Big Picture Science for Aug. 25, 2025: Don’t Lighten Up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Picture Science: Don’t Lighten Up

REPEAT
A canopy of stars in the night sky is more than breathtaking. Starlight is also an important tool that astronomers use to study our universe. But the growth of artificial light and light pollution are creating dramatic changes to the nighttime environment. Let your eyes adjust to the dark as we travel to a dark sky reserve to gaze upon an increasingly rare view of the Milky Way and explore what we lose when darkness disappears.

Guests:

• Kim Arcand – Visualization scientist & emerging tech lead, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and author of “Light: The Visible Spectrum and Beyond".
• Don Jolley – Teacher of Math and Sciences at the Bolinas School in Marin, California who has been leading dark sky tours for three decades.
• Christopher Kyba – Interdisciplinary Geographic Information Sciences Research Fellow at Ruhr University Bochum.

Originally aired July 8, 2024

Download podcast at -https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/dont-lighten-up

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Big Picture Science for Aug. 18, 2025: Katrina and the River

Big Picture Science: Katrina and the River

“The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise,” said Mark Twain. In this, our final episode marking the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we consider how efforts to control the Mighty Mississippi – a river engineered from its Minnesota headwaters to its Gulf Coast outlet – have responded to the devastating storm, and how New Orleans’ relationship to the river has changed. Can the city keep up with the pressure that climate change is putting on this engineered system, or is retreat the only viable response?

Plus, a wetland recovery project that aims to bolster protection from hurricanes and flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Guests:

• Boyce Upholt – Journalist and author of “The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River”
• Nathaniel Rich – Author of “Second Nature: Scenes From a World Remade” and the New York Times Op-Ed, “New Orleans’ Striking Advantage in the Age of Climate Change”
• Harriet Swift – New Orleans resident
• Andrew Horowitz – Historian, University of Connecticut, author of "Katrina: A History, 1915-2015"
• Rashida Ferdinand – Founder and Executive Director of Sankofa Community Development Corporation, overseeing the Sankofa Wetland Park and Nature Trail in New Orleans
• Jason Day – Biologist, wetland Scientist, Comite Resources in Louisiana

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/katrina-and-the-river

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 Aug. 11, 2025: Beyond the Standard Model

Big Picture Science: Beyond the Standard Model

REPEAT
Ever heard of a beauty quark? How about a glueball? Physics is full of weird particles that leave many of us scratching our heads. But these tiny particles make up everything in the quantum world and in us and are the basis of the fundamental scientific theory called The Standard Model. But it doesn’t explain everything. It can’t account for dark matter or dark energy, for example. We find out whether new physics experiments might force us to rewrite the Standard Model. Plus, we discuss a NASA proposal to fly spacecraft close to the sun in search of new physics.

Guests:

• Phil Plait – Aka the Bad Astronomer, former astronomer on Hubble, teacher, lecturer and debunker of conspiracy theories. He is also the author of a new book “Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe.”
• Harry Cliff – Particle physicist at the University of Cambridge who works on the LHCb experiment at the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, CERN. He is the author of:  “Space Oddities, The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe.”
• Slava Turyshev – Research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This repeat podcast originally aired on May 20, 2024 

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/beyond-the-standard-model

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 Aug. 04, 2025: Scoping Out the Universe

Big Picture Science: Scoping Out the Universe

Telescopes are like light buckets. The bigger the telescope, the more light collected for astronomers to observe. With recent advances in technology, amateur astronomers can join professionals for a chance to observe stellar nurseries and exoplanets many light-years away. But as our capabilities increase, so do the mysteries, including those around high-energy bursts coming from an otherwise unremarkable part of the universe. Understanding fast radio bursts could turn physics on its head.

From the Vera Rubin Telescope in Chile to the backyard instruments of amateur astronomers, we share what new things we might learn about stars, the Earth, exoplanets, and the potential for life on other worlds.

Guests:

• Clare Higgs – Astronomer working with the public outreach team for the Vera Rubin Observatory
• Franck Marchis – Senior astronomer and director of citizen science at the SETI Institute, chief science officer and co-founder of Unistellar
• Amanda Cook – Postdoctoral fellow at McGill University and member of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/scoping-out-the-universe

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!