Big Picture Science for 12/03/12 - Doomsday Live, Part 2

Big Picture Science - Doomsday Live, Part 2

If there is only one show you hear about the end of the world, let it be this one. Recorded before a live audience at the Computer History Museum on October 27^th, 2012, this two-part special broadcast of Big Picture Science separates fact from fiction in doomsday prediction.

In this second episode: a global viral pandemic … climate change … and the threat of assimilation by super-intelligent machines.

Presented as part of the Bay Area Science Festival.

Find out more about our guests and their work.

Guests:

• Kirsten Gilardi – Wildlife veterinarian at the University of California, Davis. leader of the Gorilla Doctors program, and team leader for the US-AID Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program
• Ken Caldeira – Climate scientist, Carnegie Intuition for Science at Stanford University
• Luke Muehlhauser – Executive Director of the Singularity Institute
• Bradley Voytek – Neuroscience researcher at the University of California, San Francisco

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Doomsday_Live_Part_2

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.