Big Picture Science for Aug 29, 2022 - Skeptic Check: Heal Thyself

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Heal Thyself

(REPEAT) Do we still need doctors? There are umpteen alternative sources of medical advice, including endless and heartfelt health tips from people without medical degrees. Frankly, self-diagnosis with a health app is easier and cheaper than a trip to a clinic. Since we’re urged to be our own health advocate and seek second opinions, why not ask Alexa or consult with a celebrity about what ails us?

Find out if you can trust these alternative medical advice platforms. Plus, lessons from an AIDS fighter about ignoring the findings of medical science.

And, if AI can diagnose better than an MD, will we stop listening to doctors altogether?

It’s our monthly look at critical thinking … but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

• Katherine Foley – Science and health reporter at Quartz, and author of the article “Alexa is a Terrible Doctor”
• Paul Offit – Professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perlman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of “Bad Advice: Or Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren’t Your Best Source of  Health Information”
• Richard Marlink – Director Rutgers Global Health Institute.
• Shinjini Kundu – Research Fellow, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
• Stuart Schlisserman – Internist, Palo Alto, California

This repeat podcast originally aired on September 24, 2018

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-heal-thyself

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 Aug 22, 2022 - 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 - 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.

Get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Big Picture Science for Aug 15, 2022 - Rip Van Winkle Worm

Big Picture Science - Rip Van Winkle Worm

(REPEAT) Your shower pipes are alive. So are your sinks, books, and floorboards. New studies of our homes are revealing just what species live there – in the thousands, from bacteria to flies to millipedes. Meanwhile, life keeps surprising us by popping up in other unexpected places: the deep biosphere houses the majority of the world’s bacteria and the Arctic tundra has kept worms frozen, but alive, for 40,000 years.

We embrace the multitude of life living on us, in us, and – as it turns out – in every possible ecological niche. Most of it is harmless, some is beneficial, and it’s all testament to the amazing diversity and adaptability of life. In addition, the hardiest organisms suggest where we might find life beyond Earth.

Guests:

• Rob Dunn – Professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University and at the Natural History Museum at the University of Copenhagen. Author of “Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live.”
• Lynn Rothschild – Astrobiologist and synthetic biologist at the NASA Ames Research Center.
• Karen Lloyd – Environmental microbiologist and associate professor at the University of Tennessee.

This repeat podcast originally aired on January 21, 2019

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/rip-van-winkle-worm

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 Aug 08, 2022 - Webb Feat

Big Picture Science - Webb Feat

The James Webb Space Telescope has turned its golden eye on the cosmos. The largest, most sensitive telescope put in space since the Hubble Space Telescope is already producing new photos of far-off galaxies and other cosmic phenomena.

In this episode: astronomers share their reactions to these stunning images, the project scientist on JWST describes how infrared cameras capture phenomena that are invisible to shorter wavelengths, and a plan to investigate the very stardust that created everything, including you and me.

Guests:

• Néstor Espinoza – Assistant astronomer, Space Telescope Science Institute, principal investigator for exoplanet atmospheric physics, James Webb Space Telescope
• Alyssa Pagan – Science Visuals Developer at the Space Telescope Science Institute
• John Mather – Nobel Prize-winning NASA astronomer and Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope
• Alex Filippenko – Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/webb-feat

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 Aug 01, 2022 - Building a Space Colony

Big Picture Science - Building a Space Colony

Ready to become a space emigre? For half a century, visionaries have been talking about our future off-Earth – a speculative scenario in which many of us live in space colonies. So why haven’t we built them? Will the plans of billionaire space entrepreneurs to build settlements on Mars, or orbiting habitats that would be only minutes away from Earth, revive our long-held spacefaring dreams? And is having millions of people living off-Earth a solution to our problems… or an escape from them?

Guests:

• Marianne Dyson – Author and former NASA flight controller
• Emily St. John Mandel – Author, most recently of “Sea of Tranquility”
• John Adams – Deputy Director, Biosphere 2, University of Arizona

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/building-a-space-colony

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!