Are We Alone for 05/16/11 - Physics Phrontiers

Are We Alone - Physics Phrontiers

ENCORE Physics means getting physical if you’re tackling the biggest, most mysterious questions in the universe. Stoic scientists endure the driest, darkest, coldest spots on the planet to find out how it all began and why there’s something rather than nothing. From the bottom of an old iron mine to the top of the Andes, we’ll hear their stories.

Plus, Steven Weinberg on this weird stuff called dark energy, and Leonard Susskind sees double, no, triple, no, …infinite universes.

Guests:

• Anil Ananthaswamy – Corresponding editor for New Scientist magazine in London and author of The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth’s Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
• Steven Weinberg – Nobel Prize-winning physicist at University of Texas at Austin and author of Lake Views: This World and the Universe
• Leonard Susskind – Professor of theoretical physics, Stanford University
• André de Gouvêa – Associate professor of physics, Northwestern University

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Physics_Phrontiers

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Are We Alone for 01/24/11 - Gone Missing!

Are We Alone - Gone Missing!

We all hear about research discoveries, but what about what scientists don’t find? Tune in for a round-up of eureka moments that have yet to come, such as the hunt for the dark energy of the universe and the search for the elusive elementary particle responsible for the mass of objects.

Also, we miss the woolly mammoth so much, scientists plan to clone the hairy beast and bring the extinct animal back.

Plus, why the missing link is no longer missing, what extrasolar planets have now been found, and – NASA money for science: where’d it go?

Guests:

• Alan Stern – Aerospace consultant and planetary scientist
• Natalie Batalha – Deputy Science Team Lead for NASA’s Kepler Mission
• Leslea Hlusko – Biologist at the University of California, Berkeley
• Ian Sample – Science writer, author of Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science
• Saul Perlmutter – Physicist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Darin Croft – Professor of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve, Cleveland

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Gone_Missing_

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Are We Alone for 03/15/10 - Physics Phrontiers

Are We Alone - Physics Phrontiers

Physics means getting physical if you’re tackling the biggest, most mysterious questions in the universe. Stoic scientists endure the driest, darkest, coldest spots on the planet to find out how it all began and why there’s something rather than nothing. From the bottom of an old iron mine to the top of the Andes, we’ll hear their stories.

Plus, Steven Weinberg on this weird stuff called dark energy, and Leonard Susskind sees double, no, triple, no, …infinite universes.

Guests:

• Anil Ananthaswamy – Corresponding editor for New Scientist magazine in London and author of The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth’s Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
• Steven Weinberg – Nobel Prize-winning physicist at University of Texas at Austin and author of Lake Views: This World and the Universe
• Leonard Susskind – Professor of theoretical physics, Stanford University
• André de Gouvêa – Associate professor of physics, Northwestern University

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Are We Alone for 06/08/09 - Bodies in Motion

Are We Alone - Bodies in Motion
Feel the need for speed? Well, you’ll need an extra helping of speed if you plan to leave the Earth and explore other parts of the solar system. On the 40^th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, and as part of our series for the International Year of Astronomy: what it’s like to travel in a rocket (why you won’t feel any motion), and NASA’s plans for returning to the moon.
Also, life in an accelerating universe and why a spacecraft’s quirky trajectory may mean that the laws of motion need tweaking. And we revisit Stanley Kubrick’s epic film 2001: A Space Odyssey
Plus, Seth gets around … and around … when he takes a spin in a gravitational centrifuge.

Guests:

• John Keller – Deputy project scientist for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
• Robert Kirschner – Astronomer at Harvard University
• Jaime Mateus – Graduate student at M.I.T.’s Manned Vehicle Laboratory
• Mark Frank – Astrodynamicist in California
• Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood – Stars of the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.