Big Picture Science
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On the Wings of a Butterfly
On the Wings of a Butterfly
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The surprising connections in science and technology that give you the Big Picture. Astronomer Seth Shostak and science journalist Molly Bentley are joined each week by leading researchers, techies, and journalists to provide a smart and humorous take on science. Our regular "Skeptic Check" episodes cast a critical eye on pseudoscience.
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- On the Wings of a Butterfly · 54 minWe can now follow where Monarch butterflies go when they leave our gardens with tiny sensors that track their impressive 3,000-mile migrations from Canada to Mexico. The…
- Earth's Misunderstood Molecule · 59 minCarbon dioxide is more than an industrial pollutant driving climate change. The gas also played a pivotal part in the dramatic story of the beginning of all life. Starting in the…
- Particle Accelerators, from In Our Time · 6 minHow did scientists learn to peer inside the atom? In this preview from the BBC's In Our Time, physicist Harry Cliff tells the story of the birth of the particle accelerator, from…
- Scoping Out the Universe · 54 minTelescopes are like light buckets. The bigger the telescope, the more light collected for astronomers to observe. With recent advances in technology, amateur astronomers can join…
- Our Floral Planet · 60 minWe admire the ornamental beauty of flowers in a garden, but those blooms are more than lush color. The seemingly fragile, delicate petals are part of a resilient, adaptive…
- On a Collision Course · 54 minBreakthroughs around the detection of cosmic neutrinos — the “ghost” particles that may reveal why matter, not antimatter, fills the universe — recently earned a physicist the…
- Skeptic Check: Sunny Daze · 54 minA growing online movement of sunscreen skeptics believes that sunblock is toxic, even suggesting that it might cause skin cancer. Medical experts, concerned by rising skin cancer…
- The Rights of Rivers · 54 minHealthy rivers and riparian ecosystems are teaming with life, but should rivers themselves be considered alive? The question is central to the growing rights-of-nature movement…
- How Hot is Too Hot? · 56 minExtreme 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…
- A Coup De Grace in Space · 57 minA new space telescope will soon give us an expanded field of view of some of the strangest phenomena in the cosmos. The launch of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will…
- Malawi: A Path Forward · 55 minThe abrupt defunding of USAID in 2025 caused global shockwaves. The cuts thrust recipient countries who were dependent on foreign aid for medical care into health crises. One…
- Leave it to Beavers · 59 minThey are known for holding branches in their paws and gnawing on them like corn cobs. They build lodges and dams which occasionally flood roads. Cute, comical, and considered…
- Measure for Measure · 54 minWhether 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…
- Calling All Aliens · 54 minAre we alone in the universe? Is there other intelligence out there? COSMIC, the most ambitious SETI search yet, hopes to answer that. We hear updates on this novel signal…
- What Moves Us · 55 minWhat physical activity gives you joy? Whether it’s walking, running, dancing or swimming, your body evolved to do it. We are made for movement. But there’s a cost, as anyone with…
- Skeptic Check: The Body Electric · 55 minElectricity 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…
- Worms of Endearment · 1 h 1 minEarthworms may be small, limbless, and blind but, as Darwin observed nearly 150 years ago, they play a critical role in soil ecology. Darwin’s 19th century insights about the…
- Arctic Dispatch · 55 minThe Arctic serves as the world’s refrigerator, keeping the planet cool. But temperatures in the Arctic are rising nearly four times faster than the rest of the world and its sea…
- Cold Comfort · 54 minAnother scorching summer has us blasting the AC and grabbing a chilled drink. Air conditioning and refrigeration may beat the heat, but they also present a dilemma. The more we…
- CRISPR Mosquitoes · 54 minThe powerful gene editing tool CRISPR is already being tested on animal and plant cells. It has even been used on humans. How might this revolutionary tool change our lives? On…
- Skeptic Check: Blue Light Special · 59 minMany of us know the feeling: we intend to go to bed but pull out our phones for one last scroll. Setting them aside hours later, we’re wide awake, unable to fall asleep. For…
- Make Space for Animals · 54 minLong before Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space, Laika, a stray dog, crossed the final frontier. Find out what other surprising species were drafted into the…
- Skeptic Check: Disclosure Day · 55 minThe latest Hollywood romp through the world of aliens has landed in theaters. Steven Spielberg’s movie Disclosure Day suggests that our government has been hiding a cache of…
- Vroom! · 54 minSelf-driving cars, once a thing of science fiction, have become a reality in a handful of cities across the country. As our vehicles gain autonomy, they may provoke a profound…
- Outside of Our Minds · 54 minSince humans first chiseled marks into stone, we have externalized our thoughts and ideas. Our tools may have evolved—now we clack away at computer keyboards—but written…
- Skeptic Check: Cryptids · 54 minBigfoot could get official status if proposed legislation passes making it the state cryptid of California. If nothing else, the effort shows that fascination with cryptids has…
- Allergy Reason · 54 minRunny 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…
- Preventing Future Pandemics · 60 minWe may not want to think about another pandemic, but, as epidemiologists say, it is once again a “when,” not “if,” scenario. For his latest book, journalist Jon Cohen, who has…
- Shadow of Chernobyl · 58 minForty years later, the exclusion zone surrounding the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant remains uninhabited by humans. But among the radioactive remnants, wildlife is…
- 40 Years After Chernobyl · 1 h 2 minOn April 26th, 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union blasted a plume of radioactive debris a half mile into the sky, blanketing Europe…
- Skeptic Check: Feeling Risky · 54 minIt’s not just facts that inform our decisions. They’re also guided by how those facts feel. From deciding whether to buckle our seat belts to addressing climate change, how we…
- Old School · 1 h 4 minGreat news! We've been nominated for a Webby Award! Our three-part Katrina series is a finalist for Best News & Politics limited series podcast. Now, we need your help. Voting…
- Amazing Arctic · 54 minWhat’s it like to live on a block of ice, especially when it thaws? An environment writer shares his forty-year experience in the Arctic, including the time a paddling polar bear…
- Flower Power · 54 minBefore everything could come up roses, there had to be a primordial flower – the mother, and father, of all flowers. Now scientists are on the hunt for it. The eFlower project…
- Fantastic-er Voyage · 54 minThinking 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…
- Skeptic Check: Project Hail Mary · 59 minAs protagonist Ryland Grace fights to save Earth - and possibly the universe - in Project Hail Mary, author Andy Weir discusses the science behind his sci-fi story and what it’s…
- Skeptic Check: Moon Conspiracy · 57 minAs NASA’s Artemis program promises to take us back to the moon for the first time in fifty years, we consider what it means that as many as 10% of Americans don’t believe we went…
- Chasing an Asteroid · 56 minEveryone knows that a big rock wiped out the dinosaurs. But the danger from an asteroid hitting Earth is not limited to ancient history. To deal with this threat, scientists…
- Birds of a Feather · 54 minWith only a microscope and a collection of birds, taxidermist Roxie Laybourne became the world’s first forensic ornithologist. The “feather detective” was on the case, examining…
- Celestial Shake-Up · 54 minWe’re going back to the Moon. The planned March 2026 launch of Artemis II is the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972. Historic as it is, it isn’t the only lunar event…
- Hot to Cold · 55 minThere are benefits to chilling out. When we cool superconductors to 460℉ degrees below zero, they acquire extraordinary properties that help run quantum computers. Can…
- Like Lightning · 54 minEvery 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…
- Cold to Hot · 60 minThe icy-white crust of Arctic permafrost is melting, and increased plant growth is turning the glacial north green. Metals like iron, once locked inside the ice, are leaching…
- Where the Wind Blows · 55 minIt’s omnipresent on Earth and absent on the Moon. When it’s blowing sand in our eyes or frigid air down our necks, we may curse the wind, but living on a planet without it would…
- Life in the Solar System · 54 minSpewing 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…
- Skeptic Check: Hypnosis · 54 minYou 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…
- Beyond the Periodic Table · 56 minYou interact with about two-thirds of the elements of the periodic table every day. Some, like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, make up our bodies and the air we breathe. Yet there…
- Movie Mayhem · 56 minScience fiction movies force us to face a multitude of end-of-the-world scenarios. Whether the final curtain is dropped by rampaging aliens, killer rocks from space, or…
- The Best Things in Life are Tree(s) · 58 minWhile humans were leaving the Stone Age and entering the Bronze, some Bristlecone pine trees grew from seeds to sprouts. They’ve been growing ever since. These 5,000-year-old…
- A Real Gas · 57 minJust because something is invisible doesn’t mean it isn’t there. We can’t see gases in our atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen, but we benefit from their…
