Big Picture Science

Latest Episodes:

No Expiration Date Nov 19, 2012

Show notes

We all have to go sometime, and that final hour is the mother of all deadlines. But scientists are working to file an extension. Discover how far we can push the human expiration date.

Plus, the animal with the shortest lifespan and the chemistry that causes your pot-roast to eventually clothe itself in fuzzy green mold.

Also, a clock that won’t stop ticking (for 10,000 years) and our love-hate relationship with that long-lived hydrocarbon that keeps our snack cakes fresh: plastic!

Guests:

Martin Bucknavage- Senior Food Safety Extension Associate, Department of Food Science at Penn State
Leonard Guarente – Biologist, Laboratory for the Science of Aging, M.I.T.
Alexander Rose – Executive Director and Clock Project Manager, Long Now Foundation
Rick Hochberg – Biologist, University of Massachusetts – Lowell
Susan Freinkel – Author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story

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Going Global Nov 05, 2012

Show notes

The Internet is not the only globally-uniting phenomenon. Viruses and bacteria can circle the globe as fast as we can, and the effects can be devastating. Discover what it takes for an animal disease to become a human pandemic. Also, was hurricane Sandy a man-made disaster? The future of severe storms and climate change.

Plus, the view of our science from abroad: why Brits have no trouble accepting the theory of evolution but Americans do. And what about a new annex for Silicon Valley – 12 miles out to sea?

Guests:

• Jerry Meehl – Senior scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO

• Alok Jha – Science correspondent, The Guardian

• David Quammen – Science journalist and author, most recently of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

• Max Marty – Co-founder and CEO of Blueseed

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Space Archaeology Oct 22, 2012

Show notes

Indiana Jones meets Star Trek in the field of space archaeology. Satellites scan ancient ruins so that scientists can map them without disturbing one grain of sand. Discover how some archaeologists forsake their spades and brushes in favor of examining historic sites from hundreds of miles high.

Also, if you were to hunt for alien artifacts – what would you look for? Why ET might choose to send snail mail rather than a radio signal.

Plus, the culture of the hardware we send into space, and roaming the Earth, the moon, and Mars the Google way.

Guests:

• Alice Gorman – Archaeologist at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

• Christopher Rose – Professor of Computer and Intellectual Engineering, Rutgers University, New Jersey

• Robin Hanson – Economist at George Mason University, Virginia

• Tiffany Montague – Engineer, and Intergalactic Federation King Almighty, Commander of the Universe, at Google, Inc.

• Compton Tucker – Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

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As the Worlds Turn Oct 15, 2012

Show notes

If you’re itching it get away from it all, really get away from it all, have we got some exotic destinations for you. Mars … Jupiter’s moon Europa … asteroids . Tour some enticing worlds that are worlds away, but ripe for exploration.

Also, why private spaceships may be just the ticket for getting yourself into space, unless you want to wait for a space elevator.

And, why one science journalist boasts of an infectious, unabashed, and unbridled enthusiasm for space travel.

Guests:

• Cynthia Phillips – Planetary geologist, SETI Institute

• Britney Schmidt – Research scientist, University of Texas, Austin

• Paul Abell – Planetary geologist, NASA’s Johnson Space Center

• Richard Hollingham – Science journalist, producer of Space Boffins podcast, living in the U.K.

• Barry Matsumori – Senior vice president for commercial sales and business development, SpaceX Corporation

• Peter Swan – Space System Engineer and Vice President, International Space Elevator Consortium

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[Rectangular Container] Thinking Oct 08, 2012

Show notes

By thinking different, scientists can make extraordinary breakthroughs. Learn about the creative cogitation that led to the discovery of dark matter and the invention of a.c. power grids, disinfectant, and the Greek “death ray.” Also, whether one person’s man of genius is another’s mad scientist.

And, the scientist who claims pi is wrong and biopunks who tinker with DNA – in their kitchens and on the cheap.

Plus, from string theory to the greenhouse effect – how metaphor sheds light on science. Discover why your brain is like a rain forest (that’s a simile!).

Guests:

• Anil Ananthaswamy – Corresponding editor for New Scientist magazine in London and author of The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth’s Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe

• Marcus Wohlsen – Reporter for the Associated Press, and author of Biopunk: DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life

• John Monahan – Author of They Called Me Mad: Genius, Madness, and the Scientists Who Pushed the Outer Limits of Knowledge

• Michael Hartl – Physicist, creator of “Tau Day”

• James Geary – Author of I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World

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Skeptic Check: Mysterious Illness Oct 01, 2012

Show notes

Stuttering speech and facial tics are among the strange symptoms that swept through a New York high school. Discover what’s behind the odd outbreak, and why one sociologist sees parallels to Salem, Massachusetts 300 years ago.

Also, an update on the cellphone cancer debate, and why one congressman wants warning labels on all new phones.

Plus, the ultimate cleanse: giving up on food to survive on light and air. We investigate the claims of Breatharians.

It’s Skeptic Check … but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

• Dennis Kucinich – U.S. Representative, Ohio’s 10th congressional district

• Joshua Muscat – Epidemiologist, professor of public health sciences, Penn State at Hershey College of Medicine

• Michael Wyde – Toxicologist, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

• Robert Bartholomew – Sociologist, Botany College, Auckland, New Zealand, author of Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior

• Gordy Slack – Science writer

• Benjamin Radford – Deputy editor, Skeptical Inquirer magazine

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Big Data Sep 24, 2012

Show notes

It’s all in the numbers. The trick is, finding what you’re looking for. But that’s the name of the game with big data. We have a giga-gigabyte of information, and combing through it will lead to new cures for disease, new discoveries about the cosmos, or clues to our social and economic behavior.

But is big data Big Brother? You leave a little bit of yourself behind with each mouse click. Discover how surveillance and privacy issues bubble out of the mix, as the terabytes keep flowing in.

Plus one man’s quest to know himself through the numbers as he records everything – and we do mean everything – about his body.

Guests:

• Atul Butte – Associate professor, division chief, systems medicine, Stanford University

• Larry Smarr – Professor of computer science, University of California, San Diego, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, (Calit2)

• Karen Nelson – Microbiologist, director of the Rockville Campus of the J. Craig Venter Institute

• Gerry Harp – Physicist, and Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute

• Deirdre Mulligan – Assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Information and faculty director of the Berkeley Center of Law and Technology

• Ken Goldberg – Professor of engineering, information and art at the University of California, Berkeley

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Skeptic Check: Energy Vortex Sep 17, 2012

Show notes

"I feel your vibe!” Well, that describes a number of fabled locales that claim to pulse with mysterious energy – perhaps prompting books to fly across the room or airplanes to vanish into thin air. But what’s the science behind it?

We examine spots marked with an X, for “extraordinary” – from a haunted house to the Bermuda Triangle – to sort out natural from supernatural phenomena.

Plus, what causes the aurora borealis… a haywire Russian space probe… and just what the heck is an “energy vortex,” anyway?

Guests:

• Phil Plait – Skeptic and keeper of Discover Magazine’s blog: badastronomy

• Mike Borg – Group Sales Coordinator, Winchester Mystery House

• Jim Underdown – Executive Director, Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles

• Peter Williams – Hydrodynamicist at Agilent Technologies

• Guy P. Harrison – Writer and business owner in Southern California, author of 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True

• Rob Lillis – Space and Planetary Physicist, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley

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Oh, Rats! Sep 10, 2012

Show notes

Before you chase it with a broom, consider this – without the rat, we might miss critical insights into the nature of stress, cancer … and even love. These furry, red-eyed rodents have a unique role in medical research – and a ubiquitous companion to our urban lives.

Discover the origins of the albino laboratory rat … what rat laughter sounds like, and why these four-legged fur balls don’t fall victim to the pressure of the rat race … but we do.

Guests:

• Kelly Lambert – Behavioral Neuroscientist, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Virginia, author of The Lab Rat Chronicles: A Neuroscientist Reveals Life Lessons from the Planet’s Most Successful Mammals

• Michael Gould – Professor of Oncology and Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Jaak Pankseep – Neuroscientist, Veterinary College, Washington State University, author of The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

• Pico Iyer – Writer, author of The Man Within My Head and the New York Times article The Joy of Quiet

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The Invisible In-Between Sep 03, 2012

Show notes

To need air is human. Our lungs thank us for each breath we take. But air is more than a transporter of O2. It shapes our weather, keeps birds aloft and moves spores from here to there. A cubic foot of air is anything but “empty” (hot dog grease particles, anyone?).

The same goes for space (minus the hot dog grease). It’s a happening place. Discover why interstellar space is more than a whole lot o’ nothing; and what happens when the Voyager spacecraft leaves our solar system. Plus, catch a skydiver in action!

Guests:

• Mako Igarashi – Skydiving instructor, Skydive Hollister, Hollister, CA

• Rhett Allain – Physicist at Southeastern Louisiana University, blogger for Wired.com

• William Bryant Logan – Author of Air: The Restless Shaper of the World

• Robert Wagoner – Emeritus professor of physics, Stanford University

• Alex Filippenko – Astronomer, University of California, Berkeley

• Ed Stone – Physicist at CalTech, former Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, project scientist for the Voyager mission

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