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Talk of the Nation Science Friday (Science-Technology)

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  • Host: Ira Flatow
  • Each week, we focus on science topics that are in the news and try to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join Ira Flatow to discuss science - and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.
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A Head-Shrinker Studies The Zombie Brain

Fri, Oct 30 Listen
Psychiatrist Steven Schlozman recently expanded his practice from humans to the inhuman. Poring over his library of classic zombie films, he came up with neurobiological explanations for the behavior of the undead, such as lack of a frontal lobe and an overactive amygdala.

Halloween: A Holiday For Gadgets

Fri, Oct 30 Listen
For gadget lovers, Halloween is more geeky than spooky. Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of Make Magazine, talks about the geekiest do-it-yourself Halloween costumes and decorations, from spray foam guts and singing pumpkins to a fortune-teller costume built on a Segway.

People ... People Who Eat People

Fri, Oct 30 Listen
In her book Dinner With a Cannibal, writer Carole Travis-Henikoff documents the long — and often hidden — history of cannibalism in humans. Travis-Henikoff notes that cannibalism wasn't always taboo, whether it be eating loved ones out of respect or eating enemies out of disdain.

Why Runners Like To Feel The Burn

Fri, Oct 30 Listen
What compels hundreds of thousands of runners to compete in marathons every year? Ira Flatow and guests discuss running research — from how humans are adapted specifically for long-distance running to why working up a sweat might be good for the brain, as well as the body.

Happy Birthday, Internet

Fri, Oct 30 Listen
On Oct. 29, 1969, around 10:30 P.M., a message from one computer was sent over a modified phone line to another computer hundreds of miles away. Some say the Internet was born that day. UCLA computer scientist Leonard Kleinrock, who was there, gives his account.

Examining Gene Therapy As Treatment For Blindness

Fri, Oct 30 Listen
Reporting in The Lancet, doctors found success in treating Leber's congenital amaurosis, a rare type of blindness, with gene therapy. Study author Katherine High explains how injecting a gene-carrying virus into the eye has improved vision in a handful of patients.

Did Algae Contribute To Mass Extinctions?

Fri, Oct 23 Listen
Forget asteroids — a new theory says algae were the key to the dinosaurs' extinction millions of years ago. Ecotoxicologist John Rodgers details the evidence for the theory and explains why some algae can be harmful in large quantities, even to present day animal populations.

Seeing The Softer Side Of Nature

Fri, Oct 23 Listen
In his new book, The Age of Empathy, Frans de Waal says nature has been wrongly depicted to justify a "survival of the fittest" attitude in humans. Drawing on examples from his primate observations, de Waal says it's time for humans to rethink how we treat each other.

Natural Selection Works On Humans, Too

Fri, Oct 23 Listen
Mining data from the Framingham Heart Study, scientists say they've been able to tease out the effects of natural selection on humans. Evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns explains how evolutionary forces may produce shorter, rounder, more fertile women in the future.

Seeing Through The Eyes Of An Armadillo

Fri, Oct 23 Listen
Sam Easterson has refined the art of the critter cam. He is the curator of the Museum of Animal Perspectives — an online repository of "remotely sensed wildlife imagery." All the footage comes from cameras implanted in the landscape or strapped to the backs of animals.

Searching For The Right Hand-Scrubbing Message

Fri, Oct 23 Listen
Researchers tried various slogans to encourage travelers to lather up after using rest stop toilets, from the disgusting — "Soap it off or eat it later" — to the educational — "Water doesn't kill germs, soap does." Hygiene expert Val Curtis reports on the most effective messages.

Scientists Solve Mystery Of Ear-Splitting Sounds

Fri, Oct 23 Listen
Reporting in Nature, researchers write that a rare type of neuron in the inner ear may process painfully loud sounds, such as the blast of a jackhammer. Study author Paul Fuchs discusses how his team solved a mystery that had stumped auditory scientists for nearly 50 years.

Neuroscientists And Magicians Mingle At Conference

Fri, Oct 23 Listen
Thousands of neuroscientists gathered in Chicago this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Science News writer Laura Sanders reports on the highlights, including a symposium where magicians and neuroscientists discussed their common ground: the mind.

Small Kids Solve Big Problems With Science

Fri, Oct 16 Listen
The Kids' Science Challenge gives elementary school students the chance to work with biologists and engineers on real scientific problems. Jim Metzner, executive producer of the Challenge, discusses how kids can get involved, from developing low-gravity sports to building hopping robots.

Rare Cancer Case Raises Questions For Doctors

Fri, Oct 16 Listen
Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers write of the first confirmed case of a mother passing cancer to her baby in the womb. Study author Dr. Tony Ford discusses what cancer researchers can learn from the case.

Forecasting Climate Change Legislation

Fri, Oct 16 Listen
With Congress focused on Afghanistan, the economy and health care, will there be any action on domestic climate policy before the Copenhagen climate summit in December? Eileen Claussen, of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, talks about what to expect in the coming months.

Mapping The Boundaries Of The Solar System

Fri, Oct 16 Listen
NASA launched the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft last year to investigate the edges of the heliosphere — the insulating bubble the sun creates around the solar system. IBEX principal investigator David McComas reports on the first surprising results.

A Bird In Hand To Save Those In The Bush

Fri, Oct 16 Listen
Braddock Bay, on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, is a prime pit stop for migrating birds. In a converted hot dog stand near the Bay, ornithologists and volunteers capture, study and release about 10,000 passing birds each year.

Virus Tied To Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Fri, Oct 16 Listen
Scientists have identified a virus lurking in 68 of 101 patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Whether the virus — known as XMRV — causes the syndrome is unclear. Molecular biologist John Coffin describes how the findings fit with what scientists know about XMRV.

Next Stop: The Moon

Fri, Oct 16 Listen
The moon has been getting a lot of traffic recently. Missions from the U.S., India, and Japan have all flown by, or into, our lunar neighbor. Planetary scientist Paul Spudis explains how the data collected may help make the moon a pit stop for future planetary missions.

Making Memories With Fruit Flies

Fri, Oct 16 Listen
By stimulating a specific set of nerve cells in the fruit fly brain, scientists have tricked the flies into behaving as though they felt a pain they never actually felt. Physiologist Gero Wiesenbock describes the experiments and explains why fruit fly memories matter.

Veterinarians Tend To More Than Animals

Fri, Oct 9 Listen
Being a veterinarian involves more than giving rabies shots. Four veterinarians practicing in different areas join host Ira Flatow to talk about their day-to-day work — from birthing calves, to tracking epidemics, to diagnosing a sick hamster.

Investigating The Mysteries Of Bird Migration

Fri, Oct 9 Listen
Ira Flatow and guests discuss bird migration, including how birds orient themselves using stars and magnetic fields, what bird banding projects reveal about the lives of migratory birds and how scientists track birds during migration using Doppler radar and microphones.

Physicist Paul Dirac Is 'The Strangest Man'

Fri, Oct 2 Listen
In a new biography, Graham Farmelo digs deep into the archives and personal papers of a little-known Nobel-winning physicist. Farmelo discusses The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom and his theory that Dirac may have been autistic.

From The Ground Up: Greening Your Lawn

Fri, Oct 2 Listen
Lawn expert Paul Tukey, author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual, explains how to have a greener, less weedy lawn without an arsenal of lawn care products. Turf specialist Jim Baird describes his lab's efforts to breed grasses that stand up to heat with less watering.

Cooking Up A River In The Lab

Fri, Oct 2 Listen
For almost 100 years, scientists have been trying to create a meandering river in the laboratory. Christian Braudrick and Bill Dietrich of University of California, Berkeley, finally found a recipe and published it in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.

Could Climate Change Topple Modern Civilization?

Fri, Oct 2 Listen
Lester Brown, president and founder of the Earth Policy Institute, argues for an aggressive increase in renewable energy production, better energy-efficiency standards and a return to human-centered urban design in his latest book, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.

Saving Bats From Wind-Farm Deaths

Fri, Oct 2 Listen
Reporting in The Journal of Wildlife Management, researchers write about a strategy for protecting migratory bats from fatal encounters with wind farms. Study author Robert Barclay discusses the method, which halves bat fatalities without significantly reducing energy production — or profits.

Researchers Unearth A Hominid More Ancient Than Lucy

Fri, Oct 2 Listen
Writing in the journal Science, researchers unveiled several studies of a 4.4-million-year-old fossil named Ardipithecus ramidus. Ian Tattersall, an anthropologist and curator at the American Museum Of Natural History, explains the significance of the finding.

Serenading Science In A New Rock Album

Fri, Sep 25 Listen
In Here Comes Science, They Might Be Giants tackles the scientific process, plasma physics, the role of blood in the body and the importance of DNA, all in song. Band members John Linnell and John Flansburgh discuss the album and play some science tunes.

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