Philosopher at the University of Maryland
- John-Dylan Haynes – Neuroscientist, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin
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- Marc Hauser – Evolutionary psychologist and biologist at Harvard, author of Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong
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With more water than land on this planet, Earth is more aptly-named Ocean or Water. The oceans have been here for billions of years, and make all life possible. Yet, it´s taken less than a century for humans to deal some serious blows to the watery cradle of our existence. Discover how our oceans are changing and the worrisome increase in their acidity from the maker of the documentary film, A Sea Change
Also, hear how hope is bubbling up for ocean recovery from famed oceanographer Sylvia Earle. Learn about her record-breaking voyages underwater and how her reprimand to a Silicon Valley entrepreneur gave birth to Google Ocean. Plus, farming the seas for new antibiotics.
Guests:
- Sylvia Earle – Oceanographer, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, founder of DeepSearch Foundation, and author of Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas (National Geographic Atlas)
- Sven Huseby – Co-producer of the documentary A Sea Change
- Peter Moeller – Toxin and Natural Products Chemist at NOAA
- Pacific Ocean – Largest oceanic division of the world, overlay of the Pacific Plate
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- Sylvia Earle – Oceanographer, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, founder of DeepSearch Foundation, and author of Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas (National Geographic Atlas)
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ENCORE Remember Mr. Potato Head? You changed his look by snapping in plastic mustaches, googly eyes and feet. Now imagine doing the same with a living cell: inserting the genes you want to create the organism you want. Welcome to the world of synthetic biology. It has potential to create new bio-fuels and life-saving drugs. It also ushers in a host of ethical and safety concerns. We examine both when we discuss this emerging science of mix and match genes.
Plus, does doing an end run around Mother Nature challenge the essence of life itself?
Guests:
- Jay Keasling – professor of chemical engineering and biological engineering at UC Berkeley and founder of Amyris Biotechnologies
- Jonathan Eisen – biologist at UC Davis
- Jim Thomas – researcher at ETC group in Ottawa, Canada
- Ed Regis – science writer and author of What Is Life?: Investigating the Nature of Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology
- Michael Dosmann – curator of Living Collections at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
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It´s always a surprise to go digging in Seth´s garage who knows what we´ll find! In this impressive heap of paraphernalia, tucked between boxes of old radio tubes and hydraulic jacks, we stumble upon the secrets to our galaxy´s central black hole... witness the dance of the PhD theses... uncover the genome of milk (while moo-ving boxes) and ... hey? Who´s that crunching numbers in the corner? It´s astrophysicist Mario Livio addressing the mathematical mysteries of universe.
Guests:
- Andrea Ghez – Astronomer at University of California, Los Angeles
- Kathryn Denning – Professor of Anthropology at York University
- Mario Livio – Senior Astronomer at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute and author of Is God a Mathematician?
- John Bohannon – Gonzo Scientist and Contributing Correspondent for Science
- Katrien Kolenberg – Astrophysicist, University of Vienna
- Danielle Lemay – Nutrition Scientist at the University of California, Davis
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For nearly four billion years, life has been swimming and shuffling across our planet. But how can we deduce what it was like? You don´t need Sherlock Holmes to track the clues of life that came before call on an anthropologist or biologist. From fossils to alien radio signals, find out how to interpret the clues that living organisms leave behind, and hear adventure stories in the evolution of life on Earth.
Also, the discovery of a dino-eating crocodile and the tale of scientist/explorer/polymath Idaho Brown.
Join TeamSETI today and buy a signed copy of Seth's book for $15! Already a member? Sign in to TeamSETI to buy your copy today.
Guests:
- Sean Carroll - Molecular biologist and geneticist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and author of Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species
- Paul Sereno - Paleontologist at the University of Chicago, and National Geographic Explorer in Residence
- Seth Shostak - Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute and author of Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
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- Sean Carroll - Molecular biologist and geneticist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and author of Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species
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Europe is a country. Six justices sit on the Supreme Court. The Vietnamese attacked Pearl Harbor. If ignorance is bliss, this is one happy-go-lucky country. The average American's grasp of history, current events, and geography is so poor, according to one journalist, we've become a nation of dunces, seriously undermining our own future.
Keeping ourselves in the dark.Find out why "F" stands for American intellect and what's behind the national trend of dumbing down. Also, the story of the brilliant Russian geneticist who paid the ultimate price during Stalin's Terror in the 1930s.
Plus, Brains on Vacation assesses the doomsday threat of the Large Hadron Collider. And, hunting for ghosts in Hollywood.
It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it.
Guests:
- Susan Jacoby - Author of The Age of American Unreason
- Peter Pringle - Journalist and author of The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Greatest Scientists of the Twentieth Century
- Phil Plait - Astronomer and keeper of the website www.badastronomy.com
- James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles
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We should award frequent travel miles to your brain. After all, it´s evolved a long way from the days of guiding brachiation from tree-to-tree to become the three pounds of web-surfing, Sudoku-playing powerhouse it is today. But a suite of technologies may expand human brains further still.
From smart pills to nano-wires: discover the potential and peril of neuro-engineering to repair and enhance our cognitive function.
Also, how our brains got so big in the first place: a defense of the modern diet.
Guests
- Bill Leonard - department chairman and professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University
- Michael Gazzaniga - neuroscientist and director of the University of California Santa Barbara´s SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. Author of Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique
- Ian Pearson - futurologist at Futurizon
- Steven Rose - biologist and director of the Brain and Behavior Research Group at the Open University in London. Author of The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow's Neuroscience
- Ed Boyden - neuroscientist at MIT´s Media Lab and Department of Biological Engineering
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Ever try talking to an alien? In the movies, they always speak perfect English. But what if we really made contact? Could we just whip out a universal translator - or even a babelfish - to understand one another?
Let's say we do learn to communicate: what to say, what to say? We'll hear the protocol for just how to reply to ET. And, from Klingon to Esperanto: the recipe for creating a language from scratch.
Plus, get ready to babble with your Blackberry: how computers are learning to recognize - and respond - to human speech.
Q1=B4
What does this mean? Listen to the show to find out!Guests:
- Terrence Deacon - Professor of anthropology and neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley
- Douglas Vakoch - Director of Interstellar Message Composition, SETI Institute
- Donald Boozer - Librarian, Coordinator of Cleveland Public Library's recent exhibit "Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond...The World of Constructed Languages"
- Jim Glass - Director of the Spoken Language Systems Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Systems.
Ask MIT's Jupiter about the weather!
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Pick a number, any number. Got it? Good. Is it a lucky or unlucky? Is it a code that gives you a clue to the future? A lot of people assign all sorts of magical significance to numbers. From Friday the 13th to lucky number 7 we´ll find out whether the idea of digits of destiny adds up. Plus, 666 and 616: find out what famous figures these figures code for.
Learn the numbers that do have significance in math and nature: how a honey bee´s lineage is an example of the Fibonacci series.
Meanwhile, Brains on Vacation quashes satellite fireball rumors, and our Hollywood skeptic gives a how to for faking UFO photos.
It´s Skeptical Sunday.. but don´t take our word for it!
Guests:
- Phil Plait - Astronomer and author of badastronomy.com and Death from the Skies!
- Richard Wiseman - Psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in England
- David Parker - Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Paleography at the University of Birmingham in England
- Pat McKeague - Teacher in San Luis Obispo in California
- Jim Underdown - Executive Director, Center for Inquiry in Los Angeles
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Hollywood horror flicks have captivated us with alien blobs, but the slime slithering on our own planet is as beguiling. From microscopic machines to life on ocean floors, new research reveals how essential slime is to life on Earth, and possibly other worlds.
Discover the new materials made from hagfish slime... the social life of a slime mold... and the threat posed by the gray goo of self-replicating nanobots.
Plus, it´s been 50 years since it first oozed across the screen: why there´s no escape from The Blob!
Guests:
- Tori Hoeler - Astrobiologist, NASA Ames Research Center
- Douglas Fudge - Biologist, University of Guelph, Canada
- John Tyler Bonner - Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, and author of The Social Amoebae: The Biology of Cellular Slime Molds
- Chris Phoenix - Director of Research, Center for Responsible Technology
- Andre Bormanis - Television Writer and Producer
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ENCORE Forgot your own birthday? Misplaced your Shih Tzu? Did you put the milk in your backpack and the iPod in the fridge? Age may bring wisdom but – alas – not a boost in RAM. But there's hope – scientists are discovering that the brain is more malleable than thought. We'll hear about the science of neuroplasticity and what you can do to slow that cerebellum slide. Ever been to a brain gym?
>p>Plus, why the brains of London cabbies are bigger than those of your average commuter.
Guests:
- Michael Merzenich – Professor Emeritus Neuroscientist, University of California, San Francisco
- Gordy Slack – Science journalist and author of The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA
- Sam Wang – Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Molecular Biology at Princeton University and the author of Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget how to Drive and other Puzzles of Everyday Life
- Lisa Schoonerman – Co-founder, VibrantBrains
- Jan Zivic – Co-founder, VibrantBrains
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ENCORE Forgot your own birthday? Misplaced your Shih Tzu? Did you put the milk in your backpack and the iPod in the fridge? Age may bring wisdom but - alas - not a boost in RAM. But there's hope - scientists are discovering that the brain is more malleable than thought. We'll hear about the science of neuroplasticity and what you can do to slow that cerebellum slide. Ever been to a brain gym?
>p>Plus, why the brains of London cabbies are bigger than those of your average commuter.Guests:
- Michael Merzenich - Professor Emeritus Neuroscientist, University of California, San Francisco
- Gordy Slack - Science journalist and author of The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA
- Sam Wang - Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Molecular Biology at Princeton University and the author of Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget how to Drive and other Puzzles of Everyday Life
- Lisa Schoonerman - Co-founder, VibrantBrains
- Jan Zivic - Co-founder, VibrantBrains
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While the Kepler spacecraft hunts for habitable planets beyond the solar system, we´ve let one of our own planets slip away! Find out why Pluto´s demotion to dwarf status created a public uproar as astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reads us his hate mail. From third-graders!
Also, how we might find Earth-like planets... the possibility of life on Saturn´s moon Titan... and TED Prize winner Jill Tarter´s vision for finding E.T.
And, the man who made it all possible: 400 years of Galileo and the telescope. Part of our series for the International Year of Astronomy.
Guests
- Neil deGrasse Tyson - Astrophysicist, Head of the Hayden Planetarium, and author of The Pluto Files:The Rise and Fall of America´s Favorite Planet
- Alan Stern - Planetary Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, lead investigator on NASA´s New Horizons Mission
- Jeffrey Van Cleve - Astronomer at the Kepler Mission Science Office
- Carolyn Porco - Planetary scientist and Lead for NASA´s Cassini Mission
- Jill Tarter - Director of SETI Research at the SETI Institute
- Andy Fraknoi - Astronomer at Foothill College and author of Voyages Through the Universe
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Love makes us feel warm and mushy, but the sweet sting of Cupid's arrow makes a compelling chemistry lesson, too. Research into animal mating and human courtship provides clues to an eternal mystery: what's the purpose of love?
Learn lessons from the family values of field mice, and affectionate same-sex penguin pairs. Plus: Darwin's take on speed dating, and the science of smooching.
Guests
- Helen Fisher - Anthropologist, Rutgers University
- Sarah Woodley - Biologist, Duquesne University
- Skyler Place - Doctoral Student, Indiana University's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Larry Young - Neurobiologist, Emory University
- Marlene Zuk - Biologist, University of California, Riverside
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ENCORE How did the first cells make the scene? Could there be critters on some newly discovered planets? And what happens if we ever encounter weird life? These may not be the sort of questions you hear being bandied about in your local coffee shop, but they were hot topics at the AbSciCon conference held recently in Santa Clara, California, and sponsored by the SETI Institute.
AbSciCon stands for Astrobiology Science Conference, and Seth was there, talking to researchers about progress in puzzling out how life began on Earth, and where it might have gained a claw-hold elsewhere. Could there be certain parts of our Galaxy that are off-limits for life? Also, hear whether our universe has special properties that render it just dandy for life, and whether we should be looking for viruses on Mars.
Guests:
- Diana Valencia - Planetary physicist at Harvard University
- Charley Lineweaver - Cosmologist at the Australian National University
- David Deamer - Research scientist at the University of California at Santa Cruz
- Baruch Blumberg - Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Institute, Nobel Prize winner, and Trustee at the SETI Institute
- Matthew Kenworthy - Astronomer at the University of Arizona
- Eric Korpela - Research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley
- Richard Muller - Physicist, University of California, Berkeley
- Kathryn Denning - Anthropologist at York University
Descripci&243;n en espaol
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We all want to peek into the future and find out what fate has in store: Will I get that raise? Is love around the corner? What´s the winning combo in Las Vegas? Some people claim the ability to see events before they occur. Find out how accurate their prognostications are.
Plus, how the job market drove the granddaddy of I told you so Nostradamus into the business of soothsaying.
Also, how the brain misfires to produce déjà vu. Also, how the brain misfires to produce déjà vu. And, astronomical predictions for the final apocalypse ... will the world end in fire or in ice?
Guests:
- Peter Lemesurier - author of the biography The Unknown Nostradamus. He lives in Wales.
- Akira O'Connor - psychologist at Washington University, in Saint Louis
- Ben Radford - managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine and an investigator with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
Descripci&243;n en espaol
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Can animals think? Merely asking the question was once thought ridiculous. But studies that range from chimps to birds to sea creatures have prompted scientists to reassess the cognitive capabilities of our animal friends. These results challenge not only our idea of intelligence, but man´s unequivocal perch at the top.
Learn the secret communication between camouflaging cuttlefish... how the smarts of Alex the parrot turned birdbrain into a compliment... and why brawn sometimes trumps brains in evolution.
Plus, why - after billions of years of evolution - our brains just barely work!
Guests
- Irene Pepperberg - teaches animal cognition at Harvard University, and author of Alex and Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Uncovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence and Discovered a Deep Bond in the Process
- Roger Hanlon - senior scientist at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts
- Gary Marcus - psychologist at New York University andauthor of Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind
- Jonathan Payne - assistant professor of geological and environmental science at Stanford University
Descripci&243;n en espaol
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Bond it to oxygen and it´s the scourge of climate change. But earthly life wouldn´t be possible without carbon, and maybe that´s true for alien life, too.
And carbon has other exciting forms: tiny diamonds may be evidence of a catastrophic comet impact 13,000 years ago. And, chalky carbonates may point to a once-habitable Mars.
So get cozy with carbon. Find out if you could swap it for silicon in DNA. Plus, the conundrum of calculating a carbon footprint.
Guests
- Allen West - Retired Geophysicist
- Bethany Ehlmann - Geologist, Brown Unviversity
- Michael Mumma - Planetary scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- John Murlis - Chief Scientific Advisor to the Carbon Neutral Company in the U.K.
- Steven Benner - Molecular Biologist, Founder of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution
Descripci&243;n en espaol
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ENCORE Maybe Dr. Doolittle was on to something; animals are smarter than we think. Birds, apes, and dolphins are all clever problem solvers with a rich vocabularly and - in some cases - self-awareness. Find out what you can learn from our furry, finned and feathered friends. Also, why you are so much an animal yourself, all the way down to the bare bones.
Plus, enter the locked vaults that hold extinct and newly-discovered animal species. And why B-movie critters steal the show.
A new species? This is a grey-faced sengi.
Click here for another photo.Guests:
- Neil Shubin - Anatomist and Associate Dean at the University of Chicago, and author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
- Galen Rathbun - Biologist, California Academy of Sciences
- Jack Dumbacher - Curator, Birds and Mammals, California Academy of Sciences
- Virginia Morell - Science writer. Her cover story Inside Animal Minds is in the March, 2008 issue of National Geographic
- Alex Kacelnik - Behavioral Ecologist at Oxford University
- Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University
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A loud radio hiss is coming from the cosmos. Is it the swan song of the first giant stars of the universe?
Find out from stargazers attending the American Astronomical Society meeting in California… the brightest flash in the universe illuminates how a galaxy grows up… a planet hunter closes in on Earth-size prey.
Also, find out how to spy on the universe from the comfort of your living room. Plus, the four-century-old history of the telescope… and Galileo didn't invent it!
It's the kick off to the International Year of Astronomy – so scope it out!
Visit the MicroObservatory
Find out more about 400 Years of the Telescope
Guests:
- David Charbonneau – Astronomer, Harvard University
- Alan Kogut – Astrophysicist, NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center
- Xavier Prochaska – Astronomer, University of California at Santa Cruz
- Simon Steel – Astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
- Kris Koenig – Producer, Interstellar Studios, Chico, California
- Mark Slater – Film composer
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We all know how sex begins: a dimly-lit room, a come-hither smile, and a surfeit of parasol-shaded cocktails. But long before all that, the gentle currents of the ancient sea floor set the mood. It was there, 570 million years ago, that two ropy sea creatures found each other and changed the course of evolution.
Hear how sex began and where it's headed: if you think your love life is mechanical now, just wait until you're cozying up to titanium skin and the latest emotion software.
Plus, everything you always wanted to know about modern sex research, but were afraid to ask.
Guests:
- Mary Roach - Author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
- David Levy - Artificial intelligence researcher and the author of Love and Sex with Robots
- Mary Droser - Professor of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside
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ENCORE There are two kinds of people: those who are unstylish, socially inept, yet academically gifted, and those who tease them. Being a nerd is rough; it's no fun to sit alone in the cafeteria or be forced to dine on beach sandwiches. But revenge is sweet: the world depends more than ever on the witty and gifted to keep it technologically and scientifically turning. So who gets the last laugh? Just ask Bill Gates. Then again, have attitudes towards eggheads really matured? Just ask Al Gore. Hear why America has contempt for nerds, while other countries treat them as rock stars. Also, how to solve a Rubik's Cube in seconds, and a Geeksta Rap sing-along. Guests: David Anderegg - Author of Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them Jessica Fridrich - Electrical and computer engineer at Binghamton University in New York Sun Kwok - Physicist and astronomer at the University of Hong Kong Peter Hartlaub - Pop Culture Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle Christian Ternus - Sophomore at MIT Fred Hall - Space Physicist
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There are two kinds of people: those who are unstylish, socially inept, yet academically gifted, and those who tease them. Being a nerd is rough; it's no fun to sit alone in the cafeteria or be forced to dine on beach sandwiches. But revenge is sweet: the world depends more than ever on the witty and gifted to keep it technologically and scientifically turning. So who gets the last laugh? Just ask Bill Gates. Then again, have attitudes towards eggheads really matured? Just ask Al Gore.
Hear why America has contempt for nerds, while other countries treat them as rock stars. Also, how to solve a Rubik's Cube in seconds, and a Geeksta Rap sing-along.
Guests:
- David Anderegg - Author of Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them
- Jessica Fridrich - Electrical and computer engineer at Binghamton University in New York
- Sun Kwok - Physicist and astronomer at the University of Hong Kong
- Peter Hartlaub - Pop Culture Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle
- Christian Ternus - Sophomore at MIT
- Fred Hall - Space Physicist
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Leonardo da Vinci is considered a genius for combining art and science. But how usual is this for us mere mortals? Can science and art sucessfully inform each other?
We'll hear how the insights of French writer Marcel Proust anticipated modern neuroscience. Also, a debate over the evolutionary function of art. Does it have survival value? We meet a robot whose painting talents have garnered it a job in one of America's top museums. And, hear - or don't hear - why some of our relatives don't monkey around with music.
Guests:
- Jonah Lehrer - science journalist, editor-at-large, Seed magazine and author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist
- David Sloan Wilson - evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University, and author of Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives
- Ellen Dissanayake - independent scholar and author of Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began
- Leonel Moura - conceptual artist
Find out more about RAP, including a picture, at the American Museum of Natural History website!
Whip up some madeleines (click here for a recipe) and savor your own remembrance of things past.
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Half of all Americans believe in ghosts - despite any compelling evidence of their existence. Find out why we believe in what we can't see, and why loneliness may increase our chances of a poltergeist experience. Hear the tale of the Toys R Us ghost, and scope out the latest in haunted real estate.
Also, why our Hollywood skeptic is tired of wild ghost chases and Phil Plait speaks out on lapses in critical thinking. This week: vaccination and autism.
It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it!
Guests:
- Phil Plait - Keeper of website, badastronomy.com, and author of Death from the Skies!
- Mary Pope-Handy - Estate Agent, Silicon Valley and keeper of the website hauntedrealestate.com
- Christopher French - Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, Goldsmiths College, University of London, U.K. and co-editor of The Skeptic magazine
- Nicholas Epley - Behavioral Scientist, University of Chicago
- James Underdown - Executive Director, Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles
- Wayne Thatcher - sicist, U.S. Geological Survey
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What makes up the universe? Lots of tiny particles with strange names: bosons, leptons, quarks and neutrinos. But physicists think there are more members to be discovered in this particle zoo.
From strange particles to dark matter to vibrating strings, find out why you have to think small to understand the physics of the universe.
Plus, other cosmic connections: is SETI a religion?
Guests:
- Murray Gell-Mann - Physics Nobel Laureate, Professor Emeritus - California Institute of Technology, Distinguished Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Brian Greene - Mathematician and physicist, Columbia University, author of The Elegant Universe and, most recently, Icarus at the Edge of Time
- Lisa Randall - Physicist, Harvard University, author of Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
- David Wilkinson - Theologian, University of Durham, U.K.
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"Spore" is the ultimate game of life. Play it wisely and you can evolve from a single-celled organism, swimming in salt water, to an intelligent being rocketing through the galaxy. It's survival of the cleverest - are you game?
Join us as we attend the "Spore" launch party. Hear how the game's primary author, Will Wright (of "SimCity" fame) simulated the arc of evolution; whether complex life is inevitable; and how SETI scientists inspired one of the most anticipated video games in history.
Also, why real human evolution is picking up the pace (did you know that blue eyes are relatively new?)... and a doctor's film about the meaning of life.
Click here to become a Spore-TeamSETI Member!
Guests:
- Will Wright - Creator of "Spore" and "Sim City"
- Howard Weiner - Neurologist, Harvard Medical School
- John Hawks - Anthropologist, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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From human settlers to alien visitors - when one society meets another, the results can be messy.
The Jamestown settlement may have kicked off the colonization of the New World. But, you'll hear how it also left an indelible mark on its ecosystem and the human landscape. Plus, why the Galapagos Islands haven't been the same since their most celebrated visitor set foot on their rocky shores more than a century ago.
Also: how a spider led the re-population of Krakatau after a devastating volcanic eruption... the "raining" threat of alien microbes... and one man's emergency plan for when Mars attacks.
Guests:
- Charles C. Mann - author and journalist. His article "America Found and Lost" is in the May issue of National Geographic Magazine
- Travis Taylor - author of An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extraterrestrial Invasion
- Robert Whittaker - Professor of Biogeography at the University of Oxford
- John Rummel - Senior Scientist for Astrobiology at NASA
- Timothy Silcott - Director for Information and Development for the Charles Darwin Foundation based in Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands
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Smoking is good for you! Doctors want you to light up! Discover how cigarette companies of the 1950s manipulated the media to peddle their tobacco - and why not much has changed since then. Also, what goes on in our brain when we buy; the results of a global neuroscience study.
Plus, our Hollywood Skeptic tests the purifying claims of Kinoki pads and Brains on Vacation debunks Carl Sagan ufology.
Guests:
- Martin Lindstrom- Marketing expert and author of Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy
- Robert Jackler - Associate Dean, Continuing Medical Education, Stanford University School of Medicine and organizer of the exhibition Not a Cough in a Carload: Images Used by Tobacco Companies to Hide the Hazards of Smoking
- James Underdown - Executive Director, Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles
- Phil Plait - Astronomer, author and keeper of badastronomy.com
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Ever since Einstein, we've known that time doesn't barrel willy-nilly into the future. Moving clocks tick at a different rates, and by riding a fast rocket, we can slow time to a crawl. Such tricks may give you a way to see the distant future, but can you go back in time?
Discover one man's quest to build a time machine. Also learn how to put the brakes on aging by getting near a black hole.
Plus, does your entire life really pass before your eyes if you jump off the Brooklyn Bridge? Our perception of time.
Guests:
- Roy Gould - Astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
- Ronald Mallett - Professor of Physics, University of Connecticut, and author of Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality
- Simon Steel - Astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
- David Eagleman - Neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, and Director of the Laboratory for Perception and Action
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Time's a mystery, yet we've invented clever ways to capture it. From sundials to atomic clocks, trace the history of time-keeping. Also, discover the surprising accuracy of nature's dating schemes - from the decay of carbon to laying down tree rings. Plus, why the "New York minute," stretches to hours in Rio de Janeiro: cultural differences in the perception of time. Guests: Chris Turney - Geologist at the University of Wollongong, Australia and the author of Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened Demetrios Matsakis - Head of the U.S. Naval Observatory's Time Service Steven Jefferts - Physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado Robert Levine - Psychologist at California State University in Fresno and the author of The Geography of Time Norman Mohr - Owner, Mohr Clocks, Mountain View, California
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It's been 70 years since malevolent Martians landed in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. Orson Welles described the dramatic events as they unfolded on CBS's Mercury Theater On The Air. Some listeners were so frightened, they became hysterical and fled their homes.
We revisit the famous radio adaptation of H.G. Well's novel and examine its cultural legacy. Also, what do modern invasion movies say about today's public fears?
Plus, the religious response to an alien invasion... how to protect Earth from Martian microbes... and, what Percival Lowell thought he saw on Mars.
Guests:
- Aeon Skoble - Professor of Philosophy at Bridgewater State College
- Kevin Schindler - Outreach Manager at the Lowell Observatory
- Brother Guy Consolmagno - Astronomer at the Vatican Observatory
- Margaret Race - Principal Investigator at the SETI Institute
- John Gosling - Writer
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Say what you mean. That's difficult, if you don't know what you're thinking. But the neuromarketers do, and they'll be happy to tell Madison Avenue what's on your mind. Discover why this marketing strategy is wired for success.
Also, Steven Pinker on how language reveals private thoughts as well as why the big-brained Homo neanderthalensis couldn't out-compete Homo sapiens. And, we tease your gray matter with the "Monty Hall Problem."
Guests:
- Steven Pinker - Psychologist, Harvard University and author, most recently, of The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
- A. K. Pradeep - Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Neurofocus in Berkeley, California
- Quentin Baldwin - Client Services Engineer at Neurofocus
- Richard Klein - Paleoanthropologist at Stanford University
- Deborah Bennett - Mathematician at New Jersey City University
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Don't worry if you've lost your senses - we've found them. Find out why we've evolved taste, sight, hearing, touch, and smell the way we have, and why we don't sense our world through antennae or echolocation. Discover what part of the tongue recognizes anchovies and why cats can't taste candy. And, in need of some virtual surgery? Visit the robotics lab where computers are wired with the sense of touch.
Also, release yourself from the limits of your biology: from bionic limbs to infrared vision; join humans of the future who are enhanced with super-senses.
Now that you have a feel for the taste of this show by nosing about this blurb, you can see that it's worth a listen. Make sense?
Guests:
- Tom Finger - Cell and Developmental Biologist at University of Colorado Medical School and Co-Director of the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center.
- Ken Salisbury - Computer Scientist in the Bio-Robotics Laboratory, Stanford.
- James Hughes - Sociologist and Bioethicist at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Executive Director of the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
- Nina Jablonski - Anthropologist at Penn State University and author of Skin: A Natural History.
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When the economy's down, will humans still be going up - into space, that is? We investigate the future of human spaceflight at the International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow, Scotland and find out whether sending Homo sapiens to the Moon and Mars is still a good idea. Also, the chief of Virgin Galactic is happy to send you into space on a private flight - but it may max out your credit card.
Plus, an Apollo astronaut's view from orbit... dining with South Korea's first astronaut... and one of Britain's great science fiction authors on how space science fuels the imagination.
Guests:
- Rusty Schweickart - Former NASA astronaut and Chairman of the Board of the B612 Foundation
- John Mankins - 25-year NASA veteran who managed the Agency's exploration technology activities
- Sanjoy Som - Planetary scientist at the University of Washington, Seattle
- Will Whitehorn - President of Virgin Galactic
- Yi So-yeon - Biomechanical engineer and South Korean astronaut
- Stephen Baxter - Science fiction author, most recently of Weaver
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Show description REPEAT When it comes to contacting ET, SETI scientists do the math. They've been filling in values for the Drake Equation ever since 1961. That's when Frank Drake proposed his simple formula for estimating the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy. It's one equation that everyone can understand. We'll talk about the current best estimates for the terms in Drake's famous formulation - from the number of Earth-size planets to the life expectancy of advanced civilizations. Also, with all this number crunching, why haven't we yet heard from ET? Guests: Frank Drake - Senior Scientist, SETI Institute Charley Lineweaver - Astrobiologist at the Australian National University Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University J. Richard Gott - Physicist at Princeton University Natalie Batalha - Professor of Physics and Astronomy, San Jose State University, and science team member, Kepler Mission
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What happens when particles collide? The answer may tell us the dark secrets of the cosmos. At least, that's the hope for the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator. When it fires up this summer, colliding protons may produce the elusive Higgs Boson - the so-called God particle - and reveal the building blocks of the universe.
We talk to the Director of CERN, home of this massive device, about what happens when they throw the big switch. Also, what if black holes happen? Find out how these weird gravity pits are created, and whether they're actually two-way streets that allow information to escape after all.
Also, plans are already underway for the next particle accelerator, and playing with fire: a new fusion reactor in France.
Guests:
- Robert Aymar - Director General of CERN in Geneva, Switzerland
- Barry Barish - Physicist Emeritus, California Institute of Technology and Director of the International Linear Collider Global Design Effort
- Norbert Holtkamp - Principle Deputy Director General of ITER and physicist at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Simon Steel - Astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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AWA: Skeptical Sunday: Bear Right in a Bull Market September 15 2008[0.0 MB]Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 PDT
When we're in love, we do some crazy things. And that's OK. But when we merge lanes on the highway, sign up for a credit card, or just order a book, we're as irrational as a teenager who's got a crush.
Find out why we're mad in money matters, why we're suckers for designer aspirin, are willing to believe in the paranormal, and anything but logical in traffic. It's Skeptical Sunday, but be rational - don't take our word for it!
Guests:
- Tom Vanderbilt - Author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us)
- Dan Ariely - Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, and author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions
- James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles
- Phil Plait - Author of badastronomy.com
- Michael Shermer - Founder of "Skeptic Magazine" and author, most recently, of The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics
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From iPods to Google to Facebook - information swims at our fingertips and friends are just a txt msg away. Digital devices have re-defined what it means to be connected - but how else are they shaping behavior? Join us for the second of a two-part series on how the network is changing how we think and act.
Part II: Behavior: how computers compel us to interact with them... why your iPod may improve your health... why Facebook may leave you friendless... the unintended consequences of past innovation... and the growing threat of "videophilia."
Guests:
- BJ Fogg - Experimental Psychologist and Director of Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab
- James Levine - Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic
- Andrew Keen - Author of The Cult of the Amateur; How the Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting our Economy
- Patricia Zaradic - Conservation Ecologist with the Red Rock Institute
- Edward Tenner - Writer and consultant on technology and culture at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, and author of Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences and, most recently, Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity
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From iPods to Google to Facebook - information swims at our fingertips and friends are just a txt msg away. Digital devices have re-defined what it means to be connected - but how else are they shaping behavior? Join us for the first of a two-part series on how the network is changing how we think and act.
Part I: Thought: whether Google is making us stupid... how the Internet is curtailing creativity... and the future of a hyper-networked world that does all our thinking for us.
Guests:
- Nick Carr - Journalist and author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google. His article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" is the cover story of the July/August 2008 issue of Atlantic Monthly
- Jonathan Grudin - Researches human-computer interaction at Microsoft Corporation
- David Kirsh - Cognitive scientist, University of California, San Diego
- Jonathan Zittrain - Author of The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It and co-founder of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society
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AWA: Skeptical Sunday: Bigfoot Press Conference August 25 2008[34.7 MB]Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 PDT
Finally, Bigfoot meets habeus corpus: three men claim they have the body of the elusive hirsute creature on ice, and throw a big press conference to prove it. Lots of journalists show up, as do the Bigfoot baggers. Days later the purported historic discovery turned out to be - gasp! - a hairy hoax. How did these men perpetuate the con - and why did the media, including Are We Alone?, bother to cover it? Join us front row and center at this peculiar press event and for the post-mortem (sans body) of the latest chapter in the ongoing mythology that is Bigfoot. Guests: Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University Jeff Meldrum - Professor of Anatomy at Boise State University, and author of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science Jerry Parrino - Owner of costume maker thehorrordome.com James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles
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Why wait until the robins are bobbin' to do a bit of spring cleaning? Join Seth and Molly as they dare to enter the cobweb-cluttered confines of Seth's attic and sort out trash from treasure in his dusty collection. Find out which of these odds and ends are salvageable and which should be deep-sixed in the dumpster. Don't forget to bring the Hefty bags and a dust mop! Guests: Fred Sharpe - Principal Investigator at the Alaska Whale Foundation Jeffrey Van Cleve - Engineer for NASA's Kepler Mission Paul Hammond - Director, California State Railroad Museum Norman Sleep - Professor of Geophysics, Stanford University
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The discovery of water on Mars has scientists asking whether they're could have once been life on the Red Planet. It's a big question - and it's prompted us to follow up with a few of our own, such as: what is our relationship to the cosmos? How do we find meaning in a universe that is destined to end? Plus, in response to Seth's appearance on Larry King Live: have aliens visited Earth? Any questions? If you missed Seth on Larry King Live, check out our blog and watch the videos. You can read Seth's article about the experience here. Guests: Janice Bishop - Planetary Scientist at the SETI Institute and at NASA Ames Research Center Roy Gould - Education Analyst at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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We see a man laughing and we smile in response. Our heart goes out to the sad-looking woman on the train. Humans are empathetic creatures - we feel what others feel, even the emotions of strangers. And it may be due to brain cells that researchers have only recently discovered: mirror neurons. Find out how these mimicking cells help us survive cocktail parties, keep society humming, and even give rise to the concept of self. Also, are humans born with a moral code? And, if human behavior is hard-wired - whatever becomes of free will? Guests: Marc Hauser - Evolutionary psychologist and biologist at Harvard, author of Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong Take Marc's Moral Sense Test Marco Iacoboni - Psychologist and neuroscientist at UCLA and the author of Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect With Others Allen Stairs - Philosopher at the University of Maryland John-Dylan Haynes - Neuroscientist, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin
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REPEAT Airplanes falling out of the sky! Lethal bird flu! Killer rocks from space! There's a lot that can do us in, and it would seem you have good reason to worry. Except that you're worried about the wrong things! Many of our fears are misplaced. It's more likely you'll die from food poisoning or falling out of bed than in an airplane crash. And, the odds that an asteroid impact will ruin your entire weekend? Oh, about a billion to one. Find out why we worry about all the wrong things and don't fret enough about things that really are a threat, as we examine the science - and psychology - of risk. Also, why sword-swallowing is bad for your health... and how well lab rats can recognize Dutch spoken backwards: meet the winners of this year's Ig Nobels. Plus, our Hollywood skeptic raises an eyebrow at monkey feng shui, and Phil Plait investigates claims that the world is on "tilt". It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it! Guests: Phil Plait - author of badastronomy.com David Ropeik - consultant in risk communication, co-author of Risk: A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Dangerous John Adams - Emeritus Professor, Geography Department, University College London Marc Abrahams - editor, Annals of Improbable Research James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles
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REPEAT Every year, computing machines become more powerful, a fact that hasn't escaped the notice of anyone who occupies an office. Many experts now agree that within a few decades, your laptop will be smarter than you are. Not only that, but your computer will be in touch with its byte-busting brethren. When that happens, the machines will "wake up." But what takes place next? Can we stop the machines from turning us into protoplasmic peons in a world in which they are the top intellectual dogs? Seth and Molly go to the Singularity Summit in San Francisco, and talk to some far-sighted humans who are preparing for the next generation of brainiacs - and they won't be your offspring! Guests: Eliezer Yudkowsky - Research fellow and co-founder of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence Everett Sherwood - Former research member at Motorola Labs Brad Templeton - Board member, Foresight Nanotech Institute, and Chair, Electronic Frontier Foundation Charles Harper - Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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Remember Mr. Potato Head? You changed his look by snapping in plastic mustaches, googly eyes and feet. Now imagine doing the same with a living cell: inserting the genes you want to create the organism you want. Welcome to the world of synthetic biology. It has potential to create new bio-fuels and life-saving drugs. It also ushers in a host of ethical and safety concerns. We examine both when we discuss this emerging science of mix and match genes. Plus, does doing an end run around Mother Nature challenge the essence of life itself? Guests: Jay Keasling - professor of chemical engineering and biological engineering at UC Berkeley and founder of Amyris Biotechnologies Jonathan Eisen - biologist at UC Davis Jim Thomas - researcher at ETC group in Ottawa, Canada Ed Regis - science writer and author of What Is Life: Investigating the Nature of Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology Michael Dosmann - curator of Living Collections at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
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REPEAT Every year, computing machines become more powerful, a fact that hasn't escaped the notice of anyone who occupies an office. Many experts now agree that within a few decades, your laptop will be smarter than you are. Not only that, but your computer will be in touch with its byte-busting brethren. When that happens, the machines will "wake up." But what takes place next? Can we stop the machines from turning us into protoplasmic peons in a world in which they are the top intellectual dogs? Seth and Molly go to the Singularity Summit in San Francisco, and talk to some far-sighted humans who are preparing for the next generation of brainiacs - and they won't be your offspring! Guests: Eliezer Yudkowsky - Research fellow and co-founder of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence Everett Sherwood - Former research member at Motorola Labs Brad Templeton - Board member, Foresight Nanotech Institute, and Chair, Electronic Frontier Foundation Charles Harper - Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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Ever try talking to an alien? In the movies, they always speak perfect English. But what if we really made contact? Could we just whip out a universal translator - or even a babelfish - to understand one another? Let's say we do learn to communicate: what to say, what to say? We'll hear the protocol for just how to reply to ET. And, from Klingon to Esperanto: the recipe for creating a language from scratch. Plus, get ready to babble with your Blackberry: how computers are learning to recognize - and respond - to human speech. Q1=B4
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REPEAT Is the public interested in science? The signs aren't encouraging. The Hubble Telescope teeters on the edge of breakdown, and the public's response is lukewarm. Science coverage in the media continues to shrink like cheap cotton... and science superstars on TV or in the movies are as rare as lanthanum. As we consider why today's folk give science the big yawn, we'll talk to people whose job it is to bring lab findings to the public. Also, a new study traces to childhood our psychological aversion to science. Plus, Seth re-lives his childhood at the San Francisco Exploratorium. BONUS: sing along with Seth! Click here for the lyrics to "The Maunderer". Guests: Natalie Angier - New York Times reporter and author of The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science Charlie Petit - veteran science reporter and Head Tracker of the Knight Science Journalism Tracker Paul Bloom - Psychologist at Yale University Paul Doherty - Senior Scientist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco
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AWA: Skeptical Sunday: The Science of Indiana Jones June 23 2008[34.5 MB]Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 PDT
He looks great in a fedora - we'll give him that. But surviving a tumble over three 100-foot waterfalls or toughing out an atomic blast by climbing into a refrigerator? We love Indy, but his exploits seem to be over the top when it comes to elementary physics. From hovercrafts to the quartz crania of aliens; find out what scientific concepts in the latest bullwhip adventure are more than a little nutty. Plus, the real crystal skulls, and the man who discovered that two of the most famous are fakes. Also, an incentive to tackle that to-do list: the 2012 Mayan apocalypse. And, If I were Indy, our Hollywood Skeptic puts himself in the hero's boots. It's Skeptical Sunday, but don't take our word for it. Guests: Ian Freestone - Archaeologist at the University of Wales at Cardiff Matt Springer - Graduate Student at Texas A and M University and keeper of the website, www.builtonfacts.com Tom Rogers - Physics teacher at Southside High School in Greenville South Carolina, author of Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics and the founder of the web site of the same name Phil Plait - Astronomer,and keeper of the Bad Astronomy web site Jim Underdown - Executive Director, Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles
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What happens when particles collide? The answer may tell us the dark secrets of the cosmos. At least, that's the hope for the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator. When it fires up this summer, colliding protons may produce the elusive Higgs Boson - the so-called God particle - and reveal the building blocks of the universe. We talk to the Director of CERN, home of this massive device, about what happens when they throw the big switch. Also, what if black holes happen? Find out how these weird gravity pits are created, and whether they're actually two-way streets that allow information to escape after all. Also, plans are already underway for the next particle accelerator, and playing with fire: a new fusion reactor in France. Guests: Robert Aymar - Director General of CERN in Geneva, Switzerland Barry Barish - Physicist Emeritus, California Institute of Technology and Director of the International Linear Collider Global Design Effort Norbert Holtkamp - Principle Deputy Director General of ITER and physicist at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory Simon Steel - Astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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Forgot your own birthday? Misplaced your Shih Tzu? Did you put the milk in your backpack and the iPod in the fridge? Age may bring wisdom but - alas - not a boost in RAM. But there's hope - scientists are discovering that the brain is more malleable than thought. We'll hear about the science of neuroplasticity and what you can do to slow that cerebellum slide. Ever been to a brain gym? Plus, why the brains of London cabbies are bigger than those of your average commuter. Guests: Michael Merzenich - Professor Emeritus Neuroscientist, University of California, San Francisco Gordy Slack - Science journalist and author of The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA Sam Wang - Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Molecular Biology at Princeton University and the author of Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget how to Drive and other Puzzles of Everyday Life Lisa Schoonerman - Co-founder, VibrantBrains Jan Zivic - Co-founder, VibrantBrains
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REPEAT Imagine if aging were a disease like measles, one that could be cured. Some scientists think it's possible and that we'll eventually halt - or at least slow - the march of time and extend lifespans into the triple digits and beyond. 100 could become the new 40, and 1000 the new 500! But that's a lot of years of filling out tax forms and showing up for dental hygiene appointments. Do we really want to live that long? If so, we should tap into the secret of longevity from Ming, a 400-year-old clam. Also, the surprising story of how aviator Charles Lindbergh helped develop a medical device that prolonged lives - all in support of the Nazi cause. Guests: Aubrey de Grey - Biogerontologist and author of Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime Michael Rose - Ecologist and Evolutionary Biologist at the University of California - Irvine David M. Friedman - author of The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever Al Wanamaker - Researcher at Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences
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They can walk, roll, swim, and even dance to that funky music. Okay, so they're a little stiff on that one. But today's robots are not content to just sit and hum in a corner - they're movers and groovers, and not only on this planet. We'll go to the International Conference on Robotics and Automation and meet the latest in automatons - from aluminum chefs that whip up omelets to underwater machines that undulate like fish. Also, the robot challenge - building autonomous robots to scour the Red Planet. And, touchdown for the Phoenix Mars Lander. Guests: Gaurav Sukhatme - Co-director of Robotics Research Lab at the University of Southern California Basilio Noris - Researcher at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland Eric Sauser - Researcher at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland Matthew Zucker - Researcher at the Carnegie Melon Robotics Institute Brian Zenowich - Robotics Engineer at Barrett Technology Kyu-Jin Cho - Researcher at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Paul Rybski - System Scientist in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Melon University Deborah Bass - Deputy Project Scientist, NASA's Phoenix Mars Scout Mission
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Europe is a country. Six justices sit on the Supreme Court. The Vietnamese attacked Pearl Harbor. If ignorance is bliss, this is one happy-go-lucky country. The average American's grasp of history, current events, and geography is so poor, according to one journalist, we've become a nation of dunces, seriously undermining our own future. Find out why "F" stands for American intellect and what's behind the national trend of dumbing down. Also, the story of the brilliant Russian geneticist who paid the ultimate price during Stalin's Terror in the 1930s. Plus, Brains on Vacation assesses the doomsday threat of the Large Hadron Collider. And, hunting for ghosts in Hollywood. It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it. Guests: Susan Jacoby - Author of The Age of American Unreason Peter Pringle - Journalist and author of The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Greatest Scientists of the Twentieth Century Phil Plait - Astronomer and keeper of the website www.badastronomy.com James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles
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Do you have some imagination? What about junk; got any of that? Thomas Edison said you need both to be an inventor. And Tom could speak with authority about switching on innovation's light bulb. Find out who today's inventors are and which devices will be changing the way we live. Also, why leave it to the pros? The Maker Faire proves that tinkering in the garage is alive, well, and guaranteed to impress the neighbors. Plus, from the Model T to Kitty Hawk: how 1908 changed the way we move. And, why the effort to build a better banana may drive the yellow fruit to extinction. Guests: Dan Koeppel - and author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World Jim Rasenberger - Author of America 1908: The Dawn of Flight, the Race to the Pole, The Invention of the Model T, and the Making of the Modern Nation Mike Haney - Executive Editor for Popular Science. The Invention Awards are in the June 2008 issue.
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How did the first cells make the scene? Could there be critters on some newly discovered planets? And what happens if we ever encounter weird life? These may not be the sort of questions you hear being bandied about in your local coffee shop, but they were hot topics at the AbSciCon conference held recently in Santa Clara, California, and sponsored by the SETI Institute. AbSciCon stands for Astrobiology Science Conference, and Seth was there, talking to researchers about progress in puzzling out how life began on Earth, and where it might have gained a claw-hold elsewhere. Could there be certain parts of our Galaxy that are off-limits for life? Also, hear whether our universe has special properties that render it just dandy for life, and whether we should be looking for viruses on Mars. Guests: Diana Valencia - Planetary physicist at Harvard University Charley Lineweaver - Cosmologist at the Australian National University David Deamer - Research scientist at the University of California at Santa Cruz Baruch Blumberg - Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Institute, Nobel Prize winner, and Trustee at the SETI Institute Matthew Kenworthy - Astronomer at the University of Arizona Eric Korpela - Research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley Richard Muller - Physicist, University of California, Berkeley Kathryn Denning - Anthropologist at York University
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Maybe Dr. Doolittle was on to something; animals are smarter than we think. Birds, apes, and dolphins are all clever problem solvers with a rich vocabularly and - in some cases - self-awareness. Find out what you can learn from our furry, finned and feathered friends. Also, why you are so much an animal yourself, all the way down to the bare bones. Plus, enter the locked vaults that hold extinct and newly-discovered animal species. And why B-movie critters steal the show. A new species? This is a grey-faced sengi. Click here for another photo. Guests: Neil Shubin - Anatomist and Associate Dean at the University of Chicago, and author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body Galen Rathbun - Biologist, California Academy of Sciences Jack Dumbacher - Curator, Birds and Mammals, California Academy of Sciences Virginia Morell - Science writer. Her cover story Inside Animal Minds is in the March, 2008 issue of National Geographic Alex Kacelnik - Behavioral Ecologist at Oxford University Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University
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We all know how sex begins: a dimly-lit room, a come-hither smile, and a surfeit of parasol-shaded cocktails. But long before before all that, the gentle currents of the ancient sea floor set the mood. It was there, 570 million years ago, that two ropy sea creatures found each other and changed the course of evolution.Hear how sex began and where it's headed: if you think your love life is mechanical now, just wait until you're cozying up to titanium skin and the latest emotion software.Plus, everything you always wanted to know about modern sex research, but were afraid to ask.Guests: Mary Roach - Author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex David Levy - Artificial intelligence researcher and the author of Love and Sex with Robots Mary Droser - Professor of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside
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We all struggle with our memories. This is as true for society as a whole as it is for an individual. In some cases, the effort to preserve cultural history is also a race against time. We'll hear how a cave in Norway is helping keep our seed heritage on ice. And, can you speak Tofa? Magat Ke? As languages disappear faster than the rain forest, one group is working hard to keep native voices heard.Meanwhile, how do we back up our written and pictorial heritage, most of which is on (ultimately perishable) paper? Not to mention the torrent of info in the form of Internet bits. That's the challenge at the Library of Congress, where a new digital initiative is trying to keep our intellectual inheritance intact. And IBM may soon help out in storing it all, as they develop magnetic beads that could increase the amount of memory on a chip by hundreds of times.Guests: Cary Fowler - Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust Stuart Parkin - Physicist at IBM's Almaden Research Center David Harrison - Director of Research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge William LeFurgy - Digital Initiative Project, Library of Congress
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There are two kinds of people: those who are unstylish, socially inept, yet academically gifted, and those who tease them. Being a nerd is rough; it's no fun to sit alone in the cafeteria or be forced to dine on beach sandwiches. But revenge is sweet: the world depends more than ever on the witty and gifted to keep it technologically and scientifically turning. So who gets the last laugh? Just ask Bill Gates. Then again, have attitudes towards eggheads really matured? Just ask Al Gore.Hear why America has contempt for nerds, while other countries treat them as rock stars. Also, how to solve a Rubik's Cube in seconds, and a Geeksta Rap sing-along.Guests: David Anderegg - Author of Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them Jessica Fridrich - Electrical and computer engineer at Binghamton University in New York Sun Kwok - Physicist and astronomer at the University of Hong Kong Peter Hartlaub - Pop Culture Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle Christian Ternus - Sophomore at MIT Fred Hall - Space Physicist
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We all have something we feel certain about; the Sun will rise, the sky is blue and dried egg is hard to remove from shag carpet. You may feel strongly about these things - even swear by them; but that doesn't make them true, only that your neurochemistry is in high gear.We'll hear how chemicals in the brain conspire to produce certainty and why even death and taxes are not foregone conclusions. Also, Sam Harris on the biology of belief... Phil Plait on vacationing brains and our Hollywood skeptic raises an eye at sure-fire, tinseltown blockbusters.Guests: Phil Plait - Astronomer and keeper of the website www.badastronomy.com Sam Harris - Neuroscientist and author of The End of Faith Robert Burton - Neurologist and author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles
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Like your stomach subjected to repeated $1.99 buffets, the universe is ever-expanding. As it grows, it inexorably becomes more chaotic. We'll hear what drives this increase in entropy, and whether there can be meaning in a universe that will ultimately become no more than a dark soup of cold particles.Also, the surprising patterns of organization around us - find out why you behave with the mathematical logic of an atom and why you can't outwit the crowds at your favorite bar. Also, happy 300th birthday to Carl Linneaus. Without him, you and your neighbors wouldn't be in the members-only club Homo sapiens.Guests: David Quammen - award-winning science, nature, and travel writer. His article about botanist Carl Linneaus, "A Passion for Order," appears in the June 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine Lawrence Krauss - physicist and cosmologist, Case Western Reserve University Mark Buchanan - physicist and author of The Social Atom Alex Bentley - anthropologist at the University of Durham, U.K. Virginia Trimble - professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine
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When it comes to contacting ET, SETI scientists do the math. They've been filling in values for the Drake Equation ever since 1961. That's when Frank Drake proposed his simple formula for estimating the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy. It's one equation that everyone can understand.We'll talk about the current best estimates for the terms in Drake's famous formulation - from the number of Earth-size planets to the life expectancy of advanced civilizations. Also, with all this number crunching, why haven't we yet heard from ET?Guests: Frank Drake - Senior Scientist, SETI Institute Charley Lineweaver - Astrobiologist at the Australian National University Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University J. Richard Gott - Physicist at Princeton University Natalie Batalha - Professor of Physics and Astronomy, San Jose State University, and science team member, Kepler Mission
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Leonardo da Vinci is considered a genius for combining art and science. But how usual is this for us mere mortals? Can science and art sucessfully inform each other?We'll hear how the insights of French writer Marcel Proust anticipated modern neuroscience. Also, a debate over the evolutionary function of art. Does it have survival value? We meet a robot whose painting talents have garnered it a job in one of America's top museums. And, hear - or don't hear - why some of our relatives don't monkey around with music.Guests: Jonah Lehrer - science journalist, editor-at-large, Seed magazine and author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist David Sloan Wilson - evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University, and author of Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives Ellen Dissanayake - independent scholar and author of Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began Leonel Moura - conceptual artist Find out more about RAP, including a picture, at the American Museum of Natural History website!Whip up some madeleines (click here for a recipe) and savor your own remembrance of things past.
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Here's a time-saver: ditch that car and find your local wormhole. You'll be transported from your front door to Pilates - or to a piazza in Rome, if you prefer - faster than you can say "instant messaging."We'll get reaction from a physicist and science-fiction fans to the movie "Jumper," that explores the idea of teleportation, and find out whether a wormhole commute is really possible.Also, futuristic modes of transportation that have yet to crowd the skies: jet packs and flying cars. Whatever happened to them? And, what travel will be like in the year 2050.Guests: Max Tegmark - physicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Christian Tenus - MIT sophomore and member of the MIT Science Fiction Society Carrie Keach - MIT sophomore and member of the MIT Science Fiction Society Doug Hecox - Spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration Tom Frey - Executive Director, The DaVinci Institute
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Do you find eating tiresome? Is taking time to chew taking too big a bite out of your productivity? Well, you can soon say goodbye to the burden of beefy burgers and chlorophyll-ridden lettuce - you'll be able to pop a pill for all your nutritional needs! As much as you may find this too much to swallow, what we call "food" is changing. Indeed, you might not recognize the dinner of the future if it landed on your plate today.In this hour, a look at high and low-tech visions of dinner time... whether E.T. would ever get a hankering to snack on Homo sapiens... what percentage of a Twinkie is mined... and growing meat in the lab. Plus, food fights of the past and future.Guests: Steve Ettlinger - author of Twinkie Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats Warren Belasco - Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, and author of Meals To Come Jason Matheny - Director of New Harvest, a non-profit which funds research on in-vitro meat Tori Hoehler - astrobiology researcher at NASA Ames Research Center
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We've all descended from a common ancestor, but, as Homo sapiens, we no longer brachiate through trees and have long abandoned our stone tools for iPods. Evolution has shaped us into the big-brained, bipedal, text-messaging specimens we are today. But it didn't happened without a lot of pressure. We'll look at some of the forces that have driven human evolution - from the snake-phobia that sharpened our eyesight, to the anger-management that was a prerequisite for civilization.Also, how your Blackberry may be changing the brains of future generations. And, are we engineering our own successors through robotics?Guests: Lynne Isbell - anthropologist, University of California, Davis Timothy Taylor - archeologist, the University of Bradford in the U.K. Nicholas Wade - science writer, New York Times, author of Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors Lee Gutkind - author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think
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Don't worry if you've lost your senses - we've found them. Find out why we've evolved taste, sight, hearing, touch, and smell the way we have, and why we don't sense our world through antennae or echolocation. Discover what part of the tongue recognizes anchovies and why cats can't taste candy. And, in need of some virtual surgery? Visit the robotics lab where computers are wired with the sense of touch.Also, release yourself from the limits of your biology: from bionic limbs to infrared vision; join humans of the future who are enhanced with super-senses.Now that you have a feel for the taste of this show by nosing about this blurb, you can see that it's worth a listen. Make sense?Guests: Tom Finger - Cell and Developmental Biologist at University of Colorado Medical School and Co-Director of the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center. Ken Salisbury - Computer Scientist in the Bio-Robotics Laboratory, Stanford. James Hughes - Sociologist and Bioethicist at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Executive Director of the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Nina Jablonski - Anthropologist at Penn State University and author of Skin: A Natural History.
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Blah, blah, blah. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Yap, yap, yap. There's a lot of blather out there in the verbalsphere - you know what I'm saying? So you need to be crafty in order to be heard. We'll wax eloquent about those who succeed at getting their messages across... from a theory about how animals compete for bandwidth to the beautiful and sonorous language of whales.Also, how to recognize a message from E.T. And, making the case for letting that library card lapse: the extinction of the written word.Guests: Bernie Krause - Bio-acoustics researcher and director of Wild Sanctuary William Crossman - Author of VIVO: the Coming Age of Talking Computers and the director of the CompSpeak 2050 Institute for the Study of Talking Computers and Oral Cultures Laurance Doyle - Astronomer at the SETI Institute
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"As I look into the crystal ball, I see... I see... I see James Randi, magician and skeptic extraordinaire. It's the self-same Randi who once exposed Uri Geller's trick for bending spoons. What does he say now that Geller has apparently admitted he is a magician, and not a silverware psychic after all?"Also, the Amazing Randi's last chance for all mind readers, levitation experts and other masters of the paranormal: you have two years to prove your stuff before the $1,000,000 challenge ends.Plus, a recent Harvard study scans brains for neurological evidence of ESP... unfolding the origins of the fortune cookie... And Phil Plait rounds up the latest skewed cogitations of lazy brains: is a recent Rover photo evidence of Bigfoot on Mars?It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it.Guests: Phil Plait - Author of badastronomy.com James Randi - Stage magician, paranormal skeptic, and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation Sam Moulton - Psychologist at Harvard University
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Imagine if aging were a disease like measles, one that could be cured. Some scientists think it's possible and that we'll eventually halt - or at least slow - the march of time and extend lifespans into the triple digits and beyond. 100 could become the new 40, and 1000 the new 500! But that's a lot of years of filling out tax forms and showing up for dental hygiene appointments. Do we really want to live that long? If so, we should tap into the secret of longevity from Ming, a 400-year-old clam.Also, the surprising story of how aviator Charles Lindbergh helped develop a medical device that prolonged lives - all in support of the Nazi cause.Guests: Aubrey de Grey - Biogerontologist and author of Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime Michael Rose - Ecologist and Evolutionary Biologist at the University of California - Irvine David M. Friedman - author of The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever Al Wanamaker - Researcher at Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences
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Think you have it together? Then, you'll want to thank the four fundamental forces of nature. They hold the universe together, govern everything that happens, and generally make it what it is today. Discover their universal properties and how they're in action all around us. From the gravitational pull that with may cause an errant asteroid to wallop Mars, to the electromagnetic phenomena that make asteroid showers an impressive sight. Also, physicist Freeman Dyson makes the case for spacecraft propelled by nuclear bombs.Plus - the four forces are governed by fundamental laws, but are these laws made to be broken? Find out whether you could zip through space at faster than light speed.Guests: Freeman Dyson - Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University Andrew Fraknoi - Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College, Trustee at the SETI Institute, and author of Wonderful World of Space Peter Jenniskens - Meteor expert/astronomer at the SETI Institute David Morrison - Senior Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center Mario Livio - Physicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute Laurance Doyle - Astronomer at the SETI Institute
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Some detectives don't look for fingerprints or interrogate suspects to unravel mysteries. Instead, they're dressed in white coats, and armed with DNA probes and star maps. These are the science detectives: researchers who have found innovative ways to use science to solve puzzles that no one else can.Find out how a biologist helped international police pinpoint elephant poaching in Africa. Also, astronomers who can decipher when and where Vincent van Gogh painted his famous nighttime works by examining the position of the stars. And, how some archeologists and paleontologists willingly deal with some very old dung to learn secrets of the distant past.Guests: Samuel K. Wasser - Professor of conservation biology, University of Washington Jacob Berkowitz - Author of Jurassic Poop Russell L. Doescher - Physicist and astronomer, Texas State University James Oberg - Rocket scientist and media consultant
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AWA: Sputnik: 50 Years, One Month, Two Weeks Later December 10 2007[35.4 MB]Monday, 10 December 2007 0:0:0 PST
It looked like no more than an oversized grapefruit with whiskers. So you wonder what all the fuss was about. But the small silver ball kicked into orbit by the Soviets in 1957 set off a decades-long space race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. That race resulted in major accomplishments during the fifty years since Sputnik's spunky spin, including landing humans on the moon.Meet the new space race(s). Private companies are gearing up to go where only governments have gone before, and the launch of a Chinese lunar probe signals a new turf war over Earth's natural satellite. We'll hear these stories, plus meet a "Sputnut" who owns two copies of the pioneering orb and is looking forward to a Sputnik-eye-view of Earth as a passenger on board the International Space Station next fall.Also, why the space elevator biz is looking up.Guests: Richard Garriott - Executive Producer at online game company NC Soft and a space enthusiast who is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in October, 2008 Peter Swan - Partner, Teaching Science and Technology, Inc. Simon "Pete" Worden - Center Director, NASA Ames Research Center Peter Diamandis - Chairman and CEO of the X-Prize Foundation
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The north and south poles are hot news right now, but for disturbing reasons. As the Earth's atmosphere warms, ice at high latitudes is melting at alarming rates. You're undoubtedly aware of this massive melt and even feeling anxiety about it. But, due to global-warming-news-fatigue, in which the relentless onslaught of climate statistics has frozen your brain like a Popsicle, you can't explain why it matters.We can help. Tune in and find out why it's bad news if our frozen frontiers turn to mush and slush, as we talk with scientists who are breaking the ice as part of the International Polar Year, a collaboration to expand research and raise awareness of the Arctic and Antarctic, and the global climate system.Check out the Polar Palooza and International Polar Year websites. Guests: Ralph Harvey - Geologist, Case Western Reserve University and Principal Investigator for the Antarctic Search for Meteorites program (ANSMET) Michael Castellini - Biologist, University of Alaska, Fairbanks Kathy Licht - Geologist, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis Darlene Lim - Limnologist at NASA Ames and the SETI Institute Charles Bentley - Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, University of Wisconsin at Madison
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Airplanes falling out of the sky! Lethal bird flu! Killer rocks from space! There's a lot that can do us in, and it would seem you have good reason to worry. Except that you're worried about the wrong things! Many of our fears are misplaced. It's more likely you'll die from food poisoning or falling out of bed than in an airplane crash. And, the odds that an asteroid impact will ruin your entire weekend? Oh, about a billion to one. Find out why we worry about all the wrong things and don't fret enough about things that really are a threat, as we examine the science - and psychology - of risk. Also, why sword-swallowing is bad for your health... and how well lab rats can recognize Dutch spoken backwards: meet the winners of this year's Ig Nobels. Plus, our Hollywood skeptic raises an eyebrow at monkey feng shui, and Phil Plait investigates claims that the world is on "tilt". It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it! Guests: * Phil Plait - author of badastronomy.com * David Ropeik - consultant in risk communication, co-author of Risk: A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Dangerous * John Adams - Emeritus Professor, Geography Department, University College London * Marc Abrahams - editor, Annals of Improbable Research * James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles
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Airplanes falling out of the sky! Lethal bird flu! Killer rocks from space! There's a lot that can do us in, and it would seem you have good reason to worry. Except that you're worried about the wrong things! Many of our fears are misplaced. It's more likely you'll die from food poisoning or falling out of bed than in an airplane crash. And, the odds that an asteroid impact will ruin your entire weekend? Oh, about a billion to one.Find out why we worry about all the wrong things and don't fret enough about things that really are a threat, as we examine the science - and psychology - of risk.Also, why sword-swallowing is bad for your health... and how well lab rats can recognize Dutch spoken backwards: meet the winners of this year's Ig Nobels.Plus, our Hollywood skeptic raises an eyebrow at monkey feng shui, and Phil Plait investigates claims that the world is on "tilt". It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it!Guests: Phil Plait - author of badastronomy.com David Ropeik - consultant in risk communication, co-author of Risk: A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Dangerous John Adams - Emeritus Professor, Geography Department, University College London Marc Abrahams - editor, Annals of Improbable Research James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles
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You think, therefore what? We can't be sure of much when it comes to consciousness. Not only do scientists not agree on what consciousness is they don't agree on whether they ever will be able to agree! What if you're not you, but a self-aware supercomputer? Could you tell the difference? Is consciousness an emergent phase transition? What does that even mean? Grab the aspirin and help us explore these questions, together with a little help from A.I. expert Marvin Minsky. Also, put down that can of Raid! He may be small and repulsive, but that cockroach in your pantry just might be contemplating its own existence. (Okay, now blast em).Guests: * Marvin Minsky Founder of MITs Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and author of The Emotion Machine * Patricia S. Churchland Professor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego * Susan Clancy - Psychologist at Harvard University and author of Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens * Jaron Lanier computer scientist, composer, visual artist, and author. He writes a monthly column for Discover Magazine * John R. Searle Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Freedom and Neurobiology; Reflections of Free Will, Language, and Political Power
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Meet the Atom. It's small, mostly empty, and held together by nature's strongest force. Without this nanoid nuclear bundle, you and I wouldn't be here. But the atom is not without its quarks. The uncontrolled splitting of atomic nuclei can vaporize civilization. When kept on a leash, this same mechanism can supply power enough to keep the world's light bulbs aglow indefinitely. Tour the National Atomic Museum with a former Manhattan Project physicist as he shares the secrets of the atom's power, and of the desperate race to harness that power to win a war. Also, discover the job duties of a 1950s euphemistically-termed "health physicist" in Los Alamos. Plus, find out why a former protester against nuclear energy now sees this technology as the best approach to solving environmental problems. Guests: * D. Ellett - Manhattan Project veteran and retired physicist from Sandia National Laboratories and now a docent at the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque. * John Taschner - former health physicist from the U.S. Air Force and Los Alamos National Labs and now a docent at the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque. * Gwyneth Cravens - journalist and author of Power to Save the World; The Truth About Nuclear Energy
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Meet the Atom. It's small, mostly empty, and held together by nature's strongest force. Without this nanoid nuclear bundle, you and I wouldn't be here. But the atom is not without its quarks. The uncontrolled splitting of atomic nuclei can vaporize civilization. When kept on a leash, this same mechanism can supply power enough to keep the world's light bulbs aglow indefinitely.Tour the National Atomic Museum with a former Manhattan Project physicist as he shares the secrets of the atom's power, and of the desperate race to harness that power to win a war. Also, discover the job duties of a 1950s euphemistically-termed "health physicist" in Los Alamos.Plus, find out why a former protester against nuclear energy now sees this technology as the best approach to solving environmental problems.Guests: D. Ellett - Manhattan Project veteran and retired physicist from Sandia National Laboratories and now a docent at the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque. John Taschner - former health physicist from the U.S. Air Force and Los Alamos National Labs and now a docent at the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque. Gwyneth Cravens - journalist and author of Power to Save the World; The Truth About Nuclear Energy
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We all struggle with our memories. This is as true for society as a whole as it is for an individual. In some cases, the effort to preserve cultural history is also a race against time. We'll hear how a cave in Norway is helping keep our seed heritage on ice. And, can you speak Tofa? Magat Ke? As languages disappear faster than the rain forest, one group is working hard to keep native voices heard.Meanwhile, how do we back up our written and pictorial heritage, most of which is on (ultimately perishable) paper? Not to mention the torrent of info in the form of Internet bits. That's the challenge at the Library of Congress, where a new digital initiative is trying to keep our intellectual inheritance intact. And IBM may soon help out in storing it all, as they develop magnetic beads that could increase the amount of memory on a chip by hundreds of times.Guests: * Cary Fowler - Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust * Stuart Parkin - Physicist at IBM's Almaden Research Center * David Harrison - Director of Research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge * William LeFurgy - Digital Initiative Project, Library of Congress
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We all struggle with our memories. This is as true for society as a whole as it is for an individual. In some cases, the effort to preserve cultural history is also a race against time. We'll hear how a cave in Norway is helping keep our seed heritage on ice. And, can you speak Tofa? Magat Ke? As languages disappear faster than the rain forest, one group is working hard to keep native voices heard.Meanwhile, how do we back up our written and pictorial heritage, most of which is on (ultimately perishable) paper? Not to mention the torrent of info in the form of Internet bits. That's the challenge at the Library of Congress, where a new digital initiative is trying to keep our intellectual inheritance intact. And IBM may soon help out in storing it all, as they develop magnetic beads that could increase the amount of memory on a chip by hundreds of times.Guests: Cary Fowler - Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust Stuart Parkin - Physicist at IBM's Almaden Research Center David Harrison - Director of Research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge William LeFurgy - Digital Initiative Project, Library of Congress
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Maybe no one can heard you scream in space, but there's plenty of news coming from the realms beyond Earth. And like human antennas, we're here to pick it up, and send it down the wires to you. We'll enlighten you on missions to both the nearby cosmos - the weird worlds of the outer solar system - and distant space: the efforts to search the deep depths of the universe for exploding stars, dark galaxies and... signs of intelligent life. Our foray into the latest space research takes us from coast to coast. Molly reports from the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Florida on the upcoming missions to the outer solar system, and Seth is at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in California, watching the dedication of the new Allen Telescope Array. Guests: " Kevin Baines> - principal scientist in the Planetary Science and Life Detection Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory " Chris Parkinson - research scientist at the University of Michigan " Hunter Waite - Institute Scientist at Southwest Research Institute " Bob Pappalardo - principal scientist in the Planetary Ices Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory " Paul Allen - technologist and co-founder of Microsoft " Ron Ekers - radio astronomer, former President of the International Astronomical Union " Leo Blitz - radio astronomer, University of California Berkeley " Jill Tarter - Director of SETI Research, SETI Institute " Steve Trimberger - engineer and technologist " Greg Papadopoulos - Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development, Sun Microsystems " Alex Filippenko - astronomer, University of California Berkeley " Bill Oxley - radio host " Mel Wright - astronomer, University of California Berkeley " Gerry Harp - scientist, SETI Institute " Judith Golub - computer industry entrepreneur " David Liddle - technologist and futurist " Frank Drake - Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
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Maybe no one can hear you scream in space, but there's plenty of news coming from the realms beyond Earth. And like human antennas, we're here to pick it up, and send it down the wires to you. We'll enlighten you on missions to both the nearby cosmos - the weird worlds of the outer solar system - and distant space: the efforts to search the deep depths of the universe for exploding stars, dark galaxies and... signs of intelligent life.Our foray into the latest space research takes us from coast to coast. Molly reports from the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Florida on the upcoming missions to the outer solar system, and Seth is at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in California, at the dedication of the new Allen Telescope Array.Guests: Kevin Baines - principal scientist in the Planetary Science and Life Detection Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Chris Parkinson - research scientist at the University of Michigan Hunter Waite - Institute Scientist at Southwest Research Institute Bob Pappalardo - principal scientist in the Planetary Ices Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Paul Allen - technologist and co-founder of Microsoft Ron Ekers - radio astronomer, former President of the International Astronomical Union Leo Blitz - radio astronomer, University of California Berkeley Jill Tarter - Director of SETI Research, SETI Institute Steve Trimberger - engineer and technologist Greg Papadopoulos - Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development, Sun Microsystems Alex Filippenko - astronomer, University of California Berkeley Bill Oxley - radio host Mel Wright - astronomer, University of California Berkeley John Andersen - President of Andersen Manufacturing Gerry Harp - scientist, SETI Institute Judith Golub - computer industry entrepreneur David Liddle - technologist and futurist Frank Drake - Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
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You can try to get far from the madding crowd. But it's a futile exercise. Wherever you go, you're a traveling trillion-ring circus of bacteria. In fact, you have more microbes on you and in you than you do human cells (and bathing won't help.) So come meet your closest neighbors, as scientists launch the mapping of the human microbiome. Also, hearty microbes that thrive in extreme environments beyond your body... how the discovery of novel bacteria - archaea - has added a branch to the tree of life... and whoops - dropped that yummy cheese doodle on the floor? Find out why it's best left for the broom: new research that challenges the 5-second rule. Guests: * George Weinstock - microbiologist and co-director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston, Texas * Tim Friend - science journalist and author of The Third Domain: The Untold Story of Archaea and the Future of Biotechnology * John Moreau - geomicrobiologist with the US Geological Survey * Paul Dawson - microbiologist at Clemson University
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You can try to get far from the madding crowd. But it's a futile exercise. Wherever you go, you're a traveling trillion-ring circus of bacteria. In fact, you have more microbes on you and in you than you do human cells (and bathing won't help.) So come meet your closest neighbors, as scientists launch the mapping of the human microbiome.Also, hearty microbes that thrive in extreme environments beyond your body... how the discovery of novel bacteria - archaea - has added a branch to the tree of life... and whoops - dropped that yummy cheese doodle on the floor? Find out why it's best left for the broom: new research that challenges the 5-second rule.Guests: George Weinstock - microbiologist and co-director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston, Texas Tim Friend - science journalist and author of The Third Domain: The Untold Story of Archaea and the Future of Biotechnology John Moreau - geomicrobiologist with the US Geological Survey Paul Dawson - microbiologist at Clemson University
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Every year, computing machines become more powerful, a fact that hasn't escaped the notice of anyone who occupies an office. Many experts now agree that within a few decades, your laptop will be smarter than you are. Not only that, but your computer will be in touch with its byte-busting brethren. When that happens, the machines will "wake up." But what takes place next? Can we stop the machines from turning us into protoplasmic peons in a world in which they are the top intellectual dogs? Seth and Molly go to the Singularity Summit in San Francisco, and talk to some far-sighted humans who are preparing for the next generation of brainiacs - and they won't be your offspring! Guests: Eliezer Yudkowsky - Research fellow and co-founder of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence Everett Sherwood - Former research member at Motorola Labs Brad Templeton - Board member, Foresight Nanotech Institute, and Chair, Electronic Frontier Foundation Charles Harper - Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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Every year, computing machines become more powerful, a fact that hasn't escaped the notice of anyone who occupies an office. Many experts now agree that within a few decades, your laptop will be smarter than you are. Not only that, but your computer will be in touch with its byte-busting brethren. When that happens, the machines will "wake up."But what takes place next? Can we stop the machines from turning us into protoplasmic peons in a world in which they are the top intellectual dogs?Seth and Molly go to the Singularity Summit in San Francisco, and talk to some far-sighted humans who are preparing for the next generation of brainiacs - and they won't be your offspring!Guests: Eliezer Yudkowsky - Research fellow and co-founder of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence Everett Sherwood - Former research member at Motorola Labs Brad Templeton - Board member, Foresight Nanotech Institute, and Chair, Electronic Frontier Foundation Charles Harper - Senior Vice President, John Templeton Foundation
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AWA: Doomsday Part II: When the Smoke Clears September 10, 2007[35.5 MB]Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:21:09 PDT
The worse case scenario has played out. It's a few years from now, and Earth has suffered a major catastrophe - be it an asteroid impact, a nuclear holocaust or merely a global pandemic. Doomsday has arrived. In Part II of our two-part series, you'll find out how the planet - and its mantle of remaining life - carries on. So humans are gone: what next? Also, why mass extinctions are helpful to evolution, and if a few people do survive Armegeddon, how do they begin to put human culture back together? Guests: * Alan Weisman - author of The World Without Us * Peter Ward - Paleontologist at the University of Washington, Seattle and author of Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future * Carol Tavris - Social psychologist and author of Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) * Hugh Gusterson - Anthropologist, George Mason University
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The worse case scenario has played out. It's a few years from now, and Earth has suffered a major catastrophe - be it an asteroid impact, a nuclear holocaust or merely a global pandemic. Doomsday has arrived. In Part II of our two-part series, you'll find out how the planet - and its mantle of remaining life - carries on. So humans are gone: what next?Also, why mass extinctions are helpful to evolution, and if a few people do survive Armageddon, how do they begin to put human culture back together?Guests: Alan Weisman - author of The World Without Us Peter Ward - Paleontologist at the University of Washington, Seattle and author of Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future Carol Tavris - Social psychologist and author of Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) Hugh Gusterson - Anthropologist, George Mason University Listen to Doomsday Part I: The Early Hours (January 24, 2007).
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AWA: Take Eye of Newt and Call Me in the Morning September 3, 2007[35.5 MB]Mon, 03 Sep 2007 09:51:24 PDT
Here's an important health tip: cell phones fry your brain. Oh, wait. Cell phones are safe. But red wine is bad for you. Except in moderation, in which case it's good. Also, magnets cure arthritis, coffee causes heart attacks, and rhino horn is an aphrodisiac (but only for rhinos). Sorting through the medical zeitgeist is enough to have you reaching for the aspirin, which, last we heard, is still used to treat headaches. Join us as we separate sound medical science from the snake oil. Also, talk about getting away from it all: scientists induce out-of-body experiences in the lab. Plus, our Hollywood skeptic prepares us for television prognostication this fall with a "Viewer's Guide to Seers." And, Phil Plait finds out just what vacationing brains are up to. It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it! Guests: * Ben Goldacre - Medical doctor and author of the column "Bad Science" in The Guardian as well as the badscience.net website * Susan Blackmore - Psychologist and visiting lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol * Phil Plait - Astronomer and keeper of the web site badastronomy.com * Jim Underdown - Executive Director, Center for Inquiry West in Hollywood
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Here's an important health tip: cell phones fry your brain. Oh, wait. Cell phones are safe. But red wine is bad for you. Except in moderation, in which case it's good. Also, magnets cure arthritis, coffee causes heart attacks, and rhino horn is an aphrodisiac (but only for rhinos).Sorting through the medical zeitgeist is enough to have you reaching for the aspirin, which, last we heard, is still used to treat headaches.Join us as we separate sound medical science from the snake oil. Also, talk about getting away from it all: scientists induce out-of-body experiences in the lab. Plus, our Hollywood skeptic prepares us for television prognostication this fall with a "Viewer's Guide to Seers." And, Phil Plait finds out just what vacationing brains are up to.It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it!Guests: Ben Goldacre - Medical doctor and author of the column "Bad Science" in The Guardian as well as the badscience.net website Susan Blackmore - Psychologist and visiting lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol Phil Plait - Astronomer and keeper of the web site badastronomy.com Jim Underdown - Executive Director, Center for Inquiry West in Hollywood
