Big Picture Science

Latest Episodes:

Big, Really Big Apr 18, 2011

Show notes

The universe is big – really big.* Galaxies, for instance, are often large enough to hold a trillion stars. But how did these heavenly heavyweights come to be? Hear how still-mysterious dark matter is implicated in the birth of galaxies.

Also, gamma ray bursts - explosions more energetic than anything since the Big Bang - take place somewhere in the visible universe every day. What are they, and could they obliterate life on Earth?

And, the biggest cosmic mystery de jour: dark energy. Why new, super-size telescopes may finally reveal just what it is.

We’re living large on “Big, Really Big.”

*appreciative nod to Douglas Adams

Guests:

George Djorgovski - Astronomer, California Institute of Technology
Sandra Faber - Astronomer and Chair of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California at Santa Cruz; leads the CANDELS survey that uses the Hubble Space Telescope to image more than
250,000 distant galaxies
Daniel Perley - Astronomer, University of California at Berkeley
Ed Stone - Former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and physicist at the California Institute of Technology
Richard Panek - Author of The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality

Descripción en español

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Skeptic Check: Swimming in Denial Apr 11, 2011

Show notes

Public distrust of science is higher than at any time since the Enlightenment. New Yorker writer Michael Specter argues how our anti-science bias and our irrationalism about everything from genetically modified foods to climate change to childhood vaccines endangers our future.

And remember when… a look back at scientists who at first pooh-poohed plate tectonics... meteorites, and quantum physics. How the evidence turned them around.

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

Guests:

Michael Specter - Writer for The New Yorker and author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives
Read Montague - Director of the Human Neuroimaging Lab at Baylor College of Medicine and author of Why Choose This Book?: How We Make Decisions
Spencer Weart - Historian of science

Descripción en español

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Sex and the SETI Apr 04, 2011

Show notes

Birds do it. Bees do it. But no one sings about how they do it. And frankly, not even Cole Porter can make bedroom behavior that involves decapitating your mate sound romantic. And what rhymes with “cannibalism?” But the animal world abounds with bizarre sexual behavior… and it’s all perfectly normal.

Find out how female spiders lure males to their doom… why dolphins are the friskiest of mammals… whether E.T. would have sex… and why sexual reproduction evolved in the first place.

Also, why the marketing gurus have it all wrong: driving a Hummer or wearing Gucci won’t help you land a mate. Find out what will.

Guests:

Olivia Judson - Evolutionary biologist at Imperial College in London and author of Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex
Lori Marino - Evolutionary Biologist at Emory University
Sharon Moalem - Neuro-geneticist, evolutionary biologist and author of How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do
Geoffrey Miller - Evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico and author of Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior

Descripción en español

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Who's on First? Mar 14, 2011

Show notes

Being first counts in science. Land that coveted spot and you’ll make history, whether it’s with the first steam engine or the discovery of our earliest human ancestor.

But what does “first” mean when technological invention so heavily builds on what’s come before... and evolution represents continuous change?

Find out how “publish or perish” made Darwin famous… why we’ll never find the first human fossil… and how powerful new telescopes are allowing us to see the earliest galaxies.

Plus, the chicken and egg battle it out in line.

Guests:

Garth Illingworth - Astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz
Sean B. Carroll - Molecular biologist and geneticist at the University of Wisconsin Madison and author of Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species
Leslea Hlusko - Paleontologist at the University of California- Berkeley. Read more about Ardi
Descripción en español

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Eureka! Mar 07, 2011

Show notes

From the double-helix to the expansion of the universe, great scientific discoveries reshape our understanding of who we are and how things work. But great discoveries require more than just a great mind. We tour brainy breakthroughs from Archimedes to Darwin, and find out what made their revolutionary insights possible.

Also, why you need more than a stratospheric I.Q. to be a super-achiever. And how the invention of reading re-directed the course of civilization and re-wired our brains in the process.

Guests:

Alan Hirshfeld - Professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and author of Eureka Man: The Life and Legacy of Archimedes
Richard Holmes - Author of The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
Angela Duckworth - Psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Her grit study can be found here
Stanislas Dehaene - Cognitive neruoscientist at the the Collège de France in Paris, and author of Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention

Descripción en español

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Skeptic Check: Diluted Thinking Feb 27, 2011

Show notes

The weaker the mixture, the stronger the potency. That paradox is a central tenet of homeopathy. More than 200 years old and developed long before germ theory, the practice is the fastest growing form of alternative medicine worldwide.

Proponents say its diluted remedies cure disease. Most scientists maintain there’s nothing in homeopathic solution but water. We’ll hear the arguments, and also the role placebos might be playing in the cure.

Plus, skeptic Phil Plait voyages to the edge of the solar system where a new planet has been discovered … maybe!

And, consider our brains: the product of millions of years of evolution. So why aren’t we more consistent in our reasoning?

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

Guests:

• Iris Bell – Psychiatrist and researcher in alternative medicine at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine

• Simon Singh – Science writer based in the U.K., author of Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine

• Phil Plait – Astronomer, skeptic, and keeper of the web site badastronomy.com

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

• Gordy Slack – Science writer and keeper of the neuroscience web site, "Brainstorm”

• Robert Kurzban – Associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind

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Outta This World Feb 12, 2011

Show notes

Earth may not be rare after all. New data from NASA’s Kepler mission suggests that the universe is chock-a-block with planets. More than a thousand new possible planets have just been found, and more than fifty of these might be suitable for life. Ready for cosmic company? We discuss the results of the Kepler mission in a roundtable with some of its top scientists.

Meanwhile, the Voyager spacecraft continues to be humanity’s point man in the race to interstellar space. Poised to leave our solar system, we reflect on the mission – including its on-board messages for aliens.

Plus, out-of-this world science. From lab coats to warp speed: does Hollywood get it right? Does it matter?

Guests:

• Jon Jenkins – Co-principal investigator for the Kepler Mission

• Doug Caldwell – Co-investigator and instrument scientist for the Kepler Mission

• Jessie Christiansen – Data scientist working on the Kepler mission

• Ed Stone – Professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, and former Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Jennifer Ouellette – Writer and former director, National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange

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Skeptic Check: ESP or Think Again Jan 30, 2011

Show notes

You’re right: it’s a show about ESP. And, correct again: we’re excited about the publication of a paper that claims precognition exists. You’ve already divined what our paranormal investigator says about the paper, whether the statistics that it cites are significant, and what the editor-in-chief of a major scientific journal has to say on the tricky matter of publishing such a result at all.

You’re not surprised that Brains on Vacation takes on the matter of Armageddon-by-exploding-star, because, you knew that. You also knew that it will be an excellent show. But, tune in anyway – consider it a repeat.

Guests:

Bruce Alberts – Editor-in-chief of Science
Jim Underdown – Executive Director, Center for Inquiry – Los Angeles
Jeff Rouder – Quantitative psychologist, University of Missouri
Phil Plait – Skeptic and keeper of the website badastronomy.com
Steve Macknik – Neuroscientist, author of Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions

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Gone Missing! Jan 22, 2011

Show notes

We all hear about research discoveries, but what about what scientists don’t find? Tune in for a round-up of eureka moments that have yet to come, such as the hunt for the dark energy of the universe and the search for the elusive elementary particle responsible for the mass of objects.

Also, we miss the woolly mammoth so much, scientists plan to clone the hairy beast and bring the extinct animal back.

Plus, why the missing link is no longer missing, what extrasolar planets have now been found, and – NASA money for science: where’d it go?

Guests:

Alan Stern – Aerospace consultant and planetary scientist
Natalie Batalha – Deputy Science Team Lead for NASA’s Kepler Mission
Leslea Hlusko – Biologist at the University of California, Berkeley
Ian Sample – Science writer, author of Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science
Saul Perlmutter – Physicist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Darin Croft – Professor of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve, Cleveland

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You've Got Sol! Jan 20, 2011

Show notes

It’s the star of our solar system, but much about the Sun is still mysterious. Find out what a new NASA mission to our favorite fireball might discover about its super-hot outer regions.

Also, why the most common stars in the galaxy don’t shine thanks to nuclear energy as our Sun does. And, recreating Sol’s energy source on Earth at the National Ignition Facility.

Plus, an ex-Star Wars animator and photographer on how to film an atomic blast.

Guests:

Peter Kuran – An animator on Star Wars, now a filmmaker, documentarian of “Trinity and Beyond,” and author of How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb
Davy Kirkpatrick – Astronomer, California Institute of Technology, and scientist for NASA’s WISE mission
Stuart Bale – Physicist at the University of California, Berkeley and Director of the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory
Mike Dunne – Physicist, and Program Director for Fusion Energy at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory