Science Talk

Latest Episodes:

Coronavirus Hot Zone: Research and Responses in the U.S. Epicenter Mar 14, 2020

Show notes

Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs reports from the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak: Kirkland, Wash. In this installment of our ongoing series, he talks with researchers about the efforts to create vaccines and treatments and the challenges the outbreak poses to cancer patients and others who are immunocompromised.

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Coronavirus Hot Zone: The View from the U.S. Epicenter Mar 10, 2020

Show notes

Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs reports from the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak: Kirkland, Wash. In this first installment of an ongoing series, he looks at why children seem to weather this disease better than adults and the complicated issue of shuttering schools.

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The New Cosmos: A Conversation with Ann Druyan Mar 08, 2020

Show notes

Emmy and Peabody Award–winning science writer, producer and director Ann Druyan talks about Cosmos: Possible Worlds, the next installment of the Cosmos series.

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Advancing Efforts in Disease Interception Feb 27, 2020

Show notes

Ben Wiegand, global head of the World without Disease Accelerator at Janssen, the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, talks about efforts to prevent a disease or to identify it in its earliest stages for more effective treatments.

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Kirk, Spock and Darwin Feb 12, 2020

Show notes

Duke University evolutionary biologist Mohamed A. F. Noor talks about his book Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about Evolution, Genetics, and Life on Other Worlds.

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How to Make a Mass Extinction Jan 30, 2020

Show notes

Journalist and author Peter Brannen talks about his book The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions.

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Air Pollution: An Unclear and Present Danger Nov 21, 2019

Show notes

Journalist and author Beth Gardiner talks about her new book Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution. And CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna talks about gene editing.

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150 Years of the Journal Nature Nov 11, 2019

Show notes

Nature is arguably the world’s most prestigious scientific journal. Editor in chief Magdalena Skipper spoke with Scientific American’s acting editor in chief Curtis Brainard about her journal as it celebrates its 150th anniversary.

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Lithium-Ion Battery Creators Win Chemistry Nobel Prize Oct 09, 2019

Show notes

John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino share the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the development of lithium-ion batteries” that have led to portable electronic devices that are rechargeable virtually anywhere on the planet.

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How Cells Sense Oxygen Levels: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Oct 07, 2019

Show notes

William Kaelin, Jr., Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza share the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.” New therapies for cancer and conditions such as anemia are in the pipeline, based on these discoveries.

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