Futureproof with Jonathan McCrea

Think of those greatly-preserved Roman structures like the Pantheon and you might marvel that they are still standing after all these centuries. So what’s so special about this ancient construction that leaves us with these marvelous buildings? Linda Seymour, a former MIT doctoral student with a background in civil engineering – alongside researchers from MIT, Harvard, and labs in Switzerland and Italy – has been examining what made Roman concrete so durable - she joins Jonathan to discuss.

The notion of human beings getting to and settling on Mars has been a staple of science fiction for decades. But what are the social, scientific, and engineering constraints for establishing a colony, and what are the current blueprint and design concepts for the settlement of an entire Martian city? Justin Hollander, Urban Planning Professor at Tufts University and the author of ‘The First City on Mars: An Urban Planner’s Guide to Settling the Red Planet’ joins Jonathan to discuss. https://jholla03.pages.tufts.edu/

We would traditionally associate sperm as solitary swimmers but new research suggests that the male reproductive cell can sometimes move into groups. Joining Jonathan to discuss why this might be the case and what significance this behaviour could have on our future fertility is Chih-Kuan Tung of the Department of Physics at North Carolina A&T State University.

It may come as no great surprise to any of our listeners that it is our goal here at Futureproof to educate and reveal the world of science to you. In order to do that, we must keep you entertained, and engaged - we absolutely have to hold your attention. That being said, try as we might, chances are that at least for some of you, your mind will wander. But in this modern age are we inclined to allow our minds to drift off more than before? Is our attention being stolen? Johann Hari, author of ‘Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention' joins Jonathan to discuss. Dr. Shane Bergin & Dr. Susan Kelleher also join Jonathan for this week's installment of 'Newsround'.

In this special episode of Futureproof, Jonathan looks back at some of our favourite pieces from throughout 2022. - Martin Wikelski, Professor at the University of Konstanz & Director at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour explores the idea that animals can detect natural disasters. - Carl Zimmer, an award-winning New York Times columnist and author of ‘Life’s Edge: The Search For What It Means To Be Alive’ speaks to Jonathan about the myriad ways we define life itself. - And to sift through some of the most ethically questionable experiments to ever take place is Gina Perry, writer, science historian, and author of ‘Behind the Shock Machine’ & ‘The Lost Boys’.

Our senses are at the heart of how we navigate the world - coalescing in any moment, in any combination, to varying degrees, to relay what is going on around us and within us. But when you stop to think about the level of complexity involved in making sense of all of this in your brain - it really is quite astonishing. That being said, are we guilty of doing our senses a disservice by reducing their scope to just five? Is there more to it than just smell, sight, taste, touch, and hearing? If so, what are the other ways we sense the world and what function do they serve? Ashley Ward is a professor in Animal Behaviour at the University of Sydney & author of ‘Sensational: A New Story of Our Senses’ - he joins Jonathan to discuss.

Over the 13 years of doing this show one of the things that we, and indeed all of the field of Astrophysics, has been trying to get our collective head around is the idea of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. To the layperson, these ideas can seem like rather convenient inventions thought up merely to paper over the cracks in our current models. But let’s be honest, most of us don’t really know enough about physics to make such bold accusations. This week's guest however does, and not only does he think that there is no such thing as Dark Matter, he also says our fundamental model of gravitation is wrong. Pavel Kroupa is a Professor of astrophysics at the University of Bonn and Head of the Stellar Populations and Dynamics research group. He joins Jonathan to discuss.

Evolution is constantly adapting us to our environment, making species more suited and better equipped to survive in their natural habitat. So why did our distant ancestors have better teeth than we do? And what can the study of our gnashers tell us about our diet, our oral health, and our very origins as a species? Professor Peter Ungar is a Paleoanthropologist, and author of 'Evolution’s Bite: A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins'. He joins Jonathan to discuss what teeth can tell us. First Aired 28/7/2018

From day one we feel our way into, and through, the world. By utlising a complex array of sensory receptors that grow and evolve as we mature, we come to understand not just everything we encounter in our external lives but also in our internal lives as well. We are sentient beings. But what is sentience and when did it arise in animals? And why are we sentient at all? Nicholas Humphrey is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the London School of Economics. He is the author of many books on the evolution of human intelligence and consciousness, the latest being ‘Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness' - available in all good bookshops or online - he joins Jonathan to discuss.

One of the most blindingly obvious problems facing human space travel is that space is very big. It’s like REALLY big. Space being big means things in it are far away and the amount of time it takes to get from one rock to the next presents a myriad of challenges for any aspiring "Star Trekker". First of all, you’re going to need a lot of supplies, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time exposed to radiation, and you’re going to get bored and old. Mainly for the sake of storyline, Sci-Fi has often circumvented these problems by putting the crew into hibernation but as it turns out, that might just be a viable solution in the real world as well. Sandy Martin is Professor Emerita in the Department of Cell & Development Biology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus - she joins Jonathan to discuss.