Science Talk
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Episode 5: How Do We Know Anything?
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On this show, we’ve been talking about uncertainty from a variety of different angles. We’ve heard how uncertainty can be a spark for creativity a...
Episode 4: This Simple Strategy Might Be the Key to Advancing Science Faster
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Science is an iterative process. Progress comes from people coming up with ideas that are sort of right and then new evidence and ideas coming in to u...
Episode 3: When Uncertainty Hides in the Blindspot of Overconfidence
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s episode of Uncertain is about the ways that studies can leave us overconfident and how “just-so stories” can make us feel overly certain...
Episode 2: Think Seeing is Believing? Think Again
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’ll talk with two researchers whose work probes the uncertainty surrounding how we perceive the world around us. It turns out t...
Episode 1: Uncertainty is Science's Super Power. Make It Yours, Too
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to Uncertain, a five-part podcast miniseries from Scientific American. Here we will dive head first into the possibilities of the unknowing. O...
Coming Soon: 'Uncertain' - A New Short Series on the Thrill of Not Knowing
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Does the word "uncertainty" make you nervous? Does it rule your life? Would you say it kinda describes the state of the world these days? Enter Unce...
Racism in Health: The Roots of the U.S. Black Maternal Mortality Crisis
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is behind the Black maternal mortality crisis, and what needs to change? In this podcast from Nature and Scientific American, leading academics u...
Love Computers? Love History? Listen to This Podcast
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the newest season of Lost Women of Science, we enter a world of secrecy, computers and nuclear weapons—and see how Klára Dán von Neumann was a...
Top 10 Emerging Tech of 2021
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The World Economic Forum and Scientific American team up to highlight technological advances that could change the world—including self-fertilizing...
Listen to This New Podcast: The Lost Women of Science
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A new podcast is on a mission to retrieve unsung female scientists from oblivion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
An Unblinking History of the Conservation Movement
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, science journalist Michelle Nijhuis looks into the past of the wildlife...
Inside the Nail-Biting Quest to Find the 'Loneliest Whale'
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It is a tale of sound: the song of a solitary whale that vocalizes at a unique frequency of 52 hertz, which no other whale—as the story goes—can s...
Listen to This: 'Hope Lies in Dreams,' a New Podcast from Nature Biotechnology
08 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is a story of desperation, anger, poverty—and triumph over long odds to crack the code of a degenerative disease that had been stealing the liv...
Summer of Science Reading, Episode 4: Navigating Loss and Hope with Nature
03 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Science Book Talk, a new four-part podcast miniseries, host Deboki Chakravarti acts as literary guide to two science books that share a beautiful a...
Summer of Science Reading, Episode 3: Abandoned and Underground but Not Lost
27 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Science Book Talk, a new four-part podcast miniseries, host Deboki Chakravarti acts as literary guide to two science books that share a beautiful a...
Summer of Science Reading, Episode 2: Life beneath Our Feet
13 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Science Book Talk, a new four-part podcast miniseries, host Deboki Chakravarti acts as literary guide to two science books that share a beautiful a...
Summer of Science Reading, Episode 1: The Many Mysteries of Fish
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Science Book Talk, a new four-part podcast miniseries, host Deboki Chakravarti acts as literary guide to two science books that share a beautiful a...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 10: The Otherworldly Sounds of an Elk Rut
30 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and ...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 9: Inside a Migratory Bird Sanctuary
16 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and ...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 8: The Blue Oaks of Sequoia
02 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and ...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 7: Into the Wilderness by Canoe
18 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and ...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 6: Yellowstone Bison and Marsh Birds
04 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and ...
The Deepest Dive to Find the Secrets of the Whales
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On Earth Day, Scientific American sits down with National Geographic underwater photographer Brian Skerry to talk about free diving with whales and fi...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 5: A Northwoods Voyage
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and ...
First in Space: New Yuri Gagarin Biography Shares Hidden Side of Cosmonaut
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been 60 years, to the day, since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel to space in a tiny capsule attached to an R-7 ball...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 4: Beautiful Swamp
09 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and ...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 3: Where Lewis and Clark Trod
02 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and ...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 2: Sequoia Heights
26 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is our next installment of a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and ...
National Park Nature Walks, Episode 1: Rocky Mountains
19 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we launch a new pop-up podcast miniseries that takes your ears into the deep sound of nature. Host Jacob Job, an ecologist and audiophile, bring...
AI Can Now Debate with Humans and Sometimes Convince Them, Too
17 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the Science Talk podcast, Noam Slonim of IBM Research speaks to Scientific American about an impressive feat of computer engineering: an AI-...
Climate Change Could Shred Guitars Known for Shredding
12 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It is the wood that the rock greats have sworn by—swamp ash, in the form of their Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars—for more than 70 year...
On Finding Yourself in a Butterfly's Wings
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the Science Talk podcast, Alexis Gambis, a New York University biologist and independent filmmaker, speaks about making Son of Monarchs, whi...
A Breakdown of Beavers
30 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb talks about his book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. Learn more about your...
America on Dialysis
14 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kidney disease affects millions of Americans, but corporate capture of dialysis, along with disparities in treatment and transplant access, mean that ...
What Science Has Learned about the Coronavirus One Year On
11 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
About a year ago, SARS-CoV-2 (which wasn’t called that yet) was just beginning to emerge in a cluster of cases inside China. We know what has happe...
2020's Top 10 Tech Innovations
09 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American and the World Economic Forum sifted through more than 75 nominations for the most innovative and potentially game-changing techn...
Inventing Us: How Inventions Shaped Humanity
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Materials scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez talks about her latest book The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another. ...
175 Years of Scientific American: The Good, the Bad and the Debunking
29 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We look back at some highlights, midlights and lowlights of the history of Scientific American, featuring former editor in chief John Rennie. Astrophy...
Bread Science: A Yeasty Conversation
24 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“Baking is applied microbiology,” according to the book Modernist Bread. During pandemic lockdowns, many people started baking their own bread. Sc...
The Coming or Possibly Nearly Here Storm
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Former Scientific American editor Mark Alpert talks about his latest sci-fi thriller The Coming Storm, which warns about the consequences of unethical...
COVID-19 Vaccine Ethics: Who Gets It First and Other Issues
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs spoke with Arthur Caplan, head of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s division of medical ethics, about some of ...
How Your Homes and Buildings Affect You
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist and author Emily Anthes talks about her book The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Hap...
African-Americans, Nature and Environmental Justice
21 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Bob Hirshon reports from the Taking Nature Black conference, reporter Shahla Farzan talks about tracking copperhead snakes, and nanoscienti...
How Nature Helps Body and Soul
27 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist and author Florence Williams talks about her book The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative. Learn more a...
The Messenger Is the Message
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Behavioral scientist Stephen Martin and psychologist Joseph Marks talk about their book Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don’t, and Why. Learn m...
Air, Sea and Space: Ocean Health, Atmosphere Insights and Black Holes
20 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Biological oceanography expert Miriam Goldstein talks about issues facing the oceans. Reporter Adam Levy discusses air pollution info available beca...
Science on the Hill: Calculating Climate
18 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For the fourth Science on the Hill event, Future Climate: What We Know, What We Don’t, experts talked with Scientific American senior editor Mark F...
Your Brain, Free Will and the Law
29 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Stanford University neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky talks about human behavior, the penal system and the question of free will. Learn more about you...
No, No Nobel: How to Lose the Prize
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Physicist Brian Keating talks about his book Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor. L...
Galileo's Fight against Science Denial
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio talks about his latest book, Galileo: And the Science Deniers, and how the legendary scientist’s battles are s...
Where Is Everybody Else in the Universe?
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host W. Wayt Gibbs talks with Jason Wright, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Exoplanets...
Why Exercise Is So Good For You
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Health journalist Judy Foreman talks about her new book Exercise Is Medicine: How Physical Activity Boosts Health and Slows Aging. Learn more about yo...
COVID-19: What the Autopsies Reveal
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Pathologists are starting to get a closer look at the damage that COVID-19 does to the body by carefully examining the internal organs of people who h...
COVID-19: The Need for Secure Labs--and Their Risks
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Coronavirus research requires high-containment labs. Journalist Elisabeth Eaves talks with Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs about...
Flat Earthers: What They Believe and Why
27 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Marshall, project director of the Good Thinking Society in the U.K., talks about flat earth belief and its relationship to conspiracy theories...
COVID-19: Predicting the Path and Analyzing Immunity
24 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs continues to report on the coronavirus outbreak from his home in Kirkland, Wash., site of the fi...
COVID-19: How and Why the Virus Spreads Quickly
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs reports from the original U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak: Kirkland, Wash. In this in...
COVID-19: The Wildlife Trade and Human Disease
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Christian Walzer, executive director of global health at the Wildlife Conservation Society, talks about how the wildlife trade, especially for human c...
David Quammen: How Animal Infections Spill Over to Humans
18 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this 2012 interview, David Quammen talks about his book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, which is highly relevant to the ...
COVID-19: Dealing with Social Distancing
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Judy Moskowitz, a professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University, talks about ways to cope during this time of missing out on our usu...
Coronavirus Hot Zone: Research and Responses in the U.S. Epicenter
14 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs reports from the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak: Kirkland, Wash. In this installment...
Coronavirus Hot Zone: The View from the U.S. Epicenter
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs reports from the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak: Kirkland, Wash. In this first inst...
The New Cosmos: A Conversation with Ann Druyan
08 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Emmy and Peabody Award–winning science writer, producer and director Ann Druyan talks about Cosmos: Possible Worlds, the next installment of the Cos...
Advancing Efforts in Disease Interception
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Wiegand, global head of the World without Disease Accelerator at Janssen, the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, talks about efforts t...
Kirk, Spock and Darwin
12 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Duke University evolutionary biologist Mohamed A. F. Noor talks about his book Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about Evolution, Gene...
How to Make a Mass Extinction
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist and author Peter Brannen talks about his book The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Eart...
Air Pollution: An Unclear and Present Danger
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist and author Beth Gardiner talks about her new book Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution. And CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna t...
150 Years of the Journal Nature
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nature is arguably the world’s most prestigious scientific journal. Editor in chief Magdalena Skipper spoke with Scientific American’s acting edit...
Lithium-Ion Battery Creators Win Chemistry Nobel Prize
09 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino share the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the development of lithium-ion batteries”...
How Cells Sense Oxygen Levels: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
William Kaelin, Jr., Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza share the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries of how cells sens...
Talking Health and Energy at U.N. Climate Action Summit
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American senior editor Jen Schwartz talks with WHO officials Maria Neira and Agnès Soucat about climate and health and with Rachel Kyte, ...
Kicking Climate Change: Wins for Health, the Economy and Security
27 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy talks with Scientific American’s Andrea Thompson about the widespread benefits of taking action against clima...
The Mathematical Language of Nature
24 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Physics historian Graham Farmelo talks about his latest book, The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets. Lea...
Jacks-of-All-Trades Make the Grade
10 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist and author David Epstein talks about his new book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Learn more about your ad choice...
It's Melting: Science on Ice
21 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Glaciologist Elizabeth Case of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University’s Earth Institute takes us out near Juneau, Alaska, to ...
Joseph Lange's Campaign against HIV
17 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Seema Yasmin, director of research and education at the Stanford Health Communication Initiative, talks about her book The Impatient Dr. Lange: One Ma...
Bone Up on What's Inside You
25 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Author and self-described fossil fanatic Brian Switek talks about his new book Skeleton Keys: The Secret Life of Bone. Learn more about your ad choice...
Solving Our Plastic Problem
19 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At Scientific American's third Science on the Hill event, experts from academia and the private sector met at the Rayburn House Office Building on Cap...
Secrets of the Universe Revealed!
23 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Cornell University applied mathematics professor Steven Strogatz talks about his new book Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Uni...
How the Black Hole Said Cheese
29 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American's chief features editor Seth Fletcher talks about his book Einstein's Shadow, an account of the long effort to image a black hole ...
A Tree and Its People in a Warming Landscape
22 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Conservation scientist Lauren Oakes discusses her book about Alaska ecology and sociology, In Search of the Canary Tree: The Story of a Scientist, a C...
Science Couple Phages Out Superbug
13 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Medical researcher Steffanie Strathdee needed to save the life of her husband, researcher Tom Patterson, when he contracted one of the world's worst i...
Vaccine Rejection: Truth and Consequences
20 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kent State epidemiologist Tara Smith talks about vaccines, recent preventable measles outbreaks and her 2017 journal article on vaccine rejection. ...
On the Origin of Darwin
12 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On this 210th anniversary of Darwin's birth we hear evolution writer and historian Richard Milner perform a brief monologue as Charles Darwin, and for...
Warming Arctic on Thin Ice
31 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American collections editor Andrea Gawrylewski talks to managing editor Curtis Brainard about how warming in the Arctic affects us all. And...
Fake Whiskeys and Octo-Ecstasy
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American assistant news editor, Tanya Lewis, and collections editor, Andrea Gawrylewski, take a deeper look at two short articles from the...
Ultima Thule and the Apes of Earth
03 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the New Horizons mission approached Ultima Thule, Rowan University paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara put our close-up study of the Kuiper Belt object...
Meet the Real Ravenmaster
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher Skaife talks about his new book The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London, in front of a live audience at Caveat, “...
The Crusade against Dangerous Food, Part 2
22 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Deborah Blum talks about her book The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at th...
The Crusade against Dangerous Food, Part 1
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Deborah Blum talks about her book The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the T...
Bones and Stones: Cemetery Geology
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A tour of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, N.Y., focuses on the geology of the landscape and the mausoleums. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
Tinder for Cheetahs; and an Unusual Blindness
17 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific American assistant news editor, Tanya Lewis, and collections editor, Andrea Gawrylewski, host a new podcast that takes a deeper look at sho...
Better Living through Evolution: Nobel Prize in Chemistry
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Frances Arnold, George Smith and Gregory Winter shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for using evolutionary principles to create highly efficient ...
Laser Advances That Changed Our Lives: Nobel Prize in Physics
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland shared the Nobel Prize for finding ways to control and enhance laser light, leading to numerous com...
Unleashing Immunity against Cancer: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
01 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
James P. Allison and and Tasuku Honjo shared the Nobel Prize for their discovery of inhibition of negative immune regulation, the basis of new drugs a...
Where There's a Wills There's a Way to Explain the Home Run Rise
30 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Astrophysicist and sports data scientist Meredith Wills talks about why a subtle change in Major League baseballs may be behind the jump in home runs ...
More People, but Less Hardship?
25 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann talks about the just-issued Goalkeepers Report, tracking progress against poverty and disease...
Here's Looking at Humanity, Kid
05 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Senior Editor Gary Stix talks about the September special issue of Scientific American, devoted to the science of being human. And Brown University ev...
Life at the Improv: The Power of Imagination
16 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Asma, professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, talks about his two latest books, The Evolution of Imagination and Why We Need Reli...
Out with the Bad Science
02 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
NPR science journalist Richard Harris talks about his book, Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope and Wastes Billions...