Science Magazine Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Randomizing the news for science, transplanting genetically engineered skin, and the ethics of experimental brain implants Nov 09, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories on what to do with experimental brain implants after a study is over, how gene therapy gave a second skin to a boy with a rare epidermal disease, and how bone markings thought to be evidence for early hominid tool use may have been crocodile bites instead, with Online News Editor Catherine Matacic.
Sarah Crespi interviews Gary King about his new experiment to bring fresh data to the age-old question of how the news media influences the public. Are journalists setting the agenda or following the crowd? How can you know if a news story makes a ripple in a sea of online information? In a powerful study, King’s group was able to publish randomized stories on 48 small and medium sized news sites in the United States and then track the results.
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[Image: Chad Sparkes/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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How Earth’s rotation could predict giant quakes, gene therapy’s new hope, and how carbon monoxide helps deep-diving seals Nov 02, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories on how the sloshing of Earth’s core may spike major earthquakes, carbon monoxide’s role in keeping deep diving elephant seals oxygenated, and a festival celebrating heavily researched yet completely nonsensical theories with Online News Editor David Grimm.
Sarah Crespi interviews staff writer Jocelyn Kaiser about the status of gene therapy, including a newly tested gene-delivering virus that may give scientists a new way to treat devastating spinal and brain diseases.
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[Image: Robert Schwemmer, CINMS, NOAA; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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Building conscious machines, tracing asteroid origins, and how the world’s oldest forests grew Oct 26, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories on sunlight pushing Mars’s flock of asteroids around, approximately 400-million-year-old trees that grew by splitting their guts, and why fighting poverty might also mean worsening climate change with Online News Editor David Grimm.
Sarah Crespi talks with cognitive neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene of the Collège de France in Paris about consciousness—what is it and can machines have it?
For our monthly books segment, Jen Golbeck reviews astronaut Scott Kelly’s book Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery.
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[Image: NASA/Goddard; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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LIGO spots merging neutron stars, scholarly questions about a new Bible museum, and why wolves are better team players than dogs Oct 19, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories about the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory’s latest hit, why wolves are better team players than dogs, and volcanic eruptions that may have triggered riots in ancient Egypt with Online News Editor Catherine Matacic.
Sarah Crespi interviews contributing correspondent Lizzie Wade about the soon-to-open Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. Can it recover from early accusations of forgeries and illicitly obtained artifacts?
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[Image: Public Domain; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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Evolution of skin color, taming rice thrice, and peering into baby brains Oct 12, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories about a new brain imaging technique for newborns, recently uncovered evidence on rice domestication on three continents, and why Canada geese might be migrating into cities, with Online News Editor David Grimm.
Sarah Crespi interviews Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania about the age and diversity of genes related to skin pigment in African genomes.
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[Image: Danny Chapman/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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Putting rescue robots to the test, an ancient Scottish village buried in sand, and why costly drugs may have more side effects Oct 05, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories about putting rescue bots to the test after the Mexico earthquake, why a Scottish village was buried in sand during the Little Ice Age, and efforts by the U.S. military to predict posttraumatic stress disorder with Online News Editor David Grimm.
Andrew Wagner interviews Alexandra Tinnermann of the University Medical Center of Hamburg, Germany, about the nocebo effect. Unlike the placebo effect, in which you get positive side effects with no treatment, in the nocebo effect you get negative side effects with no treatment. It turns out both nocebo and placebo effects get stronger with a drug perceived as more expensive.
Read the research.
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[Image: Chris Burns/Science; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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Furiously beating bat hearts, giant migrating wombats, and puzzling out preprint publishing Sep 28, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories on how a bat varies its heart rate to avoid starving, giant wombatlike creatures that once migrated across Australia, and the downsides of bedbugs’ preference for dirty laundry with Online News Editor David Grimm.
Sarah Crespi talks Jocelyn Kaiser about her guide to preprint servers for biologists—what they are, how they are used, and why some people are worried about preprint publishing’s rising popularity.
For our monthly book segment, Jen Golbeck talks to author Sandra Postel about her book, Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity.
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[Image: tap10/iStockphoto; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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Cosmic rays from beyond our galaxy, sleeping jellyfish, and counting a language’s words for colors Sep 21, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories on animal hoarding, how different languages have different numbers of colors, and how to tell a wakeful jellyfish from a sleeping one with Online News Editor Catherine Matacic, Brice Russ, and Sarah Crespi.
Andrew Wagner talks to Karl-Heinz Kampert about a long-term study of the cosmic rays blasting our planet. After analyzing 30,000 high-energy rays, it turns out some are coming from outside the Milky Way.
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[Image: Doug Letterman/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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Cargo-sorting molecular robots, humans as the ultimate fire starters, and molecular modeling with quantum computers Sep 14, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories on the gut microbiome’s involvement in multiple sclerosis, how wildfires start—hint: It’s almost always people—and a new record in quantum computing with Online News Editor David Grimm.
Andrew Wagner talks to Lulu Qian about DNA-based robots that can carry and sort cargo.
Sarah Crespi goes behind the scenes with Science’s Photography Managing Editor Bill Douthitt to learn about snapping this week’s cover photo of the world’s smallest neutrino detector.
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[Image: Curtis Perry/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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Taking climate science to court, sailing with cylinders, and solar cooling Sep 07, 2017

Show notes

This week we hear stories on smooth sailing with giant, silolike sails, a midsized black hole that may be hiding out in the Milky Way, and new water-cooling solar panels that could cut air conditioning costs with Online News Editor David Grimm.
Sarah Crespi talks to Sabrina McCormick about climate science in the U.S. courts and the growing role of the judiciary in climate science policy.
Listen to previous podcasts.
[Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

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