Science History Podcast

We live in a surreal and dangerous time – autocrats are on the rise and societies are regressing toward ethnic competition. Given this political moment, I decided to dedicate an episode of the podcast to the history of research on cooperation. My guest, Robert Axelrod, has been a professor of political science and public policy at the University of Michigan since 1974. Prior to that, he was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, among many other awards. Pertinent to today's episode, he received the 1990 National Academy of Sciences Award for Behavioral Research Relevant to the Prevention of Nuclear War. He also received the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama. Axelrod is the author of seminal books in the field, such as The Evolution of Cooperation, published in 1984. In this episode, we discuss the famous computer competition on the prisoner's dilemma that Axelrod ran in 1979, and the lessons learned regarding cooperation, altruistic behavior, kin selection, evolutionary stable strategies, and frequency dependent selection. The focus of our discussion is the winning strategy from the tournament, a strategy called tit for tat. We discuss modifications of tit for tat, including generosity and contrition to account for misunderstanding and misperception, and we discuss how this informs arms races and international relations. We also delve a bit into his interactions with Richard Dawkins, W.D. Hamilton, and E.O. Wilson, as well as his work related to cyberwarfare and cancer.

How did modern molecular biology become an integral component of forensic science? My guest, Bruce Budowle, played key roles in the development of genetic and microbial forensics, and he explains significant events in forensic science over the past four decades. Bruce joined the research unit of the FBI Laboratory Division in 1983 and rose in the ranks to become the Chief of the Forensic Science Research Unit and the Senior Scientist for the Laboratory Division. In 2009, Bruce left the FBI to become the Executive Director of the Institute of Applied Genomics at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Bruce directs the Center for Human Identification and he is the Vice Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Genetics. He has published about 500 scientific articles and testified in over 250 criminal cases. Bruce and I discuss the missing children of Argentina's Dirty War, the O.J. Simpson trial, the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center, the subsequent anthrax letter attacks and the advent of microbial forensics, the DNA Fingerprinting Wars, DNA genealogies and forensics, and making mistakes in forensics.

Shortly after the al-Qaida terror attacks of September 11, 2001, a second wave of terror swept the United States – this time bioterrorism with anthrax mailed in letters as the weapon. Today my guest is Paul Keim, the scientist who conducted the genetic sleuthing and tracked down the source of the anthrax. Paul is the recipient of numerous scientific honors, and he is a professor of biological sciences at Northern Arizona University, where he directs the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute. In addition to the anthrax terror attacks, in today's episode we discuss the Soviet and Iraqi anthrax weapons programs, the Haitian cholera outbreak sourced to Nepalese peacekeepers, virulent avian influenza, Scottish heroin addicts, and the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo.

One of the greatest mysteries in biology, until 1991, was how water moves across cell membranes. Today's episode focuses on the history of the discovery of aquaporins, or proteins that act as water channels in cell membranes. My guest is Peter Agre, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of aquaporins. Among many other honors and leadership roles across his career, Peter became a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2000 and served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 2009-2010. He is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and in the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Peter is also the Director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.

In 1854, in the Soho district of London, cholera swept through the population. The physician John Snow investigated the cause of the outbreak and hypothesized that it was due to contaminated water. So began the field of epidemiology. Today's episode focuses on water quality, sanitation and disease. My guest is Dennis Warner, who has worked for forty years in the field of water supply and sanitation, including for Catholic Relief Services, the Peace Corps, the University of Dar es Salaam, Duke University, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the United States Agency for International Development.

The effects of human induced climate change, predicted over a century ago, are already with us. My guest, John Matthews, is the coordinator at the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, which is a network of water and climate professionals working towards solutions for sustainable water resources management on both technical and policy fronts. In today's episode, we look back at some of the history of climate change research and water resources management, and peer a little into the future of a changing world.

Winston Churchill's outsized role and oratory in wartime, from the Great Boer War at the turn of the century to World War II, are well known. Beyond politics and battle, Churchill also displayed a keen interest in technological development and scientific advancement, the subject of today's podcast, which is part 2 of a two-part series. To explore Churchill's connection to science and technology, I interviewed Jim Muller. Jim is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He is one of the world's foremost authorities on Winston Churchill as well as the academic chairman of the Churchill Centre and the author of many works on Churchill.

The 20th century was a time of unparalleled advancement in science and technology, along with the associated destruction caused by two world wars. I think the most important person to positively influence the 20th century was Winston Churchill. His importance was especially pronounced during World War II, in which his leadership may well have saved the world from long-term Nazi tyranny. But Churchill played key roles in many realms of life, and especially in literature. Indeed, Churchill was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize for literature, which is certainly not the typical achievement of a politician. Churchill also displayed a keen interest in technological development and scientific advancement, the subject of today's podcast, which is part 1 of a two-part episode. To explore Churchill's connection to science and technology, I interviewed Jim Muller. Jim is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He is one of the world's foremost authorities on Winston Churchill as well as the academic chairman of the Churchill Centre and the author of many works on Churchill.

The Natural History Museum in London houses the greatest collection of natural history specimens in the world, collected for centuries by British explorers and scientists. In Part 2 of this episode on British explorers, my guests Andrea Hart and Max Barclay explain the role that these specimens and associated artwork played in the development of major scientific advances. Foremost among these specimens are the beetles, which held an outsized role in the history of evolutionary biology as well as in the childhood pursuits of collectors such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. Andrea is the Head of Special Collections at the Natural History Museum, and Max is the Senior Curator in Charge of the beetle collection. So let's travel the world, from Africa to the Amazon to Australia and learn about the wonderful diversity of beetles, the eccentric people who collected them, and how their ideas changed the world. We'll do all this surrounded by annotated manuscripts, natural history drawings and specimens of the world's largest beetles within a Special Collections room of the Natural History Museum.

The Natural History Museum in London houses the greatest collection of natural history specimens in the world, collected for centuries by British explorers and scientists. From Captain Cook's discovery of Australia and Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle to the doomed Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica led by Robert Scott, a steady stream of invaluable specimens has traversed the globe in order to be archived and studied. Taking us through this history is my guest, Ian Owens, the Director of Science at the museum. Ian is also a Professor at Imperial College London, and he specializes on research in the areas of biodiversity, ecology, genetics and evolution of birds.