Big Picture Science for July 26th, 2021 - A Twist of Slime

Big Picture Science - A Twist of Slime

(REPEAT) Your daily mucus output is most impressive. Teaspoons or measuring cups can’t capture its entire volume. Find out how much your body churns out and why you can’t live without the viscous stuff. But slime in general is remarkable.

Whether coating the bellies of slithery creatures, sleeking the surface of aquatic plants, or dripping from your nose, its protective qualities make it one of the great inventions of biology. Join us as we venture to the land of ooze!

Guests:

• Christopher Viney - Professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California, Merced
• Katharina Ribbeck - Bioengineer at MIT
• Anna Rose Hopkins – Chef and partner at Hank and Bean in Los Angeles
• Ruth Kassinger - author of “Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us ”

This repeat podcast originally aired on January 27, 2020

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/a-twist-of-slime

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.

Big Picture Science for July 19th, 2021 - New Water Worlds

Big Picture Science - New Water Worlds

The seas are rising. It’s no longer a rarity to see kayakers paddling through downtown Miami. By century’s end, the oceans could be anywhere from 2 to 6 feet higher, threatening millions of people and property. But humans once knew how to adapt to rising waters. As high water threatens to drown our cities, can we learn do it again.

Hear stories of threatened land: submerged Florida suburbs, the original sunken city (Venice), and the U.S. East Coast, where anthropologists rush to catalogue thousands of low-lying historical and cultural sites in harm’s way, including Jamestown, Virginia and ancient Native American sites.

But also, stories of ancient adaptability: from the First American tribes of the Colusa in South Florida to the ice age inhabitants of Doggerland. And, modern approaches to staying dry: stilt houses, seawalls, and floating cities.

Guests:

• Jeff Goodell – Journalist and author of “The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World”
• Brian Fagan – Archaeologist and Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara, and author of many books including “The Attacking Ocean: the Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels”
• David Anderson – Professor of Anthropology, University of Tennessee.  His team’s PLOS ONE paper is “Sea-level rise and archaeological site destruction.” His DINAA site can be used to generate maps of where people were living in the past, up to ca. 15,000 years ago.  

This repeat podcast originally aired on August 27, 2018

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/new-water-worlds

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.

Big Picture Science for July 12th, 2021 - Cicadas and Zombie Seeds

Big Picture Science - Cicadas and Zombie Seeds

Rip van Winkle snoozed for 20 years, and Sleeping Beauty for 100. But seeds in an underground bottle have easily beaten both these records, germinating long after the scientist who buried them a few feet underground had died. We investigate biology’s long haulers–from seeds to small creatures–who are able to wake up and restart their lives, even after tens of thousands of years. Also, what are those buried 17-year cicadas doing as they wait to come back topside?

Guests:

• Chris Simon – Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut
• Sarah Dwyer – Chocolatier, Chouquette Chocolates
• Frank Telewski – Director of the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden at Michigan State University, and professor in its department of plant biology
• Rocco Mancinelli – Microbial ecologist, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute

Featuring music by Dewey Dellay

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/cicadas-and-zombie-seeds

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.

Big Picture Science for July 5th, 2021 - Skeptic Check: Pentagon UFO Report

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Pentagon UFO Report

When the government announced it would release a report about strange aerial phenomena, public excitement and media coverage took off like a Saturn V rocket. But what’s really in the report? Do we finally have the long-awaited evidence of alien visitation? We discuss the report’s content and
implications with both a former U.S. Air Force pilot and a skeptical investigator. And if it hasn’t proven alien presence, what happens next with those who nonetheless think Earth is being visited?

Guests:

• James McGaha - Retired USAF pilot, astronomer, and director of the Grasslands Observatory. Founder and chairman of the Tucson Skeptics and a Scientific Consultant to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. 
• Mick West - Science writer, skeptical debunker, former video game programmer. Author of “Escaping the Rabbit Hole.”

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-pentagon-ufo-report

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.