The DemystifySci Podcast

The Modern Creation Myth: At the start of the 20th century, mathematical physics, inspired by a series of instrumental discoveries in astrophysics, attempted to formulate an answer to the question of how the universe came to be. The resulting creation story, the big bang, was hailed as a triumph of reason and cosmic understanding. But was it really something new, or was it just a new version of th...

The tragedy of the commons is a frequent excuse for the often ill effects of efficient corporate industry. Curbing bad behavior can seem impossible - so we look to see how biology beats cheaters throughout the natural world. In the process, mother nature schools us in corporate accountability. Fortunately, cheaters don't seem to win in the long run!    PODCAST INFO:  Spotify: https:...

Some species are boom and bust - but for others, life after growth is a more steady affair. What will it be for humans? If the past informs the future, a tragic tomorrow can seem inevitable: famine, war, disease, and destruction threaten to unfold at the end of every path. Escaping the past has meant maintaining physical and economic growth, but this leads to another set of worries:  Does all...

The strangeness of ordered water: Water is usually seen as a solvent, the background against which the reactions of life play out. But sometimes, water can form nearly invisible, orderly structures at cellular surfaces. Structures that are strong enough to govern biological behaviors - yet are always on the verge of falling into chaos and allowing something new to grow. This biphasic process of st...

Rather than being a landscape of death and destruction, the next age of planetary development could the age of regeneration - driven by the technological advancements that will be necessary to establish independent colonies on Mars. Join the mailing list: http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL PODCAST INFO: Blog: http://demystifyingscience.com/blog Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3uhn7J1 Spotify: https://spoti...

Did you think the world's richest entities were governments? Think again! 71 of the richest 100 organizations are corporations, not countries. Is a high-tech version of the old-tech company town in store for humans? This week is all about trying to answer what seems like a simple question - would you want to live in a town that's run by the government, or one that's run by a bright and shiny high-...

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, we all know that. But Dr. Christopher French, professor of Anomalistic Psychology at the University of London, might know it more than the rest of us - he’s spent his career in pursuit of tangible evidence for all kinds of paranormal beliefs. Extrasensory perception, telepathy, dowsing - and has come up with little proof that these phenomena occur -...

Medical mystery Wim Hof has put his body to the test, and the science is in: belief is really good for you. Especially if you learn to use the power of your mind (and lungs) to control your immune system. But what’s going on? How is it that your mind, a part of you that doesn’t even seem to have a physical location, shapes reality? How can thoughts have such a huge influence on everything from you...

There are two opposing forces that steer the course of consensus science - quality of thought on one hand, and narrative control on the other. When you’re pushing the limits of human technological ability, should you be worried that modern science is about power? This is a conversation with Jeremy Rys, @Alienscientist on YouTube, about what happens when you hang out on the cutting edge of engineer...

Propaganda, strongmen, and authoritarianism are mainstays across the authoritarian-liberatrian boundary, marked by a lack of democratic and free elections, a codified hostility towards threat to the social order, a lack of accountability, and religious party loyalism. ªº¬˚∆≤≥≤≥ Join the mailing list http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL​ ≤≥≤≥∆˚¬ºª Widespread lockdowns have triggered fears that the world is tak...

Environmentalism, equality, gun laws, lockdowns, these are all areas where people are interested in doing the RIGHT thing, but end up with very different ideas of what that looks like. ªº¬˚∆≤≥≤≥ Join the mailing list http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL​ ≤≥≤≥∆˚¬ºª Though it might not look like it on the surface, most of the problems in the human world today are all about how to tell the difference between wro...

Empiricism as the dominant way of knowing the world optimized technological progress, but also alienated humans because it often avoids the spiritual, motivational realm of biology beyond atoms crashing into one another. ªº¬˚∆≤≥≤≥ Join the mailing list http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL ≤≥≤≥∆˚¬ºª When it comes to Human science these days, all explanations eventually come back to physics. And while the mathe...

Why would governments and corporations alike be interested in destabilizing society? ªº¬˚∆≤≥≤≥ Join the mailing list http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL ≤≥≤≥∆˚¬ºª Well, it depends on who’s responsible. A state like China, Russia, or Saudia Arabia might be interested in seeing the United States self-immolate to clear the way for their agendas on a global scale. Remember, Rome fell to civil war before being co...

Depressed, anxious, and not sure why? This is the story of how your love of creature comforts may be at the root of your problems - and what the science of Wim Hof says you can do about it. ªº¬˚∆≤≥≤≥ Join the mailing list http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL​ ≤≥≤≥∆˚¬ºª This is neurohacking at it’s finest - no need to buy anything, pay for courses, or even leave your house. If you’ve cleaned your room and made...

Earth’s online evolution - Technological explosions weather spiritual implosions... ::!!:: Join the Demystifying Science mailing list ::!!::   http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL ::!!:: Like all ecosystems, the community that’s emerged on the internet requires a diversity of species to be optimally functional - and that threatened by the big tech monoculture emerging on Earth these days. To figure out w...

UCB biologist, Dr. Daniel Pauly on what breaks a scientific argument, the fate of your future seafood, and the limits of controlling one’s environment. This conversation with Dr. Pauly, spanned many topics - ecology, how change is simultaneously difficult yet necessary, the political situation on Earth, and the strange nature of the human animal. Somewhere in there, we even tried to reckon with th...

Dr. Milton Love on what he’s learned on his voyages into the unexplored depths of the deep, blue Pacific Ocean. ::!!:: Join the Demystifying Science mailing list ::!!:: http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL ::!!:: Milton - only his closest associates call him Dr. Love - has carried on an affair with the sea for most of his life. Unlike most love affairs, though, this one included nearly 15 years at 1,200’ belo...

Ebola vaccine developer, Dr. Gary Kobinger, talks COVID, asymptomatic carriers and the nature of viruses. Join the DemystifyingScience mailing list: http://eepurl.com/gRUCZL Dr. Kobinger is presently focused on non-profit production of a vaccine for the present pandemic. Professionally, he is best known for his role in the development of the first ebola vaccine, and ZMAPP, a monoclonal antibody tr...

Micky & Quinn meet up with Dr. Brian McVeigh, an anthropologist and mental health counselor, who was once a student of Dr. Julian Jaynes. Jaynes developed the Theory of the Bicameral mind, which seeks to explain the evolution of conscious introspection in humanity. In other words, how did humans come to have a perception of themselves that could be abstracted - the I of the present, and the “m...

Hallucinations as an automatic signifier of mental illness is a surprisingly recent paradigm. Traditionally, hearing non-corporeal voices was viewed as a supernatural event, the realm of   religious prophets, ecstatic poets, and inspired painters. In those circumstances, hearing voices was viewed through the lens of divine inspiration, indicative of an active relationship with the metaph...

What if the day comes that humans need to make massive, intentional changes to the earth in order to ensure the survival of the species? Perhaps the solar radiation from the sun increases, or the orbits of the planets shift, or greenhouse gases accumulate to fatal levels. These changes could result in the kind of intense warming that happened during the cretaceous, when palm frond and freshwater f...

A conspiracy is defined by shadowy actors acting in secret to do bad things, and is an unfortunate consequence of geopolitics. Conspiracy theories, on the other hand, are ways of explaining reality that lean heavily on this kind of behind-the-scenes cabal as a mechanism for just about everything. They’re often marred by a lack of evidence, or over-extension of evidence, despite the fervent belief...

When the world seems like it’s moving too fast for comfort, how do you make decisions? Is it a random walk towards an uncertain future? Is it fear based? Is it by gradually whittling down the set of possibilities to the absolute best option, given what you know now? Is it based on some prediction of what the future might hold?   Chances are, it’s a mixture of all of the above, given the...

The future does not happen on it’s own - it is born of the narrative that humans create for themselves. Historically, this has been the domain of science fiction authors and filmmakers like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Gene Rodenberry. However, in recent years, fantasies about potential human futures have become much more democratic. For this week’s episode we talk to Isaac Arthur, a futurist w...

Is blockchain going to be the technology that changes everything? Will it help us trust again? Will it revolutionize the relationship of people to their government? David Robison, cryptocurrency trader and blockchain enthusiast, suggests that it can be used to secure elections, supply chains, and the means of production. He believes in the potential of blockchain to such a degree that he recently...