Big Picture Science

The stone heads on Easter Island are an enduring mystery: why were they built and why were they abandoned and destroyed? The old ideas about cultural collapse are yielding to new ones based on careful investigation on the ground - but also from above. What surprising explanations have we found and are we off base to think that ancient societies such as the Easter Islanders or the classical Egyptians were, in the end, failures? Can what we learn from these histories help predict which societies will survive?Guests: James Grant Peterkin – Tour guide, resident, and British Honorary Consul on Easter Island Sarah Parcak – Archaeologist, Egyptologist, remote sensing expert, professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and author of Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past Carl Lipo – Anthropologist and professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York Originally aired September 30, 2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The reign of Le Grand K has come to an end. After 130 years, this hunk of metal sitting in a Parisian vault will no longer define the kilogram. The new kilogram mass will be defined by Planck’s constant, joining three other units for redefinition by fundamental constants. But as we measure with increasing precision – from cesium atomic clocks to gravity waves 1000th the width of a proton – is something fundamental lost along the way? Meanwhile, the BiPiSci team accepts the banana-measurement challenge.Guests: Jon Pratt – Mechanical engineer and engineer and Chief of the Quantum Measurement Division of the Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Wolfgang Ketterle – Physicist at MIT, Nobel Laureate Simon Winchester – Author of “The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World” Originally aired September 9, 2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The stress of the holidays can make you want to hide under the covers with a warm cup of cocoa. From gift buying to family gatherings, the holidays can feel like being inside a pressure cooker. But don’t despair! Science can help make the holidays a little brighter, from some gift-giving tips from our animal friends to embracing pessimism before a challenging social event to stopping that annoying merry melody on repeat in your head.Guests: Adam South – Research assistant professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University Mitch Ratcliffe – CEO and publisher of Earth911 Julie Norem – Psychology professor at Wellesley College and author of “The Positive Power of Negative Thinking” Elizabeth Margulis – Music professor at Princeton University and author of “On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind” Steve Ilardi – Clinical psychology associate professor at the University of Kansas. Read his paper on the effects of sugar here.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Small bodies will hit the big time next year; a sample return from asteroid Bennu and the launch of both the DART and Lucy missions could unravel puzzles about the formation of the solar system, as well teach us how to deflect any asteroids headed our way. Meanwhile, the Juno mission to Jupiter has shown us its hard-to-study poles, where swirling gas and magnetic fields rule. On Earth, warmer temperatures threaten peat bog biodiversity and the structure of the Arctic. And massive wildfires have sent soot circling the globe. They’re all highlights from the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.Guests: Steve Levin – Project Scientist for NASA’s Juno mission Christopher Fernandez – Research associate, Department of Forestry, Michigan State University Mike Fromm – Meteorologist, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Nancy Chabot – Nancy Chabot is a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and DART mission coordination lead Tom Statler – Program scientist on the Lucy mission in the planetary science division and planetary defense coordination office at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Magic mushrooms – or psilocybin - may be associated with tripping hippies and Woodstock, but they are now being studied as new treatments for depression and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Is this Age of Aquarius medicine or something that could really work? Plus, the centuries-long use of psychedelics by indigenous peoples, and a discovery in California’s Pinwheel Cave offers new clues about the relationship between hallucinogens and cave art.Guests: Merlin Sheldrake - Biologist and the author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change our Minds and Shape our Futures. Albert Garcia-Romeu - Assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine David Wayne Robinson - Archeologist in the School of Forensic and Applied Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, U.K. Sandra Hernandez - Tejon Indian Tribe spokesperson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may not feel that your skeleton does very much. But without it you’d be a limp bag of protoplasm, unable to move. And while you may regard bones as rigid and inert, they are living tissue. Bones are also time capsules, preserving much of your personal history. Find out how evolutionary biologists, forensic anthropologists, and even radiation scientists read them.And why won’t your dog stop gnawing on that bone?Guests:  Brian Switek – Pen name of Riley Black, Author of “Skeleton Keys: the Secret Life of Bone.”  Ann Ross – Forensic anthropologist at North Carolina State University. Her lab is the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Stanley Coren – Professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia, and author of many books about canine behavior including, “Why Does My Dog Act That Way?” Doug Brugge – Professor and chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever heard worms arguing? Deep-sea scientists use hydrophones to eavesdrop on “mouth-fighting worms.” It’s one of the many ways scientists are trying to catalog the diversity of the deep oceans — estimated to be comparable to a rainforest.But the clock is ticking. While vast expanses of the deep sea are still unexplored, mining companies are ready with dredging vehicles to strip mine the seafloor, potentially destroying rare and vulnerable ecosystems. Are we willing to eradicate an alien landscape that we haven’t yet visited?Guests: Craig McClain - deep-sea and evolutionary biologist and ecologist, Executive Director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. Steve Haddock - senior scientist at the Monetary Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and co-author of a New York Times op-ed about the dangers of mining. Emily Hall - marine chemist at the Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida Chong Chen - deep sea biologist with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Birds do it, bees do it, but humans may not do it for much longer. At least not for having children. Relying on sex to reproduce could be supplanted by making babies in the lab, where parents-to-be can select genomes that will ensure ideal physical and behavioral traits.Men hoping to be fathers should act sooner rather than later. These same advancements in biotechnology could allow women to fertilize their own eggs, making the need for male sperm obsolete. Meanwhile, some animals already reproduce asexually. Find out how female African bees can opt to shut out male bees intent on expanding the hive. Will engineering our offspring have a down side? Sex creates vital genetic diversity, as demonstrated by evolution of wild animals in urban areas. Find out how birds, rodents and insects use sex in the city to adapt and thrive.Guests: Menno Schilthuizen  – Biologist and ecologist, at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Leiden University in The Netherlands. His New York Times op-ed, “Evolution is Happening Faster Than We Thought,” is here. Matthew Webster – Evolutionary biologist, Uppsala University, Sweden Hank Greely – Law professor and ethicist, Stanford University, who specializes in the ethical, legal and social implications of biomedical technologies. His book is “The End of Sex and The Future of Reproduction.” Originally aired September 19, 2016 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, let’s meet last week for coffee. Okay, we can’t meet in the past… yet. But could it be only a matter of time before we can? In an attempt to defy the grandfather paradox, scientists try sending a photon back in time to destroy itself. Also, find out how teleportation allows particles to instantaneously skip through space-time and why sending humans wouldn’t violate the laws of physics. But before you pack your bags for that instantaneous trip to Paris, we need to understand the nature of time. A physicist offers a testable theory and ponders how it bears on free will.Plus, feel as if time comes to a standstill when you’re standing in line? Tricks for altering your perception of time while you wait. Some businesses already use them on you.  Guests: Richard Muller – Physicist, University of California Berkeley, author of “Now: The Physics of Time”  Seth Lloyd – Professor of quantum mechanical engineering, M.I.T.  Emma Bentley – contributor  David Andrews – Author of, “Why Does the Other Line Always Move Faster?” Originally aired October 17, 2016 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reason for hope is just one thing that ecologist Carl Safina can offer. He understands why many of us turn to nature to find solace during this stressful time. Safina studies the challenges facing the ultimate survival of many species, but also gives a portrait of animals from their point of view. He describes how diverse animals such as sperm whales, bear cubs, macaws, and chickens deal with uncertainty, and assert their quirky individuality while learning to become part of a community. So is it possible for us to reconnect not just with humanity, but also with the other living world?Guest: Carl Safina – An ecologist and McArthur Fellow who writes extensively about the human relationship with the natural world. He is the founding president of the Safina Center, a professor at Stony Brook University, and author of many books – most recently, “Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace”originally aired April 13, 2020 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices