Big Picture Science for April 10, 2023 - Skeptic Check: Feeling Risky

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Feeling Risky

It’s not just facts that inform our decisions. They’re also guided by how those facts feel. From deciding whether to buckle our seat belts to addressing climate change, how we regard risk is subjective. In this extended conversation with an expert on the psychology of risk, find out about our exaggerated fears, as well as risks we don’t take seriously enough. Meanwhile, while experts warn society about the dangers of self-aware AI – are those warnings being heeded?

Guest:

• David Ropeik – Professor emeritus Harvard University, and expert on the psychology of risk

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-feeling-risky

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 April 03, 2023 - Calling All Aliens

Big Picture Science - Calling All Aliens

Are we alone in the universe? Is there other intelligence out there? COSMIC, the most ambitious SETI search yet, hopes to answer that. We hear updates on this novel signal detection project being conducted on the Very Large Array in the desert of New Mexico.

Also, we chat with award-winning science fiction writer Ted Chiang about how he envisions making contact with aliens in his stories, including the one that was the basis for the movie Arrival. And find out why some scientists don’t want only to listen for signals, they want to deliberately transmit messages to aliens. Is that wise and, if we did it, what would we say?

Guests:

• Chenoa Tremblay – Postdoc researcher in radio astronomy for the SETI Institute and member of COSMIC science team
• Ted Chiang – Nand Hugo award-winning science fiction writer, best known for his collections, Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation
• Douglas Vakoch – Founder and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/calling-all-aliens

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 Mar 27, 2023 - Make Space For Animals

Big Picture Science - Make Space For Animals

(REPEAT)
Long before Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space, Laika, a stray dog, crossed the final frontier. Find out what other surprising species were drafted into the astronaut corps.

They may be our best friends, but we still balk at giving other creatures moral standing. And why are humans so reluctant to accept the fact that we too are animals?

Guests:

• Jo Wimpenny - Zoologist and writer. Author of “Aesop’s Animals”
• Taylor Maggiacomo - Associate Graphic Editor at National Geographic Society
• Alexander Stegmaier - Freelance Graphic Editor at National Geographic
• Melanie Challenger - An author who writes on nature, environment and human history. Her latest book: “How to be Animal: A New History of What it Means to be Human”

This repeat podcast originally aired on January 24, 2022

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/make-space-for-animals

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 Mar 20, 2023 - Skeptic Check: Do Your Own Research

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Do Your Own Research

(LATE POST AND A REPEAT)
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.”

This repeat podcast originally aired on February 7, 2022

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!

Big Picture Science for Mar 13, 2023 - Flower Power

Big Picture Science - Flower Power

Before everything could come up roses, there had to be a primordial flower – the mother, and father, of all flowers. Now scientists are on the hunt for it. The eFlower project aims to explain the sudden appearance of flowering plants in the fossil record, what Darwin called an “abominable mystery.”

Meanwhile, ancient flowers encased in amber or preserved in tar are providing clues about how ecosystems might respond to changing climates. And, although it was honed by evolution for billions of years, can we make photosynthesis more efficient and help forestall a global food crisis?

Guests:

• Eva-Maria Sadowski - Post doctoral paleobotanist at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
• Regan Dunn - Paleobotanist and assistant Curator at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum
• Royal Krieger - Rosarian and volunteer at the Morcom Rose Garden, Oakland, California
• Ruby Stephens - Plant ecology PhD candidate at Macquarie University in Australia, and member of the eFlower Project
• Stephen Long - Professor of Plant Science, University of Illinois

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/flower-power

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 Mar 06, 2023 - Lady Parts

Big Picture Science - Lady Parts

REPEAT
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”

This repeat podcast originally aired on October 31, 2022

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 for Feb 27, 2023 - Waste Not

Big Picture Science - Waste Not

REPEAT
Why create more landfill? Perhaps you should resist the urge to toss those old sneakers, the broken ceiling fan, or last year’s smart phone. Instead, repurpose them! Global junk entrepreneurs are leading the way in turning trash to treasure, while right-to-repair advocates fight for legislation that would give
you a decent shot at fixing your own electronic devices.

And, if you toss food scraps down the drain as you cook, are you contributing to a “fatberg” horror in the sewer?

Guests:

• John Love – Synthetic biologist at the University of Exeter
• Adam Minter – Author of Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale
• Amanda Preske – Chemist and the owner of Circuit Breaker Labs
• Nathan Proctor – National campaign director for U.S. Public Interest Research Group – (PIRGS) Right to Repair campaign
• Kyle Wiens – CEO of I-Fixit, an Internet repair community

This repeat podcast originally aired on December 16, 2019

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/waste-not

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 20, 2023 - Post Social Media

Big Picture Science - Post Social Media

Before you check your social media feeds today. And post. And post again. And get into an argument on Twitter, lose track of time and wonder where the morning went, consider that social media was never a natural way to socialize.

A cultural anthropologist weighs in on the evolutionary reasons humans can’t thrive on social media. And we hear about the signs that social media is on its way out. If that’s the case, what’s next?

Guests:

• Max Fisher – Reporter for The New York Times, author of “The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World”
• Douglas Rushkoff – Professor of media theory and digital economics at City University of New York, and author of “Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires”
• Ian Bogost – Professor of Media Studies and computer science at Washington University in St. Louis and a contributing writer at The Atlantic.
• Alex Mesoudi – Professor of Cultural Evolution at the University of Exeter, U.K.

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/post-social-media

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 13, 2023 - Fungi Fear

Big Picture Science - Fungi Fear

The zombie eco-thriller “The Last of Us” has alerted us to the threats posed by fungi. But the show is not entirely science fiction.  Our vulnerability to pathogenic fungi is more real than many people imagine.

Find out what human activity drives global fungal threats, including their menace to food crops and many other species. Our high body temperature has long kept lethal fungi in check; but will climate change cause fungi to adapt to warmer temperatures and threaten our health?

Plus, a radically new way to think about these organisms, how they make all life possible, and how we might find balance again.

Guests:

• Emily Monosson – Toxicologist who writes about changes in the natural world. A member of the Ronin Institute and a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, she is the author of “Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic.”
• Arturo Casadevall – Microbiologist, immunologist, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
• Michael Hathaway – Anthropologist, director of the Asian Studies Center at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and author of “What a Mushroom Lives For.”

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/fungi-fear

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 06, 2023 - Math's Paths

Big Picture Science - Math's Paths

REPEAT
If you bake, you can appreciate math’s transformative properties. Admiring the stackable potato chip is to admire a hyperbolic sheet. Find out why there’s no need to fear math - you just need to think outside the cuboid.  Also, how nature’s geometric shapes inspire the next generation of squishy robots and an argument for radically overhauling math class. The end point of these common factors is acute show that’s as fun as eating Pi

Guests:

• Eugenia Cheng – Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, tenured at the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sheffield, and author of “How to Bake Pi”
• Shankar Venkataramani – Professor of math at the University of Arizona
• Steven Strogatz – Professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University and author of “Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe”
• Daniel Finkel – Mathematician and founder and director of operations at “Math for Love”

This repeat podcast originally aired on July 15, 2019

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/maths-paths

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 Jan. 30, 2023 - Skeptic Check: Understanding UAPs

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Understanding UAPs

The newest Pentagon report on UAPs – or Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon – reflects long standing public interest about what’s in our skies. Now, NASA is investigating for themselves.

Should we assume that what we can’t identify is alien visitation? In our regular look at critical thinking, we look at the history of UFO sightings, visit Roswell on the 75th anniversary of the crash, and ask how our desire to believe influences our interpretation of evidence.

Guests:

• Paul Hynek - Teacher at Pepperdine University and son of the late astronomer J. Allen Hynek
• Roger Launius - Former chief historian for NASA and former Chair of the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-understanding-uaps

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 Jan. 23, 2023 - Vaccine Inequity

Big Picture Science - Vaccine Inequity

(REPEAT)
A radical plan could solve a historic global health inequity. Countries in the global south who waited for more than a year for ample supplies of Covid vaccines have banded together to make mRNA vaccines locally. If successful, they could end a dangerous dependency on wealthy nations and help stop pandemics before they start.

In a special episode, supported by the Pulitzer Center, journalist Amy Maxmen shares her reporting from southern Africa about the inspiring project led by the WHO that’s made fast progress. But it could fail, and a global imbalance will remain, if Big Pharma has its way. Find out what’s at stake.

Guests:

• Amy Maxmen - Award-winning science journalist, Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the Nature article, "The Radical Plan for Vaccine Equity"
• Petro Terblanche - Managing Director, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines in Cape Town, South Africa
• Kondwani Charles Jambo - Senior Lecturer and immunologist at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Clinical Research Programme in Blantyre, Malawi
• Barney Graham - Former deputy director at the Vaccine Research Center at NIH and professor of medicine and microbiology immunology biochemistry at Morehouse School of Medicine
• Emile Hendricks - Research technologist at Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines in Cape Town, South Africa
• Achal Prabhala - Fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, Coordinator at AccessIBSA, a medicines-access initiative in Bengaluru, India
• Patrick Tippoo - Head of Science and Innovation at Biovac in Cape Town, South Africa, founding member of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative (AVMI)
• Harrison Chauluka - chief of the Mkunda village in Malawi
• Agnes Joni - farmer in Chiradzulu, Malawi
• Prophet Dauda - translator and writer in Blantyre, Malawi

This repeat podcast originally aired on November 21, 2022

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/vaccine-inequity

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 Jan. 16, 2023 - Testing Your Metal

Big Picture Science - Testing Your Metal

(REPEAT)
Catalytic converters are disappearing. If you’ve had yours stolen, you know that rare earth metals are valuable. But these metals are in great demand for things other than converters, such as batteries for electric cars, wind farms and solar panels.

We need rare earth metals to combat climate change, but where to get them? Could we find substitutes?

One activity that could be in our future: Deep sea mining. But it’s controversial. Can one company’s plan to mitigate environmental harm help?

Guests:

• Paul Dauenhauer - Professor of chemical engineering and material science at the University of Minnesota and a 2020 MacArthur Fellow
• Chris Leighton - Distinguished University Teaching Professor, Editor, Physical Review Materials, Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota
• Renee Grogan - Co-founder and Chief Sustainability Officer, Impossible Mining company

This repeat podcast originally aired on January 17, 2022

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/testing-your-metal

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 Jan. 09, 2023 - Melting Down

 

Big Picture Science - Melting Down

(REPEAT)
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

This repeat podcast originally aired on February 21, 2022

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 Jan. 02, 2023 - Coming to Our Animal Senses

 

Big Picture Science - Coming to Our Animal Senses

(REPEAT)
Animals experience the world differently. There are insects that can see ultraviolet light, while some snakes can hunt in the dark thanks to their ability to sense infrared. Such differences are not restricted to vision: Elephants can hear subsonic sounds, birds navigate by magnetism, and your dog lives in a world marked by odors. In this episode, we speak to science journalist Ed Yong about how other creatures sense the world. Could we ever understand what it’s like to have the hearing of a bat or the sight of a hawk?

Guest:

• Ed Yong – Science writer for The Atlantic whose coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic earned him a Pulitzer Prize in explanatory journalism. He is the author of, “An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us.” 

This repeat podcast originally aired on September 5, 2022

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/coming-to-our-animal-senses

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!