Science Talk

In this episode, Scientific American editor Christine Soares talks with Duke University neuroengineer Miguel Nicolelis about his groundbreaking work in controlling robot movement using only thoughts, as well as efforts to create science cities in Brazil and national development through education, especially in science and technology. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the new...

In this episode, journalist and author Seth Shulman talks about his new book, The Telephone Gambit, in which he produces compelling evidence that Alexander Graham Bell plagiarized a key element of the telephone. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include: sethshulman.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

In this episode, Scientific American editor-in-chief John Rennie talks about the magazine's history of involvement with efforts to debunk medical quakery and paranormal fakery, which included a fistfight between a Sci Am editor and Harry Houdini. And we'll hear an 1883 Sci Am editorial on the relative merits of the telephone and telegraph. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in t...

In this episode, Harvard naturalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author EO Wilson talks about Linnaeus and the continuing effort to classify life on earth. From a talk given at the New York Botanical Garden on November 8th. Websites mentioned on this episode include: www.nybg.org; tinyurl.com/2botqy; eol.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Scientific American editor Mark Fischetti talks about an audacious new plan, featured in the January issue of Scientific American, for turning the US into a solar-powered country. And editor-in-chief John Rennie talks about a new Sci Am health publication, Scientific American Body. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this podcas...

In this episode, theoretical physicist, cosmologist and astrobiologist Paul Davies ponders the question of whether life originated more than once on earth, and how to find examples of a second origin if it did. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this podcast include: www.sciam.com/sciammag or tinyurl.com/3b8voo; www.beyond.asu.edu; www.sciam.co...

In this episode, Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology solo winner Isha Himani Jain and team titlist Janelle Schlossberger (who shared the win with Amanda Marinoff) discuss their projects. And lead judge Joseph Taylor, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, talks about the competition and his life and work. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites ment...

In this episode, neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga talks about neuroscience's impact on legal practice, and The Law and Neuroscience Project, a new MacArthur Foundation effort, which he directs, to delineate the issues surrounding neuroscience and the law. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this podcast include: www.lawandneuroscienceproject.org...

In this episode, University of Wisconsin-Madison cheese researcher Carol Chen explains the physics, chemistry and biology of cheese. And Scientific American's Christie Nicholson talks about our new web community. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this podcast include: www.cdr.wisc.edu; www.cheese.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg...

In this episode, University of Wisconsin-Madison public health expert Jonathan Patz talks about the ethical issues raised by climate change--who's causing it and who suffers most from it. Also, writer and producer Joseph McMaster talks about the upcoming episode of the PBS science program NOVA devoted to the 2005 Dover intelligent design trial. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science...

In this episode, journalist Jessica Snyder Sachs, author of the new book Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World, talks about the complex relationships between you and the numerous single-celled critters that live on and in you. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this podcast include: jessicasachs.com Learn more about yo...

In this episode, Scientific American news editor Phil Yam discusses how veterinarians, physicians and multinational food companies need to work together in the global fight against animal-borne infectious diseases; and University of Wisconsin evolutionary biologist Sean Carroll talks about recent research tracking the evolution of yeast genes with specific functions descended from a single, duplic...

In this episode, Ig Nobel Prize maven Marc Abrahams discusses this year's crop of "winners." And we'll review the recipients of the 2007 real Nobel Prizes in science. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this podcast include: www.improbable.com; tinyurl.com/3bblmt; www.amnh.org; tinyurl.com/26z8wv Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

In this episode, Scientific American editors George Musser and Steven Ashley discuss the special section of the October issue devoted to the future of space exploration. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, pyschologist Robert Epstein talks about his articles in the upcoming issue of Scientific American Mind, on being fooled by a chatterbot--a computer program designed to make you think you're communicating with a human--and on the spectrum of human sexuality. And he has some comments about the CBS TV program "Kid Nation." Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the...

In this episode, ethnobotanist Nat Bletter talks about his field and his recent article about the new plant family Simulacraceae--the phony plants. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites related to this episode include www.audible.com/sciencetalk; www.simulacraceae.org; www.tinyurl.com/2gqgnb; www.tinyurl.com/2obv6k Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...

In this episode, award-winning journalist Paul Raeburn talks about his article in the September issue of Scientific American, called "Can Fat Be Fit?" as well as another piece he wrote as a sidebar to a feature, about losing weight and keeping it off. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites related to this episode include www.audible.com/sciencetalk; www.paulrae...

In this episode, journalist Alan Weisman continues his discussion (started on the June 27th podcast) about his bestselling book "The World Without Us," a massive thought experiment about the aftermath of humanity's sudden disappearance. And Scientific American editor-in-chief John Rennie discusses what's up at the magazine. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Learn m...

In this episode University of North Carolina Chapel Hill nutrition epidemiologist Barry Popkin discusses the growing problem of obesity, even in developing countries that only recently faced hunger as their primary diet challenge. Popkin is the author of the article The World Is Fat in the September Scientific American. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites me...

In this episode Scientific American editor Mark Fischetti talks about the challenges of keeping the food supply safe and about the state of New Orleans hurricane preparedness. And journalist Jackie Mow discusses her new TV show about the science of dogs. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include: channel.nationalgeographic.com/cha...

In this episode Scientific American correspondent Christie Nicholson talks to journalist Sharon Begley about the changing landscape of brain science. Begley is the author of the book "Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain." Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist Latanya Sweeney talks about the changes in privacy due to data collection and approaches to protect privacy in the future, with Scientific American contributor Chip Walter. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned in this episode include privacy.cs.cmu.edu; www.chipwalter.com Learn more about...

In this episode Columbia College Chicago's Stephen Asma discusses the new antievolution Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., as well as his books on natural history museums and monsters, both mythological and teratological. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites mentioned in this episode include www.skeptic.com, www.stephenasma.com Learn more about your ad cho...

In this episode Cornell University astronomer Jim Bell talks about future space missions and why people need to be part of them. Bell is the leader of the team operating the color cameras on the Mars rovers, and the author of the book Postcards From Mars and of an opinion piece in the August issue of Scientific American on humans in space. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in t...

In this episode eminent biologist Leroy Hood, founder of the Institute for Systems Biology, talks about systems biology, an approach to understanding complex biological systems in their entirety, with major implications for the future of medicine. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned in this episode include www.systemsbiology.org Learn more about yo...