Are 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 detection project being conducted on the Very Large Array in the desert of New Mexico. Also, we chat with award-winning science fiction writer Ted Chiang about how he envisions making contact with aliens in his stories, including the one that was the basis for the movie Arrival. And find out why some scientists don’t want only to listen for signals, they want to deliberately transmit messages to aliens. Is that wise and, if we did it, what would we say?  

Guests: 

Chenoa Tremblay – Postdoc researcher in radio astronomy for the SETI Institute and member of COSMIC science team 

Ted Chiang – Nebula and Hugo award-winning science fiction writer, best known for his collections, Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation 

Douglas Vakoch – Founder and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations 

Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake 

Originally aired April 3, 2023 

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. 

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What 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 a sore neck or aching back knows. From the tiny muscles in our skin, which raise the hair on our arms, to the intricate mix of bone, blood vessels, and nerves in our neck, natural selection has struck a delicate and sometimes wacky balance between utility and form. In this episode, we explore how parts of the body - our muscles, neck and feet - came to be, and what forces prompted the evolution of efficient yet imperfect bodies. 

Guests: 

Kent Dunlap - Professor of biology at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and author of “The Neck: A Natural and Cultural History” 

Bonnie Tsui - Journalist and author of “On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters” 

Jeremy DeSilva - Anthropologist at Dartmouth College and author of “First Steps, How Upright Walking Made Us Human” 

Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake 

Originally aired June 30, 2025 

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! 

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. 

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Electricity 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 and treat disease? Could electric pulses one day replace medications?

We speak with experts about the growing field of bioelectric medicine and the evidence for electricity’s healing abilities. Their comments may shock you.

Guests:

Sally Adee – Science journalist, author of “We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body’s Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds"

Samantha Payne – Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences at University of Guelph

Kevin Tracey – Neurosurgeon and President of the Feinstein Institutes at Northwell Health

Descripción en español

originally aired June 5, 2023

Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

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Earthworms 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 slimy invertebrates are far-reaching, serving as the backbone of modern ecology as a whole. In recent years, scientists are putting their ears to the ground, listening to worms to monitor soil health. Meanwhile, laboratory studies on another kind of worms—flatworms—are providing insights about how memories are stored, and how stem cells self-renew. We get our hands dirty for this episode about the biology and ecology of worms.  

Guests: 

Philip Ball – science reporter, author of “Beautiful Experiments: An Illustrated History of Experimental Science”  

Jacqueline Stroud – soil scientist, University of Warwick, U.K. 

Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado  – molecular biologist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, whose focus is on stem cells and regeneration 

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. 

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! 

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The 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 ice is near a historic low. We put out a call to scientists aboard research vessels currently sailing in the Arctic Ocean, and two answered “aye.” Hear our ship-to-shore conversations with them about how warmer temperatures affect life on land and sea. Plus, a biologist who recently returned from the field describes how he inadvertently stumbled upon surprising data during his decades-long study of polar bears. 

Guests:

Autun Purser – Marine biologist at the Alfred- Wegener Institute and the current Chief Scientist on the Arctic research vessel, the Polarstern 

Andrew Derocher – Zoologist at the University of Alberta in Canada who is leading a decades-long study on polar bears of the West Hudson Bay region, in the high Canadian North   

Jonathan Nash – Oceanographer, Oregon State University, and member of the GIANT team sailing near Greenland aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough 

Descripción en español

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

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Another 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 use them, the more greenhouse gases we emit, the hotter the planet becomes, and the more we require artificial cooling.  Can we escape this feedback loop?  We look at the origins of these chilling technologies, tour the extensive chain of cold that keeps food from perishing, and consider how a desert city like Phoenix could not exist without AC.

Guests:

Nicola Twilley – co-host of the Gastropod podcast, a contributing writer at The New Yorker, and the author of  “Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves”

Erik Morrison – Chief cooling engineer at Transaera, Somerville, Massachusetts

Stan Cox – Lead scientist at the Land Institute, author of “Losing Our Cool: The Uncomfortable Truths about our Air-Conditioned World”

Descripción en español

Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact a[email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 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 the one hand, it could cure inherited diseases and rid the world of malaria-spreading mosquitoes. On the other hand, scientists using it are accelerating evolution and introducing novel genetic combinations that could transform our biological landscape in unforeseen ways. We explore the ramifications of this revolutionary technology.

Guests:

Nathan Rose – Molecular biologist and head of malaria programs at U.K. based biotech company, Oxitec.

Hank Greely – Law professor and director of the Center for Law in the Biosciences at Stanford University and author of “CRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans.”

Antonio Regalado – Senior Editor for Biomedicine, MIT Technology Review.

originally posted April 17, 2023

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

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Many 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 years, scientists have singled out blue light emitted from our devices as the key culprit behind our post-scrolling insomnia, but the scientific consensus is shifting. Although blue light signals to brains that its daytime, surprising new research suggests that our glowing screens may play a smaller role than previously thought.

We present the fascinating science around biological mechanisms of sleep and wakefulness, why circadian rhythms have more in common with your grandfather’s clock than you might think, and why scientists who question the role of blue light in causing nighttime restlessness, still don’t let our phones off the hook completely.

Guests:

Michael Gradisar – clinical psychologist and sleep researcher, former professor at Flinders University in Australia. Currently serves a head of Sleep Science at Sleep Cycle, a sleep tracking app company

Jay Dunlap – geneticist and molecular geneticist at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth who works the molecular basis of circadian rhythms

Mariana Figueiro – photobiologist, Director of the Light and Health Research Center and Professor of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

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Long 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 astronaut corps.

They may be our best friends, but we still balk at giving other creatures moral standing. And why are humans so reluctant to accept the fact that we too are animals?

Guests:

Jo Wimpenny - Zoologist and writer. Author of “Aesop’s Animals”

Taylor Maggiacomo - Associate Graphic Editor at National Geographic

Alexander Stegmaier - Freelance Graphic Editor at National Geographic

Melanie Challenger - An author who writes on nature, environment and human history. Her latest book: “How to be Animal: A New History of What it Means to be Human”

Descripción en español

If you have a subscription to National Geographic, check out Taylor and Alex's feature providing a visual timeline of every animal that has gone into space.

Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake

originally aired January 24, 2022

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 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 evidence about alien visitation that spans decades. It’s fun fiction but does it mesh with reality? Officials have made a series of public disclosures containing information about the government’s UAP program over the years, releasing massive amounts of declassified documents along with audio and video files. Will the most recent data dump finally provide evidence that aliens are here? We look at the extended history of public desire to believe in extraterrestrial visitation, plus the scientific efforts to detect intelligent or microbial life on other worlds.

Guests:

Adam Kirsch – Senior editor at The Atlantic, and author of, “We Want to Believe: How Aliens Went Mainstream and Why It Matters”

Sarah Rugheimer – Astrophysicist at the University of Edinburgh and author of “Searching for Extraterrestrial Life”

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Self-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 shift not unlike the introduction of the first car in the late1800s and raise the question of whether the human driver will soon be obsolete. For a glimpse into the future of self-driving cars, we take a spin through the history of the automobile, from the Model T to the driverless taxi-cab. Along the way, we explore the rise of American manufacturing and the unmistakable but unexpected way in which we have bonded to our four-wheeled companions.

Guests:

Witold Rybczynski – Professor emeritus of architecture and design at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book, The Driving Machine: A Design History of the Car

Timothy B Lee – Technology journalist and writer of the newsletter, Understanding AI

Descripción en español

Originally aired April 7, 2025

Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.

You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices