Big Picture Science for Dec. 18, 2023 - The Ocean’s Genome

 

Big Picture Science - The Ocean’s Genome

After helping to sequence the human genome more than twenty years ago, biochemist Craig Venter seemed to recede from the public eye. But he hadn’t retired. He had gone to sea and taken his revolutionary sequencing tools with him. We chatted with him about his multi-year voyage aboard the research vessel Sorcerer II, its parallels to Darwin’s voyage, and the surprising discoveries his team made about the sheer number and diversity of marine microbes and their roles in ocean ecosystems.

Guests:

• Craig Venter - Genomicist, biochemist, founder of the J. Craig Venter Institute, and co-author of “The Voyage of Sorcerer II: The Expedition that Unlocked the Secrets of the Ocean’s Microbiome.”
• Jeff Hoffman - Lab manager at the J. Craig Venter Institute and expedition scientist on the Sorcerer II expedition.

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/the-oceans-genome

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.

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

Big Picture Science for 08/11/14 - De-Extinction Show

Big Picture Science - De-Extinction Show

ENCORE: Maybe goodbye isn’t forever. Get ready to mingle with mammoths and gaze upon a ground sloth. Scientists want to give some animals a round-trip ticket back from oblivion. Learn how we might go from scraps of extinct DNA to creating live previously-extinct animals, and the man who claims it’s his mission to repopulate the skies with passenger pigeons.

But even if we have the tools to bring vanished animals back, should we?

Plus, the extinction of our own species: are we engineering the end of humans via our technology?

Guests:

• Beth Shapiro – Associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Ben Novak – Biologist, Revive and Restore project at the Long Now Foundation, visiting biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz
• Hank Greely – Lawyer working in bioethics, director of the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University
• Melanie Challenger – Poet, writer, author of On Extinction: How We Became Estranged from Nature
• Nick Bostrom – Director of the Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University

This encore podcast was first released on  April 29, 2013

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

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

Big Picture Science for 02/10/14 - Gene Hack, Man

Big Picture Science - Gene Hack, Man

ENCORE: Computers and DNA have a few things in common. Both use digital codes and are prone to viruses. And, it seems, both can be hacked. From restoring the flavor of tomatoes to hacking into the president’s DNA, discover the promise and peril of gene tinkering.

Plus, computer hacking. Just how easy is it to break into your neighbor’s email account? What about the CIA’s?

Also, one man’s concern that radio telescopes might pick up an alien computer virus.

Guests:

• George Weinstock – Microbiologist, geneticist, associate director at the Washington University Genome Institute, St. Louis
• Jim Giovannoni – Plant molecular biologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cornell University campus
• Andrew Hessel – Faculty member, Singularity University, research scientist at Autodesk, and co-author of “Hacking the President’s DNA” in the November 2012 issue of The Atlantic
• Dan Kaminsky – Chief scientist of security firm DHK
• Dick Carrigan – Scientist emeritus at Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois

This encore podcast was first released on December 10, 2012

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

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

Big Picture Science for 04/29/13 - De-Extinction Show

Big Picture Science - De-Extinction Show

Maybe goodbye isn’t forever. Get ready to mingle with mammoths and gaze upon a ground sloth. Scientists want to give some animals a round-trip ticket back from oblivion. Learn how we might go from scraps of extinct DNA to creating live previously-extinct animals, and the man who claims it’s his mission to repopulate the skies with passenger pigeons.

But even if we have the tools to bring vanished animals back, should we?

Plus, the extinction of our own species: are we engineering the end of humans via our technology?

Guests:

• Beth Shapiro – Associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Ben Novak – Biologist, Revive and Restore project at the Long Now Foundation, visiting biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz
• Hank Greely – Lawyer working in bioethics, director of the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University
• Melanie Challenger – Poet, writer, author of On Extinction: How We Became Estranged from Nature
• Nick Bostrom – Director of the Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University

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

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

Big Picture Science for 12/10/12 - Gene Hack, Man

Big Picture Science - Gene Hack, Man

Computers and DNA have a few things in common. Both use digital codes and are prone to viruses. And, it seems, both can be hacked. From restoring the flavor of tomatoes to hacking into the president’s DNA, discover the promise and peril of gene tinkering.

Plus, computer hacking. Just how easy is it to break into your neighbor’s email account? What about the CIA’s?

Also, one man’s concern that radio telescopes might pick up an alien computer virus.

Guests:

• George Weinstock – Microbiologist, geneticist, associate director at the Washington University Genome Institute, St. Louis
• Jim Giovannoni – Plant molecular biologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cornell University campus
• Andrew Hessel – Faculty member, Singularity University, research scientist at Autodesk, and co-author of “Hacking the President’s DNA” in the November 2012 issue of The Atlantic
• Dan Kaminsky – Chief scientist of security firm DHK
• Dick Carrigan – Scientist emeritus at Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois

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

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

Big Picture Science for 09/24/12 - Big Data

Big Picture Science - Big Data

It’s all in the numbers. The trick is, finding what you’re looking for. But that’s the name of the game with big data. We have a giga-gigabyte of information, and combing through it will lead to new cures for disease, new discoveries about the cosmos, or clues to our social and economic behavior.

But is big data Big Brother? You leave a little bit of yourself behind with each mouse click. Discover how surveillance and privacy issues bubble out of the mix, as the terabytes keep flowing in.

Plus one man’s quest to know himself through the numbers as he records everything – and we do mean everything – about his body.

Guests:

• Atul Butte – Associate professor, division chief, systems medicine, Stanford University
• Larry Smarr – Professor of computer science, University of California, San Diego, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, (Calit2)
• Karen Nelson – Microbiologist, director of the Rockville Campus of the J. Craig Venter Institute
• Gerry Harp – Physicist, and Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute
• Deirdre Mulligan – Assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Information and faculty director of the Berkeley Center of Law and Technology
• Ken Goldberg – Professor of engineering, information and art at the University of California, Berkeley

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

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

Are We Alone for 08/09/10 - Rxs Get Personal

Are We Alone - Rxs Get Personal

ENCORE Medicine’s back.. and this time it’s personal. Get ready to have your genome read… your brain scanned… and undergo a chemical analysis so detailed, it’ll reveal the Twinkie you had for lunch. Everyone’s different, and reading those differences at the level of the gene may provide a more accurate profile of health and how to treat disease. But are you ready to know what’s wrong with you?

Discover the future of personalized medicine with biologist Craig Venter, as well as a man who turned his body over to the new science. Learn what his tests revealed.

Plus, why stem cell research really is a horse race. And, why getting sick is sometimes the best thing.

Guests:

• Craig Venter – Genome scientist
• Frank McCormick – Director of the Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco
• David Ewing Duncan – Journalist and author of Experimental Man: What One Man’s Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World
• Sharon Moalem – Neurogeneticist and Evolutionary Biologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and author of Survival of the Sickest
• Sean Owens – Director of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis
• Julie Burges – Animal Health Technician, Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, University of California, Davis

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

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.

And be sure to check out the Are We Alone iPhone/iPad app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/are-we-alone-make-contact/id374968004?mt=8

Are We Alone for 07/13/09 - Rxs Get Personal

Are We Alone - Rxs Get Personal
Medicine’s back.. and this time it’s personal. Get ready to have your genome read… your brain scanned… and undergo a chemical analysis so detailed, it’ll reveal the Twinkie you had for lunch. Everyone’s different, and reading those differences at the level of the gene may provide a more accurate profile of health and how to treat disease. But are you ready to know what’s wrong with you?

Discover the future of personalized medicine with biologist Craig Venter, as well as a man who turned his body over to the new science. Learn what his tests revealed.
Plus, why stem cell research really is a horse race. And, why getting sick is sometimes the best thing.

Guests:

• Craig Venter – Genome scientist
• Frank McCormick – Director of the Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco
• David Ewing Duncan – Journalist and author of Experimental Man: What One Man’s Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World
• Sharon Moalem – Neurogeneticist and Evolutionary Biologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and author of Survival of the Sickest
• Sean Owens – Director of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis

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.