Big Picture Science for Monday August 01, 2016 - On Defense

Big Picture Science - On Defense

The military is a dangerous calling.  But technology can help out, so researchers are constantly trying to make soldiers safer.  Writer Mary Roach investigates how scientists studying so-called human factors are protecting troops from such aggressive foes as heat, noise, and fatigue.  She also learns how bad odors were once considered a secret weapon.

And while soldiers have long used camouflage to help them blend in, insects may be the original masters of disguise.  A discovery in fossilized amber shows that a variety of bugs employed D.I.Y. camouflaging tricks 100 million years ago.

But where is the defense race headed?  The top-secret branch of the Pentagon whose job is to make tomorrow happen today has some ideas.  A reporter shares DARPA’s plan for augmented super-soldiers.

Plus, do we always need a technological boost to stay safe?  Find out how your innate chemical defense system protects you.  It’s an adrenaline rush!

Guests:

• Mary Roach  - Science reporter, author of “Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War”
• Michael Engel – Entomologist, invertebrate paleontologist, University of Kansas, and senior curator of its Natural History Museum
• Annie Jacobsen – Journalist, author of The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top-Secret Military Research Agency
• Brian Hoffman – Professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, author ofAdrenaline

Download podcast at: http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/on_defense

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