Meteors Strike Saturn's Rings

Source - NASA Science News for April 29, 2013

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided the first direct evidence of small meteoroids crashing into Saturn's rings.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/26apr_saturnids/

Mysterious Hurricane Spotted on Saturn

Source - NASA Science News for April 29, 2013

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted a gigantic hurricane swirling inside a mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as "the hexagon" on Saturn.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/29apr_saturnhurricane/

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.

See Saturn at its Best and Brightest

Source - NASA Science News for April 25, 2013

Saturn and Earth are having a close encounter. See the ringed planet at its best and brightest on April 28th.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/25apr_saturn/

A companion video is posted below and can also be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvTSB5B0d0w



License: Standard YouTube License

Hubble Sees Comet ISON

Source - NASA Science News for April 24, 2013

A new picture of Comet ISON taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers key information about what might happen when the comet plunges into the sun later this year.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/24apr_hubbleison/

Big Picture Science for 04/22/13 - Deep Time

Big Picture Science - Deep Time

Think back, way back. Beyond last week or last year … to what was happening on Earth 100,000 years ago. Or 100 million years ago. It’s hard to fathom such enormous stretches of time, yet to understand the evolution of the cosmos – and our place in it – your mind needs to grasp the deep meaning of eons. Discover techniques for thinking in units of billions of years, and how the events that unfold over such intervals have left their mark on you.

Plus: the slow-churning processes that turned four-footed creatures into the largest marine animals that ever graced the planet and using a new telescope to travel in time to the birth of the galaxies.

Guests:

• Jim Rosenau – Artist, Berkeley, California
• Robert Hazen – Senior staff scientist at the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, executive director of the Deep Carbon Observatory and the author of The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet
• Neil Shubin – Biologist, associate dean of biological sciences at the University of Chicago, and the author of The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People
• Nicholas Pyenson – Curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.
• Alison Peck – Scientist, National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia

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

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.

Comet ISON Meteor Shower

Source - NASA Science News for April 19, 2013

A new model of the debris flowing from Comet ISON suggests that the sungrazer could dust the Earth with meteoroids in early 2014. Forecasters discuss the possibilities today's story from Science@NASA.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/19apr_isonids/

A companion video is posted below and can also be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eSYxvUWwVk



License: Standard YouTube License

Kepler Discovers Smallest 'Habitable Zone' Planets to Date

Source - NASA Science News for April 18, 2013

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary systems that include three super-Earth-size planets in the "habitable zone," the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/18apr_habitablezone/

A Whiff of Dark Matter on the ISS

Source - NASA Science News for April 15, 2013

A particle detector on board the International Space Station has recorded intriguing signs of Dark Matter that could reveal what the mysterious substance is made of.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/14apr_ams/

A companion video is posted below and can also be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54AxeJFlVgI



License: Standard YouTube License

Big Picture Science for 04/15/13 - Skeptic Check: Forget with the Program

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Forget with the Program

ENCORE Just remember this: memory is like Swiss cheese. Even our recollection of dramatic events that seem to sear their images directly onto our brain turn out to be riddled with errors. Discover the reliability of these emotional “flashbulb” memories.

Also, a judge questions the utility of eyewitness testimony in court. And, don’t blame Google for destroying your powers of recall! Socrates thought the same thing about the written word.

Plus, Brains on Vacation!

Guests:

• Phil Plait – Keeper of Discover Magazine’s badastronomy blog
• Craig Stark – Neurobiologist, Director for the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at Univeristy of California, Irvine
• Ronald Reinstein – Former judge on the Superior Court of Arizona and judicial consultant for the Arizona Supreme Court
• Betsy Sparrow – Psychologist, Columbia University

This encore podcast was first released: May 7, 2012

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

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.

Incoming Solar Storm - April 13th

Source - Space Weather News for April 11, 2013: http://spaceweather.com

INCOMING SOLAR STORM: A strong M6-class solar flare on April 11th has hurled a CME toward Earth.  Geomagnetic storms and high-latitude auroras are possible when the fast-moving cloud reaches our planet on April 13th.  Visit http://spaceweather.com for updates.

DON'T MISS THE STORM:  Would you like a call when the geomagnetic storm is underway?  Aurora and solar flare alerts are available from http://spaceweathertext.com (text) and http://spaceweatherphone.com (voice).

Big Picture Science for 04/08/13 - Seth's Wine Cellar

Big Picture Science - Seth's Wine Cellar

There are always surprises when we sort through Seth’s wine cellar – who knows what we’ll find!

In this cramped cavern, tucked between boxes of old fuses and a priceless bottle of 1961 Chateau Palmer Margaux, we discover the next generation of atomic clock … the key to how solar storms disrupt your cell phone … nano-gold particles that could make gasoline obsolete … and what NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has learned about how our solar system stacks up to others.

Tune in, find out and, help us lift these boxes, will you?

Guests:

• Chris Sorensen – Physicist, Kansas State University
• Anne Curtis – Senior research scientist, National Physical Laboratory, U.K.
• Jonathan Eisen – Evolutionary biologist, University of California, Davis
• Karel Schrijver – Solar physicist, Lockheed Martin, Advanced Technology Center
• Jonathan Fortney – Astronomer, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Sanjoy Som – Astrobiologist, NASA Ames Research Center

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

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.