Big Picture Science

Latest Episodes:

Skeptic Check: Saucer's Apprentice Feb 20, 2012

Show notes

They’re here! About one-third of all Americans believe we’re being visited by extraterrestrial spacecraft. But wait, you want evidence?

UFO sighting are as prevalent as flies at a picnic. But proof of visitation – well, that’s really alien.

Hear why belief in extraterrestrial UFOs persists … and why military sightings that “can’t be explained” don’t warrant rolling out a welcome mat for ET.

Plus, the most fab UFOs in the movies!

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

Guests:

Phil Plait - Keeper of the skeptical website badastronomy.com
Benjamin Radford - Research Fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and managing editor of “Skeptical Inquirer Science Magazine”
Leslie Kean - Journalist, and author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record
Susan Clancy - Psychology Researcher, Harvard University
and author of Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens
Thomas Bullard - Folkorist at Indiana University and author of The Myth and Mystery of UFOs

FIrst aired November 15, 2010.

Descripción en español

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Aware Am I? Feb 13, 2012

Show notes

Humans are pleasure-seekers – from food to sex to fine art. But do we know why we crave what we do? Discover the surprising motivation behind our desires. Also, why our hedonistic cousins, the bonobos, may hold the secret to world peace.

Plus, self-awareness in monkeys: can they really pass the mirror test? Can bacteria, for that matter? Nope! But since you are, cell for cell, more microbe than human, you’ll want to know just how cognitively aware these critters are.

Guests:

Paul Bloom - Psychologist at Yale University and author of How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like
Julie Neiworth - Psychologist, Carleton College
Vanessa Woods - Research scientist at Duke University and author of Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo. Find out more about helping bonobos.
Jim Shapiro - Bacterial geneticist, University of Chicago

First aired November 1, 2010.

Descripción en español

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Wired for Thought Jan 16, 2012

Show notes

A cup of coffee can leave you wired for the day. But a chip in your brain could wire you to a machine forever. Imagine manipulating a mouse without moving a muscle, and doing a Google search with your mind. Welcome to the future of the brain-machine interface.

Don your EEG thinking-cap, and discover a high-tech thought game that may be the harbinger of machine relationships to come.

Plus, the ultimate mapping project: the Human Connectdome Project aims to identify all the neural pathways in the human brain. It may help us understand what makes us human, but could it also point the way to making us smarter?

And, what all this brain research reveals about the mind and free will – who, or what, is really in charge?

Guests:

Jan Rabaey - Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), University of California, Berkeley
Arthur Toga - Neurologist at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, UCLA School of Medicine, and researcher on the Human Connectome Project
Michael Gazzaniga - Neuroscientist, director of the University of California Santa Barbara’s SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, and author of Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain
Bradley Voytek - Neuroscientist, University of California, San Francisco

Descripción en español

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Light, the Universe, and Everything Jan 02, 2012

Show notes

What’s it all about? And we mean ALL. What makes up this vast sprawling cosmos? Why does it exist? Why do we exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? Ow, my head hurts!

For possible answers, we travel to the moment after the Big Bang and discover all that came into being in those few minutes after the great flash: time, space, matter, and light. Plus, the bizarre stuff that makes up the bulk of the universe: dark energy and dark matter.

Also, what we set in motion with the invention of the light blub. How artificial light lit up our homes, our cities and – inadvertently – our skies.

Guests:

Sean Carroll - Theoretical physicist at California Institute of Technology
Leonard Susskind - Theoretical physicist, Stanford University
Jane Brox - Author of Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light
Peter Fisher - Physicist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Descripción en español

First aired September 6, 2010

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Skeptic Check: Superstition Dec 26, 2011

Show notes

Wait! Before you step outside... is it Friday the 13th? Any black cats prowling around? Broken a mirror lately? Homo sapiens are a superstitious lot. Find out why our brains are wired for irrational belief. Plus, from the 2012-end-of-the-world prophesy to colliding planets - why some people believe the universe is out to get ‘em.

Also, Brains on Vacation takes on a challenge to relativity and our Hollywood skeptic has doubts about exorcism. It’s enough to make your head spin on Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

Bruce Hood - Cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol in the U.K. and author of The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs
David Morrison - Director of the Carl Sagan Center for The Study of Life in The Universe at the SETI Institute and keeper of the NASA website Ask an Astrobiologist
Martin Snow - Research Scientist, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder
Jim Underdown - Executive Director, Center for Inquiry, West - Los Angeles
Phil Plait - Astronomer, keeper of badastronomy.com, and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .

Descripción en español

First aired August 16, 2010

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Sensor Sensibility Dec 19, 2011

Show notes

Have you lost your senses? You’ll find them everywhere you look. Sensors respond to external stimuli – light, sound, temperature and much else – to help us make sense (ha!) of our universe. And more are on their way. “Ubiquitous sensing” is the term that describes a world blanketed by tiny sensors: on bridges, in paint and medicine bottles, and even in our brains!

Discover where you’ll find sensors next. And, has the world’s largest detection device found the elusive particle that will help explain the universe? Where are you, Higgsy-wiggsy?

Also, out-of-this world sensors have detected a possibly Earth-like planet. What’s next for the Kepler planet-hunters?

Plus, DIY sensor kits, and, if computers can do all that, why can’t we send the odor of, say, freshly-baked bread over the Internet? The case for a smell-o-meter.

Guests:

Frank Close - Physicist at Oxford University, author of The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
Jan Rabaey - Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), University of California, Berkeley
Barry Shell - Writer in Vancouver, Canada
Andy Huntington - Interaction designer, based in London
Sara Seager - Professor of planetary science and physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Planet hunters - Daryll LaCourse and Tom Jacobs, citizen scientists with Planet Hunters

Descripción en español

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Going Viral Dec 12, 2011

Show notes

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

Descripción en español

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Science's Alliances Dec 05, 2011

Show notes

Mom and apple pie. Computers and silicon. Martians and death rays. Some things just go together naturally. But how about science and politics? Science and religion? Science and fiction? These pairings are often unnatural and contentious … but they don’t have to be.

Discover how science can team up with other endeavors in productive, if surprising, symbiosis.

Meet a particle physicist, turned U.S. Congressman, who calls for more scientists on Capitol Hill. Also, a tour of the Golden Age of Islamic Science.

Plus, scientists named Elmo and Super Grover 2.0 teach small children to conduct experiments with the help of chickens and dancing penguins.

And, it’s not quite science but it’s not entirely fiction either: how sci-fi helps shape our cultural debates about the future.

Guests:

Bill Foster - Physicist and former U.S. representative from Illinois
Carol-Lynn Parente - Executive Producer, Sesame Street
Ranjana Mehra - Docent at The Tech Museum, San Jose, California
Brooks Peck - Curator, EMP Museum, Seattle, Washington

Descripción en español

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Skeptic Check: Dubiology Nov 28, 2011

Show notes

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

Descripción en español

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We've Got You Made Nov 21, 2011

Show notes

Wish you could ditch computers? There’s no escape button for that. Computers are not only a part of your daily grind, they may soon be a part of you. We’ll hear from the world’s first cyborg about why we should make nice in our arms race with machines.

Also, the secret behind the extraordinary breakthroughs that DARPA scientists are making – from building autonomous cars to wiring robotic surgeons.

Plus, making space for humans… and their bodily functions: the engineering tricks of toiletry. And, a carbon-based astronaut on the view of Earth from orbit.

Guests: