Point of Discovery

University of Texas at Austin

Behind every scientific discovery is a scientist (or 12) and a story. “Point of Discovery” takes you on a journey beyond WHAT we know to HOW we know it. Along the way, listeners will meet the sometimes quirky, always passionate people whose curiosity unlocks hidden worlds. Music by: Podington Bear. Learn more at: http://pointofdiscovery.org DISCLAIMER Point of Discovery is part of the Texas Podcast Network, which is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin.

  • 3 minutes 13 seconds
    Introducing: AI for the Rest of Us

    We’re celebrating the launch of “AI for the Rest of Us”, a podcast to help get you up to speed on the essentials of artificial intelligence. Every two weeks, we’ll sit down with UT faculty experts and get them talking, in simple terms, about how AI might transform healthcare, work, the ways we learn and how we make big decisions.

    Co-hosts are Marc Airhart, science writer and podcaster in the College of Natural Sciences and Casey Boyle, associate professor of rhetoric and director of UT’s Digital Writing & Research Lab.

    Listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, RSS, or anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also listen on the web at aifortherest.net.

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    30 May 2024, 5:08 pm
  • 15 minutes
    Is Cosmology in Crisis?

    Over the past year and a half, data and images from the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, have been flooding in. And floating around in that sea of data (and from other instruments over the past 20 years) are at least three big problems: There appear to be too many big, bright galaxies, too soon after the Big Bang. No one can agree on how fast the universe is (or was) expanding. And we don’t know what most of the universe is made of. 

    The University of Texas at Austin brought together a panel of astronomy and physics faculty members to debate and discuss the meaning of these emerging problems in the data. The panelists were Kim Boddy, Mike Boylan-Kolchin, Karl Gebhardt, Can Kilic and Julian Muñoz. Have a listen and then decide: is cosmology really in crisis?

    For a deeper dive into some of the issues raised in this episode, head over to this recently released video from the American Museum of Natural History’s Isaac Asimov Panel Debate, titled: “JWST’s Cosmic Revolution.” It features Mike Boylan-Kolchin, UT alum Neil DeGrasse Tyson and others.

    Research related to today’s debate:

    James Webb Space Telescope Images Challenge Theories of How Universe Evolved

    Cosmic Dawn: The JWST is Changing our Calculus of the Cosmos

    Hobby-Eberly Telescope Reveals Galaxy Gold Mine in First Large Survey

    Did the James Webb telescope ‘break the universe’? Maybe not

    Episode credits

    Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper

    Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

    Cover image: JWST’s image of spiral galaxy NGC 628, which is 32 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. The spiraling filamentary structure looks somewhat like a cross section of a nautilus shell. Read more. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team.

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    11 April 2024, 9:30 pm
  • 12 minutes 52 seconds
    A Once-in-Many-Centuries Event

    Here in the U.S., many of us are eagerly awaiting the April 8th, 2024 total solar eclipse, the last of its kind to cross our paths (at least in the contiguous U.S.) until the year 2045. Austin, Texas, where we produce Point of Discovery, is right in the path of totality. And this eclipse feels even more special because the last total solar eclipse in Austin happened before there was an Austin, in the year 1397.

    On today’s show, we talk to bird biologist Peter English about the strange ways that animals respond to solar eclipses; biologist David Ledesma about the plants and animals that lived in Central Texas 600 years ago; and archaeologist Fred Valdez about what Native Americans might have made of that last solar eclipse. 

    Resources for watching the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse

    Dig deeper into eclipse science

    Episode credits

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    8 March 2024, 1:31 pm
  • 14 minutes 39 seconds
    The Heartbeat of the Estuary

    On today’s show we talk with Philip Souza, a Ph.D. student in the lab of Simon Brandl at the Marine Science Institute, and a Stengl-Wyer fellow. His research is focused on the sounds that fish along the Texas Gulf Coast make to attract mates or defend territory. He works in the Mission-Aransas Estuary near Port Aransas, whose oyster reefs and other habitats support rich communities of fish, many of which have a big impact on the Texas economy — including spotted sea trout, catfish, red drum and black drum. He’s developing ways to continuously record sound in the water to monitor the health of the ecosystem. As fate would have it, two years ago, his approach was put to the test.

    Read a Q&A with Philip Souza

    See a map of the Mission-Aransas Estuary

    Learn more about the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve

    Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper

    Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    8 September 2023, 5:43 pm
  • 12 minutes 53 seconds
    I Know What You're Thinking

    On today’s show we talk with Alex Huth, assistant professor of neuroscience and computer science at The University of Texas at Austin, and Ph.D. student Jerry Tang about a new system that can read a person’s thoughts in real time and produce a stream of continuous text. The system they developed, called a semantic decoder, relies in part on the kind of AI model behind ChatGPT. It might one day help people who are mentally conscious yet unable to physically speak, such as those debilitated by strokes, to communicate intelligibly again. The scientists behind it are also wrestling with thorny issues this technology brings up, concerning privacy and the ethical use of AI.

    Show Notes

    If you liked this episode, check out our earlier episode featuring Alex Huth talking about an earlier iteration of this research.

    Through the Good Systems initiative, The University of Texas at Austin is bringing together researchers from a broad range of disciplines to explore ways to ensure that artificial intelligence develops in a way that is beneficial, not detrimental, to humanity. Learn more about Good Systems here.

    Episode Credits

    Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper

    Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    1 May 2023, 2:35 pm
  • 12 minutes 4 seconds
    Right Time, Right Place

    For graduate student Olivia Cooper, the successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, comes at the perfect time to help launch her career studying galaxy evolution. Cooper works with University of Texas at Austin associate professor Caitlin Casey on the biggest project in JWST’s first year—COSMOS-Web—which is designed to take the deepest images of the universe to date and reveal some of the earliest galaxies to form after the Big Bang. We talk with Cooper about the breathtaking images JWST is collecting, the complicated legacy of the telescope’s namesake, why her fellow scientists are just as inspiring as JWST itself and what this moment means to her.

    Show Notes

    First images from the JWST: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

    Caitlin Casey’s full interview with KUT’s Texas Standard: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/a-ut-researcher-is-behind-the-james-webb-telescopes-biggest-project-of-2022/

    Read more about COSMOS-Web: https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.07865

    Episode Credits

    Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper

    Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    13 December 2022, 10:45 pm
  • 15 minutes 35 seconds
    Neutralizing Crazy Ants

    Over the past 15 years or so, tawny crazy ants from South America have been popping up across the southeastern U.S. like paratroopers dropping in from an invading army. Where they take hold, they’re like an ecological wrecking ball and they cause headaches for homeowners. Podcast host Marc Airhart joined biologist Edward LeBrun in the Texas Hill Country to test a new weapon in the battle against the destructive tawny crazy ant.

    Show Notes

    LeBrun studies invasive species at the University of Texas at Austin’s Brackenridge Field Laboratory.

    Watch a related video from UT News: Defending Texas from the Next Invasion

    Episode Credits

    Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper

    Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    13 July 2022, 9:05 pm
  • 10 minutes 42 seconds
    A Physicist’s Search for Beauty

    In addition to original interviews, today’s episode features excerpts from three interviews:

    On the Shoulders of Giants: Steven Weinberg and the Quest to Explain the World (2021), World Science Festival

    Physicist Steven Weinberg on His Search for a "Final Theory" (1993), Fresh Air

    The Bill Moyers Interview: Steven Weinberg (1990), Bill Moyers

    Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper

    Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

    On Monday, March 21, UT Austin is hosting a memorial lecture in honor of Steven Weinberg, featuring his fellow Nobel Laureate, MIT’s Frank Wilczek. This event is free and open to the public, both in-person and virtually via Zoom. Find out more and register here.

    Donate to the Physics Theory Group, in memory of Steven Weinberg

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSStitcherAmazon Podcasts, or Google Podcasts. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    9 March 2022, 5:33 pm
  • 11 minutes 16 seconds
    Remembering Steven Weinberg

    On Monday, March 21, UT Austin is hosting a memorial lecture in honor of Steven Weinberg, featuring his fellow Nobel Laureate, MIT’s Frank Wilczek. This event is free and open to the public, both in-person and virtually via Zoom. Find out more and register here.

    Donate to the Physics Theory Group, in memory of Steven Weinberg

    In addition to original interviews, today’s episode features excerpts from two videos:

    On the Shoulders of Giants: Steven Weinberg and the Quest to Explain the World (2021), World Science Festival

    Interview with Professor Steven Weinberg (2001), Nobel Prize Committee

    Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper

    Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSStitcherAmazon Podcasts, or Google Podcasts. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    21 February 2022, 9:05 pm
  • 11 minutes 6 seconds
    Frog Pandemic

    Until COVID-19, few people alive today had experienced the chaos and destruction of a really bad pandemic, one that has at times ground businesses, schools and social lives to a near standstill and killed millions globally. But did you know that we aren’t alone in being battered by a global infectious disease? Frogs are also struggling through their own pandemic that, according to biologist Kelly Zamudio, has several eerie parallels with COVID-19. Perhaps our own encounters with a pandemic will give us new sympathy for our slimy, bug-eyed friends.

    A 2019 study in Science found that a chytrid fungus has contributed to declines in about 500 frog species around the world. Read more: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aav0379

    Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper - https://www.charlieharpermusic.com/

    Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen to all our episodes at: https://point-of-discovery.simplecast.com/

    Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    13 January 2022, 4:27 pm
  • 12 minutes 4 seconds
    BONUS: Presenting the Texas Podcast Network

    To hear the full TX512 show, go to the episode from July 21, 2021 titled “The Texas Podcast Network”

        Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2LENTUXmG4TTNhbc5mSNu2

        Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-texas-podcast-network/id1541588194?i=1000529545464

        Google: https://txsci.net/tx512

     

    Texas Podcast Network: https://www.utexas.edu/texas-podcast-network

     

    Music for today’s show was produced by:

    Podington Bear - 

    https://www.podingtonbear.com/

     

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen to all our episodes at: https://point-of-discovery.simplecast.com/

    Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

    About Point of Discovery

    Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple PodcastsSpotifyRSSAmazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

    16 August 2021, 2:43 pm
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