Big Picture Science for Aug. 30th, 2021 - True Grit

Big Picture Science - True Grit

(REPEAT) Without sand, engineering would be stuck in the Middle Ages. Wooden houses would line mud-packed streets, and Silicon Valley would be, well, just a valley. Sand is the building material of modern cities, and we use more of this resource than any other except water and air. Now we’re running out of it.

Hear why the Roman recipe for making concrete was lost until the 19th century, and about the super-secret mine in North Carolina that makes your smartphone possible.

Plus, engineered sand turns stormwater into drinking water, and why you might think twice about running barefoot on some tropical beaches once you learn about their biological source.

And, a special report from the coast of Louisiana where livelihoods and ecosystems depend on the successful release of Mississippi sand from levees into sediment-starved wetlands.

Guests:

• Vince Beiser – Journalist and author of “The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization”
• Joe Charbonnet – Science and policy associate at the Green Science Policy Institute in Berkeley, California
• Pupa Gilbert – Biophysicist and geobiologist, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Rudy Simoneaux – Engineer manager, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Elizabeth Chamberlain – Post-doctoral researcher in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University

This repeat podcast originally aired on January 14, 2019

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/true-grit

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 Aug. 23rd, 2021 - You've Got Whale

 

Big Picture Science - You've Got Whale

(REPEAT) SMS isn’t the original instant messaging system. Plants can send chemical warnings through their leaves in a fraction of a second.  And while we love being in the messaging loop – frenetically refreshing our browsers – we miss out on important conversations that no Twitter feed or inbox can capture. That’s because eavesdropping on the communications of non-human species requires the ability to decode their non-written signals.

Dive into Arctic waters where scientists make first-ever recordings of the socializing clicks and squeals of narwhals, and find out how climate shifts may pollute their acoustic landscape. Also, why the chemical defense system of plants has prompted one biologist to give greenery an “11 on the scale of awesomeness.” And, you can’t see them, but they sure can sense one another: how communicating microbes plan their attack.

Guests:

• Susanna Blackwell – Bio-acoustician with Greeneridge Sciences. Hear her recordings of narwhals here.
• Simon Gilroy – Professor of botany, University of Wisconsin, Madison. His video of glowing green caterpillar-munched plants can be viewed here.
• Peter Greenberg – Professor of microbiology, University of Washington, Seattle

This repeat podcast originally aired on October 29, 2018

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/youve-got-whale

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 Aug. 16th, 2021 - Phreaky Physics

Big Picture Science - Phreaky Physics

It was a radical idea a century ago, when Einstein said space and time can be bent, and gravity was really geometry. We hear how his theories inspire young minds even today.

At small scales, different rules apply: quantum mechanics and the Standard Model for particles. New experiments suggest that muons – cousins of the electron – may be telling us that the Standard Model is wrong. Also, where the physics of both the large and small apply, and why black holes have no hair.

Guests:

• Hakeem Oluseyi – Astrophysicist, affiliated professor at George Mason University, and author of “A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars”
• Janna Levin – Professor of physics and astronomy, Barnard College at Columbia University
• Mark Lancaster – Professor of particle physics, University of Manchester

New opening theme song, "Kinematics," composed arranged, programmed and produced by Jun Miyake. Musicians: Jun Miyake (Rhodes, keyboards), Andy Bevan (clarinet), Bob Zung (clarinet), Atsuki Yoshida (violins and violas), Masahiro Itami (guitars) Mixing engineer: Philippe Avril.
Other compostions by Dewey Dellay. 

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/phreaky-physics

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 Aug. 9th, 2021 - Skeptic Check: Anti-Vax

 

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Anti-Vax

They were developed in a matter of months, and they’re 90 percent effective at stopping infection. They protect against serious illness or death. And yet, roughly one-third of Americans refuse to get the Covid vaccine. How can this be? How could something that our ancestors would have considered a
miracle be refused by so many? The reasons are many, and not all are because of an antivax attitude. We talk to health professionals to learn what’s stopping the public from stopping the pandemic.

Guests:

• Paul Offit – Pediatrician and Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Tanagne Haile-Mariam – Professor of Emergency Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine
• Nsikan Akpan – Former Health and Science Editor for New York Public Radio

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-anti-vax

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 Aug. 2nd, 2021 - Platypus Crazy

 

Big Picture Science - Platypus Crazy

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 Melbournee.
• Paula Anich – Professor of Natural Resources, Northland College.
• Wes Warren – Professor of Genomics, University of Missouri.
• Phoebe Meagher – Conservation Officer, Taronga Conservation Society, Australia.

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/platypus-crazy

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.