Science Magazine Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Swarms of satellites could crowd out the stars, and the evolution of hepatitis B over 10 millennia Oct 07, 2021

Show notes

In 2019, a SpaceX rocket released 60 small satellites into low-Earth orbit—the first wave of more than 10,000 planned releases. At the same time, a new field of environmental debate was also launched—with satellite companies on one side, and astronomers, photographers, and stargazers on the other. Contributing Correspondent Joshua Sokol joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the future of these space-based swarms.

Over the course of the first 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic, different variants of the virus have come and gone. What would such changes look like over 10,000 years? Arthur Kocher, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, talks with Sarah about watching the evolution of the virus that causes hepatitis B—over 10 millennia—and how changes in the disease’s path match up with shifts in human history.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Rafael Schmall; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: Starlink satellites moving across the sky in a long-exposure photograph of the star Albireo in Cygnus]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Josh Sokol

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Whole-genome screening for newborns, and the importance of active learning for STEM Sep 30, 2021

Show notes

Today, most newborns get some biochemical screens of their blood, but whole-genome sequencing is a much more comprehensive look at an infant—maybe too comprehensive? Staff Writer Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the ethical ins and outs of whole-genome screening for newborns, and the kinds of infrastructure needed to use these screens more widely.

Sarah also talks with three contributors to a series of vignettes on the importance of active learning for students in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Yuko Munakata, professor in the department of psychology and Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, talks about how the amount of unstructured time and active learning contributes to developing executive function—the way our brains keep us on task.

Nesra Yannier, special faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and inventor of NoRILLA, discusses an artificial intelligence–driven learning platform that helps children explore and learn about the real world.

Finally, Louis Deslauriers, senior preceptor in the department of physics and director of science teaching and learning at Harvard University, laments lectures: why we like them so much, why we think we learn more from lectures than inquiry-based learning, and why we’re wrong.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Jerry Lai/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: newborn baby feet]

[Authors: Sarah Crespi; Jocelyn Kaiser]

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Earliest human footprints in North America, dating violins with tree rings, and the social life of DNA Sep 23, 2021

Show notes

Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss fossilized footprints left on a lake shore in North America sometime before the end of Last Glacial Maximum—possibly the earliest evidence for humans on the continent. Read the research.

Next, Paolo Cherubini, a senior scientist in the dendrosciences research group at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, discusses using tree rings to date and authenticate 17th and 18th century violins worth millions of dollars.

Finally, in this month’s installment of the series of book interviews on race and science, guest host Angela Saini interviews Alondra Nelson, professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, about her 2016 book The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome.

Note on the closing music: Violinist Nicholas Kitchen plays Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chaconne on the violin “Castelbarco” made by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, Italy, in 1697. Courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Bennet et al., Science; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: human footprints preserved in rock]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Lizzie Wade; Angela Saini

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Potty training cows, and sardines swimming into an ecological trap Sep 16, 2021

Show notes

Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the health and environmental benefits of potty training cows.

Next, Peter Teske, a professor in the department of zoology at the University of Johannesburg, joins us to talk about his Science Advances paper on origins of the sardine run—a massive annual fish migration off the coast of South Africa.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Steven Benjamin; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: sardines in a swirling bait ball]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; David Grimm

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Legions of lunar landers, and why we make robots that look like people Sep 09, 2021

Show notes

Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about plans for NASA’s first visit to the Moon in 50 years—and the quick succession of missions that will likely follow.

Next, Eileen Roesler, a researcher and lecturer at the Technical University of Berlin in the field of human-robot automation, discusses the benefits of making robots that look and act like people—it’s not always as helpful as you would think.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Virginie Angéloz/Noun Project; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: three robot drawings that look like people to different degrees]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Paul Voosen

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Pinpointing the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and making vortex beams of atoms Sep 02, 2021

Show notes

Staff Writer Jon Cohen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the many theories circulating about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and why finding the right one is important.

Next, Ed Narevicius, a professor in the chemical and biological physics department at the Weizmann Institute of Science, talks with Sarah about creating vortex beams of atoms—a quantum state in which the phase of the matter wave of an atom rotates around its path, like a spiral staircase.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Alon Luski et al./Science 2021; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: vortex beams showing holes in the center of the beam]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Jon Cohen

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New insights into endometriosis, predicting RNA folding, and the surprising career of the spirometer Aug 26, 2021

Show notes

News Intern Rachel Fritts talks with host Sarah Crespi about a new way to think about endometriosis—a painful condition found in one in 10 women in which tissue that normally lines the uterus grows on the outside of the uterus and can bind to other organs.

Next, Raphael Townshend, founder and CEO of Atomic AI, talks about predicting RNA folding using deep learning—a machine learning approach that relies on very few examples and limited data.

Finally, in this month's edition of our limited series on race and science, guest host and journalist Angela Saini is joined by author Lundy Braun, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and Africana studies at Brown University, to discuss her book: Breathing Race into the Machine: The Surprising Career of the Spirometer from Plantation to Genetics.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

Listen to previous podcasts.

About the Science Podcast

Download a transcript (PDF).

[Image: C. Bickel/Science; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: folded RNA 3D structures]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Rachel Fritts

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Building a martian analog on Earth, and moral outrage on social media Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

Contributing Correspondent Michael Price joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the newest Mars analog to be built on the location of the first attempt at a large-scale sealed habitat, Biosphere 2 in Arizona.

Next, William Brady, a postdoctoral researcher in the psychology department at Yale University, talks with Sarah about using an algorithm to measure increasing expressions of moral outrage on social media platforms.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

About the Science Podcast

Listen to previous podcasts.

Download a transcript (PDF).

[Image: Kai Staats; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: lettuce plants being tended in a Mars analog]

[Caption: Lettuce plants being tended in a Mars analog]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Mike Price

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A risky clinical trial design, and attacks on machine learning Aug 12, 2021

Show notes

Charles Piller, an investigative journalist for Science, talks with host Sarah Crespi about a risky trial of vitamin D in asthmatic children that has caused a lot of concern among ethicists. They also discuss how the vitamin D trial connects with a possibly dangerous push to compare new treatments with placebos instead of standard-of-care treatments in clinical trials.

Next, Birhanu Eshete, professor of computer and information science at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, talks with producer Joel Goldberg about the risks of exposing machine learning algorithms online—risks such as the reverse engineering of training data to access proprietary information or even patient data.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

About the Science Podcast

[Image: Filip Patock/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: Bottle of Vitamin D pills]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Joel Goldberg; Charles Piller

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A freeze on prion research, and watching cement dry Aug 05, 2021

Show notes

International News Editor Martin Enserink talks with host Sarah Crespi about a moratorium on prion research after the fatal brain disease infected two lab workers in France, killing one.

Next, Abhay Goyal, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, talks with intern Claire Hogan about his Science Advances paper on figuring out how to reduce the massive carbon footprint of cement by looking at its molecular structure.

Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Sean Sanders interviews Ansuman Satpathy, assistant professor in the department of pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine and 2018 winner of the Michelson Prize for Human Immunology and Vaccine Research, about the importance of supporting early-career research and diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math. This segment is sponsored by Michelson Philanthropies.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

Listen to previous podcasts.

About the Science Podcast

Download a transcript (PDF).

[Image: Marquette LaForest/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Martin Enserink

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