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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Discover the unearthly appeal of these reanimated beings and why playing dead may mirror the real social alienation of our digital lives. Also, how mathematicians use “zombie attacks” to model real disease epidemics, such as swine flu.

Plus – another case of life in suspension: the promise and peril of cryonics.

And, Phil Plait’s vacationing brains swallow a hoax moon-landing-hoax story.

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

• Jim Yount – Chief Operating Officer, American Cryonics Society
• Robert Smith? – Mathematician, University of Ottawa
• Dan Vado – President of SLG Publishing, San Jose, California
• Edward Martinez – Makeup specialist, Hayward, California
• Phil Plait – Keeper of the skeptical website badastronomy.com and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .
• Brendan Riley – Assistant professor of English, Columbia College, Chicago

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Plus, how a star is born … the latest from the NASA Kepler mission to seek Earth-like planets … and, planet-hunter extraordinaire Mike Brown discovers the tenth planet: an icy body beyond Pluto.

Guests:

• Jay Pasachoff – Astronomer, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
• Betsy Barton – Astronomer, University of California, Irvine
• Mike Brown – Planetary Astronomer, California Institute of Technology
• Jon Jenkins – SETI Institute scientist with NASA’s Kepler Mission

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From strange particles to dark matter to vibrating strings, find out why you have to think small to understand the physics of the universe.

Plus, other cosmic connections: is SETI a religion?

Guests:

• Murray Gell-Mann – Physics Nobel Laureate, Professor Emeritus – California Institute of Technology, Distinguished Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Brian Greene – Mathematician and physicist, Columbia University, author of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory and, most recently, Icarus at the Edge of Time
• Lisa Randall – Physicist, Harvard University, author of Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions
• David Wilkinson – Theologian, University of Durham, U.K.

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Also, Steven Pinker on how language reveals private thoughts as well as why the big-brained Homo neanderthalensis couldn’t out-compete Homo sapiens. And, we tease your gray matter with the “Monty Hall Problem.”

Guests:

• Steven Pinker – Psychologist, Harvard University and author, most recently, of The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
• A. K. Pradeep – Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Neurofocus in Berkeley, California
• Quentin Baldwin – Client Services Engineer at Neurofocus
• Richard Klein – Paleoanthropologist at Stanford University
• Deborah Bennett – Mathematician at New Jersey City University

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In the second of a two-part series: what we’ll lose and what will last in 1000 years or more.

Discover what the planet might look like to geologists of the far-off-future… the stubborn longevity of plastic and radioactive waste… human civilization in space… and postcards from the galactic edge; crafting interstellar messages to E.T.

Guests:

• Charles Moore – Sea Captain and founder of Algalita Marine Research Foundation
• Jan Zalasiewicz – Geologist, University of Leicester and author of The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks?
• Matthew Wald – Reporter for the New York Times and author of the article “Is There a Place for Nuclear Waste?” in the August 2009 issue of Scientific American
• Doug Vakoch – Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute
• David Korsmeyer – Chief of the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center

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In the first of a two-part series: what will be lost and what will still be around 100 years from now? James Lovelock says a hotter planet will prompt mass migrations. And Cary Fowler urges us to save our seeds – the health of future farms may depend on it.

Plus, from antibiotics to sewage systems: why human ingenuity ultimately saves the day.

And, sure, humans will be around in a century, but – with bionic limbs and silicon neurons – would we recognize them?

Guests:

• James Lovelock – Independent scientist and author of The Vanishing Face of Gaia
• Cary Fowler – Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust
• Russell Blackford – Philosopher, writer, and editor-in-chief of the “Journal of Evolution and Technology.”

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Plus, a trip to the Body Farm where decaying bodies help science…how we might cheat the Big Sleep with drugs… why Mexican cemeteries look like villages… and a doctor’s fight against one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

Guests:

• Bill Bass – Forensic Anthropologist, founder of the University of Tennessee Forensic Research Facility. Author of Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science and fiction, written under the pen name, Jefferson Bass. The latest: Bones of Betrayal: A Body Farm Novel.
• Stanley Brandes – Cultural Anthropologist, University of California, Berkeley, author of Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead: The Day of the Dead in Mexico and Beyond
• Matt Kaeberlein – Pathologist, University of Washington
• Ross Donaldson – Doctor and author of The Lassa Ward

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Part II: Behavior: how computers compel us to interact with them… why your iPod may improve your health… why Facebook may leave you friendless… the unintended consequences of past innovation… and the growing threat of “videophilia.”

Guests:

• BJ Fogg – Experimental Psychologist and Director of Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab
• James Levine – Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic
• Andrew Keen – Author of The Cult of the Amateur; How the Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting our Economy
• Patricia Zaradic – Conservation Ecologist with the Red Rock Institute
• Edward Tenner – Writer and consultant on technology and culture at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, and author of Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences and, most recently, Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity