Probably Science

Comedian and IT professional Andrew Solmssen (twitter.com/solmssen) joins the crew this week for a discussion of: Rating the podcast's hosts on Lulu! Getting matched with a comedian/prostitute on Tinder! Howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com! Gilbert chemistry sets! The Radioactive Boy Scout! Hacking the payphones in your dorm and the parking on your campus! Remembering 80MB hard drives that sold for $2,200! The severity of Apple's SSL security flaw! Jesse quitting Facebook! The illusion of digital privacy! A recent visible space rock crash on the surface of the moon! Looking at clips of severe Russian accidents as a profession! Doing IT for one-named pop stars! Holding Marlee Matlin's Oscar! Andrew's gadget recommendations! Facebook's $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp! Being a sysadmin vs. a programmer! Virtual machines! The discovery of a 4.4 billion-year-old crystal! Andrew and Andy's favorite iPhone game: Letterpress!

The hilarious and charming Wendy Wason (twitter.com/wendy_wason) makes her second appearance on the podcast to talk with Matt, Andy and Jesse about: Andy's swim meet! Jesse and Matt shaving their legs! Matt's serial killer neighbor! How John Wayne Gacy got caught! Beautiful equations that mathematicians appreciate as art! A computer-generated math proof that's bigger than all of Wikipedia! The statistics of celebrity infidelity! A correction to our stem cell story! Edward Snowden's election as rector of Glasgow University! Early animals that didn't need oxygen! Wendy's dinner with Bryan Adams! New developments in fusion technology! Phone phreaking! Mitch Hedberg's final shows!

This week's episode was recorded live at SF Sketchfest, with guests including sleep expert Professor Matthew Walker of UC Berkeley's psychology department, comedian Kurt Braunohler (twitter.com/kurtbraunohler) and a surprise drop-in from a Hollywood superstar!

Comedian and host of the Comedy Film Nerds podcast Graham Elwood (twitter.com/grahamelwood) joins Matt, Andy and Jesse to discuss: Volunteer firefighters! Squarespace's Super Bowl ad! The Ear Buds podcasting documentary! Jesse's multimedia promise for the upcoming live Probably Science! Suing NASA for not looking hard enough for aliens! Negotiating with scalpers! Marijuana lowering suicide rates! Bill Nye debating a creationist! Jesse finds out that Squarespace sponsors the podcast! The reason sloths leave the trees to drop a deuce! The sum of all positive integers is -1/12! Andy's grudge match swim meet!

The delightful Karen Gillan (twitter.com/karengillan2) of Doctor Who and the upcoming films Oculus and Guardians of the Galaxy returns to the program this week to help Matt, Jesse and Andy celebrate the 100th episode of Probably Science, covering a wide range of topics including: Matt’s electrical problems! Andy's sugarfree gum-loving rats! The wonders of the number 100! Ab inflation! A message from Brooks Wheelan! Why does no one remember that Jesse lives at Bluebell? Karen hanging outside with the cool kids! Karen’s upcoming horror film Oculus! Sheltering child actors from the terrifying movies they’re in! Children’s innate belief in immortality! The excommunication of Halley’s Comet! Matt and Andy’s trip to the trampoline park! Early humans picking up bad genetic traits by mating with Neanderthals! The Scottish royal mental asylum! Jonas Salk’s 100th birthday and the history of the polio vaccine! Rutherford’s atomic discoveries of 1914! The 100th anniversary of the gun synchronizer! Dipping blood cells in acid to make stem cells! Non-hormonal, reversible, cheap male birth control! The Addams Family electric shock game! Karen’s stint in a Coney Island freak show! Karen’s horror movie scream abilities! The chart of English larval progression! Competing listener donations! Stephen Hawking’s black hole update! Our upcoming live show on the topic of sleep! Greatest hits from our first 100 episodes!

The hilarious Dwayne Perkins (twitter.com/funnydp) joins the crew this week to talk about: Piscopo-ing and Carrot Topping! Texting parents! Depressing 99 cent store purchases! Dogs aligning themselves with the earth's magnetic field to poop! The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island! A computer 1,500 years ahead of its time! Learning to drive as an adult! Squarespace's Care Bear Lair! Gigantopithecus brought down by sweet, sweet fruit! Dying carnivores changing the courses of rivers! Jesse's attempts at getting real jobs! Baiting a rat trap with almond butter! A black hole sucking up a giant gas cloud! Composing a song based on auditory hallucinations!

Science and comedy collide once again this week as Dr. Peter McGraw (twitter.com/petermcgraw), author of the upcoming book The Humor Code, and Man School podcast host Caleb Bacon (twitter.com/CalebEatsBacon) join Jesse, Matt and Andy to talk about: Jesse’s near death polar vortex experience! Whatever the Fahrenheit scale is based on! Pre-ordering The Humor Code! Michael McDonald’s Probably Science backing vocals! An audiophile rendition of Probably Science! Ramona Quimby’s street! Recording an album in Guitar Center! The Dennis Miller reference generator! Peter McGraw: Wanted: Dead or Alive! Japan’s comedic oligarchy! Tanzania’s laughter outbreak! PBA: The laughing disease! Comedy in the West Bank! Homonyms and homophones! The comedy terrorist! Humor in Auschwitz! Comedy as a thermometer vs. a thermostat! Democrats vs. Republicans as comedy audiences! The Benign Violation Theory! The Seinfeld vs. Silverman approach! Becoming immunized to comedy!

Comedians Emily Heller (twitter.com/MrEmilyHeller) and Auggie Smith (twitter.com/auggiesmith) join Matt and Andy on the first episode of the new year, discussing: Suck My Dick, New Yorker! Two and one half dollars! Cheat sheets! Eighth grade listeners and science fairs! Making belly button cheese! The polar vortex! Throwing boiling water in the air! The lack of great comedy sequels! Eclipsing binary asteroids! Cliche dorm room posters! The unicycling guy on campus! River blindness! Doing comedy for a glass company! One-in, one-out social networks! Upworthy spoilers! Quitting Facebook! The Dennis Miller Reference Generator! Probably Science at SF Sketchfest February 8th!

This week Matt, Jesse and Andy are joined by Caltech Planetary Science Postdoctoral Scholar Bjoern Benneke and author Lee Billings to talk about the many topics covered in Lee's new book, Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars, including: Hunting for exoplanets! Dating sites for farmers! The Drake equation! Earth's recent trend toward radio silence! Oxygen: The first great pollution crisis! Harold Urey's pessimistic time capsule predictions! Energy-hungry alien civilizations creating Dyson spheres! Competition in the exoplanet field! The philosophical reasons for searching for extraterrestrial life!

This episode kicks off two weeks in a row of real science, as Matt, Jesse and Andy welcome Dr. Ainissa Ramirez, author of Newton's Football, and comedian/football fan Sarah Tiana (twitter.com/sarahtiana) to discuss Dr. Ramirez's new book, and more specifically: Footballs in humidors! Football suicide pools! Andy's football ignorance! The brutal early days of the sport! Football's concussion epidemic! A new style of safer tackling! Refrigerator Perry's rapping prowess! Desperation giving rise to the A-11 offense! Vince Lombardi's background as a science teacher! Choosing plays based on game theory! Waffle House waiters who are like quarterbacks! Risk-averse monkeys! The toe-less placekicker! Greg Cook's injury giving rise to the West Coast offense! The origin of the no-huddle offense! The reasons for the Michigan/Ohio State rivalry! Compulsory pep rallies! Andy's football announcer grandfather Bob Ufer!