Science History Podcast

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.

For over half a century, innovative scientists have tested the abilities of animals to learn to communicate using human systems, such as American Sign Language with chimps and gorillas.  One could go back even farther in time, to the start of the 20th century, when the German mathematics teacher Wilhelm von Osten trained his Russian trotting horse Hans to answer questions, do simple math, and discriminate consonant vs. dissonant musical chords, all by nodding his head, tapping a hoof, pointing his nose, or picking up objects in his mouth.  More recently, one of the most remarkable of such animal communication programs is that run by Irene Pepperberg.  Irene has spent the past four decades teaching African grey parrots to talk – and not just to talk, but also to answer complex questions about the nature and number of objects.  Irene’s purpose is to test the limits of communication between humans and animals.  Irene is the author of many articles and several books, including the New York Times best-seller “Alex & me. How a scientist and a parrot discovered a hidden world of animal intelligence – and formed a deep bond in the process”.

The obesity epidemic has spread throughout much of the world and is one of the leading drivers of impaired health and skyrocketing healthcare costs.  In today’s episode, we are focusing on a neglected aspect of the obesity epidemic – the role played by exposure to toxic chemicals in our food, water, and the environment.  Walking us through the history of this new field of research – investigations on obesogenic chemicals – is one of the leading researchers of the field, Bruce Blumberg.  Bruce is a professor in the Departments of Developmental and Cell Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  This episode is also coincident with the publication of Bruce’s new book, The Obesogen Effect.

Today we are exploring natural history investigations in the Hawaiian archipelago. My guest, Dan Lewis, is a research professor of history at Claremont Graduate University and the Dibner Senior Curator of the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library. Today’s podcast is coincident with the publication of Dan’s new book, entitled: Belonging on an Island. Birds, Extinction, and Evolution in Hawaii, published by Yale University Press.

The discovery and subsequent study of Pluto has captivated the public for nearly a century.  Even the question of whether Pluto should be categorized as a planet or a dwarf planet has stirred passionate debate, but the implications of discoveries related to Pluto go far beyond the identification of an icy world at the outer edge of the solar system.  My guests today are Kevin Schindler and Will Grundy, both of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where Pluto was discovered.  Kevin is a historian and Will is a planetary scientist, and the release of this episode of the Science History Podcast coincides with the publication of their new book entitled, Pluto and Lowell Observatory: A History of Discovery at Flagstaff, published by the History Press.