Big Picture Science

Birds have it going on. Many of these winged dinosaurs delight us with their song and brilliant plumage. Migratory birds travel thousands of miles in a display of endurance that would make an Olympic athlete gasp. We inquire about these daunting migrations and how birds can fly for days without rest. And what can we do to save disappearing species? Will digital tracking technology help? Plus, how 19th century bird-lovers, appalled by feathered hats, started the modern conservation movement. Guests: Scott Weidensaul ? Ornithologist and naturalist and author of ?A World on the Wing: the Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds.? Kassandra Ford ? Doctoral candidate in evolutionary biology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Michelle Nijhuis ? Science journalist and author of ?Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction.? Originally aired May 10, 2021 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The zombie eco-thriller ?The Last of Us? has alerted us to the threats posed by fungi. But the show is not entirely science fiction. Our vulnerability to pathogenic fungi is more real than many people imagine.  Find out what human activity drives global fungal threats, including their menace to food crops and many other species. Our high body temperature has long kept lethal fungi in check; but will climate change cause fungi to adapt to warmer temperatures and threaten our health?  Plus, a radically new way to think about these organisms, how they make all life possible, and how we might find balance again. Guests: Emily Monosson ? Toxicologist who writes about changes in the natural world. A member of the Ronin Institute and a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, she is the author of ?Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic.? Arturo Casadevall ? Microbiologist, immunologist, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Michael Hathaway ? Anthropologist, director of the Asian Studies Center at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and author of ?What a Mushroom Lives For.?  *originally aired February 13, 2023 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drinking a cup of coffee is how billions of people wake up every morning. But climate change is threatening this popular beverage. Over 60% of the world?s coffee species are at risk of extinction. Scientists are searching for solutions, including hunting for wild, forgotten coffee species that are more resilient to our shifting climate. Find out how the chemistry of coffee can help us brew coffee alternatives, and how coffee grounds can be part of building a sustainable future. Guests: Christopher Hendon - Assistant Professor of Computational Materials Chemistry, University of Oregon Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch - Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Australia Aaron Davis - Senior Research Leader of Crops and Global Change, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Great North American Solar Eclipse will trace a path of shadow across Mexico and 13 U.S. States on April 8th. Phil Plait, also known as The Bad Astronomer, joins the show for an extended interview covering a wide-range of topics, such as his excitement about the eclipse, the Pentagon?s most recent UFO report, and some of the most persistent moon landing conspiracy theories. Guest: Phil Plait ? aka the Bad Astronomer, former astronomer on Hubble, teacher, lecturer, and debunker of conspiracy theories. He is also the author of a new book ?Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer?s Guide to the Universe.? Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Asteroids are rich in precious metals and other valuable resources. But mining them presents considerable challenges. We discuss these, and consider how these spinning, rocky resources might be the key to a space-faring future. But an economist points out the consequences of bringing material back to Earth, and a scientist raises an ethical question; do we have an obligation to keep the asteroids intact for science?  Guests: Jim Bell - Planetary scientist in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Martin Elvis - Astronomer and author of ?Asteroids: How Love, Fear, and Greed Will Determine Our Future in Space.? Ian Lange - Economist and associate professor at the Colorado School of Mines and author of a paper on the feasibility of asteroid mining. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Standing on your own two feet isn?t easy. While many animals can momentarily balance on their hind legs, we?re the only critters, besides birds, for whom bipedalism is completely normal. Find out why, even though other animals are faster, we?re champions at getting around. Could it be that our upright stance made us human? Plus, why arches help stiffen feet, the argument for bare-footin?, and 12,000-year old footprints that tell a story about an Ice Age mother, her child, and a sloth.  Guests: Daniel Lieberman ? Professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. Jeremy DeSilva ? Professor in the departments of anthropology and biological sciences, Dartmouth College, and author of ?First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human.? Madhusudhan Venkadesan ? Professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, Yale University School of Engineering. David Bustos ? Chief of Resources at White Sands, National Park, New Mexico. Sally Reynolds ? Paleontologist at Bournemouth University, U.K. Originally aired May 24, 2021 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Supreme Court?s ruling on Roe has ignited fierce debate about bodily autonomy. But it?s remarkable how little we know about female physiology. Find out what studies have been overlooked by science, and what has been recently learned. Plus, why studying women?s bodies means being able to say words like ?vagina? without shame ... a researcher who is recreating a uterus in her lab to study endometriosis ? and an overdue recognition of medical pioneer Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler. Guests: Melody T. McCloud - Obstetrician Gynecologist and Founder and Medical Director of Atlanta Women's Health Care; co-author of ?Black Women's Wellness: Your ?I've Got This!? Guide to Health, Sex, and Phenomenal Living? Victoria Gall - Volunteer with the Friends of the Hyde Park Library and the Hyde Park Historical Society Rachel E. Gross - Science journalist and author of ?Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage? Linda Griffith - Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering at M.I.T., Director of the Center for Gynepathology Research, and author of the Boston Globe article, ??FemTech? and a moonshot for menstruation science? Roshni Babal - Pediatric Asthma and Chronic Disease Program Coordinator at Boston Medical Center Perri Klass - Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University and Author of ?The Best Medicine: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future? **Originally aired October 31, 2022 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A century ago, British archaeologist Howard Carter opened the only surviving intact tomb from ancient Egypt. Inside was the mummy of the boy king Tutankhamun, together with ?wonderful things? including a solid gold mask. Treasure from King Tut?s crypt has been viewed both in person and virtually by many people since. We ask what about Egyptian civilization so captivates us, thousands of years later. Also, how new technology from modern physics allows researchers to ?X-Ray? the pyramids to find hidden chambers. Guests: Emma Bentley ? Postgraduate student in Archeology and Ancient Worlds at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K.  Sarah Parcak ? Archaeologist and Egyptologist, University of Alabama, and author of ?Archaeology From Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past.? Richard Kouzes ? Physicist at the Department of Energy?s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Salima Ikram ? Professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo and head of the Animal Mummy Project at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. *Originally aired December 12, 2022 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The discovery of a massive amount of lithium under the Salton Sea could make the U.S. lithium independent. The metal is key for batteries in electric vehicles and solar panels. But the area is also a delicate ecosystem. We go to southern California to hear what hangs in the balance of the ballooning lithium industry, and also how we extract other crucial substances ? such as sand, copper and iron? and turn them into semiconductors, circuitry and other products upon which the modern world depends. Guests: Ed Conway ? economics and data editor of Sky News and columnist for the Times in London. He?s the author of ?Material World, The Six Raw Materials that Shape Modern Civilization?. Frank Ruiz ? Audubon California Salton Sea Program Director.  Michael McKibben ? Geologist, University of California, Riverside.  Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whales are aliens on Earth; intelligent beings who have skills for complex problem-solving and their own language. Now in what?s being called a breakthrough, scientists have carried on an extended conversation with a humpback whale. They share the story of this remarkable encounter, their evidence that the creature understood them, and how the experiment informs our Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. After all, what good is it to make contact with ET if we can?t communicate? Guests: Brenda McCowan ? Research behaviorist at the University of California Davis in the School of Veterinary Medicine who studies the ecological aspects of animal behavior and communication.  Fred Sharpe ? whale biologist and behavioral ecologist at Simon Fraser University and member of the Templeton Whale SETI Team.  Laurance Doyle ? astrophysicist and information theory researcher at the SETI Institute.  Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By one estimate the average American home has 300,000 objects. Yet our ancient ancestors had no more than what they could carry with them. How did we go from being self-sufficient primates to nonstop shoppers? We examine the evolutionary history of stuff through the lens of archeology beginning with the ancestor who first picked up a palm-sized rock and made it into a tool.  Guest: Chip Colwell - archeologist and former Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, editor-in-chief of the digital magazine Sapiens, and author of ?So Much Stuff: How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything.? Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You are getting sleeeepy and open to suggestion. But is that how hypnotism works? And does it really open up a portal to the unconscious mind? Hypnotism can be an effective therapeutic tool, and some scientists suggest replacing opioids with hypnosis for pain relief. And yet, the performance aspect of hypnotism often seems at odds with the idea of it being an effective treatment.  In our regular look at critical thinking, Skeptic Check, we ask what part of hypnotism is real and what is an illusion. Plus, we discuss how the swinging watch became hypnotism?s irksome trademark. Guests: David Spiegel ? Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine Devin Terhune ? Reader in the Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths University of London *Originally aired June 27, 2022 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With planets and moons, it?s what?s inside that counts. If we want to understand surface features, like volcanoes, or their history, such as how the planet formed or whether it?s suitable for life, we study their interiors. Astronomer Sabine Stanley takes us on a journey to the centers of Venus, Saturn?s large moon Titan, Jupiter?s moon Io, and of course Earth, to help us understand how they, and the solar system, came to be.  Guest: Sabine Stanley - Planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University and the author of What?s Hidden Inside Planets. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Worried that AI will replace you? It may not seem like the Hollywood writers? strike has anything in common with the Luddite rebellion in England in 1811, but they are surprisingly similar. Today we use the term ?Luddite? dismissively to describe a technophobe, but the original Luddites ? cloth workers ? organized and fought Industrial Revolution automation and the factory bosses who were replacing humans with cotton spinning machines and steam powered looms. Find out what our age of AI can learn from textile workers of 200 years ago about keeping humans in the loop. Guest: Brian Merchant - Los Angeles Times tech columnist and author of ?Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech?  Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By one estimate we spend a fifth of our lives watching movies or TV. In fact, we consume entertainment almost as habitually as we eat or sleep, activities that receive scientific scrutiny and study. So why not consider the effects that watching movies and TV have on our minds and bodies too? When we do, we find that they are not mere escapism. A data scientist reveals why we are what we watch, and how scientists and filmmakers work, often with competing agendas, to create sci-fi entertainment. Guest: Walt Hickey - journalist, data scientist, and author of ?You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything? Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We present a grab bag of our favorite recent science stories ? from how to stop aging to the mechanics of cooking pasta. Also, in accord with our eclectic theme ? the growing problem of space junk.   Guests: Anthony Wyss-Coray ? Professor of neuroscience at Stanford University Oliver O?Reilly ? Professor of mechanical engineering, University of California Berkeley. Moriba Jah ? Professor of aerospace and engineering mechanics, University of Texas Originally aired March 1, 2021 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe you don?t remember the days of the earliest coal-fired stoves. They changed domestic life, and that changed society. We take you back to that era, and to millennia prior when iron was first smelt, and even earlier, when axe-handles were first fashioned from wood, as we explore how three essential materials profoundly transformed society.  We were once excited about coal?s promise to provide cheap energy, and how iron would lead to indestructible bridges, ships, and buildings. But they also caused some unintended problems: destruction of forests, greenhouse gases and corrosion. Did we foresee where the use of wood, coal, and iron would lead? What lessons do they offer for our future? Guests: Jonathan Waldman ? Author of Rust: The Longest War. Ruth Goodman ? Historian of British social customs, presenter of a number of BBC television series, including Tudor Monastery Farm, and the author of The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything. Roland Ennos ? Professor of biological sciences at the University of Hull and author of The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization. **Originally aired February 1, 2021 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After helping to sequence the human genome more than twenty years ago, biochemist Craig Venter seemed to recede from the public eye. But he hadn?t retired. He had gone to sea and taken his revolutionary sequencing tools with him. We chatted with him about his multi-year voyage aboard the research vessel Sorcerer II, its parallels to Darwin?s voyage, and the surprising discoveries his team made about the sheer number and diversity of marine microbes and their roles in ocean ecosystems. Guests: Craig Venter - Genomicist, biochemist, founder of the J. Craig Venter Institute, and co-author of ?The Voyage of Sorcerer II: The Expedition that Unlocked the Secrets of the Ocean?s Microbiome.? Jeff Hoffman - Lab manager at the J. Craig Venter Institute and expedition scientist on the Sorcerer II expedition. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our information age is increasingly the disinformation age. The spread of lies and conspiracy theories has created competing experiences of reality. Facts are often useless for changing minds or even making compelling arguments. In this episode, author Naomi Klein and science philosopher Lee McIntyre discuss why the goal ? not simply the byproduct - of spreading disinformation is to polarize society. They also offer ideas about how we might find our way back to a shared objective truth.   Guests: Naomi Klein - Associate professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia and a co-director at the Center for Climate Justice. Author of Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World Lee McIntyre - Philosopher of science and a research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and the History of Science at Boston University, and author of Post-Truth and On Disinformation. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcastnetwork. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nothing lasts forever. Even the universe has several possible endings. Will there be a dramatic Big Rip or a Big Chill­?also known as the heat death of the universe?in trillions of years? Or will vacuum decay, which could theoretically happen at any moment, do us in? Perhaps the death of a tiny particle ? the proton ? will bring about the end. We contemplate big picture endings in this episode, and whether one could be brought about by our own machine creations.  Guests:  Anders Sandberg ? Researcher at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford Katie Mack ? Assistant professor of physics at North Carolina State University, and the author of ?The End of Everything, Astrophysically Speaking.? Brian Greene ? Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia, and author of ?Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe? Originally aired May 3, 2021 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world is a colorful place, and human eyes have evolved to take it in ? from vermillion red to bright tangerine to cobalt blue. But when we do, are you and I seeing the same thing?  Find out why color perception is a trick of the brain, and why you and I may not see the same shade of green. Or blue. Or red. Also, platypuses and the growing club of fluorescent mammals, and the first new blue pigment in more than two centuries.   Guests: Paula Anich ? Associate Professor of Natural Resources, Northland College Michaela Carlson ? Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Northland College Rob DeSalle ? Curator at the American Museum of Natural History, and co-author of ?A Natural History of Color: the Science Behind What We See and How We See It? Mas Subramanian ? Professor of Materials Science at Oregon State University originally aired March 8, 2021 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

T-Rex is having an identity crisis. Rocking the world of paleontology is the claim that Rex was not one species, but actually three. It?s not the first time that this particular dino has forced us to revise our understanding of the past. The discovery of the first T-Rex fossil in the 19th century taught humanity a scary lesson: species eventually go extinct. If it happened to this seemingly invincible apex predator, it could happen to us too. Hear how the amateur fossil hunter Barnum Brown?s discovery of T-Rex changed our understanding of ourselves, and the epilogue to the dinosaur era: how our mammalian relatives survived the potential extinction bottleneck of an asteroid impact. Guests: Thomas Carr - Vertebrate paleontologist and Professor of Biology, Carthage College Peter Makovicky - Vertebrate paleontologist and Professor of paleontology in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota David Randall - Author of ?The Monster?s Bones: The Discovery of T Rex and How It Shook Our World? Steve Brusatte - Personal Chair of Paleontology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh. Author of ?The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs? and, most recently, ?The Rise and Reign of The Mammals? Originally aired October 17, 2022 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back off, you Neanderthal! It sounds as if you?ve just been dissed, but maybe you should take it as a compliment. Contrary to common cliches, our Pleistocene relatives were clever, curious, and technologically inventive. Find out how our assessment of Neanderthals has undergone a radical rethinking, and hear about the influence they have as they live on in our DNA. For example, some of their genes have a strong association with severe Covid 19 infection. Plus, how Neanderthal mini-brains grown in a lab will teach us about the evolution of Homo sapiens. Guests: Svante Pääbo ? Evolutionary geneticist and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Doyle Stevick ? Associate professor of educational leadership and policies at the University of South Carolina. Beverly Brown ? Professor emerita of anthropology, Rockland Community College, New York. Rebecca Wragg Sykes ? Paleolithic anthropologist, author of ?Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art.? Alysson Muotri ? Neuroscientist and professor of pediatrics, cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine Originally aired March 22, 2021 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Owls are both the most accessible and elusive of birds. Every child can recognize one, but you?ll be lucky to spot an owl in a tree, even if you?re looking straight at it. Besides their camouflage and silent flight, these mostly nocturnal birds, with their amazing vision and hearing, are most at home in the dead of night, a time humans find alien and scary. Ecologist Carl Safina got to know an injured baby screech owl well. Their relationship saved the owl?s life and gave Safina insider?s wisdom about these aerial hunters of the night. Guests: Carl Safina ? ecologist at Stony Brook University, head of the non-profit Safina Center, and author of ?Alfie & Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe? Tom Damiami ? natural resources interpreter, singer on Long Island, NY and leader of the Shelter Island Owl Prowl Gordy Slack ? science writer, former senior editor of California Wild, the science and natural history magazine published by the California Academy of Sciences Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

?To live is to count and to count is to calculate.? But before we plugged in the computer to express this ethos, we pulled out the pocket calculator. It became a monarch of mathematics that sparked a computing revolution. But it?s not the only deceptively modest innovation that changed how we work and live. Find out how sewing a scrap of fabric into clothing helped define private life and how adding lines to paper helped build an Empire. Plus, does every invention entail irrevocable cultural loss? Guests: Keith Houston ? author of ?Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator.? Hannah Carlson ? teaches dress history and material culture at the Rhode Island School of Design, author of ?Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close.? Dominic Riley ? bookbinder in the U.K. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every second, lightning strikes 50 to 100 times somewhere. It can wreak havoc by starting wildfires and sometimes killing people. But lightning also produces a form of nitrogen that?s essential to vegetation. In this episode, we talk about the nature of these dramatic sparks. Ben Franklin established their electric origin, so what do we still not know? Also, why the frequency of lightning strikes is increasing in some parts of the world. And, what to do if you find someone hit by lightning. Guests: Thomas Yeadaker ? Resident of Oakland, California Chris Davis ? Medical doctor and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Wake Forest University and Medical Director for the National Center for Outdoor Adventure Education Jonathan Martin ? Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison Steve Ackerman ? Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison Peter Bieniek ? Professor of Atmospheric and Space Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks *Originally aired September 12, 2022 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 right ones? Stepping into the bathtub is more dangerous than flying from a statistical point of view, but no one signs up for ?fear of showering? classes.  Find out why we get tripped up by statistics, worry about the wrong things, and how the ?intelligence trap? not only leads smart people to make dumb mistakes, but actually causes them to make more. Guests: Eric Chudler ? Research associate professor, department of bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle and co-author of ?Worried: Science Investigates Some of Life?s Common Concerns? Lise Johnson ? Director of the Basic Science Curriculum, Rocky Vista University, and co-author of ?Worried: Science Investigates Some of Life?s Common Concerns? Willie Turner ? Vice President of Operations at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, CA Charles Wheelan ? Senior Lecturer and Policy Fellow, Dartmouth College, and author of ?Naked Statistics? David Robson ? Commissioning Editor for the BBC and author of ?The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes? *Originally aired May 27, 2019 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine life without animals, trees, and fungi. The world would look very different. But while the first life was surely single-celled, we don?t know just how it evolved to multicellular organisms. Two long-term experiments hope to find out, and one has been running for more than 35 years. Hear about the moment scientists watched evolution take off in the lab, and how directed evolution was used to create a multicellular organism. Also, how single embryonic cells become humans, and what all of this says about the possibility of life on other worlds. Guests: Jeff Barrick ? molecular scientist at the University of Texas at Austin where his lab oversees the Long-Term Evolution Experiment that?s been running since 1988.  Will Ratcliff - an evolutionary biologist at Georgia Institute of Technology Ben Stanger - cancer researcher, professor of medicine and developmental biology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of ?From One Cell: A Journey into Life?s Origins and the Future of Medicine.? Joseph L. Graves - evolutionary biologist and geneticist at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and author of ?A Voice in the Wilderness: A Pioneering Biologist Explains How Evolution Can Help Us Solve Our Biggest Problems.? Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Extreme heat is taking its toll on the natural world. We use words like ?heat domes? and ?freakish? to describe our everyday existence. These high temperatures aren?t only uncomfortable - they are lethal to humans, animals, and crops. In search of an answer to our episode?s question, we discuss the dilemma of an ever-hotter world with an author who has covered climate change for more than twenty years.  Guest: Jeff Goodell ? author of ?The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.? Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Near death experiences can be profound and even life changing. People describe seeing bright lights, staring into the abyss, or meeting dead relatives. Many believe these experiences to be proof of an afterlife. But now, scientists are studying these strange events and gaining insights into the brain and consciousness itself. Will we uncover the scientific underpinning of these near-death events?  Guests: Steve Paulson - executive producer of To the Best of Our Knowledge for Wisconsin Public Radio Sebastian Junger - journalist, filmmaker and author of ?The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea?  Christoph Koch - neuroscientist at the Allen Institute in Seattle and chief scientist of the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation in Santa Monica California  Daniel Kondziella - neuroscientist in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever heard worms arguing? Deep-sea scientists use hydrophones to eavesdrop on ?mouth-fighting worms.? It?s one of the many ways scientists are trying to catalog the diversity of the deep oceans ? estimated to be comparable to a rainforest. But the clock is ticking. While vast expanses of the deep sea are still unexplored, mining companies are ready with dredging vehicles to strip mine the seafloor, potentially destroying rare and vulnerable ecosystems. Are we willing to eradicate an alien landscape that we haven?t yet visited? Guests: Craig McClain - deep-sea and evolutionary biologist and ecologist, Executive Director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. Steve Haddock - senior scientist at the Monetary Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and co-author of a New York Times op-ed about the dangers of mining. Emily Hall - marine chemist at the Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida Chong Chen - deep sea biologist with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) *Originally aired November 23, 2020 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brace yourself for heatwave ?Lucifer.? Dangerous deadly heatwaves may soon be so common that we give them names, just like hurricanes. This is one of the dramatic consequences of just a few degrees rise in average temperatures. Also coming: Massive heat ?blobs? that form in the oceans and damage marine life, and powerful windstorms called ?derechos? pummeling the Midwest.  Plus, are fungal pathogens adapting to hotter temperatures and breaching the 98.6 F thermal barrier that keeps them from infecting us? Guests: Kathy Baughman McLeod ? director and senior vice president of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center at The Atlantic Council Pippa Moore ? Marine ecologist at Newcastle University in the U.K. Ted Derouin ? Michigan farmer Jeff Dukes ? Ecologist and director of Purdue Climate Change Research Center at Purdue University. Arturo Casadevall ? Molecular microbiologist and immunologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Originally aired October 19, 2020 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ready to become a space emigre? For half a century, visionaries have been talking about our future off-Earth ? a speculative scenario in which many of us live in space colonies. So why haven?t we built them? Will the plans of billionaire space entrepreneurs to build settlements on Mars, or orbiting habitats that would be only minutes away from Earth, revive our long-held spacefaring dreams? And is having millions of people living off-Earth a solution to our problems? or an escape from them? Guests: Marianne Dyson ? Author and former NASA flight controller Emily St. John Mandel ? Author, most recently of ?Sea of Tranquility? John Adams ? Deputy Director, Biosphere 2, University of Arizona Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake *Originally aired July 25, 2022 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Birds and bees do it ? and so do fish. In a discovery that highlights the adaptive benefits of walking, scientists have discovered fish that can walk on land. Not fin-flap their bodies, mind you, but ambulate like reptiles.   And speaking of which, new research shows that T Rex, the biggest reptile of them all, wasn?t a sprinter, but could be an efficient hunter by outwalking its prey. Find out the advantage of legging it, and how human bipedalism stacks up. Not only is walking good for our bodies and brains, but not walking can change your personality and adversely affect your health.  Guests:  Hans Larsson ? Paleontologist and biologist, and Director of the Redpath Museum at McGill University in Montréal. Shane O?Mara ? Neuroscientist and professor of experimental brain research at Trinity College Dublin. He is the author of ?In Praise of Walking.? Brooke Flammang ? Biologist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Originally aired October 5, 2020 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 and why you can?t live without the viscous stuff. But slime in general is remarkable. Whether coating the bellies of slithery creatures, sleeking the surface of aquatic plants, or dripping from your nose, its protective qualities make it one of the great inventions of biology. Join us as we venture to the land of ooze! Guests: Christopher Viney - Professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California, Merced Katharina Ribbeck - Bioengineer at MIT Anna Rose Hopkins - Chef and partner at Hank and Bean in Los Angeles Ruth Kassinger - author of ?Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us? *Originally aired January 27, 2020 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

?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 from species diversity. Find out why multiple strains of microbes, engaged in a delicate ballet with your T-cells, join internal fungi in combatting disease. Plus, global ecosystems also depend on the diversity of its tiniest members; so what happens when the world?s insects bug out? Guests: Matt Richtel ? Author, most recently, of ?An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of The Immune System? Rob Dunn ? Biologist and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University. Author of ?Never Home Alone? David Underhill ? Professor of medicine, Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles, California Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson ? Professor in conservation biology at the Institute for Ecology and Nature Management at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Author of ?Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects? Originally aired August 12, 2019 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UFOs are back. This time they?ve landed on Capitol Hill in the form of a public, congressional hearing. We watched the hearing with great interest, but felt dissatisfied when it came to evidence. Claims that the government has alien technology are obviously tantalizing. So tantalizing, in fact, that it?s easy to overlook logical fallacies in how these claims are presented. We identify a few of the missteps. But what would convince you that the government is aware of alien visitation? Is the word of an authority figure all we need to accept that ?they?re here??  Guests: Benjamin Radford - Research fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Nadia Drake - Science journalist and member of NASA?s UAP group James McGaha - Retired military pilot and astronomer he's a longtime investigator of UFO reports and claims and he's a scientific consultant to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Mick West - A skeptical investigator who looks at claims of UFOs Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine tapeworms longer than the height of an adult human. Or microbes that turn their hosts into zombies. If the revulsion they induce doesn?t do it, the sheer number of parasites force us to pay attention. They are the most abundant form of animal life on Earth. Parasites can cause untold human suffering, like those that cause African River Blindness or Lyme disease, but their presence is also a sign of a health ecosystem. A parasitologist whose lab contains the largest parasite collection in the world gives us the ultimate inside story about these organisms.  Guest: Scott Gardner - curator of parasites in the H.W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology at the University of Nebraska State Museum, one of the largest collections of parasites in the world, and professor of biological sciences at University of Nebraska. Co-author of Parasites: The Inside Story. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether in miles or pounds, meters or kilograms, we take daily measure out our lives. But how did these units ever come to be, and why do we want to change them? From light-years to leap seconds, we look at the history of efforts to quantify our lives and why there?s always room for greater precision. Plus, we debate the virtues of staying imperial measurements vs. going metric. Guest: James Vincent - Author of Beyond Measure, the Hidden History of Measurement Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thinking small can sometimes achieve big things. A new generation of diminutive robots can enter our bodies and deal with medical problems such as intestinal blockages. But do we really want them swimming inside us, even if they?re promising to help? You might change your mind when you hear what else is cruising through our bloodstream: microplastics!  We take a trip into the human body, beginning with the story of those who first dared to open it up for medical purposes. But were the first surgeons really cavemen? Guests: Ira Rutkow ? Surgeon and writer, and author of ?Empire of the Scalpel: The History of Surgery? Dick Vethaak ? Emeritus professor of ecotoxicology, water quality and health at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University, Amsterdam) in The Netherlands Li Zhang ? Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Michael LaBarbera ? Professor in organismal biology, anatomy and geophysical sciences, University of Chicago Originally aired June 20, 2022 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do we have physical evidence of the last day of the dinosaurs? We consider fossilized fish in South Dakota that may chronicle the dramatic events that took place when, 66 million years ago, a large asteroid slammed into the Gulf of Mexico and caused three-quarters of all species to disappear.  Also, what new discoveries have paleontologists made about these charismatic animals, and the director of Jurassic World: Dominion talks about how his film hews to the latest science. Hint: feathers! It?s deep history, as we look at what happened as terrestrial life experienced its worst day ever. Guests: Colin Trevorrow ? Director of Jurassic World: Dominion Riley Black ? Science writer and author of ?The Last Days of the Dinosaurs? Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan ? Paleontologist at the University of Cape Town, South Africa *Originally aired June 13, 2022 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Runny nose. Itchy, watery eyes. Sneezing. If you don?t have allergies, you probably know someone who does. The number of people with allergies, including food allergies and eczema, is increasing. What is going on? A medical anthropologist describes how our hygiene habits, our diets, and our polluted environment are irritating our bodies. Also, the case for skipping your shower. Is skin healthier when we stop lathering? Guests: James Hamblin ? Preventive medicine physician and a lecturer in public health at Yale and author of Clean: the New Science of Skin Theresa MacPhail ? medical anthropologist, professor of science and technology studies at Stevens Institute of Technology and author of Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have what it takes to survive on Mars? Beginning this month, four people will spend a year in a prototype Martian habitat meant to simulate living on the Red Planet. It?s part of NASA?s efforts to prepare us for real human missions to Mars. Find out how well we can replicate that world on Earth and what we might learn from doing so. Also, a new robotic mission aims to be the first to bring back a piece of the Red Planet, and why Mars has enchanted us for centuries. Guests: Scott Smith ? Lead for the nutritional biochemistry lab at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, and member of the CHAPEA team. Matthew Shindell ? Historian of science and Curator of Planetary Science and Exploration at the National Air and Space Museum. Author of For the Love of Mars; a Human History of the Red Planet. Pascal Lee ? Planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, principal investigator of the Haughton-Mars Project, and co-founder of The Mars Institute Michela Muñoz Fernández ? Program Executive for NASA?s Mars Sample Return Mission Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NASA is studying more than 800 sightings of unidentified objects in our sky as part of its investigation into the UFO phenomenon. We get an update on the agency?s study in a conversation with a member of the NASA UAP panel.  We also hear why the belief that aliens exist has broad consensus, but that?s not the same as saying they routinely visit Earth. Plus, a UFO investigator analyzes the startling claim that the military is hiding evidence of alien technology.   Guests: Nadia Drake ? Science journalist and member of NASA?s UAP group Mick West ? Science writer, skeptical debunker, former video game programmer. Author of ?Escaping the Rabbit Hole?  Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 pays to be noisy and when noise can worsen your health. Just about everyone eventually suffers some hearing loss, but that?s not merely aging. It?s an ailment we inflict on ourselves. Hear how a team in New York City has put sensors throughout the city to catalog noise sources, hoping to tame the tumult. And can underwater speakers blasting the sounds of a healthy reef bring life back to dead patches of the Great Barrier Reef? Guests: Mark Cartwright ? Research Assistant Professor at New York University?s Department of Computer Science and Engineering Charles Mydlarz ? Research Assistant Professor at New York University?s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) and the Music and Audio Research Lab (MARL) David Owen ? Staff writer at The New Yorker, and author of Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World Jeff Podos ? Professor in the Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Steve Simpson ? Professor of Marine Biology and Global Change, Exeter University, U.K. Originally aired January 20, 2020 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Electricity plays an important role in our everyday lives, including allowing our bodies to communicate internally. But some research claims electricity may be used to diagnose and treat disease? Could electric pulses one day replace medications? We speak with experts about the growing field of bioelectric medicine and the evidence for electricity?s healing abilities. Their comments may shock you. Guests: Sally Adee ? Science journalist, author of ?We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body?s Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds" Samantha Payne ? Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences at University of Guelph Kevin Tracey ? Neurosurgeon and President of the Feinstein Institute at Northwell Health Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spewing lava and belching noxious fumes, volcanoes seem hostile to biology. But the search for life off-Earth includes the hunt for these hotheads on other moons and planets, and we tour some of the most imposing volcanoes in the Solar System.  Plus, a look at how tectonic forces reshape bodies from the moon to Venus to Earth. And a journey to the center of our planet reveals a surprising layer of material at the core-mantle boundary. Find out where this layer was at the time of the dinosaurs and what powerful forces drove it deep below. Guests: Samantha Hansen ? Geologist at the University of Alabama Paul Byrne ? Associate professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis Robin George Andrews ? Science journalist and author of ?Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond? Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 itching to hightail it to an isolated cabin in the woods, remember, we evolved to be together. Humans are not only social, we?re driven to care for one another, even those outside our immediate family.   We look at some of the reasons why this is so ? from the increase in valuable communication within social groups to the power of the hormone oxytocin. Plus, how our willingness to tolerate anonymity, a condition which allows societies to grow, has a parallel in ant supercolonies. Guests: Adam Rutherford ? Geneticist and author of ?Humanimal: How Homo sapiens Became Nature?s Most Paradoxical Creature ? a New Evolutionary History? Patricia Churchland ? Neurophilosopher, professor of philosophy emerita at the University of California San Diego, and author most recently of ?Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition? Mark Moffett ? Tropical biologist, Smithsonian Institution researcher, and author of ?The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive and Fall? *Originally aired July 22, 2019 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Magic mushrooms ? or psilocybin ? may be associated with tripping hippies and Woodstock, but they are now being studied as new treatments for depression and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer?s. Is this Age of Aquarius medicine or something that could really work? Plus, the centuries-long use of psychedelics by indigenous peoples, and a discovery in California?s Pinwheel Cave offers new clues about the relationship between hallucinogens and cave art. Guests: Merlin Sheldrake - Biologist and the author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change our Minds and Shape our Futures. Albert Garcia-Romeu - Assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine David Wayne Robinson - Archeologist in the School of Forensic and Applied Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, U.K. Sandra Hernandez - Tejon Indian Tribe spokesperson Originally aired December 7, 2020 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have too much ?bad fire.? Not only destructive wildfires, but the combustion that powers our automobiles and provides our electricity has generated a worrying rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. And that is driving climate change which is adding to the frequency of megafires. Now we?re seeing those effects in ?fire-clouds,? pyrocumulonimbus events. But there?s such a thing as ?good fire.? Indigenous peoples managed the land with controlled fires, reaped the benefits of doing so, and they?re bringing them back. So after millions of years of controlling fire, is it time for us to revisit our attitudes and policies, not just with regard to combustion, but how we manage our wildfires? Guests: David Peterson - Meteorologist, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Stephen Pyne - Emeritus professor at Arizona State University, fire historian, urban farmer, author of ?The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next? Richard Wrangham - Ruth B. Moore Research Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and author of "Catching Fire: How Coooking Made Us Human" Margo Robbins - Co-founder and president of the Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC), organizer of the Cultural Burn Training Exchange (TREX) that takes place on the Yurok Reservation twice a year, and an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe *Originally aired May 9, 2022 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices