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Better Mousetrap Jun 04, 2012

Show notes

It’s the perennial dream: build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. We go to San Jose’s famed Tech Museum to learn what it takes to turn a good idea into a grand success.

Remember the Super Soaker squirt gun? Hear how its inventor is now changing the rules for solar energy.

Where do good ideas come from? A Eureka moment in the bathtub? We’ll find out that it doesn’t happen so quickly – or easily.

And finally, the life cycle of society-changing technologies, from the birth of radio to the future of the Internet.

Inventions, inventors and innovation: all part of the mix on “Better Mousetrap.”

Guests:

Steven Johnson - Author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
Lonnie Johnson - Inventor and former NASA engineer; CEO of Johnson Research and Development Company
Tim Wu - Professor of Communication Law at Columbia University and author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Borzoi Books)
Alana Connor - Vice President Content Development, The Tech Museum, San Jose

Descripción en español

Originally released February 7, 2011

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Mass Transits May 28, 2012

Show notes

On June 5, our sister planet Venus will slowly slide across the face of the sun. This will be the last transit of Venus until 2117, so there’s no subsequent chance to observe this celestial spectacular for anyone alive today.

Join us for a special episode devoted to this rare event. Two centuries ago, nations were locked in a race to be the first to measure the Venus transit. From the first observation by the “father” of British astronomy to Captain Cook’s Tahitian expedition in the 18th century, meet the pioneers who were trying to nail down the scale of the cosmos

Plus, tips for observing the 2012 transit … how the Kepler spacecraft uses transits to detect Earth-like worlds … and could there be life floating in Venusian clouds?

Guests:

Jay Pasachoff - Astronomer, Williams College
Peter Aughton - Astronomer and author of The Transit of Venus: The Brief, Brilliant Life of Jeremiah Horrocks, Father of British Astronomy
Nick Lomb - Former Curator of Astronomy, Sydney Observatory, and author of Transit of Venus: 1631 to the Present
Andrea Wulf - Author of Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens
David Grinspoon - Curator of Astrobiology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Jon Jenkins - Lead analyst with the Kepler Mission and senior scientist with the SETI Institute

Descripción en español

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To Earth and Back May 21, 2012

Show notes

We are all Martians … or could be, if, billions of years ago, Red Plant microbes fell to Earth and eventually evolved to us. Okay, that one’s a big “if.” But microbes can survive space travel. Meet the NASA officer whose task is to keep Earth, Mars - and the entire solar system –safe from hitchhiking bacteria.

And, even if we’re not Martians (darn!), did life once thrive on the Red Planet ... and does it still today?

Plus, why meteorites may be happy habitats for life.

Guests:

Catharine Conley - NASA planetary protection officer
Chris McKay - Planetary scientist, NASA Ames Research Center
Paul Davies - Director of the BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University
Aaron Burton - Astrobiologist, NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center
Debbie Kolyer - Grants Manager, SETI Institute
Descripción en español

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That's So Random! May 14, 2012

Show notes

Random is as random does… makes sense doesn’t even that anyway in tune hear to randomness how lives rules.

Brain chaos the drives, restoration role of help insight ecology may into randomness the, numbers sense of make statistics can’t why we or, ants not seem of erratic behavior why the may but is.

Guests:

Leonard Mlodinow - Theoretical physicist and author of The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Vintage)
Jon Chase - Biologist and director of the Tyson Research center at Washington University in St. Louis
Lori Marino - Evolutionary biologist, Emory University
Deborah Gordon - Biologist, Stanford University
John Beggs - Physicist, Indiana University at Bloomington

First released January 10, 2011

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Early Adapters Apr 23, 2012

Show notes

The times are a’changing – rising temperatures, growing population, and new technology coming at us faster than a greased cheetah.

So how will humans respond? Find out about future farming in the city – your vegetables might be grown in downtown, hi-rise greenhouses. Also, a population expert tells us how our planet can cope with billions more people, and the man who invented the term ‘cyberspace’ describes what the future might hold for the techno-savvy.

Darwinian evolution takes a long time to accommodate to new environments. But Homo sapiens can beat that rap by wielding the right technology – and becoming early adapters.

Guests:

Dickson Despommier - Emeritus professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia University, author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century
William Gibson - Author, most recently, of Zero History
Joel Cohen - Mathematician and biologist at Rockefeller University
David DeGusta - Paleoanthropologist at the Paleoanthropology Institute in California

Descripción en español

First aired December 6, 2010

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Humans Need Not Apply Apr 16, 2012

Show notes

You are one-of-a-kind, unique, indispensible… oh, wait, never mind! It seems that computer over there can do what you do … faster and with greater accuracy.

Yes, it’s silicon vs. carbon as intelligent, interactive machines out-perform humans in tasks beyond data-crunching. We’re not only building our successors, we’re developing emotional relationships with them. Find out why humans are hard-wired to be attached to androids.

Also, the handful of areas where humans still rule… as pilots, doctors and journalists. Scratch that! Journalism is automated too – tune in for a news story written solely by a machine.

Guests:

Clifford Nass - Social psychologist at Stanford University and Director of the Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media Lab
Tom Jones - United States astronaut, space consultant, and veteran of four Space Shuttle flights
Chris Ford - Business director at Pixar Animation Studios
Eric Van De Graaff -Cardiologist at Alegent Health
James Bennighof - Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and professor of music theory at Baylor University in Texas
Kathy Abbott - Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Flight Deck Human Factors at the Federal Aviation Administration
Kristian Hammond - Co-founder, Narrative Science

Descripción en español

First aired November 22, 2010.

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Second That Emotion Apr 09, 2012

Show notes

So you weep at sappy commercials and give drivers the bird. Have no regrets: emotion is what makes us human! Discover the survival value in feeling disgust … why humans are terrible liars … and how despair fuels creativity.

Also, mis-firing emotions and the emotional consequences of facial paralysis. And why E.T. will need to feel fear and joy to survive.

Guests:

Rachel Herz - Psychologist, author of That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion
Paul Ekman - Psychologist, professor emeritis, University of California, San Francisco
Kathleen Bogart - Psychologist, Tufts University
Gordy Slack - Science writer
Jonah Lehrer - Author of Imagine: How Creativity Works

Descripción en español

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Found in Space Mar 26, 2012

Show notes

If someone asks where you get off, you can now respond with precision. Satellites and computers spit out coordinates accurate to a few paces. And digital maps stand the Copernican principle on its head – putting you at the center of everything (how does it feel?).

Find out how today’s maps are shuffling our world view. Also, how does a rat navigate a maze without GPS? Hear of the plotting that goes on in that tiny rodent brain.

Plus, mapping the universe and pinpointing just where we are in cosmic time – lucky for us, human evolution is right on schedule.

Guests:

Josh Winn - Astronomer, MIT
David Redish - Neuroscientist, University of Minnesota
Mario Livio - Astrophysicist, Space Telescope Science Institute and author of Is God a Mathematician?
Mike Goodchild - Professor of Geography, Center for Spatial Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Descripción en español

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Seth's Cabinet of Wonders Mar 12, 2012

Show notes

It’s always a surprise to sort through Seth's cabinet of wonders – who knows what we’ll find!

In this cramped cupboard, tucked between shelves of worm gears and used clarinet reeds, we discover a forgotten U.S. sea floor laboratory … copies of the new Cosmos TV series … evidence of science fiction’s predictive powers … software that may replace scientists … and tips on surviving a deadly poison (hint: it helps to be a snake).

Tune in, find out and grab a duster, will you?

Guests:

Neil deGrasse Tyson - Astrophysicst at the American Museum of Natural History and author of Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
Robert J. Sawyer - Hugo award-wining science fiction author; his newest title is Triggers
Ben Hellwarth - Author of Sealab: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor
Hod Lipson - Roboticist at Cornell University
Chris Feldman - Biologist, University of Nevada, Reno

Descripción en español

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Skeptic Check: Prog-Not-Stication Mar 05, 2012

Show notes

The future is no mystery … according to psychics who say they have special access to tomorrow’s events. For example, adherents to the Mayan doomsday prophecy warn that when 2012 ends, so will the world.

Discover what’s behind claims of prognostication, and why – if it really works – no one is making a killing in Las Vegas.

Also, could science divine the future? Programmers with the Living Earth Simulator say that with sufficient data, their billion-dollar computer project can predict world events.

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

Guests:

Phil Plait - Skeptic and keeper of Discover Magazine’s blog, badastronomy.com
Christopher French - Psychologist, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London
Guy Harrison - Writer and business owner, author of 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True
Alessandro Vespignani - Physicist, Northeastern University
Ken Caldeira - Climate scientist in the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology, Stanford University
Sue Wilhite - Master Tarot card reader at East
West Bookstore in Mountain View, California

Descripción en español

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