Big Picture Science for Feb. 28, 2022 - Skeptic Check: 5G

 

 

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: 5G

5G, the latest mobile network standard, is coming. As new cell towers sprout around the world, do we know enough to confidently claim that this new technology is safe? After all, older networking standards relied on microwaves, radiation which has wavelengths of inches to a foot or so. 5G operates at much higher frequencies, with millimeter wavelengths.

Some are worried that being subjected to millimeter radiation could cause cancers. But what does science say? 5G: the promise and the perils.

Guests:

• Jon Samet – Pulmonary physician, epidemiologist, and dean of the Colorado School of Public Health.
• Claire Parkinson – Scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
• Bob Berman – Astronomer, regular contributor to Astronomy Magazine, and author of “Zapped: From Infrared to X-Rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light”
• David Ropeik – Retired Harvard instructor and author of several books about the psychology of risk perception.

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-5g

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 Feb. 21, 2022 - Melting Down

Big Picture Science - Melting Down

Climate change isn’t waiting for us to act. We’ve missed several deadlines to mitigate the dangers of this existential threat, which suggests we prefer to avert our gaze rather than deal with the problem. It’s similar to the way society reacts to an incoming comet in the movie “Don’t Look Up!”

As a major Antarctic ice sheet shows signs of collapse, it’s no wonder we feel some “climate anxiety.” Can we leverage this emotion to spur action?  That, and where hope lies, in this episode.

Guests:

• Joellen Russell – Oceanographer and climate scientist at the University of Arizona
• Katie Mack – Professor of Theoretical Physics at North Carolina State University, and author of “The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)”
• Jessica Tierney – Professor of Paleoclimatology at the University of Arizona
• Susan Clayton – Professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies, College of Wooster

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/melting-down

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 Feb. 14, 2022 - Iron, Coal, Wood

Big Picture Science - Iron, Coal, Wood

(REPEAT) Maybe you don’t remember the days of the earliest coal-fired stoves. They changed domestic life, and that changed society. We take you back to that era, and to millennia prior when iron was first smelt, and even earlier, when axe-handles were first fashioned from wood, as we explore how three essential materials profoundly transformed society.

We were once excited about coal’s promise to provide cheap energy, and how iron would lead to indestructible bridges, ships, and buildings. But they also caused some unintended problems: destruction of forests, greenhouse gases and corrosion. Did we foresee where the use of wood, coal, and iron
would lead? What lessons do they offer for our future?

Guests:

• Jonathan Waldman – Author of Rust: The Longest War.
• Ruth Goodman – Historian of British social customs, presenter of a number of BBC television series, including Tudor Monastery Farm, and the author of The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything.
• Roland Ennos – Professor of biological sciences at the University of Hull and author of The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization.

This repeat podcast originally aired on February 1, 2021

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/iron-coal-wood

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 Feb. 7, 2022 - Skeptic Check: Do Your Own Research

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Do Your Own Research

Scientists are increasingly finding their expertise questioned by non-experts who claim they’ve done their own “research.” Whether advocating Ivermectin to treat Covid, insisting that climate change is a hoax, or asserting that the Earth is flat, doubters are now dismissed by being told to “do your own research!” But is a Wiki page evidence? What about a YouTube video? What happens to our quest for truth along the way? Plus, a science historian goes to a Flat Earth convention to talk reason.

Guests:

• Yvette Johnson-Walker – epidemiologist at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, and affiliate faculty with the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health.
• Nathan Ballantyne – Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, in New York.
• David Dunning – Social psychologist and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan.
• Lee McIntyre – Research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History at Boston University, author of “Post-Truth,” and “How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason.”

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-do-your-own-research

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!