Big Picture Science for Monday 15 December 2014 - Shocking Ideas

Big Picture Science - Shocking Ideas

Electricity is so 19^th century. Most of the uses for it were established by the 1920s. So there’s nothing innovative left to do, right? That’s not the opinion of the Nobel committee that awarded its 2014 physics prize to scientists who invented the blue LED.

Find out why this LED hue of blue was worthy of our most prestigious science prize … how some bacteria actually breathe rust … and a plan to cure disease by zapping our nervous system with electric pulses.

Guests:

• Siddha Pimputkar – Postdoctoral researcher in the Materials Department of the Solid State Lighting and Energy Electronics Center under Shuji Nakamura, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Jeff Gralnick – Associate professor of microbiology at the University of Minnesota
• Kevin Tracey – Neurosurgeon and president of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Shocking_Ideas

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 07/28/14 - Replace What Ails You

Big Picture Science - Replace What Ails You

Germs can make us sick, but we didn’t know about these puny pathogens prior to the end of the 19th century. Just the suggestion that a tiny bug could spread disease made eyes roll. Then came germ theory, sterilization, and antibiotics. It was a revolution in medicine. Now we’re on the cusp of another one. This time we may cure what ails us by replacing what ails us.

Bioengineers use advancements in stem cell therapy to grow red and white cells for human blood. Meanwhile, a breakthrough in 3D printing: scientists print blood vessels and say that human organs may be next.

Plus, implanting electronic grids to repair neural pathways. Future prosthetics wired to the brain may allow paralyzed limbs to move.

We begin with the story of the scientist who discovered the bacteria that caused tuberculosis, and the famous author who revealed that his cure for TB was a sham.

Guests:

• Thomas Goetz – Author of The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis
• Jose Carmena – Neuroscientist and biomedical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley; co-director of the Berkeley-UCSF Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses
• William Murphy -Bioengineer and co-director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Ali Khademhosseini – Bioengineer, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Woman’s Hospital

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Replace_What_Ails_You

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 12/12/11 - Going Viral

Big Picture Science - Going Viral

The term “bird flu” is a misnomer, scientists say, because almost all human influenza originates in our feathered friends. How it lands in you and spreads is another matter …

Hear what it takes for a virus to go global, from a virus hunter who plans to stop epidemics in their tiny DNA tracks with an innovative global surveillance system.

Also, why your genome is littered with fossil viruses of the past … the two largest viruses discovered so far, Mimi and Mega, square off … and, what it takes for ideas to “go viral.”

Guests:

• Nathan Wolfe – Viral Ecologist, Director of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative
• Robert Gifford – Evolutionary virologist, Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller University
• Vincent Racaniello – Virologist at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, host of the podcast, “This Week in Microbiology,” and author of the “Virology Blog”
• Bill Wasik – Senior Editor at Wired, author of And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Going_Viral

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 11/28/11 - Skeptic Check: Dubiology

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Dubiology

There’s no harm talking to your houseplant, but will your chatter really help it grow? We look at various biological claims, from whether plants feel pain to the ability of cats to predict earthquakes. Feline forecasters, anyone?

Also, when does understanding biology have important implications for health and policy? The arguments for and against genetically modified foods, and the danger of “pox parties” as a replacement for childhood vaccination.

Plus, the history and current state of scientific literacy in the United States. When did we stop trusting science?

Guests:

• Andy Michael – Seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California
• Ron Lindsay – President of the Center for Inquiry, headquartered in Amherst, NY
• Steven Novella – Clinical neurologist and Director of General Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine; host of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast
• Shawn Lawrence Otto – Author of Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America
• Chelsea Specht – Professor, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_Dubiology

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 11/14/11 - Blame it on Bacterio

Big Picture Science - Blame it on Bacterio

Think small! Microbes are tinier than the dot at the end of this sentence, yet they can make humans sicker than dogs, dogs sicker than humans, jump from animal to human and keep scientists guessing when and where the next disease will appear.

Discover how doctors diagnosed one man’s mysterious infection, the role that animals play as hosts for disease, and why the rate of emerging diseases is increasing worldwide.

Also, why your kitchen is a biosafety hazard, and how the Human Microbiome Project will tally all the microbes on – and in – you.

Plus, the extreme places on Earth where microbes thrive and what it suggests for the existence of alien life. And, how one strain of bacteria helped a farmer grow a pumpkin the weight of a small car!

Guests:

• Peter Hudson – Biologist, Director of Life Sciences at Penn State University
• Peter Krause – Senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health
• Durland Fish – Epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health. Information on his Lyme disease app
• David Relman – Stanford University microbiologist and infectious disease clinician
• Erich Fleming – Biologist, SETI Institute
• O. Peter Snyder – Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management
• John Raeside – Oakland, California
• Frances Raeside – Oakland, California
• Jennifer Kate Arnold – Infectious Disease Clinic, Kaiser Permanente Medical Group
• Dave Stelts – Farmer, head of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth
• Neil Anderson – Owner, president of Reforestation Technologies International. Find retail products.

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Blame_it_on_Bacterio

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.