Big Picture Science

Latest Episodes:

Earth: A Millennium Hence Oct 11, 2010

Show notes

Humans have not gone unnoticed on this planet. We’ve left our mark with technology, agriculture, architecture, and a growing carbon footprint. But where is this trajectory headed?

In the second of a two-part series: what we’ll lose and what will last in 1000 years or more.

Discover what the planet might look like to geologists of the far-off-future… the stubborn longevity of plastic and radioactive waste... human civilization in space… and postcards from the galactic edge; crafting interstellar messages to E.T.

Guests:

Charles Moore - Sea Captain and founder of Algalita Marine Research Foundation
Jan Zalasiewicz - Geologist, University of Leicester and author of The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks?
Matthew Wald - Reporter for the New York Times and author of the article “Is There a Place for Nuclear Waste?” in the August 2009 issue of Scientific American
Doug Vakoch - Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute
David Korsmeyer - Chief of the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center

Descripción en español

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Earth: A Century Hence Oct 04, 2010

Show notes

Humans have not gone unnoticed on this planet. We’ve left our mark with technology, agriculture, architecture, and a growing carbon footprint. But where is this trajectory headed?

In the first of a two-part series: what will be lost and what will still be around 100 years from now? James Lovelock says a hotter planet will prompt mass migrations. And Cary Fowler urges us to save our seeds – the health of future farms may depend on it.

Plus, from antibiotics to sewage systems: why human ingenuity ultimately saves the day.

And, sure, humans will be around in a century, but – with bionic limbs and silicon neurons – would we recognize them?

Guests:

James Lovelock - Independent scientist and author of The Vanishing Face of Gaia
Cary Fowler - Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust
Russell Blackford - Philosopher, writer, and editor-in-chief of the “Journal of Evolution and Technology.”

Descripción en español

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Skeptic Check: Sheer Lunacy Sep 26, 2010

Show notes

Watch out, the moon is full… of intrigue. Our lovely satellite is blamed for all sorts of Earth-bound mischief – from robberies to shape-shifting to general nutty behavior. It’s also the setting for more than one loony tale. In this hour, as NASA spacecraft return to the moon, a look at the mythology it inspires.

Discover the true correlation between crime and a full moon… the 1835 reports of unicorns and man-bats living on moon… and, our favorite hair-raising howler: the werewolf! Also, why some still insist the Apollo moon landing is a hoax.

Plus, space travel – boxed and bundled.

Guests:

Phil Plait - Keeper of the skeptical website badastronomy.com and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .
Matthew Goodman - Author of The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
Jim Underdown - Executive Director for the Center for Inquiry West, Los Angeles and keeper of the blog Hollywood Reality Check
June Pulliam - English professor, Louisiana State University
Cynthia Phillips - Scientist at the SETI Institute and author, most recently, of Space Exploration For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science))
Paul Spudis - Senior scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute

Descripción en español

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What Makes Us Human Part II: Adaptability Sep 20, 2010

Show notes

Are humans unique or do we just do some things a little better than other species? In the second of our two-part series – how our ability to adapt has shaped our evolution.

Find out how throwing a burger on the grill has transformed our species… the 1% genetic difference that separate us from chimps… why we’re poorly adapted and stressed out … and why human evolution is not only on the move, but picking up the pace.

Richard Wrangham - Biological anthropologist at Harvard University and author of Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
Katherine Pollard - Biostatistician at the Gladstone Institutes at the University of California, San Francisco
Robert Sapolsky - Biological scientist at Stanford University and neurologist at Stanford’s School of Medicine. Author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition and, more recently, Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals
Gregory Cochran - Anthropologist at the University of Utah and co-author of The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution

Descripción en español

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What Makes Us Human Part I: Others Sep 13, 2010

Show notes

Are humans unique or do we just do some things a little better than other species? In the first of our two-part series on the nature of humanity: how the influence of others has shaped our evolution.

Find out how baby talk gave root to human language and why social isolation can make us sick. Plus, the joke’s on us – new research says we’re not the only laughing species: meet your giggling gorilla cousins.

And, what a writer’s visit to a chimp retirement center revealed about human discomfort with our animal ancestry.

Dean Falk - Anthropologist at Florida State University and author of Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants, and the Origins of Language
John Cacioppo - Director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago and co-author of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection
Lori Marino - Biologist at Emory University
Kathryn Denning - Anthropologist at York University
Charles Siebert - Author of The Wauchula Woods Accord: Toward a New Understanding of Animals
Marina Davila-Ross - Psychologist at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K.

Descripción en español

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Say What? Aug 30, 2010

Show notes

There’s no escape from the chattering classes – they talk, squawk, squeal and sing all around us. Every animal communicates in some form – it’s essential for survival. They’ve evolved to understand each other … but do we understand them?

Find out what’s coded in humpback whale song and whether human-cetacean dialogue is possible… how information theory reveals communication patterns within the animal kingdom… how plants call out to animals to protect them… and why only humans evolved language.

Guests:

Douglas Carlton Abrams - Author of Eye of the Whale: A Novel
Laurance Doyle - Scientist at the SETI Institute
Douglas Vakoch - Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute
David DeGusta - Anthropologist at Stanford University

Descripción en español

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Rxs Get Personal Aug 09, 2010

Show notes

Medicine’s back.. and this time it’s personal. Get ready to have your genome read… your brain scanned… and undergo a chemical analysis so detailed, it’ll reveal the Twinkie you had for lunch. Everyone’s different, and reading those differences at the level of the gene may provide a more accurate profile of health and how to treat disease. But are you ready to know what’s wrong with you?

Discover the future of personalized medicine with biologist Craig Venter, as well as a man who turned his body over to the new science. Learn what his tests revealed.

Plus, why stem cell research really is a horse race. And, why getting sick is sometimes the best thing.

Guests:

Craig Venter - Genome scientist
Frank McCormick - Director of the Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco
David Ewing Duncan - Journalist and author of Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World
Sharon Moalem - Neurogeneticist and Evolutionary Biologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and author of Survival of the Sickest
Sean Owens - Director of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis
Julie Burges - Animal Health Technician, Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, University of California, Davis

Descripción en español

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What's Your Poison? Jul 26, 2010

Show notes

“Aspirin and Old Lace?” Okay, it would take a bottle full of pills in a glass of elderberry wine to really harm you, but aspirin can be deadly. So can too much of anything, including water. Dose is key in toxicology, after all, but there are some poisons that can do deadly work in tiny amounts.

Hear about the chemistry of poisons … why Botox may freeze your emotions as well as your face… which animal is most lethal to humans… and how 19th-century poisoners got away with murder – until the birth of forensic science.

Guests:

Deborah Blum – Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
Martyn Smith – Toxicologist, University of California, Berkeley
Joshua Ian Davis – Psychologist, Barnard College, New York
Jamie Seymour – Venom biologist, director of The Tropical Australian Stinger Research Unit, School of Marine Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia

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Grave Matters Jul 19, 2010

Show notes

We could choose not to pay income tax and suffer the consequences. But we can’t avoid death. The biological functions of all organisms eventually cease. But why should this be? Find out why animals die and meet one creature that is biologically immortal.

Plus, a trip to the Body Farm where decaying bodies help science…how we might cheat the Big Sleep with drugs… why Mexican cemeteries look like villages… and a doctor’s fight against one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

Guests:

Bill Bass - Forensic Anthropologist, founder of the University of Tennessee Forensic Research Facility. Author of Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science and fiction, written under the pen name, Jefferson Bass. The latest: Bones of Betrayal: A Body Farm Novel.
Stanley Brandes - Cultural Anthropologist, University of California, Berkeley, author of Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead: The Day of the Dead in Mexico and Beyond
Matt Kaeberlein - Pathologist, University of Washington
Ross Donaldson - Doctor and author of The Lassa Ward

Descripción en español

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Skeptic Check: Playing Doctor Jul 12, 2010

Show notes

A new herbal supplements is on the shelf, and it claims to improve memory. Should you take it? It’s not easy to sort through the firehose of health and nutrition advice that comes at us daily. Find out how to get healthy about health advice, plus hear the story of Bernarr Macfadden, the eccentric who kicked off America’s fitness craze; he believed that eating less was good for you, but he didn’t believe germ theory.

Plus, our Hollywood skeptic spills his guts and other entrails for a phony class for nurses and Phil Plait gives us the latest lapse in critically-thinking brains.

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

Guests: