573 episodes

The surprising connections in science and technology that give you the Big Picture. Astronomer Seth Shostak and science journalist Molly Bentley are joined each week by leading researchers, techies, and journalists to provide a smart and humorous take on science. Our regular "Skeptic Check" episodes cast a critical eye on pseudoscience.

Big Picture Science SETI Institute

    • Science

The surprising connections in science and technology that give you the Big Picture. Astronomer Seth Shostak and science journalist Molly Bentley are joined each week by leading researchers, techies, and journalists to provide a smart and humorous take on science. Our regular "Skeptic Check" episodes cast a critical eye on pseudoscience.

    Skeptic Check: The Body Electric*

    Skeptic Check: The Body Electric*

    Electricity plays an important role in our everyday lives, including allowing our bodies to communicate internally. But some research claims electricity may be used to diagnose and treat disease? Could electric pulses one day replace medications?
    We speak with experts about the growing field of bioelectric medicine and the evidence for electricity’s healing abilities. Their comments may shock you.
    Guests:
    Sally Adee – Science journalist, author of “We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body’s Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds"
    Samantha Payne – Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences at University of Guelph
    Kevin Tracey – Neurosurgeon and President of the Feinstein Institute at Northwell Health
    *Originally aired June 5, 2023
    Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
    Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
    You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
     
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    • 54 min
    Flower Power*

    Flower Power*

    Before everything could come up roses, there had to be a primordial flower – the mother, and father, of all flowers. Now scientists are on the hunt for it. The eFlower project aims to explain the sudden appearance of flowering plants in the fossil record, what Darwin called an “abominable mystery.”
    Meanwhile, ancient flowers encased in amber or preserved in tar are providing clues about how ecosystems might respond to changing climates. And, although it was honed by evolution for billions of years, can we make photosynthesis more efficient and help forestall a global food crisis?
    Guests:
    Eva-Maria Sadowski - Post doctoral paleobotanist at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
    Regan Dunn - Paleobotanist and assistant Curator at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum
    Royal Krieger - Rosarian and volunteer at the Morcom Rose Garden, Oakland, California
    Ruby Stephens - Plant ecology PhD candidate at Macquarie University in Australia, and member of the eFlower Project
    Stephen Long - Professor of Plant Science, University of Illinois
    Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
    *Originally aired March 13, 2023
    You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
    Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 54 min
    Animals Being Jerks*

    Animals Being Jerks*

    They’re cute and cuddly. But they can also be obnoxious.
    Science writer Mary Roach has numerous tales about how our animal friends don’t always bow to their human overlords and behave the way we’d want. The resulting encounters, such as when gulls disrupt the Vatican’s Easter mass, make for amusing stories. But others, such as wolves threatening farmers’ livestock, can be tragic.
    We hear what happens at the messy crossroads of human and wildlife encounters.
    Guest:
    Mary Roach – Author of bestselling nonfiction books, most recently “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.”
    *Originally aired September 13, 2021
    Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
    You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
    Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
     
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 54 min
    Post Social Media*

    Post Social Media*

    Before you check your social media feeds today. And post. And post again. And get into an argument on Twitter, lose track of time and wonder where the morning went, consider that social media was never a natural way to socialize.
    A cultural anthropologist weighs in on the evolutionary reasons humans can’t thrive on social media. And we hear about the signs that social media is on its way out. If that’s the case, what’s next? 
    Guests:
    Max Fisher – Reporter for The New York Times, author of “The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World”
    Douglas Rushkoff – Professor of media theory and digital economics at City University of New York, and author of “Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires”
    Ian Bogost – Professor of Media Studies and computer science at Washington University in St. Louis and a contributing writer at The Atlantic.
    Alex Mesoudi – Professor of Cultural Evolution at the University of Exeter, U.K.
    *Originally aired February 20, 2023
    Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
    You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
    Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
     
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 56 min
    Skeptic Check: Feeling Risky*

    Skeptic Check: Feeling Risky*

    It’s not just facts that inform our decisions. They’re also guided by how those facts feel. From deciding whether to buckle our seat belts to addressing climate change, how we regard risk is subjective. In this extended conversation with an expert on the psychology of risk, find out about our exaggerated fears, as well as risks we don’t take seriously enough. Meanwhile, while experts warn society about the dangers of self-aware AI – are those warnings being heeded?
    Guest: 
    David Ropeik – Professor emeritus Harvard University, and expert on the psychology of risk
    *Originally aired April 10, 2023
    Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
    You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
    Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 54 min
    Beyond the Standard Model

    Beyond the Standard Model

    Ever heard of a beauty quark? How about a glueball? Physics is full of weird particles that leave many of us scratching our heads. But these tiny particles make up everything in the quantum world and in us and are the basis of the fundamental scientific theory called The Standard Model. But it doesn’t explain everything. It can’t account for dark matter or dark energy, for example. We find out whether new physics experiments might force us to rewrite the Standard Model. Plus, we discuss a NASA proposal to fly spacecraft close to the sun in search of new physics.
    Guests:
    Phil Plait – Aka the Bad Astronomer, former astronomer on Hubble, teacher, lecturer and debunker of conspiracy theories. He is also the author of a new book “Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe.”
    Harry Cliff – Particle physicist at the University of Cambridge who works on the LHCb experiment at the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, CERN. He is the author of: “Space Oddities, The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe.”
    Slava Turyshev – Research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
    Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
    You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
    Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.
     
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 1 hr 1 min

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