Category Archives: Podcasts

Top New Science Podcasts: Arctic Sea Ice Under Seige, Climate Change Past Clues

Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about how Arctic sea ice is under attack from above and below—not only from warming air, but also dangerous hot blobs of ocean water. 

 Next, Damien Fordham, a professor and global change ecologist at the University of Adelaide, talks about how new tools for digging into the past are helping catalog what happened to biodiversity and ecosystems during different climate change scenarios in the past. These findings can help predict the fate of modern ecosystems under today’s human-induced climate change. And in our books segment, Kiki Sanford talks with author Carl Bergstrom about his new book: Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World.

Top New Science Podcasts: Damaged Quantum Bits, Convalescent Plasma & Ancient Ichthyosaurs

August 26, 2020: Protecting delicate quantum bits from radiation, convalescent plasma for serious Covid-19 patients and a competition to replicate findings from ancient computer code.

In this episode:

01:04 Quantum computers vs ionizing radiation

The quantum bits, or ‘qubits’, central to the operation of quantum computers are notoriously sensitive. Now, researchers have assessed the damaging effects that ionizing radiation can have on these qubits and what can be done about it. Research Article: Vepsäläinen et al.

08:15 Coronapod

We discuss the US Food and Drug Administration’s decision to authorize convalescent plasma for emergency use in COVID-19 patients. As accusations of political interference fly, what might this mean for the future of the US coronavirus response?

20:39 Research Highlights

Finding new populations of a long-lost elephant shrew, and the hunting method of ancient ichthyosaurs. Research Highlight: An elephant-nosed creature ‘lost to science’ was living just next door; Research Highlight: An extinct reptile’s last meal shows it was a grip-and-tear killer

22:34 The reproducibility of computer code

Many scientists have published papers based on code. Recently though, a gauntlet was thrown down for researchers to try to replicate their code, 10 years or more after they wrote it. Tech Feature: Challenge to scientists: does your ten-year-old code still run?

28:06 Briefing Chat

We take a look at some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time we discuss a cancer diagnosis in a dinosaur, and how to brew yourself a career outside of academia. Science: Doctors diagnose advanced cancer—in a dinosaur; Nature Careers Feature: The brews and bakes that forged career paths outside academia

Morning News Podcast: Wisconsin Gunfire, RNC Highlights, Gulf Storm

This Morning With Gordon Deal reports: Melania Trump, Mike Pompeo buck tradition with convention speeches, gunfire breaks out at Wisconsin protest, and TSA worker reunites bride with wedding gown left at checkpoint.

Podcast Interviews: Lego Foundation CEO John Goodwin – “Reimagining”

Monocle’s editor in chief, Tyler Brûlé, is joined by John Goodwin, the CEO of the Lego Foundation, from its home city of Billund in Denmark. We learn why the global crisis in education might be an opportunity to reimagine learning and to rediscover the value of play.

Morning News Podcast: Republican Convention, California Wildfires

Axios’ Jonathan Swan says to expect less of a traditional Republican National Convention and more of a reality TV show, featuring President Trump every night.

  • Plus, how the pandemic makes fighting California wildfires even harder.
  • And, an exclusive Harris poll shows Americans agree on who should get a COVID vaccine first.

Guests: Axios’ Jonathan Swan, Sam Baker and freelance environmental reporter Miranda Green.

Global News: How Viruses Shape The World, Black Elites & British Missteps

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, how viruses shape the world, (10:25) African-American elites and Black Lives Matter, (18:22) and how misrule by algorithm is failing Britain.

Podcast Interviews: Australian Writer DBC Pierre – “Dopamine City”

Georgina Godwin talks to DBC Pierre, who won the Booker prize with his debut novel ‘Vernon God Little’. He has gone on to write five more books, including his latest: dystopian satire ‘Meanwhile in Dopamine City’. It is a darkly funny, brilliantly clever and utterly terrifying vision of technology in our near future

DBC Pierre is an Australian writer who wrote the novel Vernon God Little. Pierre was born in South Australia in 1961, before moving to Mexico, where he was largely raised.