Podcasts
- Vol 41: Who’s afraid of Marie Curie: women, girls and science |
- Vol 40: Visualizing the big picture: microorganisms from space – Guest: Susanne Neuer |
- Vol 39: Spiders and species discovery – Guest: Norman Platnick |
- Vol 38: Discourse vs. Dissent: climate change and the media – Naomi Oreskes |
- Vol 37: Tropics topics: ecosystems, students and change – Elizabeth Losos |
- Vol 36: Flu: epidemic or pandemic |
- Vol 35: Jurassic microbes in Mexico |
- Vol 34: Icon of slime |
- Vol 33: Creating science education outreach: Graduate Partners in Science Education |
- Vol 32: Evolution of cooperation |
- Vol 31: Climate Change and the Antarctic |
- Vol 30: Iridescence: Nature and emergent technology |
- Vol 29: Biosensors and Biocomputers |
- Vol Special Feature: Special Feature: Building a science career |
- Vol 28: The future of oceans: BOFFF or bust? |
- Vol 27: Biofuels and bioenergy |
- Vol 26: Oral history: the embrace of subjective understanding |
- Vol 25: The birth of a science: genetics and biomedicine
Vol 41- Who’s afraid of Marie Curie: women, girls and science
Author and freelance writer Linley Hall takes us on a journey through the classrooms and hallways of American in search of what nurtures or hobbles the genius in children, particularly girls, and women as they pursue their interests and careers in math, science, and technology. How can men and women help themselves to advance and get the mentorship they need or become the mentors they need to be? Listen in and discover some of the stumbling blocks in academia and business that can hold you back or your students, associates, partners and faculty?
(Length–45:36, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 41(21.4 MB)
Vol 40- Visualizing the big picture: microorganisms from space – Guest: Susanne Neuer
An oceanographer at a desert university, you might wonder? Well, associate professor Susanne Neuer’s laboratory is global, since most of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, and even galactic, as her studies range from climate change and carbon flux in the oceans, to ice in the artic and on Jupiter’s moons. Come listen in as she talks about the how satellite imagery can be used to examine the activity of tiny phytoplankton in Earth’s oceans, developed as a predictive tool for water quality in reservoirs in Arizona, and how plankton poop (yes, feces) just might be key to maintaining Earth’s atmosphere.
(Length–31:17, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 40(14.7 MB)
Vol 39- Spiders and species discovery – Guest: Norman Platnick
Norman Platnick is the Peter J. Soloman Family Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Dubbed “Spider Man” by the New York Times (2005), Norm’s “spider sense” is lending insight into the characters of spiders and their evolutionary relationships, developing tools to advance species discovery, and creating an interconnected web of spider specialists. Spiders could be key to assessing biodiversity, providing novel materials and medical applications - if they are not lost to us forever.
(Length–37:03, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 39(17.4 MB)
Vol 38- Discourse vs. Dissent: climate change and the media – Naomi Oreskes
Climate change, as a result of human activity, is real according to the vast majority of scientists and has been a point of active governmental interest for nearly 50 years. So why the “debate” in the media? Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history and philosophy of science from UC San Diego, talks about the forces driving the disconnect between scientists, the public and the media. She examines scare tactics, misdirection in the media, and past lessons offered by the tobacco industry; the difference between dissent and discourse; and how scientists need to get better about delivering their messages to the public.
(Length–40:55, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 38(18.7 MB)
Vol 37- Tropics topics: ecosystems, students and change – Elizabeth Losos
Elizabeth Losos is CEO and director of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS). OTS facilitates research and training of children, students, faculty and policy makers at three research stations in Costa Rica, and one in South Africa, with more than 200 hands-on course offerings. OTS’ focus is identifying emerging frontiers and catalyzing research around climate, land-use and other change in tropical ecosystems, restoration biology in Central America and water basin, wetlands and watershed management. Come learn what has drawn more than 3600 people to the heart of the forest, and to leadership at ASU and abroad.
(Length–29:24, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 37(13.4 MB)
Vol 36- Flu: epidemic or pandemic
Peter Palese visits from Mt. Sinai Medical Center to talk about flu: what it is, how it evolves, and how epidemics happen. He reveals how methods like reverse genetics, which allowed the resurrection of extinct 1918 flu virus in the lab (a virus that left more than 50 million dead), could help us understand or change the face of the next flu pandemic.
(Length–23:33, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 36(9.6 MB)
Vol 35- Jurassic microbes in Mexico
Imagine a blue Caribbean sea with white sands surrounded by mountains running like ridges down a dinosaur’s back, in the middle of a Chihuahua desert, and you have the setting for Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico. Thought to have the highest level of endemic biodiversity in North America, this “living sea of the Jurassic” offers geneticist Valeria Souza and ecologist James Elser a window into earth’s ancient history and the microbial communities that dominated long before the dinosaurs ruled.
(Length–25.59, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 35(12.2 MB)
Vol 34- Icon of slime
Princeton professor emeritus John Bonner pioneered the study of slime mold as a model system for development. In the process, he translated the simplicity inherent in the social ameobae to understanding about social complexity in higher orders of plants and animals. Bonner discusses what launched his 60 years of research and kept him coming back, slime and slime again.
(Length–23:58, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 34(11 MB)
Vol 33- Creating science education outreach: Graduate Partners in Science Education
How can you translate cutting edge research to lasting change in a community? Doctoral students Nate Morehouse and Jon Davis talk about Graduate Partners in Science Education. Their outreach program enriches the experiences of ASU life sciences graduate students, and provides mentorship and hands-on science to middle school students in Title I schools. Davis and Morehouse discuss both the “how to” and how such connections change lives and sciences’ place in the hearts and minds of a community.
(Length–44:49, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 33(20.5 MB)
Vol 32- Evolution of cooperation
According to evolutionary theorist David Sloan Wilson, focus on the concept of the selfish gene and the “dark side” of selection has overshadowed the daily positives that Darwinian thought exposed: the evolutionary forces within humans that lead to the emergence of cooperation, and which set the framework for our modern obsessions, from sports teams to corporate units, to civilization.
(Length–36:18, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 32(16.6 MB)
Vol 31- Climate Change and the Antarctic
Take a journey with Thomas (Tad) Day, from Phoenix to Palmer Station in the Antarctic. What does it take to research climate change there? Listen in and hear what drives scientists to study plants, insects and animals in the coldest, driest, highest continent on earth.
(Length–29:32, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 31(13.5 MB)
Vol 30- Iridescence: Nature and emergent technology
Peter Vukusic, a physicist from the Natural Photonics Laboratory at the University of Exeter, UK, reflects on the products of nature’s own R & D, structural color and photonic crystals, and the forces that shaped their emergence in animal communication. How can study of insects, fish and hummingbird’s visual chatter shed light on new technologies in paper, paint, cosmetics, ceramics, communications, and more? Listen in!
(Length–24:07, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 30(11.1 MB)
Vol 29- Biosensors and Biocomputers
ASU professor Wayne Frasch has harnessed the world’s smallest rotary motor, an enzyme nanometers in size, to produce a biosensor that could revolutionize health screenings. Listen to how his basic research in biology is pioneering better technology, from biosensors to DNA-based biocomputers.
(Length–22:20, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 29(10.5 MB)
Vol Special Feature- Special Feature: Building a science career
One of the most highly cited ecologists in the world, Jane Lubchenco trod her own unique path to success. In this live recording with the Association for Women in Science, she explains how assertiveness, the art of negotiation, and knowing the currency for promotion and tenure can make the difference between achieving balance between family and career and dropping out the leaky academic pipeline that leads to advancement.
(Length–50:27, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > Special Feature(47.4 MB)
Vol 28- The future of oceans: BOFFF or bust?
What was bountiful a century ago is now seriously threatened, with dwindling food fish and tales of dead zones, algal blooms, and ocean acidification. Environmental scientist and marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco talks about how changing common practices, better communication of science, and Big, Fat, Female Fish may be the secret to saving the largest biome on our planet.
(Length–25:35, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 28(12.1 MB)
Vol 27- Biofuels and bioenergy
Willem Vermaas, professor in the School of Life Sciences and member of the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis at ASU, is leading a team of researchers delving into hydrogen production and capturing carbon dioxide to create biodiesel, with some "green" engineering ingenuity, a tiny cyanobacterium, and a little help from the sun.
(Length–34:04, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 27(15.6 MB)
Vol 26- Oral history: the embrace of subjective understanding
An interview technique used by folklorists, sociologists, historians, and public health experts, professor Nathaniel Comfort offers insight about how to conduct oral histories and shows how their “co–creation,” as historical documents or a cradle–to–grave family narratives, can enrich present thinking and future understanding of the past.
(Length–15:29, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 26(7.3MB)
Vol 25- The birth of a science: genetics and biomedicine
Human and biomedical genetics may seem like new sciences; key to many cutting–edge breakthroughs in medicine and reproductive health, but biomedicine has been more than fifty years in the making. Nathaniel Comfort, associate professor from Johns Hopkins University’s Institute of the History of Medicine, explains how Mendel’s pea crosses gave way to McClintock’s insights, from the unique perspective of a reporter–historian.
(Length–24:54, Transcript)
Podcast > iTunes
MP3 download > 25(11.7MB)