Science Selections
441 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★ - 9 ratingsScience Selections From Popular Scientific Journals
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Episodes
Greenland's Vanished Vikings - Jun, 2017 Sci Am
July 17, 2017 18:43 - 25 minutes - 5.99 MBThey ruled the icy outpost for hundreds of years before their colonies collapsed. Their puzzling decline. By Zach Zorich.
Smart Moves - Spring 2017 Berkeley Engineer
July 10, 2017 20:57 - 18 minutes - 4.43 MBCalifornia's Next-Gen Infrastructure. UC Berkeley engineers share their thoughts on the State's future. By Paul Preuss.
Ray Kurzweil - Nov, 2010 IEEE Spectrum
July 04, 2017 21:54 - 25 minutes - 6.14 MBHis prophecies earned him a reputation as a tech visionary, but many of them don't look so good on close inspection. By John Rennie
Lost Picture Show - Apr, 2017 IEEE Spectrum
June 28, 2017 04:33 - 25 minutes - 6.17 MBFilm studios invested in magnetic-tape storage for film archiving but now struggle to keep up with the technology. By Marty Perlmutter.
Making AI Human - Jun, 2017 Scientific American
June 21, 2017 04:03 - 24 minutes - 5.88 MBArtificial intelligence has staged a revival by starting to incorporate what we know about how children learn. By Alison Gopnik.
Piltdown Hoax - The Conversation, May, 2017
June 13, 2017 22:47 - 12 minutes - 3.03 MBBehind closed doors: What the Piltdown Man hoax from 1912 can teach science today. By Samuel Redman.
Parkinson's Disease - Caltech Magazine, Spring 2017
June 03, 2017 19:32 - 10 minutes - 2.41 MBDo gut bacteria contribute to or cause the shaking, stumbling, and overall deterioration of motor skills... of Parkinson's disease?
Aspirin vs. Cancer - May, 2017 Scientific American
April 30, 2017 04:34 - 13 minutes - 3.28 MBIn addition to relieving headaches and preventing heart attacks, aspirin seems to keep malignant cells from spreading. By Viviane Callier.
Typing-by-Brain - Apr, 2017 IEEE Spectrum
April 23, 2017 03:48 - 9 minutes - 2.18 MBFacebook Announces Typing-by-Brain Project. Suddenly, the big Silicon Valley players want to get into brain tech. By Eliza Strickland.
User Manuals - Apr, 2017 Scientific American
April 16, 2017 00:08 - 6 minutes - 1.58 MBWhat Happened to User Manuals? Google happened ... and something very important was lost. Written by David Pogue.
Facial Recognition - From The Conversation, Apr, 2017
April 09, 2017 03:48 - 12 minutes - 3.06 MBFacial recognition is becoming increasingly common, but how does it work and what are its privacy considerations? By Jessica Gabel Cino.
Success Against Alzheimer's - Apr, 2017 Scientific American
April 02, 2017 04:31 - 24 minutes - 5.95 MBA gold-standard clinical trial provides evidence that diet, exercise and an active social life can help prevent cognitive decline.
Inside the Echo Chamber - Apr, 2017 Scientific American
March 25, 2017 19:11 - 16 minutes - 3.79 MBComputational social scientists study how conspiracy theories spread online and what can be done to stop them. By Walter Quattrociocchi.
Gasping for Air - Mar, 2017 Scientific American
March 18, 2017 22:34 - 15 minutes - 3.58 MBGasping for Air. Shortness of breath can arise from a large number of conditions, complicating diagnosis and treatment. By Robin Lloyd.
Am I Human? - Mar, 2017 Scientific American
March 12, 2017 00:00 - 22 minutes - 5.48 MBResearchers need new ways to distinguish artificial intelligence from the natural kind. By Gary Marcus and John Pavlus.
The Whistled Word - Feb, 2017 Scientific American
February 12, 2017 03:13 - 19 minutes - 4.62 MBBefore cell phones,some rural folks "spoke" long distance by whistling - a technique that still fascinate linguists. By Julien Meyer.
The Exercise Paradox - Feb, 2017 Scientific American
February 04, 2017 20:50 - 28 minutes - 6.84 MBHow we burn calories helps explain why exercise does little to control weight and how we developed distinctive traits. By Herman Pontzer.
Stomach Upset - Feb, 2017 Scientific American
January 29, 2017 18:35 - 13 minutes - 3.27 MBDoctors are dealing with evidence that chronic use of popular heartburn medicines may be riskier than was thought. By Karen Weintraub.
Taking Wing - Jan, 2017 Scientific American
January 23, 2017 19:53 - 29 minutes - 7.23 MBA fossil record of the dinosaurs that led to birds, reveals how evolution produces new kinds of organisms. By Stephen Brusatte.
E-mail - Jan, 2017 Scientific American
January 22, 2017 18:42 - 7 minutes - 1.79 MBYour E-mail Password Will Never Be Safe! A long list of corporate and political hacks has made that very clear. By David Pogue.
Whose Tools Are These? - Jan, 2017 Scientific American
January 07, 2017 20:59 - 9 minutes - 2.32 MBWild monkeys make stone "tools" that bear a striking resemblance to artifacts produced by early humans. By Kate Wong.
Lab-Built Brains - Jan, 2017 Scientific American
December 31, 2016 19:58 - 22 minutes - 5.27 MBScientists copy nature's most complex organ in the hope of solving the mysteries of brain disorders .... By Juergen A. Knoblich.
Changing the World - Dec, 2016 Scientific American
December 26, 2016 23:36 - 16 minutes - 3.94 MBTen Ideas That Will Change the World. Advances with the potential to solve problems and improve life for all of us. Ideas 1 through 5.
Changing the World - Dec, 2016 Scientific American
December 26, 2016 23:36 - 16 minutes - 3.94 MBTen Ideas That Will Change the World. Advances with the potential to solve problems and improve life for all of us. Ideas 1 through 5.
Robot Disobedience - Jan, 2017 Scientific American
December 25, 2016 03:15 - 16 minutes - 3.91 MBDon't worry about defiant machines. Devious human masters and misunderstood commands are a bigger threat. By G. Briggs and M. Scheutz.
Human Organs From Animals - Nov, 2016 Scientific American
December 20, 2016 23:54 - 24 minutes - 5.87 MBScientists are taking steps toward growing organs for people inside pigs, cows and other animals. By Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte.
Communication - The Conversation Dec 13
December 17, 2016 18:54 - 13 minutes - 3.18 MBWhat does research say about how to effectively communicate about science? By Andrew Maynard and Dietram A. Scheufele.
The Fusion Underground - Nov, 2016 Scientific American
December 16, 2016 17:28 - 31 minutes - 7.38 MBA few physicists are exploring faster, cheaper roads to the ultimate source of clean energy. By W. Wayt Gibbs.
Social Media & the Election - The Conversation, Nov, 2016
December 13, 2016 02:14 - 11 minutes - 2.63 MBDid Social Media Robots Affect Your Vote? How Twitter bots affected the US presidential campaign. By Emilio Ferrara.
Robot Surgeons - May, 2016 IEEE Spectrum
December 10, 2016 19:47 - 21 minutes - 5.09 MBWould You Trust a Robot Surgeon to Operate on You? Surgical robots may take over the operating room. By Eliza Strickland.
On the trail of El Nino - Oct, 2016 Scientific American
November 30, 2016 03:57 - 27 minutes - 6.58 MBIt often gets blamed for extreme weather. A closer look at the most recent cycle shows the truth is more subtle. By Emily Becker.
How Many Genes Make a Person? - The Conversation Oct 18
November 23, 2016 04:13 - 12 minutes - 3.03 MBFewer than a banana. This has implications for the study of human health and raises questions on what generates complexity. By Sean Nee
The Celebrity Scientist - Oct, 2016 Scientific American
November 16, 2016 04:53 - 17 minutes - 4.11 MBEngaging the public has long been taboo in scientific circles, but social media outlets are starting to force a change. By 3 authors.
Basic income after automation? - The Conversation Oct, 2016
November 09, 2016 05:02 - 14 minutes - 3.43 MBA monthly check from the government to every citizen to cover basic necessities? - That's not how capitalism works! By Katharina Nieswandt.
A Look Inside the Brain - Oct, 2016 Scientific American
November 01, 2016 19:55 - 28 minutes - 6.79 MBA new experimental approach using both chemistry & biology lets us peer into the deepest reaches of the brain. By Karl Deisseroth.
The Threat of Inequality - Sep, 2016 Scientific American
October 25, 2016 03:23 - 18 minutes - 4.39 MBThe gap between rich and poor has grown recently. Society must address this and tame the behavior it promotes. By Angus Deaton.
Orders of Magnitude - The Conversation Sep 14, 2016
October 17, 2016 19:51 - 11 minutes - 2.8 MBThe beauty, power, and unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics. What exactly does 'instantaneous' mean? By Kevin Knudson.
Tale of Two Worlds - Sep, 2016 Scientific American
October 10, 2016 20:43 - 23 minutes - 5.69 MBA Tale of Two Worlds. The aging and the procreating. Who will prosper and who will fall behind? By Mara Hvistendahl.
The Red Line - Sep, 2016 Scientific American
October 05, 2016 04:17 - 32 minutes - 7.73 MBThe Red Line. Will we control the genetic destiny of mankind? By Stephen S. Hall.
The NSA Hack - The Conversation - Aug 18, 2016
September 27, 2016 23:12 - 9 minutes - 2.38 MBAfter the NSA hack: Cybersecurity in an even more vulnerable world. By Nir Kshetri at theconversation.com
Drilling for Earthquakes - Jul, 2016 Scientific American
September 09, 2016 20:00 - 36 minutes - 8.68 MBScientists are confident about the link between earthquakes and oil & gas production, yet regulators are slow to react. By Anna Kuchment.
The Huntington's Paradox - Aug, 2016 Scientific American
September 07, 2016 01:29 - 20 minutes - 4.9 MBThe gene that causes a devastating neurodegenerative disease may also have been critical in the evolution of our species.
The World's Power Grid - The Verge Jul, 2016
August 30, 2016 20:17 - 21 minutes - 5.24 MBTesla's future depends on the Gigafactory, by Jordan Golson. Why Tesla's home battery should terrify utilities, by Josh Dzieza.
Emptiest Place in Space - Aug, 2016 Scientific American
August 24, 2016 20:33 - 24 minutes - 5.82 MBEfforts to explain a strange cold spot in the cosmos led to the discovery of something even odder: a vast area with very little matter.
Saltwater Solution - Jul, 2016 Scientific American
August 17, 2016 01:07 - 15 minutes - 3.73 MBFarmland is being ruined by salty water. Rice and fruits, genetically modified to survive salt, could feed millions. By Mark Harris.
Stellar Fireworks - Jun, 2016 Scientific American
August 09, 2016 22:28 - 29 minutes - 6.92 MBEvery year thousands of exploding stars appear in bizarre forms. Astronomers want to know what makes them go boom. By Daniel Kasen.
Pandas - The Conversation: Jun, 2016
August 02, 2016 20:52 - 15 minutes - 3.78 MBTo help these cuddlies survive, we must understand the biology of their death. By Garret Suen, Kimberly Dill-McFarland, & Tommy Leung
Video Games - Jul, 2016 Scientific American
July 26, 2016 21:05 - 21 minutes - 5.19 MBShooting zombies and repelling aliens can lead to lasting improvement in mental skills. By Daphne Bavelier and C. Shawn Green.
Supersmart Robots - Jun, 2016 Scientific American
July 18, 2016 17:59 - 9 minutes - 2.37 MBIf we're not careful, we could find ourselves at odds with intelligent machines whose objectives conflict with our own. By Stuart Russell.
Tesla's Problems - Vox.com Jun 9, 2016
July 11, 2016 18:57 - 21 minutes - 5.05 MBTesla's real problem isn't that its cars are expensive. It's that they're unreliable. By Timothy B. Lee with Edward Niedermeyer.