Big Picture Science for Oct.. 28, 2024 - How Hot is Too Hot?

 

Big Picture Science - How Hot is Too Hot?

REPEAT
Extreme heat is taking its toll on the natural world. We use words like “heat domes” and “freakish” to describe our everyday existence. These high temperatures aren’t only uncomfortable - they are lethal to humans, animals, and crops. In search of an answer to our episode’s question, we discuss the dilemma of an ever-hotter world with an author who has covered climate change for more than twenty years.

Guest:

• Jeff Goodell – author of “The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.”

This repeat podcast originally aired on October 2, 2023

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/how-hot-is-too-hot

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 Oct.. 21, 2024 - Platypus Crazy

Big Picture Science - Platypus Crazy

REPEAT
They look like a cross between a beaver and a duck, and they all live Down Under. The platypus may lay eggs, but is actually a distant mammalian cousin, one that we last saw, in an evolutionary sense, about 166 million years ago.

Genetic sequencing is being used to trace that history, while scientists intensify their investigation of the habits and habitats of these appealing Frankencreatures; beginning by taking a census to see just how many are out there, and if their survival is under threat.

Guests:

• Josh Griffiths – Senior Wildlife Ecologist at Cesaar Australia.
• Jane Fenelon – Research fellow, University of Melbourne
• Paula Anich – Professor of Natural Resources, Northland College
• Wes Warren – Professor of Genomics, University of Missouri
• Phoebe Meagher – Conservation Officer, Taronga Conservation Society, Australia

This repeat podcast originally aired on August 2, 2021

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/platypus-crazy

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 Oct.. 14, 2024 - Skeptic Check: String Theory

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: String Theory

The idea that the universe is made of tiny vibrating strings was once the science theory du jour. String theory promised to unite the disparate theories describing particles and gravity, and many people, not just scientists, were optimistic that a theory of everything might be within our grasp. But here we are, many years later, and string theory doesn’t seem to have delivered on its initial promise. What happened? We consider the science around string theory in this episode of Skeptic Check.

Guest:

• Brian Greene – Physicist and mathematician at Columbia University, and author of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory.

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-string-theory

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 Oct.. 07, 2024 - We’ll Always Have Parasites

 

Big Picture Science - We’ll Always Have Parasites

REPEAT

Imagine tapeworms longer than the height of an adult human. Or microbes that turn their hosts into zombies. If the revulsion they induce doesn’t do it, the sheer number of parasites force us to pay attention. They are the most abundant form of animal life on Earth. Parasites can cause untold human suffering, like those that cause African River Blindness or Lyme disease, but their presence is also a sign of a health ecosystem. A parasitologist whose lab contains the largest parasite collection in the world gives us the ultimate inside story about these organisms.

Guest:

• Scott Gardner - Curator of parasites in the H.W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology at the University of Nebraska State Museum, one of the largest collections of parasites in the world, and professor of biological sciences at University of Nebraska. Co-author of Parasites: The Inside Story.

This repeat podcast originally aired on July 31, 2023

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/well-always-have-parasites

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