Are We Alone? - Science Radio for Thinking Species

Pave New Worlds

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The extra-solar planet count is more than 400 and rising. Before long we may find an Earth-like planet around another star. If we do, and can visit, what next? Stake out our claim on an alien world or tread lightly and preserve it?

We’ll look at what our record on Earth says about our planet stewardship. Also, whether a massive technological fix can get us out of our climate mess. Plus, what we can learn about extreme climate from our neighbors in the solar system, Venus and Mars.

Guests:

Ken Caldeira – Climate scientist from The Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University
Keith Cowing – Biologist, and editor of NASAwatch.com
Kathryn Denning – Anthropologist at York University in Canada
Gary Davis – Director of the Joint Astronomy Center in Hilo, Hawaii
David Grinspoon – Curator of the Denver Museum of Science and Nature

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It's the Science, Cupid!

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Love makes us feel warm and mushy, but the sweet sting of Cupid’s arrow makes a compelling chemistry lesson, too. Research into animal mating and human courtship provides clues to an eternal mystery: what’s the purpose of love?

Learn lessons from the family values of field mice, and affectionate same-sex penguin pairs. Plus: Darwin’s take on speed dating, and the science of smooching.

Guests

Helen Fisher – Anthropologist, Rutgers University
Sarah Woodley – Biologist, Duquesne University
Skyler Place – Doctoral Student, Indiana University’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Larry Young – Neurobiologist, Emory University
Marlene Zuk – Biologist, University of California, Riverside

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Who's on First?

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Being first counts in science. Land that coveted spot and you’ll make history, whether it’s with the first steam engine or the discovery of our earliest human ancestor.

But what does “first” mean when technological invention so heavily builds on what’s come before… and evolution represents continuous change?

Find out how “publish or perish” made Darwin famous… why we’ll never find the first human fossil… and how powerful new telescopes are allowing us to see the earliest galaxies.

Plus, the chicken and egg battle it out in line.

Guests:

Garth Illingworth – Astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz

Sean B. Carroll – Molecular biologist and geneticist at the University of Wisconsin Madison and author of Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species

Leslea Hlusko – Paleontologist at the University of California- Berkeley. Read more about Ardi

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Skeptic Check: Swimming in Denial

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Public distrust of science is higher than at any time since the Enlightenment. New Yorker writer Michael Specter argues how our anti-science bias and our irrationalism about everything from genetically modified foods to climate change to childhood vaccines endangers our future.

And remember when… a look back at scientists who at first pooh-poohed plate tectonics… meteorites, and quantum physics. How the evidence turned them around.

It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it.

Guests:

Michael Specter – Writer for The New Yorker and author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives

Read Montague – Director of the Human Neuroimaging Lab at Baylor College of Medicine and author of Why Choose This Book?: How We Make Decisions

Spencer Weart – Historian of science

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Eureka!

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

From the double-helix to the expansion of the universe, great scientific discoveries reshape our understanding of who we are and how things work. But great discoveries require more than just a great mind. We tour brainy breakthroughs from Archimedes to Darwin, and find out what made their revolutionary insights possible.

Also, why you need more than a stratospheric I.Q. to be a super-achiever. And how the invention of reading re-directed the course of civilization and re-wired our brains in the process.

Guests:

Alan Hirshfeld – Professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and author of Eureka Man: The Life and Legacy of Archimedes

Richard Holmes – Author of The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science

Angela Duckworth – Psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Her grit study can be found here

Stanislas Dehaene – Cognitive neruoscientist at the the Collège de France in Paris, and author of Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention

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Time's Mysteries Part II: Warping Time

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

ENCORE Ever since Einstein, we’ve known that time doesn’t barrel willy-nilly into the future. Moving clocks tick at a different rates, and by riding a fast rocket, we can slow time to a crawl. Such tricks may give you a way to see the distant future, but can you go back in time?

Discover one man’s quest to build a time machine. Also learn how to put the brakes on aging by getting near a black hole.

Plus, does your entire life really pass before your eyes if you jump off the Brooklyn Bridge? Our perception of time.

Guests:

Roy Gould – Astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Ronald Mallett – Professor of Physics, University of Connecticut, and author of The Time Traveller

Simon Steel – Astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

David Eagleman – Neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, and Director of the Laboratory for Perception and Action

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Time's Mysteries Part I: Marking Time

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ENCORE Time’s a mystery, yet we’ve invented clever ways to capture it. From sundials to atomic clocks, trace the history of time-keeping. Also, discover the surprising accuracy of nature’s dating schemes – from the decay of carbon to laying down tree rings.

Plus, why the “New York minute” stretches to hours in Rio de Janeiro: cultural differences in the perception of time.

Guests:

Chris Turney – Geologist at the University of Wollongong, Australia and the author of Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened

Demetrios Matsakis – Head of the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Time Service

Steven Jefferts – Physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado

Robert Levine – Psychologist at California State University in Fresno and the author of A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently

Norman Mohr – Owner, Mohr Clocks, Mountain View, California

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Journey to a Black Hole

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

A massive black hole lies at the center of our galaxy, a monster hunkered down in the Milky Way’s innermost sanctum. Here, the bizarre laws of General Relativity take over, as the physics we know break down. And our spaceship is headed straight for it.

Join us on a special dramatized 26,000 light-year adventure to the Galaxy’s hulking heart of darkness. We explore a cosmos held together by gravity – discover why it’s not really a force – and try to avoid getting too close to a black hole, the ultimate expression of gravity.

This program is part of the traveling exhibit: “Black Holes, Space Warps and Time Twists,” a production of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Find out more at: http://web-bh.cfa.harvard.edu/

Voices:

Roland Pease, Lilia Roman, Roe DeVasto, Doug Vakoch, Patrick Porter, Gary Niederhoff

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A Man, A Planet, A Tenal: Panama!

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

While the Kepler spacecraft hunts for habitable planets beyond the solar system, we’ve let one of our own planets slip away! Find out why Pluto’s demotion to dwarf status created a public uproar as astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reads us his hate mail. From third-graders!

Also, how we might find Earth-like planets… the possibility of life on Saturn’s moon Titan… and TED Prize winner Jill Tarter’s vision for finding E.T.

And, the man who made it all possible: 400 years of Galileo and the telescope. Part of our series for the International Year of Astronomy.

Guests

Neil deGrasse Tyson – Astrophysicist, Head of the Hayden Planetarium, and author of The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet

Alan Stern – Planetary Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, lead investigator on NASA’s New Horizons Mission

Jeffrey Van Cleve – Astronomer at the Kepler Mission Science Office

Carolyn Porco – Planetary scientist and Lead for NASA’s Cassini Mission

Jill Tarter – Director of SETI Research at the SETI Institute

Andy Fraknoi – Astronomer at Foothill College and author of Voyages Through the Universe (with CD-ROM, Virtual Astronomy Labs, and InfoTrac )

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Feather Knows Best

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Can animals think? Merely asking the question was once thought ridiculous. But studies that range from chimps to birds to sea creatures have prompted scientists to reassess the cognitive capabilities of our animal friends. These results challenge not only our idea of intelligence, but man’s unequivocal perch at the top.

Learn the secret communication between camouflaging cuttlefish… how the smarts of Alex the parrot turned “birdbrain” into a compliment… and why brawn sometimes trumps brains in evolution.

Plus, why – after billions of years of evolution – our brains just barely work!

Guests

Irene Pepperberg – teaches animal cognition at Harvard University, and author of Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process

Roger Hanlon – senior scientist at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts

Gary Marcus – psychologist at New York University and
author of Kluge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Human Mind

Jonathan Payne – assistant professor of geological and environmental science at Stanford University

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Skeptic Check: Vaccines: Give 'Em Your Best Shot

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

As the anti-vax campaign rages, parents are just saying “no” to vaccines. But now the incidence of childhood diseases such as whooping cough are on the rise.

A number of studies have refuted the link between vaccines, autism and other chronic conditions, yet the anti-vaccine movement continues. Find out why. Also, how the media have irresponsibility framed the debate.

Plus, we panic over plague, sweat about swine flu, but don’t think twice about jumping in a car and roaring down a crowded highway at 70 mph. Discover why most of our health worries are overblown.

It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

Paul Offit – Pediatrician, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and author of Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure

Steven Novella – Assistant professor of neurology at Yale School of Medicine and co-founder and editor of sciencebasedmedicine.org

Philip Alcabes – Professor of urban public health at Hunter College, and author of Dread: How Fear and Fantasy have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu

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Carbon Your Enthusiasm

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Bond it to oxygen and it’s the scourge of climate change. But earthly life wouldn’t be possible without carbon, and maybe that’s true for alien life, too.

And carbon has other exciting forms: tiny diamonds may be evidence of a catastrophic comet impact 13,000 years ago. And, chalky carbonates may point to a once-habitable Mars.

So get cozy with carbon. Find out if you could swap it for silicon in DNA. Plus, the conundrum of calculating a carbon footprint.

Guests

Allen West – Retired Geophysicist

Bethany Ehlmann – Geologist, Brown Unviversity

Michael Mumma – Planetary scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

John Murlis – Chief Scientific Advisor to the Carbon Neutral Company in the U.K.

Steven Benner – Molecular Biologist, Founder of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution

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SETI: Now What?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Hello! Is anyone out there? As the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence marks its 50th anniversary, there’s been no contact as yet with alien beings. But SETI researchers maintain that we are not alone. Find out why in a SETI retrospective that looks at the past and future of the search.

We remember the first scientific SETI search… Carl Sagan… how the SETI Institute began… the WOW signal…and the 1993 NASA budget cuts.

We’ll also hear from critics of the search… scientists involved in optical SETI and SETI@home. Plus, international collaborations… and where the search is headed.

Guests:

Frank Drake – Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute

Jill Tarter – Director of the Center for SETI Research, SETI Institute

Tom Pierson – CEO, SETI Institute

Paul Horowitz – Physicist, electrical engineer, Harvard University

Dan Werthimer – Chief Scientist, SETI@home, University of California, Berkeley

Ben Zuckerman – Physicist, Astronomer, UCLA

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Skeptic Check: Doomsday at the Movies

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Hollywood has a few ideas of how the world will end: killer asteroids … lethal pandemics … deadly ice-ages. These themes have all played out on the big screen. But, hey, they’re only movies, right?

We’ll separate the science from the fiction in doomsday movies. From the 2012 prophesy of the Mayans … to colliding worlds … to abrupt climate change, find out which among this crowd of cinematic scares are for real, and which aren’t worth the price of popcorn.

Guests:

Dave Morrison – Astrobiologist, NASA Ames Research Center

Phil Plait – Astronomer, keeper of badastronomy.com, and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .

Lynn Rothschild – Astrobiologist, NASA Ames Research Center

Ken Caldeira – Scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Global Ecology

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Do Computers Byte?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The march of computer technology continues. But as silicon chips and search engines become faster and more productive – can the same be said for us?

The creator of Wolfram Alpha describes how his new “computational knowledge engine” is changing – and improving – how we process information. Meanwhile, suffering from data and distraction burnout? Find out what extremes some folks take to stop their search engines.

Also, the Singularity sensation of humans merging with machines… and, why for the ancient Greeks all of this is “been there, done that.” A deep sea dive turns up a 2,000 year old computer!

Guests:

Jo Marchant – Freelance science journalist and author of Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000-Year-Old Computer—and the Century-Long Search to Discover Its Secrets

Stephen Wolfram – Mathematican, computer programmer, and founder of Wolfram Research and Wolfram Alpha

Fred Stutzman – PhD student at the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science

Peggy Orenstein – author and contributing editor to the New York Times Magazine, which is where we found her article “Stop Your Search Engines”

Ray Kurzweil – Inventor, futurist and author, most recently, of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

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Skeptic Check: Mind Your Body

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Popping a pill may help when you’re sick… but maybe not for the reasons you think. Sugar pills – placebos – cure illness better than prescription pills in as many as half of all cases in clinical trials … and the placebo effect is getting stronger.

Plus, the safety – or otherwise – of electromagnetic waves, and the “electro-sensitive” refugees who have built a camp to protect themselves from waves they say are causing pain. Is it all in their minds?

And, New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye joins Phil Plait on the latest lapse in critically-thinking brains – a wild idea that may not be so loony: namely, could a cosmic censor from the future be thwarting efforts to find the Higgs boson?

It’s Skeptic Check … but don’t take our word for it!

Dennis Overbye – Domestic Correspondent, New York Times

Phil Plait – Keeper of the skeptical website badastronomy.com and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .

Steve Silberman – Contributing editor, Wired Magazine, author of “The Placebo Problem” in the September 2009 issue

Leeka Kheifets – Epidemiologist, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles

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Seth's Storage Locker

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

It’s always an adventure to go digging in Seth’s storage locker – who knows what we’ll find …

In this imposing pile of paraphernalia, tucked between boxes of socket wrenches and old 45s, we stumble upon the hunt for extrasolar planets, the evidence for water on moons of the solar system, theories of language, a controversial hypothesis for the peopling of the Americas, and a new dinosaur fossil.

Guests:

Steve Brusatte – Vertebrate paleontologist from the American Museum of Natural History in New York

Steven Pinker – Psychologist, Harvard University

Geoff Marcy – Astronomer, University of California, Berkeley

Adam Showman – Planetary scientist at the University of Arizona

Mike Collins – Associate Director, Texas Archeological Research Laboratory

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Extreme Geology

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

We think of major geologic events as taking place a long time ago – but the Earth is just as active as it ever was. We’re a planet in motion. Discover why earthquakes might be increasing worldwide… descend into daring cave exploration… and take a trip to Hawaii where new volcanoes are gurgling up right now.

Plus – the supervolcano under Yellowstone Park… when might it erupt again?

Guests:

Robert Nadeau – Geologist, University of California, Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and part of a team from Rice University researching the San Andreas Fault

Joel Achenbach – Reporter, author of “When Yellowstone Explodes”, August 2009 National Geographic cover story

Jim Kauahikaua – Scientist-in-Charge, United States Geologic Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Pat Kambesis – Geologist, Assistant Director of the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute at Western Kentucky University

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Say What?

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

There’s no escape from the chattering classes – they talk, squawk, squeal and sing all around us. Every animal communicates in some form – it’s essential for survival. They’ve evolved to understand each other … but do we understand them?

Find out what’s coded in humpback whale song and whether human-cetacean dialogue is possible… how information theory reveals communication patterns within the animal kingdom… how plants call out to animals to protect them… and why only humans evolved language.

Guests:

Douglas Carlton Abrams – Author of Eye of the Whale: A Novel

Laurance Doyle – Scientist at the SETI Institute

Douglas Vakoch – Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute

David DeGusta – Anthropologist at Stanford University

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Aloha Astronomy

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

From Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the view of the cosmos is spectacular. Giant black holes, distant galaxies, and extrasolar planets have all been uncovered by the massive telescopes that perch on this volcanic cone.

Join the astronomers who use the Keck Telescopes to peer at objects so far away, their light started out before Earth was born.

Also discover how the new Thirty Meter Telescope will dwarf even the massive glass eyes now in place, and why some of the world’s most important astronomical discoveries are being made in the Aloha State.

Plus, why the building of telescopes on the volcano is controversial to some native Hawaiians.

Guests:

Charles Blue – Science writer, Thirty Meter Telescope Project

Richard Ellis – Astronomer, California Institute of Technology

Koa Rice – Hawaiian culture consultant

Julian Christou – Adaptive optics scientist, Gemini North Telescope

Ashley Yeager – Outreach manager, Keck Telescope

Taft Armandroff – Director of the W. M. Keck Telescope

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