Archive for the ‘Podcasts’ Category
Oct
19
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
October 19, 2017
Streamed live on 12 October 2017.
When Julius Caesar, having been stabbed in the Roman Senate, exhaled his last breath, the molecules in his breath began spreading around the Earth. How likely is it that, when you inhale, you inhale a molecule that Caesar exhaled?
Well, that answer, plus many, many more observations and answers about so many things you never even knew you wanted to know about are to be found in Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us, the most recent book from author Sam Kean, who was with us in this episode of “Read Science!” to talk about the book, his earlier books (The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, The Disappearing Spoon, and The Violinists Thumb), and other fascinating things like how he does his research, how he finds the curious stories he relates, and how he turns them into his informative and readable books.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Sep
22
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
September 22, 2017
Streamed live on 20 September 2017.
Industrial chicken farming, antiobiotic resistance, and the future of both were on our minds, and in our conversation, today when we talk with Maryn McKenna, author of Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats. The word “incredible” seems almost inadequate to describe the stories she tells.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Sep
22
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
September 22, 2017
Streamed live on 5 September 2017.
Oh, those crafty politicians! Are they all the same? In this episode, Joanne and Jeff speak with journalist Dave Levitan about his book, Not a Scientist: How Politicians Mistake, Misrepresent, and Utterly Mangle Science. Lots of current topics (with quite a bit of climate change represented) flash by as we shed light on all the ways that politicians prevaricate about science and scientific results.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Aug
10
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
August 10, 2017
Streamed live on 9 August 2017.
Curiosity is something we value here at “Read Science”, and today we talked about it with Mario Livio, author of Why? What Makes Us Curious. We heard stories about Richard Feynman, learned about theories of curiosity, what it is and how it happens in the brain, talked about exciting curiosity in science communication, and the role curiosity has in overcoming fear of the unknown. We also guarantee that no cats were harmed in the making of this episode.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Aug
05
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
August 5, 2017
Streamed live on 4 August 2017.
NASA’s robotic exploration mission were our topic today as we talked with writer-about-all-things-space and editor of “Universe Today” Nancy Atkinson about her book, Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos.
Martian rovers, a Pluto flyby, photos from Jupiter, voyages to asteroids, unforgettable photos from the Hubble Space Telescope–we talked about all those amazing things, and more.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Aug
03
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
August 3, 2017
Streamed live on 27 July 2017.
We haven’t talked much about math so far on “Read Science!”, but with this episode we got down to serious business and went directly to Big Numbers and Infinity — and beyond!
Our guest was mathematician Richard Evan Schwartz, author of Gallery of the Infinite, Really Big Numbers, and You Can Count on Monsters, his remarkably informative yet playful graphical books about numbers, big numbers, and lots and lots of numbers. We discussed numbers and art and his penchant for making drawings to explain these ideas. We also learned more about the “Infinite Chicken” and “Rational Crocodile”. It’s good to be reminded that math can be this much fun.
Look for his books at your library or at the American Mathematical Society’s bookstore:
http://bookstore.ams.org/#search?schwartz?page=0
For more about “Inkscape”, the vector-drawing program Rich uses to create his images, or to download a free copy, visit their official website: https://inkscape.org/en/.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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May
20
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
May 20, 2017
Streamed live 10 May 2017.
We finally got to talk again about science books for children, this time about the “Living Sunlight” series of books by award-winning children’s book author and illustrator, Molly Bang, and Dr. Penny Chisholm, a biological oceanographer at MIT.
We had a fun and lively time looking at pictures, talking about how kids look at pictures, the importance of cyanobacteria, and who is that kid that keeps showing up in the books’ illustrations. There are four books (so far) in this delightful and informative series: Living Sunlight (about photosynthesis), Ocean Sunlight (phytoplankton), Buried Sunlight (fossil fuels), and Rivers of Sunlight (ocean currents). And we’ll let you in on a secret: they make good reading for adults, too.
For more information about the series, visit their website: https://thesunlightseries.com/ .
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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May
07
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
May 7, 2017
Streamed live 28 April 2017.
“Read Science!” began its fifth year with guest Dr. Barbara Oakley, the leader of one of the largest online classes (MOOCs), “Learning How to Learn”, and author of “A Mind for Numbers” and her latest, Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential.
While Mindshift was the centerpiece of our discussion, we covered a lot of ideas related to learning, how to learn, and the benefits of being a life-long learner.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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May
07
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
May 7, 2017
Streamed live on 5 April 2017.
On this episode of “Read Science!”, Jeff and Joanne welcomed two authors of recent books to talk about genetics and genomics as they relate to our families of origin and our children. Bonnie Rochman is the author of The Gene Machine: How Genetic Technologies Are Changing the Way We Have Kids–and the Kids We Have, and Joselin Linder is the author of The Family Gene: A Mission to Turn My Deadly Inheritance Into a Hopeful Future. We tackle some of the big questions about the future of genetic engineering when it comes to humans, and we learn about what it’s like to be part of a family with its own genetic mutation.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Feb
25
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
February 25, 2017
Streamed live on 15 February 2017.
For this stimulating episode of “Read Science!” we welcomed Nathalia Holt, author of Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars.
We talked about the days when “calculators” were people who calculated, the early days of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the “Suicide Squad”, the race to launch the first satellite for the US, and the extraordinary story of how the team of calculators at JPL came to be mostly women.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Dec
28
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
December 28, 2016
Streamed live on 23 November 2016.
Hope Jahren’s splendid book, Lab Girl, is already on most every list of notable books for 2016. Told in the form of a memoir, it’s an amazing tour of an adventurous and eventful career (so far), the surprising lives of plants, and what the frustrations and joys of scientific investigation and discovery really feel like. It’s not really possible to capture in this tiny space the wealth of information and insight that Hope’s book offers its readers. We talked about as much as we could fit into our hour and it felt like we barely got started. We also got to wave our arms around a couple of times when the lights went out.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Dec
28
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
December 28, 2016
Streamed live on 8 September 2016.
NASA was created when the US Congress passed the “National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958” and it was signed by President Eisenhower. It was the time of the Cold War, nuclear anxiety, and Sputnik, and American felt like it had “lost the space race” already. Soon enough the US launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
But before that happened, there was an interesting and exciting few decades of rocket research that made it all possible. In this episode of RS, Amy Shira Teitel, science historian and author of Breaking the Chains of Gravity : The Story of Spaceflight Before NASA, talked to us all about it. The stories were nearly ballistic and our time was over almost before we got launched.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Aug
31
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
August 31, 2016
Streamed live on 24 August 2016.
There are a lot of venomous creatures on Earth, way more species than most of us realize, and they’ve invented an amazing and vast array of venoms and technique for injecting it into their enemies, and their dinners. Still, scientists are learning interesting and wondrous things from venomous animals, and also using their knowledge to create new drugs that work in marvelous ways.
In this episode we talked about all these things with Christie Wilcox, author of Venomous : How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry and enthusiastic scientist who studies venomous creatures. We even learned what “sodium channels” are, what they have to do with nerve cells and pain, and how they can be blocked. It was another fascinating hour that went by much too quickly.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Aug
10
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
August 10, 2016
Streamed live 8 August 2016.
Sex! Sex! Sex! That’s all we talked about with Carin Bondar, author of Wild Sex: The Science Behind Mating in the Animal Kingdom. Topics included sexual selection among blue-footed boobies (i.e., the birds), the human preoccupation with NOT talking about sex while thinking about it all the time, and the bizarre sexual practices of some slugs kept coming up, too. Natural selection gave Carin a great deal to write about in her book, and we did our best to fit it all in to one suddenly short episode.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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Aug
07
Posted by jnshaumeyer on
August 7, 2016
Streamed live on 4 August 2016.
Our guest for today’s program about all the tiniest creatures in the world was Ed Yong, with whom we talk about his highly praised new book, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life. The multitudes within gave us a multitude of things to talk about, from bad microbes to good microbes and everything in between, but our hour was just too short to cover it all, so reading Ed’s book is a must. We guarantee that you will come away with a “grander view of life”.
Like “Read Science!” on Facebook to hear about upcoming programs, easy links to the archive, and news about RS! guests: https://www.facebook.com/ReadScience/.
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