Night Science

Itai Yanai & Martin Lercher
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Where do ideas come from? In each episode, scientists Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher explore science's creative side with a leading colleague. New episodes come out every second Monday. 

  1. 77 | Akiko Iwasaki and the art of creativity maintenance

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    77 | Akiko Iwasaki and the art of creativity maintenance

    Akiko Iwasaki, a Yale professor and Howard Hughes Investigator, was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2024. Together, we reflect on how diverse backgrounds enrich research, allowing people to discover different things in the same data. Akiko explains how leading large collaborations requires managing expectations, not micromanaging the research. She compares her work of studying complex conditions to solving multilayered puzzles: each new piece of evidence must be placed in the right layer for the bigger picture to emerge. And she jokes about her own “terrible hairball analogy” and how, at the center of that mess, she searches for hidden gems. The Night Science Podcast is produced by the Night Science Institute. For more information on Night Science, visit night-science.org .

    40 phút
  2. 76 | Can Google’s Co-scientist project give scientists superpowers?

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    76 | Can Google’s Co-scientist project give scientists superpowers?

    To answer this question, we speak with Dr. Alan Karthikesalingam and Vivek Natarajan from Google DeepMind about their groundbreaking AI co-scientist project. Beyond their work at Google, Alan is an honorary lecturer in vascular surgery at Imperial College London, and Vivek teaches at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Together, we discuss how their system has evolved to mirror parts of human hypothesis generation while also diverging in fascinating ways. We talk about its internal “tournaments” of ideas, its ability to be prompted to “think out of the box,” and whether it becomes too constrained by the need to align with every published “fact”. And we discuss how we still seem far away from a time when AI can not only answer our questions, but can ask new and exciting research questions itself. The Night Science Podcast is produced by the Night Science Institute – for more information on Night Science, visit night-science.org .

    40 phút
  3. 75 | Eve Marder and how Recipe Science ruins creativity

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    75 | Eve Marder and how Recipe Science ruins creativity

    Professor Eve Marder is a pioneering neuroscientist at Brandeis University. Drawing on decades of work with a small neural circuit in lobsters, she describes how discovery often emerges from intuition, puzzlement, and the courage to follow unexpected observations. Eve highlights the central role of personal tolerance for ambiguity in shaping a scientist’s questions and methods. She discusses the fine line between idiosyncrasies and general principles, and how deep familiarity with the literature shaped her scientific intuition – something hard to replicate in today’s information-saturated world. We also discuss how reading is a prerequisite for clear writing, and how rigid publishing norms led to “recipe science”, suppressing creativity. ​​For more information on Night Science, visit https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/night-science .

    34 phút
  4. 74 | Martin Schwartz and the importance of stupidity in science

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    74 | Martin Schwartz and the importance of stupidity in science

    Martin Schwartz, a professor at Yale, is known for his work on integrins and his influential essay “The importance of stupidity in scientific research”. He emphasizes that while learning science makes you feel smart, true scientific discovery often involves feeling stupid, because it means venturing into the unknown. We discuss how the ego can obstruct creativity, and how resilience, self-discovery, and the cultivation of "passionate indifference" – being deeply engaged but unattached to outcomes – are key to sustaining a productive and fulfilling life in science.

    29 phút
  5. 73 | Ethan Mollick and a million Einsteins in a server

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    73 | Ethan Mollick and a million Einsteins in a server

    With Ethan Mollick, professor at Wharton and author of the bestselling “Co-Intelligence”, we explore how generative AI tools like ChatGPT can enhance scientific creativity. Ethan emphasizes that AI excels at idea generation through sheer volume and recombination, outperforming most humans in many creativity tasks – though it does have odd obsessions with VR and crypto. However, AI is most effective when integrated into a collaborative human–machine workflow rather than used as a replacement. Ethan describes AI as your tireless science buddy that never gets bored or judgmental during brainstorming. We discuss how AI’s "hallucinations" can be used for creativity, how AI can bridge disciplines by revealing hidden connections across fields, and how prompting strategies – such as chain-of-thought or playful personas – can guide AI toward more original outputs. Ethan stresses the need for scientists to actively experiment with these tools, share their methods openly, and reconsider scientific workflows in light of rapid AI progress. ​​For more information on Night Science, visit https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/night-science .

    38 phút
  6. 72 | David Baker and the lab's communal brain

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    72 | David Baker and the lab's communal brain

    David Baker, who was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for designing novel proteins with AI, is a professor at the University of Washington. In this episode, he explains how he socially engineers his lab’s "communal brain", where all individuals function like neurons, densely interconnected to maximize idea generation. We explore the role of AI in science, discussing whether AI can be truly creative. Finally, we discuss the current funding crisis in science, which disproportionately affects young researchers. For more information about Night Science, visit https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/night-science .

    25 phút
  7. 71 | Victor Ambros and the unique ways we perceive wonder

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    71 | Victor Ambros and the unique ways we perceive wonder

    Victor Ambros, newly awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of microRNA, is a developmental biologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In this episode, we explore improvisational science – the dynamic, collaborative process where researchers build on each other’s ideas using a "yes, and…" approach. We discuss the constant need to reframe and refine scientific questions, and the challenge of helping young researchers build the confidence to question established ideas. Victor underscores the power of curiosity-driven research, emphasizing how each scientist’s unique perspective can lead to discoveries others might miss. We also examine AI’s evolving role in scientific discovery – particularly in synthesizing knowledge across disciplines – and how it can complement the cross-pollination of ideas at scientific conferences. For more information about Night Science, visit https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/night-science .

    35 phút
  8. 70 | Meghan O’Rourke on being the artist and their caretaker

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    70 | Meghan O’Rourke on being the artist and their caretaker

    Meghan O'Rourke, acclaimed author of The Invisible Kingdom, poet, and Yale professor, joins us to explore the parallels between creative writing and scientific discovery. She describes how deep immersion in a project attracts unexpected insights, and she introduces Night Poetry and Day Poetry, inspired by our concepts of Night Science and Day Science—where night represents raw creation and day embodies refinement. We discuss how scientists and writers face similar challenges: questioning assumptions, balancing structure with spontaneity, and finding meaning in unexpected connections. Through Meghan's insights, we discover how creativity manifests similarly across disciplines, and how being an outsider can often lead to fresh perspectives. For more information about Night Science, visit https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/night-science .

    45 phút
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Giới Thiệu

Where do ideas come from? In each episode, scientists Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher explore science's creative side with a leading colleague. New episodes come out every second Monday. 

Thông Tin

  • Nhà sáng tạo
    Itai Yanai & Martin Lercher
  • Năm hoạt động
    2021 - 2025
  • Tập
    78
  • Xếp hạng
    Sạch
  • Bản quyền
    © 2025 Itai Yanai & Martin Lercher
  • Trang web chương trình
    Night Science

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