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 Text Only listing of SETI Institute: Are We Alone Podcasts
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Carbon Your Enthusiasm
Bond it to oxygen and it’s the scourge of climate change. But earthly life wouldn’t be possible without carbon, and maybe that’s true for alien life, too.
And carbon has other exciting forms: tiny diamonds may be evidence of a catastrophic comet impact 13,000 years ago. And, chalky carbonates may point to a once-habitable Mars.
So get cozy with carbon. Find out if you could swap it for silicon in DNA. Plus, the conundrum of calculating a carbon footprint.
... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
SETI: Now What?
Hello! Is anyone out there? As the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence marks its 50th anniversary, there’s been no contact as yet with alien beings. But SETI researchers maintain that we are not alone. Find out why in a SETI retrospective that looks at the past and future of the search.
We remember the first scientific SETI search… Carl Sagan… how the SETI Institute began… the WOW signal…and the 1993 NASA budget cuts.
We’ll also hear from crit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Skeptic Check: Doomsday at the Movies
ENCORE Hollywood has a few ideas of how the world will end: killer asteroids … lethal pandemics … deadly ice-ages. These themes have all played out on the big screen. But, hey, they’re only movies, right?
We’ll separate the science from the fiction in doomsday movies. From the 2012 prophesy of the Mayans … to colliding worlds … to abrupt climate change, find out which among this crowd of cinematic scares are for real, and which aren’t worth the price of popcorn ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Do Computers Byte?
The march of computer technology continues. But as silicon chips and search engines become faster and more productive – can the same be said for us?
The creator of Wolfram Alpha describes how his new “computational knowledge engine” is changing – and improving – how we process information. Meanwhile, suffering from data and distraction burnout? Find out what extremes some folks take to stop their search engines.
Also, the Singularity sensation of humans merging wi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Skeptic Check: Mind Your Body
Popping a pill may help when you’re sick… but maybe not for the reasons you think. Sugar pills – placebos – cure illness better than prescription pills in as many as half of all cases in clinical trials … and the placebo effect is getting stronger.
Plus, the safety – or otherwise – of electromagnetic waves, and the “electro-sensitive” refugees who have built a camp to protect themselves from waves they say are causing pain. Is it all in their minds? ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Seth's Storage Locker
It’s always an adventure to go digging in Seth’s storage locker – who knows what we’ll find …
In this imposing pile of paraphernalia, tucked between boxes of socket wrenches and old 45s, we stumble upon the hunt for extrasolar planets, the evidence for water on moons of the solar system, theories of language, a controversial hypothesis for the peopling of the Americas, and a new dinosaur fossil.
Guests:
Steve Brusatte – Vertebrate paleontologist ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Extreme Geology
>p>We think of major geologic events as taking place a long time ago – but the Earth is just as active as it ever was. We’re a planet in motion. Discover why earthquakes might be increasing worldwide… descend into daring cave exploration… and take a trip to Hawaii where new volcanoes are gurgling up right now.
Plus – the supervolcano under Yellowstone Park… when might it erupt again?
Guests:
Robert Nadeau – Geologist, University ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Say What?
There’s no escape from the chattering classes – they talk, squawk, squeal and sing all around us. Every animal communicates in some form – it’s essential for survival. They’ve evolved to understand each other … but do we understand them?
Find out what’s coded in humpback whale song and whether human-cetacean dialogue is possible… how information theory reveals communication patterns within the animal kingdom… how plants call out to animals to protect them… an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Aloha Astronomy
From Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the view of the cosmos is spectacular. Giant black holes, distant galaxies, and extrasolar planets have all been uncovered by the massive telescopes that perch on this volcanic cone.
We’ll sit in as astronomers use the Keck Telescope to peer at objects so far away, their light started out before Earth was born. We’ll also learn about an instrument now being planned that will dwarf even the massive glass eyes now in place.
Also, how Hawaiian tradition ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Skeptic Check: Waking the Dead
The undead, those mindless shambling specters from the grave, are enjoying a cultural (if not literal) resurgence, in films, books, and through strange, urban “zombie crawls.”
Discover the unearthly appeal of these reanimated beings and why playing dead may mirror the real social alienation of our digital lives. Also, how mathematicians use “zombie attacks” to model real disease epidemics, such as swine flu.
Plus – another case of life in suspension: the promise and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Seeing Stars and Planets
It’s hot, too darn hot! And bright, too darn bright! But over-the-top photon flux doesn’t stop scientists from studying the sun. And solar eclipses are an ideal time for observing our favorite nuclear reactor. Discover what it was like to observe totality during the 2009 China solar eclipse.
Plus, how a star is born … the latest from the NASA Kepler mission to seek Earth-like planets … and, planet-hunter extraordinaire Mike Brown discovers the tenth planet: an icy body ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
That's Cosmic!
ENCORE What makes up the universe? Lots of tiny particles with strange names: bosons, leptons, quarks and neutrinos. But physicists think there are more members to be discovered in this particle zoo.
From strange particles to dark matter to vibrating strings, find out why you have to think small to understand the physics of the universe.
Plus, other cosmic connections: is SETI a religion?
Guests:
Murray Gell-Mann – Physics Nobel Laureate, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
What Were You Thinking?
ENCORE Say what you mean. That’s difficult, if you don’t know what you’re thinking. But the neuromarketers do, and they’ll be happy to tell Madison Avenue what’s on your mind. Discover why this marketing strategy is wired for success.
Also, Steven Pinker on how language reveals private thoughts as well as why the big-brained Homo neanderthalensis couldn’t out-compete Homo sapiens. And, we tease your gray matter with the “Monty Hall Prob ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Earth: A Millennium Hence
Humans have not gone unnoticed on this planet. We’ve left our mark with technology, agriculture, architecture, and a growing carbon footprint. But where is this trajectory headed?
In the second of a two-part series: what we’ll lose and what will last in 1000 years or more.
Discover what the planet might look like to geologists of the far-off-future… the stubborn longevity of plastic and radioactive waste… human civilization in space… and postcards from the galacti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Earth: A Century Hence
Listen now
Humans have not gone unnoticed on this planet. We’ve left our mark with technology, agriculture, architecture, and a growing carbon footprint. But where is this trajectory headed?
In the first of a two-part series: what will be lost and what will still be around 100 years from now? James Lovelock says a hotter planet will prompt mass migrations. And Cary Fowler urges us to save our seeds – the health of future farms may depend on it.
Plus, from antibiotics to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Skeptic Check: Doomsday at the Movies
Hollywood has a few ideas of how the world will end: killer asteroids … lethal pandemics … deadly ice-ages. These themes have all played out on the big screen. But, hey, they’re only movies, right?
We’ll separate the science from the fiction in doomsday movies. From the 2012 prophesy of the Mayans … to colliding worlds … to abrupt climate change, find out which among this crowd of cinematic scares are for real, and which aren’t worth the price of popcorn.
G ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Grave Matters
We could choose not to pay income tax and suffer the consequences. But we can’t avoid death. The biological functions of all organisms eventually cease. But why should this be? Find out why animals die and meet one creature that is biologically immortal.
Plus, a trip to the Body Farm where decaying bodies help science…how we might cheat the Big Sleep with drugs… why Mexican cemeteries look like villages… and a doctor’s fight against one of the world’s deadliest dise ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
TXT MSG: Behavior
ENCORE From iPods to Google to Facebook – information swims at our fingertips and friends are just a txt msg away. Digital devices have re-defined what it means to be connected – but how else are they shaping behavior? Join us for the second of a two-part series on how the network is changing how we think and act.
Part II: Behavior: how computers compel us to interact with them… why your iPod may improve your health… why Facebook may leave you friendle ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Skeptic Check: Sheer Lunacy
Watch out, the moon is full… of intrigue. Our lovely satellite is blamed for all sorts of Earth-bound mischief – from robberies to shape-shifting to general nutty behavior. It’s also the setting for more than one loony tale. In this hour, as NASA spacecraft return to the moon, a look at the mythology it inspires.
Discover the true correlation between crime and a full moon… the 1835 reports of unicorns and man-bats living on moon… and, our favorite hair-raisin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Rxs Get Personal
Medicine’s back.. and this time it’s personal. Get ready to have your genome read… your brain scanned… and undergo a chemical analysis so detailed, it’ll reveal the Twinkie you had for lunch. Everyone’s different, and reading those differences at the level of the gene may provide a more accurate profile of health and how to treat disease. But are you ready to know what’s wrong with you?
Discover the future of personalized medicine with biologist Craig Venter, as w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
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