A century ago, the discovery of hafnium confirmed the validity of the periodic table — but only thanks to scientists who stood up for evidence at a time of global turmoil.
A new space telescope makes a spectacular debut after a troubled gestation
Seen with JWST’s midinfrared instrument, the newborn stars of the Tarantula nebula fade into the background while clouds of dust and gas take center stage, including hydrocarbons that will later form planets.NASA; ESA; CSA; STSCI; WEBB ERO PRODUCTION TEAM
The successful use of engineered white blood cells (cells that are removed from the human body, modified with receptors that allow them to recognize cancer cells, and then returned to the body) to fight and eliminate tumor cells has frequently been called revolutionary and has even allowed researchers the rare opportunity to refer to a cure for certain cancers.
On this week’s show: How sci-fi writer Kurt Vonnegut foresaw many of today’s ethical dilemmas, and 70 years of tunas, billfishes, and sharks as sentinels of global ocean health
First up this week on the podcast, we revisit the works of science fiction author Kurt Vonneugt on what would have been his 100th birthday. News Intern Zack Savitsky and host Sarah Crespi discuss the work of ethicists, philosophers, and Vonnegut scholars on his influence on the ethics and practice of science. Researchers featured in this segment:
Peter-Paul Verbeek, a philosopher of science and technology at the University of Amsterdam and chair of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology David Koepsell, a philosopher of science and technology at Texas A&M University, College Station Christina Jarvis, a Vonnegut scholar at the State University of New York, Fredonia, and author of the new book Lucky Mud & Other Foma: A Field Guide to Kurt Vonnegut’s Environmentalism and Planetary Citizenship Sheila Jasanoff, a science studies scholar at Harvard University
Next, producer Kevin McLean discusses the connection between fishing pressure and extinction risk for large predatory fish such as tunas and sharks. He’s joined by Maria José Juan Jordá, a postdoc at the Spanish Institute for Oceanography, to learn what a new continuous Red List Index using the past 70 years of fisheries data can tell us about the effectiveness and limits of fishing regulations. Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Sean Sanders, director and senior editor for custom publishing, interviews Joseph Hyser, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine about his use of wide-field fluorescence live cell microscopy to track intercellular calcium waves created following rotavirus infection.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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