Tag: Science

Lisa Margonelli on Termites & Technology

When We Talk About Animals | 17 December 2018 | 0h 53m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Lisa Margonelli about her book Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology. Backgrounds termites and the scientists that research them. Also discusses the questions these small creatures raise about technology, power, morality, and the nature of scientific progress.

Robin Hanbury-Tenison: Taming The Four Horsemen

The Book Club | 15 July 2020 | 0h 32m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Robin Hanbury-Tenison about his book Taming The Four Horsemen: Radical Solutions to Defeat Pandemics, War, Famine and the Death of the Planet. Discusses what the collapse of ancient civilisations can teach us about our own, and his suggestions for applying science and technology to improve agriculture and medicine.

Matt Ridley: How Innovation Works

Naval | 9 July 2020 | 0h 29m | Listen Later | iTunes
Naval | 15 July 2020 | 0h 30m | Listen Later | iTunes
Enthralling two-piece conversation between Naval Ravikant and Matt Ridley about Ridley’s book How Innovation Works.

Bird Migration

In Our Time | 18 June 2020 | 0h 52m | Listen Later | iTunes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss bird migration: why birds migrate; how they select their destinations; how they navigate using their senses of sight and smell, and magnetic fields; and the history of our developing understanding of bird migration. Also covers why some birds scatter and some flock together, how much is instinctive versus learned, and weighs the benefits of migrating against the risks.

Monty Lyman on Our Skin

Science Focus | 28 August 2019 | 0h 41m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Monty Lyman about his book The Remarkable Life of The Skin: An Intimate Journey Across Our Largest Organ. Describes what the skin is for, why vanity is good for you, and what kinds of creatures inhabit our skin.

Rob Dunn: Never Home Alone; The Species We Live With

The Dissenter | 12 February 2020 | 0h 59m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Rob Dunn about his book Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live. Fascinating, if slightly icky, discussion of how living in homes changed our dynamics with other species, particularly species of insects, bacteria and fungi, and how some of them adapted to our home environment.

Neil Shubin on Evolution, Genes, and Dramatic Transitions

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape | 16 March 2020 | 1h 32m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Neil Shubin about his book Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA. Discusses the discovery of Tiktaalik Roseae, an ancient species of fish that was in the process of learning to walk and breathe on land; how these major transitions happen – typically when evolution finds a way to re-purpose existing organs into new roles – and how we can learn about them by studying living creatures and the information contained in their genomes.

Emilie du Chatelet: a Free-Spirited Physicist

The Forum | 27 February 2020 | 0h 39m | Listen Later | iTunes
Discusses the life and work of Emilie du Chatelet, the 18th-century French physicist, mathematician, and thinker. Du Chatelet’s insights into kinetic energy foreshadowed Einstein’s famous equation and her suggestions for experiments with the different colours of light would only be carried out half-a-century after she’d written about them. Plus she was a remarkable personality, determined to live a life of an independent woman, often pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable even in the liberal social circles of her day.