The Escaped Sapiens Podcast

Jonathan McDowell is an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who studies black holes, quasars and X-ray sources in galaxies, as well as supporting the development of data analysis software for the X-ray astronomy community. In addition to his research Jonathan runs `Jonathans Space Report', which is a newsletter that has been running since 1989 that reports on recent space launches, International Space Station activities and space craft developments. In this episode of the podcast Jonathan discusses space junk, where it comes from, why it is a problem, and possible solutions for cleaning it up. ►Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/BMdw1VueAiw ►Check out Jonathan's space report here: https://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/jsr.html ►Find out more about Jonathan's research here: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/people/jonathan-mcdowell ►Visit Jonathan's personal website here: https://planet4589.org/jcm/index.html

Rene is an Associate Professor of Sociology, History of Medicine, American Studies, and Public Health (Health Policy) at Yale university. Her research focuses on gender and medicine. We discuss the historic lack of research attention in men's reproductive health, and the impact this has had, and continues to have on the individual lives of men, as well as on health policy and research funding. ►Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KXrifZYXvjw ►Find out more about Rene's research here: https://sociology.yale.edu/people/rene-almeling Further information, including ►information about Rene's two popular books can be found here: https://www.renealmeling.com/

On this episode of the podcast I speak with Professor Josh Bongard who is one of the inventors of Xenobots. We discuss their development, their potential applications, and the moral and philosophical implications of their creation. ►Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3B5WnPoXXpQ ►Check out Josh's staff page at the University of Vermont for more information: https://www.uvm.edu/cems/cs/profiles/josh_bongard

Deanna Barch is a professor of psychology, radiology, and psychiatry at Washington University. Deanna is a key contributor to the Human connectome project, which aims to build a network map of the anatomical and functional connectivity within the healthy human brain, as well as to produce a body of data that will facilitate research into brain disorders such as dyslexia, autism, Alzheimer's disease, and schizophrenia. We discuss what is known about the way that our brain are connected, and the impact of stress and trauma on brain development. More information about Deanna's work can be found here: https://psych.wustl.edu/people/deanna... https://sites.wustl.edu/ccplab/people... Information about the Human Connectome Project can be found here: https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/

How good is our understanding of the human brain, and how close are we to being able to simulate it? In this episode Steve Furber discusses SpiNNaker, an artificial neural network realized in hardware that incorporates over one million processor cores, and which is designed to simulate 1% of the neurons in the Human brain.   Find out more about Steve's work here: https://apt.cs.manchester.ac.uk/people/sfurber/ Follow him on twitter here: https://twitter.com/furbersteve?lang=en

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