Big Picture Science

Skeptic Check: Know-It-Alls

27 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Think you’re some kind of expert? Join the club. It’s one thing to question authority; another to offer up your untrained self as its replacement....

Something in the Air

20 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Inhale. Now exhale. Notice anything different? Our response to the virus is changing the air in unexpected ways. A pandemic-driven pause on travel has...

COVID Curiosities

13 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

COVID Curiosities Some dogs and cats have become sick with COVID. But it’s not just domestic critters that are vulnerable: zoo animals have fallen i...

Creative Brains (Rebroadcast)

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Your cat is smart, but its ability to choreograph a ballet or write computer code isn’t great. A lot of animals are industrious and clever, but hum...

Animals Like Us (rebroadcast)

29 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Laughing rats, sorrowful elephants, joyful chimpanzees. The more carefully we observe, and the more we learn about animals, the closer their emotiona...

Let's Stick Together (rebroadcast)

22 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Crowded subway driving you crazy? Sick of the marathon-length grocery store line? Wish you had a hovercraft to float over traffic? If you are itchin...

Skeptic Check: Data Bias (rebroadcast)

15 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Sexist snow plowing? Data that guide everything from snow removal schedules to heart research often fail to consider gender. In these cases, “refere...

Race and COVID

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

While citizens take to the streets to protest racist violence, the pandemic has its own brutal inequities. Black, Latino, and Native American people a...

Soap, Skin, Sleep

01 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Some safeguards against COVID-19 don’t require a medical breakthrough. Catching sufficient Z’s makes for a healthy immune system. And, while you w...

Gained in Translation (rebroadcast)

25 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Your virtual assistant is not without a sense of humor. Its repertoire includes the classic story involving a chicken and a road. But will Alexa laug...

Vaccine, When?

18 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It will be the shot heard ‘round the world, once it comes. But exactly when can we expect a COVID vaccine? We discuss timelines, how it would work...

To the Bat Cave

11 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

To fight a pandemic, you need to first understand where a virus comes from. That quest takes disease ecologist Jon Epstein to gloomy caverns where bat...

Is Life Inevitable? (Rebroadcast)

04 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A new theory about life’s origins updates Darwin’s warm little pond. Scientists say they’ve created the building blocks of biology in steaming ...

Skeptic Check: Covid Conspiracy

27 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Nature abhors a vacuum, but conspiracy theorists love one. While we wait for scientists to nail down the how and why of the coronavirus, opportunists...

Treating the Virus

20 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Treating the Virus It’s not like waiting for Godot, because he never arrived. A coronavirus vaccine will come. But it is still months away. Meanw...

The Other Living World

13 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Reason for hope is just one thing that ecologist Carl Safina can offer. He understands why many of us turn to nature to find solace during this stres...

Zombies, Bigfoot, and Max Brooks

06 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What do a zombie attack and a viral pandemic have in common? They are both frightening, mindless, and relentless in their assault. And both require ...

Let's Take a Paws

30 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Humans aren’t the only animals stressed-out by social distancing. Narwhals send out echolocation clicks to locate their buddies and ease their lone...

How Bad Does It Have to Get?

23 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“Climate change at warp speed” is the way one scientist described the coronavirus outbreak.   In a show recorded before a live audience at the S...

It's In Material [rebroadcast]

16 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Astronauts are made of the “right stuff,” but what about their spacesuits?  NASA’s pressurized and helmeted onesies are remarkable, but they n...

Skeptic Check: Pandemic Fear

09 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Contagion aside, coronavirus is a powerful little virus. It has prompted a global experiment in behavior modification: elbow bumps instead of handsha...

DecodeHer [rebroadcast]

02 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

They were pioneers in their fields, yet their names are scarcely known – because they didn’t have a Y chromosome. We examine the accomplishments ...

AI: Where Does it End?

24 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The benefits of artificial intelligence are manifest and manifold, but can we recognize the drawbacks … and avoid them in time?  In this episode, r...

Climate Changed

17 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Have you adapted to the changing climate? Rising waters, more destructive wildfires, record-breaking heatwaves. Scientists have long predicted these e...

Frogs' Pants (Rebroadcast)

10 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s one of the most bizarre biological experiments ever. In the 18th century, a scientist fitted a pair of tailor-made briefs on a male frog to de...

Skeptic Check: Science Denial (rebroadcast)

03 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change isn’t happening. Vaccines make you sick. When it comes to threats to public or environmental health, a surprisingly large fraction ...

A Twist of Slime

27 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Your daily mucus output is most impressive. Teaspoons or measuring cups can’t capture its entire volume. Find out how much your body churns out an...

The Ears Have It

20 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What’s the difference between a bird call and the sound of a pile driver? Not much, when you’re close to the loudest bird ever. Find out when it...

Perpetual Emotion Machine [rebroadcast]

13 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Get ready for compassionate computers that feel your pain, share your joy, and generally get where you’re coming from. Computers that can tell by y...

Your Brain's Reins [rebroadcast]

06 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

You are your brain. But what happens when your brain changes for the worse – either by physical injury or experience? Are you still responsible fo...

Skeptic Check: Heal Thyself [rebroadcast]

30 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Do we still need doctors? There are umpteen alternative sources of medical advice, including endless and heartfelt health tips from people without me...

Handling the Holidays

23 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The stress of the holidays can make you want to hide under the covers with a warm cup of cocoa. From gift buying to family gatherings, the holidays c...

Waste Not

16 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Why create more landfill? Perhaps you should resist the urge to toss those old sneakers, the broken ceiling fan, or last year’s smart phone. Inste...

Shell on Earth

09 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) We all may retreat to our protective shells, but evolution has perfected the calcite variety to give some critters permanent defense against ...

Yule Like This

02 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Fir tree needles embedded in carpet are a holiday headache. Why not decorate a genetically-modified, needle-retaining tree instead? It’s ...

Skeptic Check: Betting on Pseudoscience

25 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Psychics may not be able to predict the future or sense your thoughts. Nonetheless, they rake in hundreds of millions of dollars every year. But the...

Stopping Ebola

18 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A new vaccine may help turn Ebola into a disease we can prevent, and a new drug may make it one we can cure. But the political crisis in the Democrat...

Radical Cosmology

11 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) 400 years ago, some ideas about the cosmos were too scandalous to mention. When the Dominican friar Giordano Bruno suggested that planets exi...

Supercomputer Showdown

04 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Do you have a hard-to-answer question? The Summit, Sierra, Trinity, Frontier, and Aurora supercomputers are built to tackle it. Summit tops the peta...

Skeptic Check: Rational Lampoon

28 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Two heads may be better than one. But what about three or more? A new study shows that chimpanzees excel at complex tasks when they work in...

Nobel Efforts

21 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For two Swiss astronomers, it’s “Stockholm, here we come.” Their first-ever discovery of a planet orbiting another star has been awarded the mo...

Go With the Flow

14 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Solid materials get all the production credit. Don’t get us wrong, we depend on their strength and firmness for bridges, bones, and bento ...

Battling Bacteria

07 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We can’t say we weren’t warned. More than 75 years ago, bacteriologist Rene Dubos cautioned that misuse of antibiotics could breed drug-resistant...

Headed For Trouble

30 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The stone heads on Easter Island are an enduring mystery: why were they built and why were they abandoned and destroyed? The old ideas about cultural...

Keeping Humans in the Loop

23 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Modern technology is great, but could we be losing control? As our world becomes more crowded and demands for resources are greater, some pe...

Rip Van Winkle Worm

16 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Your shower pipes are alive. So are your sinks, books, and floorboards. New studies of our homes are revealing just what species live there...

For Good Measure

09 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The reign of Le Grand K has come to an end. After 130 years, this hunk of metal sitting in a Parisian vault will no longer define the kilogram. The ne...

Skeptic Check: Data Bias

02 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sexist snow plowing? Data that guide everything from snow removal schedules to heart research often fail to consider gender. In these cases, “refe...

Skeptic Check: Brain Gain

26 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Looking to boost your brainpower? Luckily, there are products promising to help. Smart drugs, neurofeedback exercises, and brain-training v...

True Grit

19 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Without sand, engineering would be stuck in the Middle Ages. Wooden houses would line mud-packed streets, and Silicon Valley would be, well, just a v...

Granting Immunity

12 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

“Diversity or die” could be your new health mantra. Don’t boost your immune system, cultivate it! Like a garden, your body’s defenses benefit ...

Sci-Fi From the Future

05 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Are you ready to defer all your personal decision-making to machines? Polls show that most Americans are uneasy about the unchecked growth of...

Skeptic Check: Flat Earth

29 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) The Earth is not round. Technically, it’s an oblate spheroid. But for some people, the first statement is not even approximately correct....

Let's Stick Together

22 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Crowded subway driving you crazy? Sick of the marathon-length grocery store line? Wish you had a hovercraft to float over traffic? If you are itchin...

Math's Paths

15 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

If you bake, you can appreciate math’s transformative properties. Admiring the stackable potato chip is to admire a hyperbolic sheet. Find out why...

DNA is Not Destiny

08 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Heredity was once thought to be straightforward. Genes were passed in an immutable path from parents to you, and you were stuck – or bless...

Nailing the Moon Landing

01 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Neil, Buzz, and Michael made it look effortless, but the moon landing was neither easy nor inevitable. Soon after President Kennedy publicly stated t...

Animals Like Us

24 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Laughing rats, sorrowful elephants, joyful chimpanzees. The more carefully we observe, and the more we learn about animals, the closer their emotiona...

You've Got Whale

17 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) SMS isn’t the original instant messaging system. Plants can send chemical warnings through their leaves in a fraction of a second. And w...

It's Habitable Forming

10 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) There’s evidence for a subsurface lake on Mars, and scientists are excitedly using the “h” word. Could the Red Planet be habitable, no...

Creature Discomforts

03 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Okay you animals, line up: stoned sloths, playful pandas, baleful bovines, and vile vultures. We’ve got you guys pegged, thanks to central...

Skeptic Check: Worrier Mentality

27 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Poisonous snakes, lightning strikes, a rogue rock from space. There are plenty of scary things to fret about, but are we burning adrenaline on the ri...

New Water Worlds

20 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) The seas are rising.  It’s no longer a rarity to see kayakers paddling through downtown Miami. By century’s end, the oceans could be a...

Is Life Inevitable?

13 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A new theory about life’s origins updates Darwin’s warm little pond. Scientists say they’ve created the building blocks of biology in steaming ...

Rethinking Chernobyl

06 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986 triggered the full-scale destruction of the reactor. But now researcher...

Identity Crisis

29 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) DNA is the gold standard of identification. Except when it’s not. In rare cases when a person has two complete sets of DNA, that person’...

Gained in Translation

22 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Your virtual assistant is not without a sense of humor. Its repertoire includes the classic story involving a chicken and a road. But will Alexa laug...

Free Range Dinosaurs

15 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Dinosaurs are once again stomping and snorting their way across the screen of your local movie theater. But these beefy beasts stole the sho...

DecodeHer

01 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

DecodeHer They were pioneers in their fields, yet their names are scarcely known – because they didn’t have a Y chromosome. We examine the accomp...

You Are Exposed

25 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) There’s no place like “ome.” Your microbiome is highly influential in determining your health. But it’s not the only “ome” doin...

Skeptic Check: Political Scientist

18 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Hundreds of thousands of scientists took to the streets during the March for Science. The divisive political climate has spurred some scient...

Hawkingravity

11 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Stephen Hawking felt gravity’s pull. His quest to understand this feeble force spanned his career, and he was the first to realize that bl...

High Moon

04 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) "The moon or bust” is now officially bust. No private company was able to meet the Lunar X Prize challenge, and arrange for a launch by th...

We Are VR

25 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Will virtual reality make you a better person? It’s been touted as the “ultimate empathy machine,” and one that will connect people wh...

Skeptic Check: Astrology Ascending

04 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The fault is in our stars. And according to astrology, so is our destiny, our moods, and our character. Mars may be in retrograde, but interest in t...

Meet Your Robot Barista

28 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Move over Roomba. Café robots are the latest in adorable automation. And they may be more than a fad. As robots and artificial intelligence...

The X-Flies

31 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Insect populations are declining. But before you say “good riddance,” consider that insects are the cornerstone of many ecosystems. The...

Space: Why Go There?

24 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) It takes a lot of energy and technology to leave terra firma. But why rocket into space when there’s so much to be done on Earth? From the...

Skeptic Check: Science Breaking Bad

10 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) The scientific method is tried and true. It has led us to a reliable understanding of things from basic physics to biomedicine. So yes, we c...

Creative Brains

03 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Your cat is smart, but its ability to choreograph a ballet or write computer code isn’t great. A lot of animals are industrious and clever, but hum...

Bacteria to the Future

26 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(Repeat) Why did the chicken take antibiotics? To fatten it up and prevent bacterial infection. As a result, industrial farms have become superbug fa...

Space Rocks!

19 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It’s not a bird or a plane, and probably not an alien spaceship, although the jury’s still deliberating that one. Some astronomers have proposed ...

Skeptic Check: Science Denial

12 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change isn’t happening. Vaccines make you sick. When it comes to threats to public or environmental health, a surprisingly large fraction ...

Rerouting... Rerouting

05 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(Repeat) Lost your sense of direction? Blame your GPS. Scientists say that our reliance on dashboard devices is eroding our ability to create cogniti...

Air Apparent

22 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(Repeat) Whether you yawn, gasp, sniff, snore, or sigh, you’re availing yourself of our very special atmosphere.  It’s easy to take this invisib...

Wonder Women

01 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(Repeat) We’re hearing about harassment of, and barriers to, women seeking careers in politics and entertainment. But what about science? Science is...

Skeptic Check: Heal Thyself

24 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Do we still need doctors? There are umpteen alternative sources of medical advice, including endless and heartfelt health tips from people without me...

DNA: Nature's Hard Drive

17 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(Repeat) The biotech tool CRISPR lets us do more than shuffle genes. Researchers have embedded an animated GIF into a living organism’s DNA, provin...

Angles of a Hack

10 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat) Changed your computer password recently? We all try to stay one step ahead of the hackers, but the fear factor is increasing. The risks can...

Plan of a Hack

03 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(repeat)  Long before cyber criminals were stealing ATM passwords, phone phreaks were tapping into the telephone system. Their motivation was not mon...

Too Big To Prove

20 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(Repeat) Celebrations are in order for the physicists who won the 2017 Nobel Prize, for the detection of gravitational waves. But the road to Stockho...

It's In Material

30 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

(Repeat) Astronauts are made of the “right stuff,” but what about their spacesuits?  NASA’s pressurized and helmeted onesies are remarkable, b...

On Thin Ice

16 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

ENCORE Water is essential for life – that we know. But the honeycomb lattice that forms when you chill it to zero degrees Celsius is also inexorab...

What Goes Around

09 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

ENCORE It’s not just tin cans and newspapers. One man says that, from a technical standpoint, everything can be recycled – cigarette butts, yoga...

Frogs' Pants

02 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

ENCORE It’s one of the most bizarre biological experiments ever. In the 18th century, a scientist fitted a pair of tailor-made briefs on a male fr...

Perpetual Emotion Machine

18 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

ENCORE Get ready for compassionate computers that feel your pain, share your joy, and generally get where you’re coming from. Computers that can t...

Imagining Planets

04 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Pluto, we hardly knew ye. Well, not anymore! Until recently, Pluto and Mars were respectively the least-known and best-known planet-sized bodies in ...

Time on Your Side

28 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

ENCORE Time passes like an arrow, but what if it flew like a boomerang? Scientists are learning how to reverse time’s most relentless march: aging...

Your Brain's Reins

21 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

ENCORE You are your brain. But what happens when your brain changes for the worse – either by physical injury or experience? Are you still respon...

What Have You Got To Move

30 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

ENCORE Whether they swim, slither, jump, or fly, animal locomotion is more than just an urge to roam: it’s necessary for survival. Evolution has c...