Big Picture Science

The sweet stuff is getting sour press. Some researchers say sugar is toxic. A new study seems to support that idea: mice fed the human equivalent of an extra three sodas a day become infertile or die. But should cupcakes be regulated like alcohol?Hear both sides of the debate. Another researcher says that animal studies are misleading, and that, for good health, you should count calories, not candy and carbs.Plus, an investigative reporter exposes the tricks that giant food companies employ to keep you hooked on sugar, salt, and fat.It’s Skeptic Check … but don’t take our word for it!Guests:•  Robert Lustig – University of California, San Francisco, author of Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease•  James Ruff – Biologist post-doc at The University of Utah•  John Sievenpiper – Knowledge Synthesis Lead of the Toronto 3D Knowledge Synthesis and Clinical Trials Unit, St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada•  Michael Moss – Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at The New York Times, and author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us First released August 19, 2013. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Electricity is so 19th century. Most of the uses for it were established by the 1920s. So there’s nothing innovative left to do, right? That’s not the opinion of the Nobel committee that awarded its 2014 physics prize to scientists who invented the blue LED.Find out why this LED hue of blue was worthy of our most prestigious science prize … how some bacteria actually breathe rust … and a plan to cure disease by zapping our nervous system with electric pulses.Guests: •  Siddha Pimputkar – Postdoctoral researcher in the Materials Department of the Solid State Lighting and Energy Electronics Center under Shuji Nakamura, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara•  Jeff Gralnick – Associate professor of microbiology at the University of Minnesota•  Kevin Tracey – Neurosurgeon and president of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here’s to a long life – which, on average, is longer today than it was a century ago. How much farther can we extend that ultimate finish line? Scientists are in hot pursuit of the secret to longer life.The latest in aging studies and why there’s a silver lining for the silver-haired set: older people are happier. Also, what longevity means if you’re a tree. Plus, why civilizations need to stick around if we’re to make contact with E.T.And, how our perception of time shifts as we age, and other tricks that clocks play on the mind.Guests:•  Ted Anton – Professor of English, DePaul University, Chicago, author of The Longevity Seekers: Science, Business, and the Fountain of Youth•  Laura Carstensen – Psychologist, Stanford University, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity•  Peter Crane – Botanist, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental studies, Yale University, and author of Ginkgo: The Tree That Time Forgot•  Frank Drake – Astronomer, SETI Institute•  Claudia Hammond – BBC broadcaster and author of Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are many kinds of islands. There’s your iconic sandy speck of land topped with a palm tree, but there’s also our home planet – an island in the vast seas of space. You might think of yourself as a biological island … until you tally the number of microbes living outside – and inside – your body.We go island hopping, and consider the Scottish definition of an island – one man, one sheep – as well as the swelling threat of high water to island nations. Also, how species populate islands … and tricks for communicating with extraterrestrial islanders hanging out elsewhere in the cosmos.Guests:•  Edward Chamberlin – Professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at the University of Toronto; fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; author of Island: How Islands Transform the World•  Bill McKibben – Writer, activist and professor of environmental studies, Middlebury College, founder of 350.org•  Justin Sonnenburg – Microbiologist, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University•  Guy Consolmagno – Astronomer, Vatican Observatory•  Margaret Race – Ecologist, SETI Institute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world is a noisy place. But now we have a better idea what the fuss is about. Not only can we record sound, but our computers allow us to analyze it.Bird sonograms reveal that our feathery friends give each other nicknames and share details about their emotional state. Meanwhile, hydrophones capture the sounds of dying icebergs, and let scientists separate natural sound from man-made in the briny deep.Plus, native Ohio speakers help decipher what Neil Armstrong really said on that famous day. And, think your collection of 45 rpm records is impressive? Try feasting your ears on sound recorded before the Civil War.Guests:•  Bob Dziak – Oceanographer, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon State University, Program Manager, Acoustics Program, NOAA•  Michael Porter – Senior scientist of H.L.S. Research, La Jolla, California•  Patrick Feaster – Sound media historian at Indiana University•  Laura Dilley – Assistant professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Michigan State University•  Jenny Papka – Co-director of Native Bird Connections•  Michael Webster – Professor of neurobiology and behavior, director of the Macaulay Library, Cornell University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We love our family and friends, but sometimes their ideas about how the world works seem a little wacky. We asked BiPiSci listeners to share examples of what they can’t believe their loved-ones believe, no matter how much they hear rational explanations to the contrary. Then we asked some scientists about those beliefs, to get their take.Discover whether newspaper ink causes cancer … if King Tut really did add a curse to his sarcophagus … the efficacy of examining your irises – iridology – to diagnose disease … and more!Oh, and what about string theory? Is it falsifiable?Guests:•  Steven Novella – Physician at Yale University, host of the podcast, “Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe”•  Matthew Hutson – Author of The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane•  Brian Greene – Physicist, Columbia University, author of The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos and The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory•  Guy Harrison – Author of 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True and, most recently, 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We make split second decisions about others – someone is male or female, black or white, us or them. But sometimes the degrees of separation are incredibly few. A mere handful of genes determine skin color, for example.Find out why race is almost non-existent from a biological perspective, and how the snippet of DNA that is the Y chromosome came to separate male from female.Plus, why we’re wired to categorize. And, a groundbreaking court case proposes to erase the dividing line between species: lawyers argue to grant personhood status to our chimpanzee cousins.Guests: David Page – Biologist and geneticist, at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stephen Stearns – Evolutionary biologist, Yale University John Dovidio – Social psychologist at Yale University Steven M. Wise – Lawyer, Nonhuman Rights Project Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all want to turn back time. But until we build a time machine, we’ll have to rely on a few creative approaches to capturing things as they were – and preserving them for posterity. One is upping memory storage capacity itself. Discover just how much of the past we can cram into our future archives, and whether going digital has made it all vulnerable to erasure.Plus – scratch it and tear it – then watch this eerily-smart material revert to its undamaged self. And, what was life like pre-digital technology? We can’t remember, but one writer knows; he’s living life circa 1993 (hint: no cell phone).Also, using stem cells to save the white rhino and other endangered species. And, the arrow of time itself – could it possibly run backwards in another universe?Guests: Michael S. Malone – Professor of professional writing at Santa Clara University and the author of The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory Oliver Ryder – Director of genetics, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research Michael E. Smith – Chemist, Arkema, Inc Sean Carroll – Theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, author of The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World Pico Iyer – Writer, author of The Man Within My Head and the New York Times article, “The Joy of Quiet” Descripción en españolFirst released October 29, 2012. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We often hear fantastic scientific claims that would change everything if true. Such as the report that algae is growing on the outside of the International Space Station or that engineers have built a rocket that requires no propellant to accelerate. We examine news stories that seem too sensational to be valid, yet just might be – including whether a killer asteroid has Earth’s name on it.Plus, a journalist investigates why people hold on to their beliefs even when the evidence is stacked hard against them – from skepticism about climate change to Holocaust denial. And, why professional skeptics are just as enamored with their beliefs as anyone else.Guests: Lynn Rothschild – Evolutionary biologist and astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center Will Storr – Journalist, author of The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science Steven Novella – Assistant professor, Yale University School of Medicine, host of the “Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe” podcast David Morrison – Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A planet is a planet is a planet. Unless it’s Pluto – then it’s a dwarf planet. But even then it’s a planet, according to experts. So what was behind the unpopular re-classification of Pluto by astronomers, and were they justified?As the New Horizons spacecraft closes in on this small body, one planetary scientist says that this dwarf planet could be more typical of planets than Mars, Mercury, and Saturn. And that our solar system has not 8 or even 9 planets, but 900.Also, meet a type of planet that’s surprisingly commonplace, although we don’t have one in our solar system: super Earths. Could they harbor life?And the DAWN mission continues its visit to the two most massive residents of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. Discover what these proto-planets may reveal to us about the early solar system.Guests: Alan Stern – Planetary scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Principal Investigator of the New Horizons mission Marc Rayman – DAWN Mission chief engineer and mission director David Stevenson – Professor of planetary science at CalTech Rebekah Dawson – Astronomer, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley David Eicher – Editor-in-chief, Astronomy Magazine Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices