The Escaped Sapiens Podcast

Luisa von Albedyll discusses travelling to the arctic as part of the MOSAiC expedition. Polar bears, melting ice, global warming, and the beauty of the arctic. Note: At the beginning of the interview, Luisa states rough numbers on the decline of Arctic sea ice extent and thickness. Here are the exact ones: Sea ice decline: In 1979, 7.05 million km2 of the Arctic ocean were covered at the end of the melt season (“minimum extent”) by sea ice. In 2020, this area had decreased to 3.92 million km2 (More information and animations: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/) Sea ice thickness: Over a time of six decades, between the pre-1990 period and the recent years (2011-2018), the average thickness near the end of the melt season decreased from 3 m to 1 m (Kwok 2018, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae3ec)”   Find out more about Luisa's work at the Alfred Wegener Institute here: https://www.awi.de/en/about-us/organisation/staff/luisa-von-albedyll.html

Katherine Moseby discusses the threats to Australian wildlife in arid zones, and in particular the threats due to introduced species such as feral cats, foxes, and rabbits. She explains how insurance species of certain endangered species are kept safe on small islands, and behind electrified fences. Her work will hopefully one day allow Australian native species to roam once again beyond the fences. Find out more about Katherine's work here: https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/dr-katherine-moseby

Brian Nosek discusses the reproducibility project, a crowdsourced collaboration of 270 authors, which attempted to repeat 100 published experimental and correlational psychological studies. When the results of the study were released in 2015 it was a shock to the scientific world: only 36% of the studies replicated, and of those that replicated, many of their results were smaller than those in the original papers. So is there only a problem in psychology or does it go much further? Find out more about Brian's work at the Center for Open Science: https://www.cos.io/

This is the story of a conservationist and explorer. Julian Bayliss discusses his expeditions to the isolated and untouched rainforests of east Africa, in an effort to document and protect their rich biodiversity. We talk new species discovered, mysterious artefacts, and being chased by warthogs and African bees. Find out more about Julian's work here: https://julianbayliss.co.uk/

Fiona Wood discusses the difficulties in treating burn injuries, and describes some of the new techniques that are being used today to reduce infection, scaring, pain, and long term complications. To find out more about the great work being done by Fiona and her collaborators: https://www.fionawoodfoundation.com/fiona-wood  

Michael Boyle Discusses the rise of advanced drone technology, and its impact on conflict. Find out more about Michael's research and publications here: https://www.fpri.org/contributor/michael-boyle/

Iain Kerr discusses the new threats facing whales, including boat strikes, bycatch, resource depletion, environment destruction, plastics, and pollution. He also discusses the possible solutions, including the use of remote controlled drones to do non-invasive sampling of whale health. Find out more about Iain's work at Ocean Alliance here: https://whale.org/

Robert Zubrin discusses the prospects of finding life on mars. Find out more about Robert's work at the Mars Society here: https://www.marssociety.org/news/2020/12/14/an-important-request-from-dr-robert-zubrin/

Lee Cronin discusses his work generating life in the laboratory, and the kind of processes that may have led to the origins of life on earth. Lee is the Regius Chair of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow in the UK. You can find out more about the work being done in the Cronin Lab here: https://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/

Robert Zubrin discusses establishing a new branch of human civilization on the Red Planet. Find out more about Robert's work at the Mars Society here: https://www.marssociety.org/news/2020/12/14/an-important-request-from-dr-robert-zubrin/ Find out more about mars direct here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/009457659290130B