Big Picture Science for Oct. 31, 2022 - Lady Parts

Big Picture Science - Lady Parts

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe has ignited fierce debate about bodily autonomy. But it’s remarkable how little we know about female physiology. Find out what studies have been overlooked by science, and what has been recently learned. Plus, why studying women’s bodies means being able to say words like “vagina” without shame, a researcher who is recreating a uterus in her lab to study endometriosis, and an overdue recognition of medical pioneer Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler.

Guests:

• Melody T. McCloud - Obstetrician Gynecologist and Founder and Medical Director of Atlanta Women's Health Care; co-author of “Black Women's Wellness: Your ‘I've Got This!’ Guide to Health, Sex, and Phenomenal Living”
• Victoria Gall - Volunteer with the Friends of the Hyde Park Library and the Hyde Park Historical Society
• Rachel E. Gross - Science journalist and author of “Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage”
• Linda Griffith - Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering at M.I.T., Director of the Center for Gynepathology Research, and author of the Boston Globe article, “‘FemTech’ and a moonshot for menstruation science”
• Roshni Babal - Pediatric Asthma and Chronic Disease Program Coordinator at Boston Medical Center
• Perri Klass - Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University and Author of “The Best Medicine: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future”

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/lady-parts

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 - Skeptic Check: AI Comes Alive

When a Google software engineer claimed that a piece of chatbot software was sentient, it was a major story. Just like your dog is sentient, could it be that some computer code – a chatbot system called LaMDA – has feelings?

But was it truly sentient, or was it pulling algorithmic wool over our eyes? Were we simply being fooled by high-tech mimicry? In this, our regular look at critical thinking: Skeptic Check, we ask what is the evidence that this system is sentient. Also, even A.I. that’s not sentient can still be powerful – and that
has serious implications.

Guests:

• Blake Lemoine – Software engineer and artificial intelligence researcher
• Oren Etzioni – Emeritus Professor at the University of Washington, and former CEO at the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle
• Mark Coeckelbergh – Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology, University of Vienna, and author of  “Robot Ethics“

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-ai-comes-alive

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 Oct. 17, 2022 - The T-Rex Files

Big Picture Science - The T-Rex Files

T-Rex is having an identity crisis. Rocking the world of paleontology is the claim that Rex was not one species, but actually three. It’s not the first time that this particular dino has forced us to revise our understanding of the past. The discovery of the first T-Rex fossil in the 19th century taught humanity a
scary lesson: species eventually go extinct. If it happened to this seemingly invincible apex predator, it could happen to us too.

Hear how the amateur fossil hunter Barnum Brown’s discovery of T-Rex changed our understanding of ourselves, and the epilogue to the dinosaur era: how our mammalian relatives survived the potential extinction bottleneck of an asteroid impact.

Guests:

• Thomas Carr - Vertebrate paleontologist and Professor of Biology, Carthage College
• Peter Makovicky - Vertebrate paleontologist and Professor of paleontology in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota
• David Randall - Author of “The Monster’s Bones: The Discovery of T Rex and How It Shook Our World”
• Steve Brusatte - Personal Chair of Paleontology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh. Author of “The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs” and, most recently, “The Rise and Reign of The Mammals”

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/the-t-rex-files

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 Oct. 10, 2022 - Animals Being Jerks

Big Picture Science - Animals Being Jerks

(REPEAT) They’re cute and cuddly. But they can also be obnoxious.

Science writer Mary Roach has numerous tales about how our animal friends don’t always bow to their human overlords and behave the way we’d want. The resulting encounters, such as when gulls disrupt the Vatican’s Easter mass, make for amusing stories. But others, such as wolves threatening farmers’ livestock, can be tragic.

We hear what happens at the messy crossroads of human and wildlife encounters.

Guest:

• Mary Roach – Author of bestselling nonfiction books, most recently “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.”

This repeat podcast originally aired on September 13, 2021

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/animals-being-jerks

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 Oct. 03, 2022 - Phreaky Physics

Big Picture Science - Phreaky Physics

(REPEAT) 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

This repeat podcast originally aired on August 16, 2021

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.

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