Seth Shostak 7 podcast@seti.org Are We Alone? - SETI Science and Skepticism SETI, science, Are We Alone, skepticism, aliens, Seth Shostak, astronomy, astrobiology, physics, biology, space, universe, evolution Searching for life as we don't know it begins with understanding life as we do. From amoebas to zebras, from androids to antimatter, Are We Alone? explores the science that makes life possible. Find out, how to extract DNA from a banana, what size wrench you need to build a time machine, and whether dark energy can be bottled (yes). Also, separate the science from pseudoscience during our monthly feature on critical thinking. Are We Alone? - science radio for thinking species on any world http://radio.seti.org Searching for life as we don't know it begins with understanding life as we do. From amoebas to zebras, from androids to antimatter, Are We Alone? explores the science that makes life possible. Find out how to extract DNA from a banana, what size wrench you need to build a time machine, and whether dark energy can be bottled (yes). Also, separate the science from pseudoscience during our monthly feature on critical thinking. Are We Alone? - science radio for thinking species on any world. en-us ℗ © SETI Institute May 2005 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:14:55 PDT Tucker Bradford tucker@seti.org http://podcast.seti.org/images/AWAlogo.jpg http://radio.seti.org/ 1 Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Do you have some imagination? What about junk; got any of that? Thomas Edison said you need both to be an inventor. And Tom could speak with authority about switching on innovation's light bulb. Find out who today's inventors are and which devices will be changing the way we live. Also, why leave it to the pros? The Maker Faire proves that tinkering in the garage is alive, well, and guaranteed to impress the neighbors. Plus, from the Model T to Kitty Hawk: how 1908 changed the way we move. And, why the effort to build a better banana may drive the yellow fruit to extinction. Guests: Dan Koeppel - and author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World Jim Rasenberger - Author of America 1908: The Dawn of Flight, the Race to the Pole, The Invention of the Model T, and the Making of the Modern Nation Mike Haney - Executive Editor for Popular Science. The Invention Awards are in the June 2008 issue. Monday, 12 May 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-05-12.mp3 Do you have some imagination? What about junk; got any of that? Thomas Edison said you need both to be an inventor. And Tom could speak with authority about switching on innovation's light bulb. Find out who today's inventors are and which devices will be changing the way we live. Also, why leave it to the pros? The Maker Faire proves that tinkering in the garage is alive, well, and guaranteed to impress the neighbors. Plus, from the Model T to Kitty Hawk: how 1908 changed the way we move. And, why the effort to build a better banana may drive the yellow fruit to extinction. Guests: Dan Koeppel - and author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World Jim Rasenberger - Author of America 1908: The Dawn of Flight, the Race to the Pole, The Invention of the Model T, and the Making of the Modern Nation Mike Haney - Executive Editor for Popular Science. The Invention Awards are in the June 2008 issue. no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak How did the first cells make the scene? Could there be critters on some newly discovered planets? And what happens if we ever encounter weird life? These may not be the sort of questions you hear being bandied about in your local coffee shop, but they were hot topics at the AbSciCon conference held recently in Santa Clara, California, and sponsored by the SETI Institute. AbSciCon stands for Astrobiology Science Conference, and Seth was there, talking to researchers about progress in puzzling out how life began on Earth, and where it might have gained a claw-hold elsewhere. Could there be certain parts of our Galaxy that are off-limits for life? Also, hear whether our universe has special properties that render it just dandy for life, and whether we should be looking for viruses on Mars. Guests: Diana Valencia - Planetary physicist at Harvard University Charley Lineweaver - Cosmologist at the Australian National University David Deamer - Research scientist at the University of California at Santa Cruz Baruch Blumberg - Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Institute, Nobel Prize winner, and Trustee at the SETI Institute Matthew Kenworthy - Astronomer at the University of Arizona Eric Korpela - Research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley Richard Muller - Physicist, University of California, Berkeley Kathryn Denning - Anthropologist at York University Monday, 05 May 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-05-05.mp3 How did the first cells make the scene? Could there be critters on some newly discovered planets? And what happens if we ever encounter weird life? These may not be the sort of questions you hear being bandied about in your local coffee shop, but they were hot topics at the AbSciCon conference held recently in Santa Clara, California, and sponsored by the SETI Institute. AbSciCon stands for Astrobiology Science Conference, and Seth was there, talking to researchers about progress in puzzling out how life began on Earth, and where it might have gained a claw-hold elsewhere. Could there be certain parts of our Galaxy that are off-limits for life? Also, hear whether our universe has special properties that render it just dandy for life, and whether we should be looking for viruses on Mars. Guests: Diana Valencia - Planetary physicist at Harvard University Charley Lineweaver - Cosmologist at the Australian National University David Deamer - Research scientist at the University of California at Santa Cruz Baruch Blumberg - Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Institute, Nobel Prize winner, and Trustee at the SETI Institute Matthew Kenworthy - Astronomer at the University of Arizona Eric Korpela - Research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley Richard Muller - Physicist, University of California, Berkeley Kathryn Denning - Anthropologist at York University no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Maybe Dr. Doolittle was on to something; animals are smarter than we think. Birds, apes, and dolphins are all clever problem solvers with a rich vocabularly and - in some cases - self-awareness. Find out what you can learn from our furry, finned and feathered friends. Also, why you are so much an animal yourself, all the way down to the bare bones. Plus, enter the locked vaults that hold extinct and newly-discovered animal species. And why B-movie critters steal the show. A new species? This is a grey-faced sengi. Click here for another photo. Guests: Neil Shubin - Anatomist and Associate Dean at the University of Chicago, and author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body Galen Rathbun - Biologist, California Academy of Sciences Jack Dumbacher - Curator, Birds and Mammals, California Academy of Sciences Virginia Morell - Science writer. Her cover story Inside Animal Minds is in the March, 2008 issue of National Geographic Alex Kacelnik - Behavioral Ecologist at Oxford University Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University Monday, 28 April 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-04-28.mp3 Maybe Dr. Doolittle was on to something; animals are smarter than we think. Birds, apes, and dolphins are all clever problem solvers with a rich vocabularly and - in some cases - self-awareness. Find out what you can learn from our furry, finned and feathered friends. Also, why you are so much an animal yourself, all the way down to the bare bones. Plus, enter the locked vaults that hold extinct and newly-discovered animal species. And why B-movie critters steal the show. A new species? This is a grey-faced sengi. Click here for another photo. Guests: Neil Shubin - Anatomist and Associate Dean at the University of Chicago, and author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body Galen Rathbun - Biologist, California Academy of Sciences Jack Dumbacher - Curator, Birds and Mammals, California Academy of Sciences Virginia Morell - Science writer. Her cover story Inside Animal Minds is in the March, 2008 issue of National Geographic Alex Kacelnik - Behavioral Ecologist at Oxford University Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak We all know how sex begins: a dimly-lit room, a come-hither smile, and a surfeit of parasol-shaded cocktails. But long before before all that, the gentle currents of the ancient sea floor set the mood. It was there, 570 million years ago, that two ropy sea creatures found each other and changed the course of evolution.Hear how sex began and where it's headed: if you think your love life is mechanical now, just wait until you're cozying up to titanium skin and the latest emotion software.Plus, everything you always wanted to know about modern sex research, but were afraid to ask.Guests: Mary Roach - Author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex David Levy - Artificial intelligence researcher and the author of Love and Sex with Robots Mary Droser - Professor of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside Monday, 21 April 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-04-21.mp3 We all know how sex begins: a dimly-lit room, a come-hither smile, and a surfeit of parasol-shaded cocktails. But long before before all that, the gentle currents of the ancient sea floor set the mood. It was there, 570 million years ago, that two ropy sea creatures found each other and changed the course of evolution.Hear how sex began and where it's headed: if you think your love life is mechanical now, just wait until you're cozying up to titanium skin and the latest emotion software.Plus, everything you always wanted to know about modern sex research, but were afraid to ask.Guests: Mary Roach - Author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex David Levy - Artificial intelligence researcher and the author of Love and Sex with Robots Mary Droser - Professor of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak We all struggle with our memories. This is as true for society as a whole as it is for an individual. In some cases, the effort to preserve cultural history is also a race against time. We'll hear how a cave in Norway is helping keep our seed heritage on ice. And, can you speak Tofa? Magat Ke? As languages disappear faster than the rain forest, one group is working hard to keep native voices heard.Meanwhile, how do we back up our written and pictorial heritage, most of which is on (ultimately perishable) paper? Not to mention the torrent of info in the form of Internet bits. That's the challenge at the Library of Congress, where a new digital initiative is trying to keep our intellectual inheritance intact. And IBM may soon help out in storing it all, as they develop magnetic beads that could increase the amount of memory on a chip by hundreds of times.Guests: Cary Fowler - Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust Stuart Parkin - Physicist at IBM's Almaden Research Center David Harrison - Director of Research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge William LeFurgy - Digital Initiative Project, Library of Congress Monday, 14 April 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-04-14.mp3 We all struggle with our memories. This is as true for society as a whole as it is for an individual. In some cases, the effort to preserve cultural history is also a race against time. We'll hear how a cave in Norway is helping keep our seed heritage on ice. And, can you speak Tofa? Magat Ke? As languages disappear faster than the rain forest, one group is working hard to keep native voices heard.Meanwhile, how do we back up our written and pictorial heritage, most of which is on (ultimately perishable) paper? Not to mention the torrent of info in the form of Internet bits. That's the challenge at the Library of Congress, where a new digital initiative is trying to keep our intellectual inheritance intact. And IBM may soon help out in storing it all, as they develop magnetic beads that could increase the amount of memory on a chip by hundreds of times.Guests: Cary Fowler - Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust Stuart Parkin - Physicist at IBM's Almaden Research Center David Harrison - Director of Research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge William LeFurgy - Digital Initiative Project, Library of Congress no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak There are two kinds of people: those who are unstylish, socially inept, yet academically gifted, and those who tease them. Being a nerd is rough; it's no fun to sit alone in the cafeteria or be forced to dine on beach sandwiches. But revenge is sweet: the world depends more than ever on the witty and gifted to keep it technologically and scientifically turning. So who gets the last laugh? Just ask Bill Gates. Then again, have attitudes towards eggheads really matured? Just ask Al Gore.Hear why America has contempt for nerds, while other countries treat them as rock stars. Also, how to solve a Rubik's Cube in seconds, and a Geeksta Rap sing-along.Guests: David Anderegg - Author of Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them Jessica Fridrich - Electrical and computer engineer at Binghamton University in New York Sun Kwok - Physicist and astronomer at the University of Hong Kong Peter Hartlaub - Pop Culture Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle Christian Ternus - Sophomore at MIT Fred Hall - Space Physicist Monday, 07 April 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-04-07.mp3 There are two kinds of people: those who are unstylish, socially inept, yet academically gifted, and those who tease them. Being a nerd is rough; it's no fun to sit alone in the cafeteria or be forced to dine on beach sandwiches. But revenge is sweet: the world depends more than ever on the witty and gifted to keep it technologically and scientifically turning. So who gets the last laugh? Just ask Bill Gates. Then again, have attitudes towards eggheads really matured? Just ask Al Gore.Hear why America has contempt for nerds, while other countries treat them as rock stars. Also, how to solve a Rubik's Cube in seconds, and a Geeksta Rap sing-along.Guests: David Anderegg - Author of Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them Jessica Fridrich - Electrical and computer engineer at Binghamton University in New York Sun Kwok - Physicist and astronomer at the University of Hong Kong Peter Hartlaub - Pop Culture Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle Christian Ternus - Sophomore at MIT Fred Hall - Space Physicist no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak We all have something we feel certain about; the Sun will rise, the sky is blue and dried egg is hard to remove from shag carpet. You may feel strongly about these things - even swear by them; but that doesn't make them true, only that your neurochemistry is in high gear.We'll hear how chemicals in the brain conspire to produce certainty and why even death and taxes are not foregone conclusions. Also, Sam Harris on the biology of belief... Phil Plait on vacationing brains and our Hollywood skeptic raises an eye at sure-fire, tinseltown blockbusters.Guests: Phil Plait - Astronomer and keeper of the website www.badastronomy.com Sam Harris - Neuroscientist and author of The End of Faith Robert Burton - Neurologist and author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles Monday, 31 March 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-03-31.mp3 We all have something we feel certain about; the Sun will rise, the sky is blue and dried egg is hard to remove from shag carpet. You may feel strongly about these things - even swear by them; but that doesn't make them true, only that your neurochemistry is in high gear.We'll hear how chemicals in the brain conspire to produce certainty and why even death and taxes are not foregone conclusions. Also, Sam Harris on the biology of belief... Phil Plait on vacationing brains and our Hollywood skeptic raises an eye at sure-fire, tinseltown blockbusters.Guests: Phil Plait - Astronomer and keeper of the website www.badastronomy.com Sam Harris - Neuroscientist and author of The End of Faith Robert Burton - Neurologist and author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Like your stomach subjected to repeated $1.99 buffets, the universe is ever-expanding. As it grows, it inexorably becomes more chaotic. We'll hear what drives this increase in entropy, and whether there can be meaning in a universe that will ultimately become no more than a dark soup of cold particles.Also, the surprising patterns of organization around us - find out why you behave with the mathematical logic of an atom and why you can't outwit the crowds at your favorite bar. Also, happy 300th birthday to Carl Linneaus. Without him, you and your neighbors wouldn't be in the members-only club Homo sapiens.Guests: David Quammen - award-winning science, nature, and travel writer. His article about botanist Carl Linneaus, "A Passion for Order," appears in the June 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine Lawrence Krauss - physicist and cosmologist, Case Western Reserve University Mark Buchanan - physicist and author of The Social Atom Alex Bentley - anthropologist at the University of Durham, U.K. Virginia Trimble - professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine Monday, 24 March 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-03-24.mp3 Like your stomach subjected to repeated $1.99 buffets, the universe is ever-expanding. As it grows, it inexorably becomes more chaotic. We'll hear what drives this increase in entropy, and whether there can be meaning in a universe that will ultimately become no more than a dark soup of cold particles.Also, the surprising patterns of organization around us - find out why you behave with the mathematical logic of an atom and why you can't outwit the crowds at your favorite bar. Also, happy 300th birthday to Carl Linneaus. Without him, you and your neighbors wouldn't be in the members-only club Homo sapiens.Guests: David Quammen - award-winning science, nature, and travel writer. His article about botanist Carl Linneaus, "A Passion for Order," appears in the June 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine Lawrence Krauss - physicist and cosmologist, Case Western Reserve University Mark Buchanan - physicist and author of The Social Atom Alex Bentley - anthropologist at the University of Durham, U.K. Virginia Trimble - professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak When it comes to contacting ET, SETI scientists do the math. They've been filling in values for the Drake Equation ever since 1961. That's when Frank Drake proposed his simple formula for estimating the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy. It's one equation that everyone can understand.We'll talk about the current best estimates for the terms in Drake's famous formulation - from the number of Earth-size planets to the life expectancy of advanced civilizations. Also, with all this number crunching, why haven't we yet heard from ET?Guests: Frank Drake - Senior Scientist, SETI Institute Charley Lineweaver - Astrobiologist at the Australian National University Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University J. Richard Gott - Physicist at Princeton University Natalie Batalha - Professor of Physics and Astronomy, San Jose State University, and science team member, Kepler Mission Monday, 17 March 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-03-17.mp3 When it comes to contacting ET, SETI scientists do the math. They've been filling in values for the Drake Equation ever since 1961. That's when Frank Drake proposed his simple formula for estimating the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy. It's one equation that everyone can understand.We'll talk about the current best estimates for the terms in Drake's famous formulation - from the number of Earth-size planets to the life expectancy of advanced civilizations. Also, with all this number crunching, why haven't we yet heard from ET?Guests: Frank Drake - Senior Scientist, SETI Institute Charley Lineweaver - Astrobiologist at the Australian National University Lori Marino - Behavioral Biologist at Emory University J. Richard Gott - Physicist at Princeton University Natalie Batalha - Professor of Physics and Astronomy, San Jose State University, and science team member, Kepler Mission no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Leonardo da Vinci is considered a genius for combining art and science. But how usual is this for us mere mortals? Can science and art sucessfully inform each other?We'll hear how the insights of French writer Marcel Proust anticipated modern neuroscience. Also, a debate over the evolutionary function of art. Does it have survival value? We meet a robot whose painting talents have garnered it a job in one of America's top museums. And, hear - or don't hear - why some of our relatives don't monkey around with music.Guests: Jonah Lehrer - science journalist, editor-at-large, Seed magazine and author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist David Sloan Wilson - evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University, and author of Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives Ellen Dissanayake - independent scholar and author of Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began Leonel Moura - conceptual artist Find out more about RAP, including a picture, at the American Museum of Natural History website!Whip up some madeleines (click here for a recipe) and savor your own remembrance of things past. Monday, 10 March 2008 0:0:0 PDT http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-03-10.mp3 Leonardo da Vinci is considered a genius for combining art and science. But how usual is this for us mere mortals? Can science and art sucessfully inform each other?We'll hear how the insights of French writer Marcel Proust anticipated modern neuroscience. Also, a debate over the evolutionary function of art. Does it have survival value? We meet a robot whose painting talents have garnered it a job in one of America's top museums. And, hear - or don't hear - why some of our relatives don't monkey around with music.Guests: Jonah Lehrer - science journalist, editor-at-large, Seed magazine and author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist David Sloan Wilson - evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University, and author of Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives Ellen Dissanayake - independent scholar and author of Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began Leonel Moura - conceptual artist Find out more about RAP, including a picture, at the American Museum of Natural History website!Whip up some madeleines (click here for a recipe) and savor your own remembrance of things past. no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Here's a time-saver: ditch that car and find your local wormhole. You'll be transported from your front door to Pilates - or to a piazza in Rome, if you prefer - faster than you can say "instant messaging."We'll get reaction from a physicist and science-fiction fans to the movie "Jumper," that explores the idea of teleportation, and find out whether a wormhole commute is really possible.Also, futuristic modes of transportation that have yet to crowd the skies: jet packs and flying cars. Whatever happened to them? And, what travel will be like in the year 2050.Guests: Max Tegmark - physicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Christian Tenus - MIT sophomore and member of the MIT Science Fiction Society Carrie Keach - MIT sophomore and member of the MIT Science Fiction Society Doug Hecox - Spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration Tom Frey - Executive Director, The DaVinci Institute Monday, 03 March 2008 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-03-03.mp3 Here's a time-saver: ditch that car and find your local wormhole. You'll be transported from your front door to Pilates - or to a piazza in Rome, if you prefer - faster than you can say "instant messaging."We'll get reaction from a physicist and science-fiction fans to the movie "Jumper," that explores the idea of teleportation, and find out whether a wormhole commute is really possible.Also, futuristic modes of transportation that have yet to crowd the skies: jet packs and flying cars. Whatever happened to them? And, what travel will be like in the year 2050.Guests: Max Tegmark - physicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Christian Tenus - MIT sophomore and member of the MIT Science Fiction Society Carrie Keach - MIT sophomore and member of the MIT Science Fiction Society Doug Hecox - Spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration Tom Frey - Executive Director, The DaVinci Institute no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Do you find eating tiresome? Is taking time to chew taking too big a bite out of your productivity? Well, you can soon say goodbye to the burden of beefy burgers and chlorophyll-ridden lettuce - you'll be able to pop a pill for all your nutritional needs! As much as you may find this too much to swallow, what we call "food" is changing. Indeed, you might not recognize the dinner of the future if it landed on your plate today.In this hour, a look at high and low-tech visions of dinner time... whether E.T. would ever get a hankering to snack on Homo sapiens... what percentage of a Twinkie is mined... and growing meat in the lab. Plus, food fights of the past and future.Guests: Steve Ettlinger - author of Twinkie Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats Warren Belasco - Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, and author of Meals To Come Jason Matheny - Director of New Harvest, a non-profit which funds research on in-vitro meat Tori Hoehler - astrobiology researcher at NASA Ames Research Center Monday, 25 February 2008 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-02-25.mp3 Do you find eating tiresome? Is taking time to chew taking too big a bite out of your productivity? Well, you can soon say goodbye to the burden of beefy burgers and chlorophyll-ridden lettuce - you'll be able to pop a pill for all your nutritional needs! As much as you may find this too much to swallow, what we call "food" is changing. Indeed, you might not recognize the dinner of the future if it landed on your plate today.In this hour, a look at high and low-tech visions of dinner time... whether E.T. would ever get a hankering to snack on Homo sapiens... what percentage of a Twinkie is mined... and growing meat in the lab. Plus, food fights of the past and future.Guests: Steve Ettlinger - author of Twinkie Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats Warren Belasco - Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, and author of Meals To Come Jason Matheny - Director of New Harvest, a non-profit which funds research on in-vitro meat Tori Hoehler - astrobiology researcher at NASA Ames Research Center no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak We've all descended from a common ancestor, but, as Homo sapiens, we no longer brachiate through trees and have long abandoned our stone tools for iPods. Evolution has shaped us into the big-brained, bipedal, text-messaging specimens we are today. But it didn't happened without a lot of pressure. We'll look at some of the forces that have driven human evolution - from the snake-phobia that sharpened our eyesight, to the anger-management that was a prerequisite for civilization.Also, how your Blackberry may be changing the brains of future generations. And, are we engineering our own successors through robotics?Guests: Lynne Isbell - anthropologist, University of California, Davis Timothy Taylor - archeologist, the University of Bradford in the U.K. Nicholas Wade - science writer, New York Times, author of Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors Lee Gutkind - author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think Monday, 18 February 2008 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-02-18.mp3 We've all descended from a common ancestor, but, as Homo sapiens, we no longer brachiate through trees and have long abandoned our stone tools for iPods. Evolution has shaped us into the big-brained, bipedal, text-messaging specimens we are today. But it didn't happened without a lot of pressure. We'll look at some of the forces that have driven human evolution - from the snake-phobia that sharpened our eyesight, to the anger-management that was a prerequisite for civilization.Also, how your Blackberry may be changing the brains of future generations. And, are we engineering our own successors through robotics?Guests: Lynne Isbell - anthropologist, University of California, Davis Timothy Taylor - archeologist, the University of Bradford in the U.K. Nicholas Wade - science writer, New York Times, author of Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors Lee Gutkind - author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Don't worry if you've lost your senses - we've found them. Find out why we've evolved taste, sight, hearing, touch, and smell the way we have, and why we don't sense our world through antennae or echolocation. Discover what part of the tongue recognizes anchovies and why cats can't taste candy. And, in need of some virtual surgery? Visit the robotics lab where computers are wired with the sense of touch.Also, release yourself from the limits of your biology: from bionic limbs to infrared vision; join humans of the future who are enhanced with super-senses.Now that you have a feel for the taste of this show by nosing about this blurb, you can see that it's worth a listen. Make sense?Guests: Tom Finger - Cell and Developmental Biologist at University of Colorado Medical School and Co-Director of the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center. Ken Salisbury - Computer Scientist in the Bio-Robotics Laboratory, Stanford. James Hughes - Sociologist and Bioethicist at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Executive Director of the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Nina Jablonski - Anthropologist at Penn State University and author of Skin: A Natural History. Monday, 11 February 2008 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-02-11.mp3 Don't worry if you've lost your senses - we've found them. Find out why we've evolved taste, sight, hearing, touch, and smell the way we have, and why we don't sense our world through antennae or echolocation. Discover what part of the tongue recognizes anchovies and why cats can't taste candy. And, in need of some virtual surgery? Visit the robotics lab where computers are wired with the sense of touch.Also, release yourself from the limits of your biology: from bionic limbs to infrared vision; join humans of the future who are enhanced with super-senses.Now that you have a feel for the taste of this show by nosing about this blurb, you can see that it's worth a listen. Make sense?Guests: Tom Finger - Cell and Developmental Biologist at University of Colorado Medical School and Co-Director of the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center. Ken Salisbury - Computer Scientist in the Bio-Robotics Laboratory, Stanford. James Hughes - Sociologist and Bioethicist at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Executive Director of the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Nina Jablonski - Anthropologist at Penn State University and author of Skin: A Natural History. no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Blah, blah, blah. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Yap, yap, yap. There's a lot of blather out there in the verbalsphere - you know what I'm saying? So you need to be crafty in order to be heard. We'll wax eloquent about those who succeed at getting their messages across... from a theory about how animals compete for bandwidth to the beautiful and sonorous language of whales.Also, how to recognize a message from E.T. And, making the case for letting that library card lapse: the extinction of the written word.Guests: Bernie Krause - Bio-acoustics researcher and director of Wild Sanctuary William Crossman - Author of VIVO: the Coming Age of Talking Computers and the director of the CompSpeak 2050 Institute for the Study of Talking Computers and Oral Cultures Laurance Doyle - Astronomer at the SETI Institute Monday, 04 February 2008 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-02-04.mp3 Blah, blah, blah. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Yap, yap, yap. There's a lot of blather out there in the verbalsphere - you know what I'm saying? So you need to be crafty in order to be heard. We'll wax eloquent about those who succeed at getting their messages across... from a theory about how animals compete for bandwidth to the beautiful and sonorous language of whales.Also, how to recognize a message from E.T. And, making the case for letting that library card lapse: the extinction of the written word.Guests: Bernie Krause - Bio-acoustics researcher and director of Wild Sanctuary William Crossman - Author of VIVO: the Coming Age of Talking Computers and the director of the CompSpeak 2050 Institute for the Study of Talking Computers and Oral Cultures Laurance Doyle - Astronomer at the SETI Institute no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak "As I look into the crystal ball, I see... I see... I see James Randi, magician and skeptic extraordinaire. It's the self-same Randi who once exposed Uri Geller's trick for bending spoons. What does he say now that Geller has apparently admitted he is a magician, and not a silverware psychic after all?"Also, the Amazing Randi's last chance for all mind readers, levitation experts and other masters of the paranormal: you have two years to prove your stuff before the $1,000,000 challenge ends.Plus, a recent Harvard study scans brains for neurological evidence of ESP... unfolding the origins of the fortune cookie... And Phil Plait rounds up the latest skewed cogitations of lazy brains: is a recent Rover photo evidence of Bigfoot on Mars?It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it.Guests: Phil Plait - Author of badastronomy.com James Randi - Stage magician, paranormal skeptic, and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation Sam Moulton - Psychologist at Harvard University Monday, 28 January 2008 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-01-28.mp3 "As I look into the crystal ball, I see... I see... I see James Randi, magician and skeptic extraordinaire. It's the self-same Randi who once exposed Uri Geller's trick for bending spoons. What does he say now that Geller has apparently admitted he is a magician, and not a silverware psychic after all?"Also, the Amazing Randi's last chance for all mind readers, levitation experts and other masters of the paranormal: you have two years to prove your stuff before the $1,000,000 challenge ends.Plus, a recent Harvard study scans brains for neurological evidence of ESP... unfolding the origins of the fortune cookie... And Phil Plait rounds up the latest skewed cogitations of lazy brains: is a recent Rover photo evidence of Bigfoot on Mars?It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it.Guests: Phil Plait - Author of badastronomy.com James Randi - Stage magician, paranormal skeptic, and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation Sam Moulton - Psychologist at Harvard University no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Imagine if aging were a disease like measles, one that could be cured. Some scientists think it's possible and that we'll eventually halt - or at least slow - the march of time and extend lifespans into the triple digits and beyond. 100 could become the new 40, and 1000 the new 500! But that's a lot of years of filling out tax forms and showing up for dental hygiene appointments. Do we really want to live that long? If so, we should tap into the secret of longevity from Ming, a 400-year-old clam.Also, the surprising story of how aviator Charles Lindbergh helped develop a medical device that prolonged lives - all in support of the Nazi cause.Guests: Aubrey de Grey - Biogerontologist and author of Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime Michael Rose - Ecologist and Evolutionary Biologist at the University of California - Irvine David M. Friedman - author of The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever Al Wanamaker - Researcher at Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences Monday, 21 January 2008 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-01-21.mp3 Imagine if aging were a disease like measles, one that could be cured. Some scientists think it's possible and that we'll eventually halt - or at least slow - the march of time and extend lifespans into the triple digits and beyond. 100 could become the new 40, and 1000 the new 500! But that's a lot of years of filling out tax forms and showing up for dental hygiene appointments. Do we really want to live that long? If so, we should tap into the secret of longevity from Ming, a 400-year-old clam.Also, the surprising story of how aviator Charles Lindbergh helped develop a medical device that prolonged lives - all in support of the Nazi cause.Guests: Aubrey de Grey - Biogerontologist and author of Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime Michael Rose - Ecologist and Evolutionary Biologist at the University of California - Irvine David M. Friedman - author of The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever Al Wanamaker - Researcher at Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Think you have it together? Then, you'll want to thank the four fundamental forces of nature. They hold the universe together, govern everything that happens, and generally make it what it is today. Discover their universal properties and how they're in action all around us. From the gravitational pull that with may cause an errant asteroid to wallop Mars, to the electromagnetic phenomena that make asteroid showers an impressive sight. Also, physicist Freeman Dyson makes the case for spacecraft propelled by nuclear bombs.Plus - the four forces are governed by fundamental laws, but are these laws made to be broken? Find out whether you could zip through space at faster than light speed.Guests: Freeman Dyson - Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University Andrew Fraknoi - Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College, Trustee at the SETI Institute, and author of Wonderful World of Space Peter Jenniskens - Meteor expert/astronomer at the SETI Institute David Morrison - Senior Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center Mario Livio - Physicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute Laurance Doyle - Astronomer at the SETI Institute Monday, 14 January 2008 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_08-01-14.mp3 Think you have it together? Then, you'll want to thank the four fundamental forces of nature. They hold the universe together, govern everything that happens, and generally make it what it is today. Discover their universal properties and how they're in action all around us. From the gravitational pull that with may cause an errant asteroid to wallop Mars, to the electromagnetic phenomena that make asteroid showers an impressive sight. Also, physicist Freeman Dyson makes the case for spacecraft propelled by nuclear bombs.Plus - the four forces are governed by fundamental laws, but are these laws made to be broken? Find out whether you could zip through space at faster than light speed.Guests: Freeman Dyson - Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University Andrew Fraknoi - Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College, Trustee at the SETI Institute, and author of Wonderful World of Space Peter Jenniskens - Meteor expert/astronomer at the SETI Institute David Morrison - Senior Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center Mario Livio - Physicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute Laurance Doyle - Astronomer at the SETI Institute no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak Some detectives don't look for fingerprints or interrogate suspects to unravel mysteries. Instead, they're dressed in white coats, and armed with DNA probes and star maps. These are the science detectives: researchers who have found innovative ways to use science to solve puzzles that no one else can.Find out how a biologist helped international police pinpoint elephant poaching in Africa. Also, astronomers who can decipher when and where Vincent van Gogh painted his famous nighttime works by examining the position of the stars. And, how some archeologists and paleontologists willingly deal with some very old dung to learn secrets of the distant past.Guests: Samuel K. Wasser - Professor of conservation biology, University of Washington Jacob Berkowitz - Author of Jurassic Poop Russell L. Doescher - Physicist and astronomer, Texas State University James Oberg - Rocket scientist and media consultant Monday, 24 December 2007 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_07-12-24.mp3 Some detectives don't look for fingerprints or interrogate suspects to unravel mysteries. Instead, they're dressed in white coats, and armed with DNA probes and star maps. These are the science detectives: researchers who have found innovative ways to use science to solve puzzles that no one else can.Find out how a biologist helped international police pinpoint elephant poaching in Africa. Also, astronomers who can decipher when and where Vincent van Gogh painted his famous nighttime works by examining the position of the stars. And, how some archeologists and paleontologists willingly deal with some very old dung to learn secrets of the distant past.Guests: Samuel K. Wasser - Professor of conservation biology, University of Washington Jacob Berkowitz - Author of Jurassic Poop Russell L. Doescher - Physicist and astronomer, Texas State University James Oberg - Rocket scientist and media consultant no Seth Shostak Seth Shostak It looked like no more than an oversized grapefruit with whiskers. So you wonder what all the fuss was about. But the small silver ball kicked into orbit by the Soviets in 1957 set off a decades-long space race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. That race resulted in major accomplishments during the fifty years since Sputnik's spunky spin, including landing humans on the moon.Meet the new space race(s). Private companies are gearing up to go where only governments have gone before, and the launch of a Chinese lunar probe signals a new turf war over Earth's natural satellite. We'll hear these stories, plus meet a "Sputnut" who owns two copies of the pioneering orb and is looking forward to a Sputnik-eye-view of Earth as a passenger on board the International Space Station next fall.Also, why the space elevator biz is looking up.Guests: Richard Garriott - Executive Producer at online game company NC Soft and a space enthusiast who is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in October, 2008 Peter Swan - Partner, Teaching Science and Technology, Inc. Simon "Pete" Worden - Center Director, NASA Ames Research Center Peter Diamandis - Chairman and CEO of the X-Prize Foundation Monday, 10 December 2007 0:0:0 PST http://dlc.sun.com/seti/podcast/AWA_07-12-10.mp3 It looked like no more than an oversized grapefruit with whiskers. So you wonder what all the fuss was about. But the small silver ball kicked into orbit by the Soviets in 1957 set off a decades-long space race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. That race resulted in major accomplishments during the fifty years since Sputnik's spunky spin, including landing humans on the moon.Meet the new space race(s). Private companies are gearing up to go where only governments have gone before, and the launch of a Chinese lunar probe signals a new turf war over Earth's natural satellite. We'll hear these stories, plus meet a "Sputnut" who owns two copies of the pioneering orb and is looking forward to a Sputnik-eye-view of Earth as a passenger on board the International Space Station next fall.Also, why the space elevator biz is looking up.Guests: Richard Garriott - Executive Producer at online game company NC Soft and a space enthusiast who is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in October, 2008 Peter Swan - Partner, Teaching Science and Technology, Inc. Simon "Pete" Worden - Center Director, NASA Ames Research Center Peter Diamandis - Chairman and CEO of the X-Prize Foundation no