Science History Podcast

Rachel Carson alerted the world to the dangers of pollution with the publication of her book Silent Spring in 1962, and in the process, she helped to launch the environmental movement. My guest, Paul Ehrlich, alerted the world to the dangers of human population growth and resource consumption with the publication of his book The Population Bomb in 1968, and in the process, he accelerated the envir...

Global biodiversity is in the midst of a mass extinction driven by rapid human population growth and over-consumption of resources. These forces drive habitat loss, pollution, invasive species, climate change, and the many other proximate causes of species losses. The study of these forces, and how they can be mitigated to preserve biodiversity, is the responsibility of scientists engaged in the f...

Nothing is more human than language, and no one has done more to advance the science of linguistics than Noam Chomsky. Noam was born in 1928, and completed undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Pennsylvania just after the Second World War. He earned his PhD in 1955, and by 1957, he was already publishing landmark works in linguistics that disrupted the field and fundamentally alt...

Space exploration thrills kids and adults alike. Today I discuss the history of NASA and space science with Pam Melroy. Pam piloted the Space Shuttle missions STS-92 in 2000 and STS-112 in 2002, and she commanded STS-120 in 2007. We discuss the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Apollo-Soyuz programs, the Mariner 9 mission, Landsat satellites, Skylab, the Space shuttle, and the International Space Statio...

Freshwater ecosystems and their resident species have declined more rapidly than either terrestrial or marine systems and their species. Freshwater ecosystems face myriad stressors, from habitat loss and pollution to dams and climate change. Today I discuss the state of freshwater conservation science with Ian Harrison. Ian obtained his Ph. D. in systematic ichthyology at the University of Bristol...

Due to recent technological advances, scientists have revolutionized our understanding of human evolutionary history. What appeared to be a relatively simple story of divergence from ancient hominids is instead a tangled mess involving repeated cycles of divergence and hybridization between evolving human species. Today my guest is Jason Wilder, who researches human evolutionary genetics and genom...

The brain is the most enigmatic of organs – it is really a collection of organs that undergoes a remarkable coordinated development that is driven in part by sex steroids. Today my guest is Margaret McCarthy, one of the leading researchers on sex differences in the brain. Here, we cover the history of research on sex and the brain, including the utility of animal models, the roles of hormones and...

Today we explore the history of plutonium with Frank von Hippel, a retired but always active professor at Princeton University, where, in 1975, he co-founded Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In the 1980s, Frank was the chairman of the Federation of American Scientists, and in the Clinton Administration he was the A...

We explore the history of the discovery of gravitational waves with Rai Weiss, including the relevance to special and general relativity, pulsars, supernovae, merging and binary black holes, space and time, neutron star collisions, dark matter, cosmic background radiation, gamma ray bursts, and even the viscosity of neutrinos. We also discuss really small numbers, the origin of the NSF and NASA, t...

In this supplemental episode with Matthew Meselson, I accepted his invitation to visit him in his office at Harvard, where we discussed yellow rain incidents in Southeast Asia. Meselson received his appointment as an Associate Professor of biology at Harvard in 1960 and his full professorship in 1964. He has been at Harvard ever since. Meselson has received many prominent awards throughout his car...

Matthew Meselson organized the Herbicide Assessment Commission in 1970, which investigated the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants in Vietnam. The work of the commission helped to end Operation Ranch Hand, in which the United States sprayed nearly 20 million gallons – about 73 million liters - of herbicides and defoliants over the rainforest and mangrove forest canopies of Vietnam, Laos and C...

We live in a surreal and dangerous time – autocrats are on the rise and societies are regressing toward ethnic competition. Given this political moment, I decided to dedicate an episode of the podcast to the history of research on cooperation. My guest, Robert Axelrod, has been a professor of political science and public policy at the University of Michigan since 1974.  Prior to that, he was a pro...

How did modern molecular biology become an integral component of forensic science? My guest, Bruce Budowle, played key roles in the development of genetic and microbial forensics, and he explains significant events in forensic science over the past four decades. Bruce joined the research unit of the FBI Laboratory Division in 1983 and rose in the ranks to become the Chief of the Forensic Science R...

Shortly after the al-Qaida terror attacks of September 11, 2001, a second wave of terror swept the United States – this time bioterrorism with anthrax mailed in letters as the weapon. Today my guest is Paul Keim, the scientist who conducted the genetic sleuthing and tracked down the source of the anthrax. Paul is the recipient of numerous scientific honors, and he is a professor of biological scie...

One of the greatest mysteries in biology, until 1991, was how water moves across cell membranes. Today's episode focuses on the history of the discovery of aquaporins, or proteins that act as water channels in cell membranes. My guest is Peter Agre, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of aquaporins. Among many other honors and leadership roles across his career, Peter...

In 1854, in the Soho district of London, cholera swept through the population. The physician John Snow investigated the cause of the outbreak and hypothesized that it was due to contaminated water. So began the field of epidemiology. Today's episode focuses on water quality, sanitation and disease. My guest is Dennis Warner, who has worked for forty years in the field of water supply and sanitatio...

The effects of human induced climate change, predicted over a century ago, are already with us. My guest, John Matthews, is the coordinator at the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, which is a network of water and climate professionals working towards solutions for sustainable water resources management on both technical and policy fronts. In today's episode, we look back at some of the history...

Winston Churchill's outsized role and oratory in wartime, from the Great Boer War at the turn of the century to World War II, are well known. Beyond politics and battle, Churchill also displayed a keen interest in technological development and scientific advancement, the subject of today's podcast, which is part 2 of a two-part series. To explore Churchill's connection to science and technology, I...

The 20th century was a time of unparalleled advancement in science and technology, along with the associated destruction caused by two world wars.  I think the most important person to positively influence the 20th century was Winston Churchill.  His importance was especially pronounced during World War II, in which his leadership may well have saved the world from long-term Nazi tyranny.  But Chu...

The Natural History Museum in London houses the greatest collection of natural history specimens in the world, collected for centuries by British explorers and scientists.  In Part 2 of this episode on British explorers, my guests Andrea Hart and Max Barclay explain the role that these specimens and associated artwork played in the development of major scientific advances.  Foremost among these sp...

The Natural History Museum in London houses the greatest collection of natural history specimens in the world, collected for centuries by British explorers and scientists.  From Captain Cook's discovery of Australia and Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle to the doomed Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica led by Robert Scott, a steady stream of invaluable specimens has traversed the globe in orde...

For over half a century, innovative scientists have tested the abilities of animals to learn to communicate using human systems, such as American Sign Language with chimps and gorillas.  One could go back even farther in time, to the start of the 20th century, when the German mathematics teacher Wilhelm von Osten trained his Russian trotting horse Hans to answer questions, do simple math, and disc...

The obesity epidemic has spread throughout much of the world and is one of the leading drivers of impaired health and skyrocketing healthcare costs.  In today's episode, we are focusing on a neglected aspect of the obesity epidemic – the role played by exposure to toxic chemicals in our food, water, and the environment.  Walking us through the history of this new field of research – investigations...

Today we are exploring natural history investigations in the Hawaiian archipelago. My guest, Dan Lewis, is a research professor of history at Claremont Graduate University and the Dibner Senior Curator of the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library. Today's podcast is coincident with the publication of Dan's new book, entitled: Belonging on an Island. Birds, Extinction, and Evo...

The discovery and subsequent study of Pluto has captivated the public for nearly a century.  Even the question of whether Pluto should be categorized as a planet or a dwarf planet has stirred passionate debate, but the implications of discoveries related to Pluto go far beyond the identification of an icy world at the outer edge of the solar system.  My guests today are Kevin Schindler and Will Gr...