Big Picture Science for 11/19/12 - No Expiration Date

Big Picture Science - No Expiration Date

ENCORE: We all have to go sometime, and that final hour is the mother of all deadlines. But scientists are working to file an extension. Discover how far we can push the human expiration date.

Plus, the animal with the shortest lifespan and the chemistry that causes your pot-roast to eventually clothe itself in fuzzy green mold.

Also, a clock that won’t stop ticking (for 10,000 years) and our love-hate relationship with that long-lived hydrocarbon that keeps our snack cakes fresh: plastic!

Guests:

• Martin Bucknavage- Senior Food Safety Extension Associate, Department of Food Science at Penn State
• Leonard Guarente – Biologist, Laboratory for the Science of Aging, M.I.T.
• Alexander Rose – Executive Director and Clock Project Manager, Long Now Foundation
• Rick Hochberg – Biologist, University of Massachusetts – Lowell
• Susan Freinkel – Author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story

First aired June 13, 2011

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/No_Expiration_Date

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.