Monday, January 13, 2025

Big Picture Science for Jan 13, 2025: The Ocean’s Genome








 

Big Picture Science - The Ocean’s Genome

REPEAT
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:


This repeat podcast originally aired on December 18, 2023

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

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!

Monday, January 06, 2025

Big Picture Science for Jan 06, 2025: Night Flight








 

Big Picture Science - Night Flight

REPEAT
Owls are both the most accessible and elusive of birds. Every child can recognize one, but you’ll be lucky to spot an owl in a tree, even if you’re looking straight at it. Besides their camouflage and silent flight, these mostly nocturnal birds, with their amazing vision and hearing, are most at home in the dead of night, a time humans find alien and scary. Ecologist Carl Safina got to know an injured baby screech owl well. Their relationship saved the owl’s life and gave Safina insider’s wisdom about these aerial hunters of the night.

Guests:


This repeat podcast originally aired on November 6, 2023

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/night-flight

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!

Monday, December 30, 2024

Big Picture Science for Dec. 30, 2024: Skeptic Check: Naomi Klein









Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Naomi Klein

REPEAT
Our information age is increasingly the disinformation age. The spread of lies and conspiracy theories has created competing experiences of reality. Facts are often useless for changing minds or even making compelling arguments. In this episode, author Naomi Klein and science philosopher Lee McIntyre discuss why the goal – not simply the byproduct - of spreading disinformation is to polarize society. They also offer ideas about how we might find our way back to a shared objective truth.

Guests:

  • Naomi Klein - Associate professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia and a co-director at the Center for Climate Justice. Author of Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World
  • Lee McIntyre - Philosopher of science and a research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and the History of Science at Boston University, and author of Post-Truth and On Disinformation.

This repeat podcast originally aired on December 11, 2023

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-naomi-klein

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!

Monday, December 23, 2024

Big Picture Science for Dec. 23, 2024 - 2024: Extraordinary Ordinary Objects









Big Picture Science - 2024: Extraordinary Ordinary Objects

REPEAT
“To live is to count and to count is to calculate.”  But before we plugged in the computer to express this ethos, we pulled out the pocket calculator. It became a monarch of mathematics that sparked a computing revolution. But it’s not the only deceptively modest innovation that changed how we work and live. Find out how sewing a scrap of fabric into clothing helped define private life and how adding lines to paper helped build an Empire. Plus, does every invention entail irrevocable cultural loss?

Guests:

  • Keith Houston – author of “Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator.”
  • Hannah Carlson – teaches dress history and material culture at the Rhode Island School of Design, author of “Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close.”
  • Dominic Riley – bookbinder in the U.K.

This repeat podcast originally aired on October 30, 2023

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/extraordinary-ordinary-objects

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!


Monday, December 16, 2024

Big Picture Science for Dec. 16, 2024 - 2024: Our Space Odyssey









Big Picture Science - 2024: Our Space Odyssey

This year has been a spectacular one for celestial phenomena. The northern lights delighted in unexpected ways while a total solar eclipse cast a shadow across North America. Those events were enough to make it a memorable year, but 2024 also shook up our understanding of the universe. A new reading of Voyager 2 data may explain Uranus’s weird magnetic field. And the impressive James Webb Space Telescope has detected an early and incredibly distant galaxy. Join us in our look back at some of the top space news from 2024.

Guests:

  • Andrew Fraknoi – Professor of Astronomy at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco and SETI board member
  • Jamie Jasinski - space plasma physicist for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and author of a recent paper re-examining data from the Voyager 2 mission, published in Nature.
  • Phil Plait - astronomer, author, science communicator and frequent contributor at Scientific American.

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/2024-our-space-odyssey

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!

Monday, December 09, 2024

Big Picture Science for Dec. 09, 2024 - A Real Gas









Big Picture Science - A Real Gas

Just because something is invisible doesn’t mean it isn’t there. We can’t see gases in our atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen, but we benefit from their presence with every breath we take. From the bubbles that effervesce in soda to the vapors that turn engines, gases are part of our lives. They fill our lungs, give birth to stars, and… well, how would we spot a good diner without glowing neon? In this episode, a materials scientist shares the history of some gaseous substances that we don’t usually see, but that make up our world.

Guest:


Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/a-real-gas

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!


Monday, December 02, 2024

Big Picture Science for Dec. 01, 2024 - Going Multicellular






 

 

Big Picture Science - Going Multicellular

REPEAT
Imagine life without animals, trees, and fungi. The world would look very different. But while the first life was surely single-celled, we don’t know just how it evolved to multicellular organisms. Two long-term experiments hope to find out, and one has been running for more than 35 years. Hear about the moment scientists watched evolution take off in the lab, and how directed evolution was used to create a multicellular organism. Also, how single embryonic cells become humans, and what all of this says about the possibility of life on other worlds.

Guests:

  • Jeff Barrick – molecular scientist at the University of Texas at Austin where his lab oversees the Long-Term Evolution Experiment that’s been running since 1988.
  • Will Ratcliff – an evolutionary biologist at Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Ben Stanger – cancer researcher, professor of medicine and developmental biology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “From One Cell: A Journey into Life’s Origins and the Future of Medicine.”
  • Joseph L. Graves – evolutionary biologist and geneticist at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and author of “A Voice in the Wilderness: A Pioneering Biologist Explains How Evolution Can Help Us Solve Our Biggest Problems.”

This repeat podcast originally aired on October 9, 2023


Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/going-multicellular

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!


Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Big Picture Science for Nov. 25, 2024 - Skeptic Check: Near Death Experiences









Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Near Death Experiences

REPEAT
Near death experiences can be profound and even life changing. People describe seeing bright lights, staring into the abyss, or meeting dead relatives. Many believe these experiences to be proof of an afterlife.

But now, scientists are studying these strange events and gaining insights into the brain and consciousness itself. Will we uncover the scientific underpinning of these near-death events?

Guests:

  • Steve Paulson - executive producer of To the Best of Our Knowledge for Wisconsin Public Radio
  • Sebastian Junger - journalist, filmmaker and author of “The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea”
  • Christoph Koch - neuroscientist at the Allen Institute in Seattle and chief scientist of the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation in Santa Monica California
  • Daniel Kondziella - neuroscientist in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen

This repeat podcast originally aired on September 25, 2023

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-near-death-experiences

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!

Monday, November 18, 2024

Big Picture Science for Nov. 18, 2024 - Beyond the Periodic Table








 

Big Picture Science - Beyond the Periodic Table

You interact with about two-thirds of the elements of the periodic table every day. Some, like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, make up our bodies and the air we breathe. Yet there is also a class of elements so unstable they can only be made in a lab. These superheavy elements are the purview of a small group stretching the boundaries of chemistry. Can they extend the periodic table beyond the 118 in it now? Find out scientists are using particle accelerators to create element 120 and why they’ve skipped over element 119. Plus, if an element exists for only a fraction of a second in the lab, can we still say that counts as existing?

Guests:


Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/beyond-the-periodic-table

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!

Monday, November 11, 2024

Big Picture Science for Nov. 11, 2024 - Amazing Amazonia









Big Picture Science - Amazing Amazonia

The Amazon is often described as an ecosystem under dire threat due to climate change and deliberate deforestation. Yet there is still considerable hope that these threats can be mitigated.  In the face of these threats, indigenous conservationists are attempting to strike a balance between tradition and preserving Amazonia.  Meanwhile, two river journeys more than 100 years apart – one by a contemporary National Geographic reporter and another by “The Lewis and Clark of Brazil”— draw attention to the beauty and diversity of one of the world’s most important ecosystems.

Guests:


Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/amazing-amazonia

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!


Monday, November 04, 2024

Big Picture Science for Nov. 04, 2024 - Fuhgeddaboudit








 

Big Picture Science - Fuhgeddaboudit

REPEAT

A thousand years ago, most people didn’t own a single book. The only way to access knowledge was to consult their memory.

But technology – from paper to hard drives – has permitted us to free our brains from remembering countless facts. Alphabetization and the simple filing cabinet have helped to systematize and save information we might need someday.

But now that we can Google just about any subject, have we lost the ability to memorize information? Does this make our brains better or worse?

Guests:


This repeat podcast originally aired on October 11, 2021

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/fuhgeddaboudit

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!

Monday, October 28, 2024

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!

Monday, October 21, 2024

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!

Monday, October 14, 2024

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:


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!

Monday, October 07, 2024

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/