Big Picture Science for Dec. 28, For Good Measure

 

Big Picture Science - For Good Measure
 

(Repeat) The reign of Le Grand K has come to an end. After 130 years, this hunk of metal sitting in a Parisian vault will no longer define the kilogram. The new kilogram mass will be defined by Planck’s constant, joining three other units for redefinition by fundamental constants.  But as we measure with increasing
precision – from cesium atomic clocks to gravity waves 1000th the width of a proton – is something fundamental lost along the way?  Meanwhile, the BiPiSci team accepts the banana-measurement challenge.

Guests:

• Jon Pratt – Mechanical engineer and engineer and Chief of the Quantum Measurement Division of the Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Wolfgang Ketterle – Physicist at MIT, Nobel Laureate
• Simon Winchester – Author of “The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World”

This repeat podcast originally aired on September 9, 2019

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/for-good-measure

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.

Big Picture Science for Dec. 21, Handling the Holidays

Big Picture Science - Handling the Holidays

(Repeat) The stress of the holidays can make you want to hide under the covers with a warm cup of cocoa.  From gift buying to family gatherings, the holidays can feel like being inside a pressure cooker.  But don’t despair!  Science can help make the holidays a little brighter, from some gift-giving tips from our animal friends to embracing pessimism before a challenging social event to stopping that annoying merry melody on repeat in your head.

Guests:

• Adam South – Research assistant professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University
• Mitch Ratcliffe – CEO and publisher of Earth911
• Julie Norem – Psychology professor at Wellesley College and author of “The Positive Power of Negative Thinking”
• Elizabeth Margulis – Music professor at Princeton University and author of “On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind”
• Steve Ilardi – Clinical psychology associate professor at the University of Kansas.  Read his paper on the effects of sugar here.

This repeat podcast originally aired on December 23, 2019

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/handling-the-holidays

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.

Big Picture Science for Dec. 14, Fire Clouds and Ice-teroids

 

Big Picture Science - Fire Clouds and Ice-teroids

Small bodies will hit the big time next year; a sample return from asteroid Bennu and the launch of both the DART and Lucy missions could unravel puzzles about the formation of the solar system, as well teach us how to deflect any asteroids headed our way. Meanwhile, the Juno mission to Jupiter has
shown us its hard-to-study poles, where swirling gas and magnetic fields rule. On Earth, warmer temperatures threaten peat bog biodiversity and the structure of the Arctic. And massive wildfires have sent soot circling the globe. They’re all highlights from the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Guests:

• Steve Levin – Project Scientist for NASA’s Juno mission
• Christopher Fernandez – Research associate, Department of Forestry, Michigan State University
• Mike Fromm – Meteorologist, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
• Nancy Chabot – Nancy Chabot is a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and DART mission coordination lead
• Tom Statler – Program scientist on the Lucy mission in the planetary science division and planetary defense coordination office at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/fire-clouds-and-ice-teroids

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.

Big Picture Science for Dec. 07, Skeptic Check: Shroom with a View

 

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Shroom with a View

Magic mushrooms – or psilocybin - may be associated with tripping hippies and Woodstock, but they are now being studied as new treatments for depression and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Is this Age of Aquarius medicine or something that could really work? Plus, the centuries-long use of psychedelics by indigenous peoples, and a discovery in California’s Pinwheel Cave offers new clues about the relationship between hallucinogens and cave art.

Guests:

• Merlin Sheldrake - Biologist and the author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change our Minds and Shape our Futures.
• Albert Garcia-Romeu - Assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• David Wayne Robinson - Archeologist in the School of Forensic and Applied Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, U.K.
• Sandra Hernandez - Tejon Indian Tribe spokesperson

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-shroom-with-a-view

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.