Big Picture Science for June 24 2024 - Skeptic Check: The Body Electric

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: The Body Electric

REPEAT
Electricity plays an important role in our everyday lives, including allowing our bodies to communicate internally. But some research claims electricity may be used to diagnose and treat disease? Could electric pulses one day replace medications?

We speak with experts about the growing field of bioelectric medicine and the evidence for electricity’s healing abilities. Their comments may shock you.

Guests:

• Sally Adee – Science journalist, author of “We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body’s Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds"
• Samantha Payne – Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences at University of Guelph
• Kevin Tracey – Neurosurgeon and President of the Feinstein Institute at Northwell Health

This repeat podcast originally aired on June 5, 2023

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-the-body-electric

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/

Get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Big Picture Science for June 17 2024 - Flower Power

 

Big Picture Science - Flower Power

REPEAT
Before everything could come up roses, there had to be a primordial flower – the mother, and father, of all flowers. Now scientists are on the hunt for it. The eFlower project aims to explain the sudden appearance of flowering plants in the fossil record, what Darwin called an “abominable mystery.”

Meanwhile, ancient flowers encased in amber or preserved in tar are providing clues about how ecosystems might respond to changing climates. And, although it was honed by evolution for billions of years, can we make photosynthesis more efficient and help forestall a global food crisis?

Guests:

• Eva-Maria Sadowski - Post doctoral paleobotanist at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
• Regan Dunn - Paleobotanist and assistant Curator at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum
• Royal Krieger - Rosarian and volunteer at the Morcom Rose Garden, Oakland, California
• Ruby Stephens - Plant ecology PhD candidate at Macquarie University in Australia, and member of the eFlower Project
• Stephen Long - Professor of Plant Science, University of Illinois

This repeat podcast originally aired on March 13, 2023

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/flower-power

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/

Get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Big Picture Science for June 10 2024 - Animals Being Jerks

Big Picture Science - Animals Being Jerks

REPEAT
They’re cute and cuddly. But they can also be obnoxious.

Science writer Mary Roach has numerous tales about how our animal friends don’t always bow to their human overlords and behave the way we’d want. The resulting encounters, such as when gulls disrupt the Vatican’s Easter mass, make for amusing stories. But others, such as wolves threatening farmers’ livestock, can be tragic.

We hear what happens at the messy crossroads of human and wildlife encounters.
Guest:

• Mary Roach – Author of bestselling nonfiction books, most recently “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.”

This repeat podcast originally aired on September 13, 2021

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/animals-being-jerks

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/

Get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Big Picture Science for June 3 2024 - Post Social Media

Big Picture Science - Post Social Media

REPEAT
Before you check your social media feeds today. And post. And post again. And get into an argument on Twitter, lose track of time and wonder where the morning went, consider that social media was never a natural way to socialize.

A cultural anthropologist weighs in on the evolutionary reasons humans can’t thrive on social media. And we hear about the signs that social media is on its way out. If that’s the case, what’s next?

Guests:

• Max Fisher – Reporter for The New York Times, author of “The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World”
• Douglas Rushkoff – Professor of media theory and digital economics at City University of New York, and author of “Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires”
• Ian Bogost – Professor of Media Studies and computer science at Washington University in St. Louis and a contributing writer at The Atlantic.
• Alex Mesoudi – Professor of Cultural Evolution at the University of Exeter, U.K.

This repeat podcast originally aired on February 20, 2023

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/post-social-media

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/

Get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!