Science Talk

Award-winning writer and physicist Graham Farmelo talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky about The Strangest Man, Farmelo's biography of Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Paul Dirac. Part 1 of 2. Web sites related to this episode include www.thestrangestman.com and http://bit.ly/dirac1963 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University, talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky about neutrinos and gravity waves. And Cynthia Graber talks with Paolo Galluzzi, director of the newly reopened Museo Galileo, the science museum in Florence, Italy. Plus, we test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites related to content...

Scientific American magazine Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina and news editor Philip Yam join podcast host Steve Mirsky to talk about the cover story of the June issue of the magazine, "12 Events That Will Change Everything". How things like the first human clone, an asteroid impact or the discovery of extra dimensions will change the world and our view of our place in the universe Learn more...

Martin Gardner died May 22nd at 95. He wrote the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American magazine for 25 years and published more than 70 books. Podcast host Steve Mirsky talks with Gardner's friend Douglas Hofstadter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, about Martin Gardner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MacWorld editorial director Jason Snell and app developer Peter Watling talk with podcast host Steve Mirsky about the iPad, computer culture and apps, aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic during MacMania, produced by insightcruises.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The ubiquitous David Pogue, author of the Missing Manual series and tech columnist for The New York Times, talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic during MacMania, produced by insightcruises.com. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky about the contents of the May issue, including articles on induced pluripotent stem cells, high-speed and maglev trains, and blindsight. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer and activist Bill McKibben talks to Scientific American's Mark Fischetti about his new book Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Part 2 of 2. Edited and produced by podcast host Steve Mirsky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer and activist Bill McKibben talks to Scientific American's Mark Fischetti about his new book Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet Part 1 of 2. Edited and produced by podcast host Steve Mirsky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Nagy, author of Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution, discusses the codes, ciphers, chemistry and psychology of spying in the American Revolution, in a talk recorded by podcast host Steve Mirsky at the historic Fraunces Tavern in New York City. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites related to this episode include http://snipurl.com/vnhy8 L...

Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina and psychology researcher Robert Epstein, a contributing editor to Scientific American MIND magazine, talk about falling in love and staying that way. And science communicator Dennis Meredith discusses his book Explaining Research, and the importance for scientists of reaching the public. Web sites related to this episode include www.explain...

Sean M. Carroll, theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky about his new book From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time. Plus, we test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites related to this episode include preposterousuniverse.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jon Foley, director of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky about his article in the April issue of Scientific American, "Boundaries for a Healthy Planet". Plus, we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Web sites related to this episode include snipurl.com/foleyplanet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho...

Here are four science stories, but only three are true. See if you know which story is TOTALLY BOGUS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientific American staff editor Michael Moyer talks about his article "Fusion's False Dawn" in the March issue, and Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina discusses the rest of the issue. Web sites related to this episode include www.sciamdigital.com; www.snipurl.com/mikefusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientific American staffers Mark Fischetti and Robin Lloyd talk with podcast host Steve Mirsky about sessions they attended--including those about algae for energy, dissecting the astronomy in art, and attitudes about climate change--at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Plus, we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Web sites re...

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Blum talks about her new work, The Poisoner's Handbook, a look at how easy it used to be to kill someone with poison and the researchers who made poisoning much harder to get away with. Plus, we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Web sites related to this episode include blog.deborahblum.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

Mark Shegelski of the University of Northern British Columbia talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky about the physics of curling, currently taking its turn on the world stage at the Vancouver Olympics. (Shegelski is also the author of the new sci-fi collection "Remembering the Future.") Plus, we test your knowledge of some recent science in the news Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

Scientific American magazine Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky about some of the articles in the February issue, including one on the ecosystems that arise around the carcasses of whales that die and fall to the ocean floor; the warfare between our cells, our allied microbes and disease-causing organisms; and ways to improve the internal combustion engine Le...

Renowned archaeologist Franck Goddio talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky about his efforts to recover artifacts from the ancient cities of Alexandria, Heracleion and Canopus, with special attention to discoveries related to Cleopatra and her reign. The exhibit Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt opens at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on June 5th. Web sites related to this e...

Here are four science stories, but only three are true. See if you know which story is TOTALLY BOGUS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Science Talk correspondent John Pavlus talks with Jon Amiel, director of the new Darwin biography movie Creation, and with Randal Keynes, Darwin's great-great-grandson and one of the film's scriptwriters. Then we'll hear from a few of the exhibitors who spoke to ScientificAmerican.com's Larry Greenemeier at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m...

Here are four science stories, but only three are true. See if you know which story is TOTALLY BOGUS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientific American magazine Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina talks about the January issue, including articles on the chances of conditions conducive to life elsewhere in the multiverse and the growing practice of virtual gold farming, in which legions of online game players in developing countries acquire currency in the game that they sell to other players for real money. Web sites related...

Alan Alda, host of the new PBS science series The Human Spark, talks to podcast host Steve Mirsky about his experiences as a fictional physican, a real patient and an amateur scientist. Web sites related to this episode include www.pbs.org/humanspark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices