Science Fact or Fiction?

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Welcome to Science Fact or Fiction? A podcast all about your favourite science fiction stories and how accurate the science and technology have turned out to be. We will delve into everything from cloning dinosaurs to alien contact, designer babies, and high tech suits. Listen to Manon and Lance as they roast one another, go off on tangents, and generally have a good old laugh.

Episodes

  1. 09/27/2020

    Ep 7: Gattaca and Designer Babies

    This episode is all about the technological innovations from the world of Gattaca. Gattaca was shot in the late 90’s, a time when the world of genomics was exploding, scientists were trying to map the human genome and everyone had grand ideas about what the future of personalised medicine and gene therapy would look like. In this episode Manon tells Lance all about where the current technology is at. Are designer babies a possibility? What does it mean to be able to sequence the human genome and where are we in terms of eradicating genetic diseases? This is the final episode for the season. Thanks for listening. BYEEEEE Intro Music by Woody Rolph. Links: https://theconversation.com/gene-editing-needs-to-become-more-precise-to-live-up-to-its-promise-123845 https://theconversation.com/designer-babies-wont-be-common-anytime-soon-despite-recent-crispr-twins-108342 https://theconversation.com/how-a-scientist-says-he-made-a-gene-edited-baby-and-what-health-worries-may-ensue-107764 https://theconversation.com/should-we-edit-the-genomes-of-human-embryos-a-geneticist-and-social-scientist-discuss-100355 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07559-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07559-8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52jOEPzhpzc&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1AINMKV0ztaqMoJQIeo5yvXu9qXKCX6XRY9hAaNUngSTnyiZdFuy_oys0&ab_channel=MicrobiologySociety

  2. 09/21/2020

    Ep 6: Life Under a Biodome

    This week, we aren't going to look at a particular science fiction imagining, but something very real. Would you live in a biodome for two years? In 1991, eight Biospherians did just that and the outcome was very interesting. Join Manon and Lance as they explore the possibility of living under a biodome and how that can potentially allow us to live on planets other than our own! Intro Music by Woody Rolph. Links: https://medium.com/predict/an-engineers-vision-for-constructing-a-massive-lunar-dome-colony-1562ff91bbc5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon https://www.iop.org/explore-physics/moon//how-could-we-live-on-the-moon https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/sunday-review/biosphere-2-climate-change.html https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/articles/biosphere-2-what-really-happened https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_poynter_life_in_biosphere_2?language=en

  3. 09/17/2020

    Ep 5: Are You Afraid of Killer Robots?

    This week we take a look at how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has shaped our current world. We explore what it means to be human through the lens of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and discuss the potential dangers of future AI technology. Join Manon and Lance as they ask pressing questions: If your vacuum cleaner didn’t want to clean the house would you still make it? And what was going on in the 80’s? Why was the 21st century predicted to be extremely moody and bleak with a forecast of killing some robots and never ending drizzle? Intro Music by Woody Rolph. References and extra readings: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191111-are-we-living-in-a-blade-runner-world Harry Potter AI fanfiction https://aiweirdness.com/post/162668008357/harry-potter-and-the-neural-network-fan-fiction https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1802/1802.07228.pdf Machine learning and AI https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/differences-between-ai-and-machine-learning-and-why-it-matters-1255b182fc6 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/if-the-robots-kill-us-its-because-its-their-job/360924/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/robots-human-relationships/583204/ Books: Robot Rules: Regulating Artificial Intelligence, by Jacob Turner The AI Economy: Work, Wealth and Welfare in the Robot Age, by Roger Bootle An Anthropology of Robots and AI: Annihilation Anxiety and Machines, by Kathleen Richardson

  4. 09/14/2020

    Ep 4: Green Meat

    Would you eat a burger that was grown from a lab? How about plant-based meat in favour of “real” meat? Environmentally friendly and ethically sourced, it sounds like a better alternative. In this episode, we explore whether we are on the verge of becoming like the cult classic Soylent Green and the likelihood of our diet one day consisting of lab grown food. Join Manon and Lance as they delve into the science of how artificial meat is synthesised. Intro Music by Woody Rolph. Links: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-grown-meat/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultured_meat https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/20/2811553/scientists-working-to-produce-a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k-V3ESHcfA&ab_channel=MarkRober https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-07-30/australia-joins-lab-grown-meat-industry/11360506

  5. 09/08/2020

    Ep 3: Alien Contact - Radio Signals and Golden Records

    This week we discuss the amazing scientific and cinematic masterpiece that is Contact, based on Carl Sagan’s book of the same name. We debate the likelihood of alien contact, gush over how kick-ass Jodie Foster's character is and look at the galaxy and our place in it. We talk numbers, what's the likelihood of us finding aliens or aliens finding us. It's an awfully big galaxy out there. Maybe somewhere there is an alien tuning into our radio signals on their commute to work. As Arthur C. Clarke once said, “two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” Intro Music by Woody Rolph. Links: https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html http://www.setileague.org/reviews/contact.htm Book: Lucky Planet: Why Earth is Exceptional – and What that Means for Life in the Universe by David Waltham

  6. 08/16/2020

    Ep 2: Stillsuits, Not Stool Suits

    Desert life in Dune, spacesuits, and swimsuit doping. In this episode, we explore the possibility of creating Frank Herbert's fictional stillsuits. How close is a refrigerator to a stillsuit? Could your bathers be considered as “technological doping”? And how comfortable are you with drinking your own fluids? Join Manon and Lance as they explore the technology in Frank Herbert's Dune. Intro Music by Woody Rolph. Links: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/28265/how-is-faeces-processed-in-stillsuits http://pages.erau.edu/~andrewsa/Project_2/Koch_Cameron/MoistureRecycling_Cameron_Koch/Moisture_Recycling.html https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2610027/no.ntnu%3Ainspera%3A2302082.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/nasaandyou/home/spacesuits_bkgd_en.html#:~:text=Spacesuits%20supply%20astronauts%20with%20oxygen,small%20bits%20of%20space%20dust.&text=Spacesuits%20also%20protect%20astronauts%20from%20radiation%20in%20space. https://www.symscape.com/blog/swimsuit-banned-as-technology-doping

  7. 08/09/2020

    Ep 1: Dinosaurs and Anti-freeze Strawberries

    Gene editing, GMOs and bringing back the woolly mammoth. In this episode we explore everything from the science in Jurassic Park to modern day genetics and gene editing technologies. Just how likely are you to ever see a velociraptor next to the lion cage at the zoo, or should we just be happy with our new grocery store option, the anti-freeze strawberry. Intro Music by Woody Rolph. Book: How to clone a woolly mammoth by Beth Shapiro Website Links: https://portlandpress.com/biochemist/article/37/6/18/1429/Jurassic-World-just-how-impossible-is-it https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/jurassic-world-can-we-really-resurrect-a-dinosaur/ https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/science-behind-the-fiction-are-we-any-closer-to-jurassic-park-actually-being-possible https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44293060 https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/humc.2017.29022.int?casa_token=_dU7Lmm7no0AAAAA%3Aha51voJBFg4ZcsnhHCnJbF50UacSN1Gt3HRQcAGXOjo5ePsuUGnNSH1ccs_xqrJjTZqFbVgQxn1vOA&

    Ep 1: Dinosaurs and Anti-freeze Strawberries
  • 7 Episodes

About

Welcome to Science Fact or Fiction? A podcast all about your favourite science fiction stories and how accurate the science and technology have turned out to be. We will delve into everything from cloning dinosaurs to alien contact, designer babies, and high tech suits. Listen to Manon and Lance as they roast one another, go off on tangents, and generally have a good old laugh.

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