x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Science, Spoken

Get in-depth coverage of current and future trends in technology, and how they are shaping business, entertainment, communications, science, politics, and society.

science

All Episodes

6:01

The Physics of Falling Into a Black Hole

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/28

There was an art accident recently. A man fell into a black hole—OK, not that kind of black hole, but an art exhibit consisting of an 8-foot-deep circular hole painted black. The idea was to represent the feeling of a super deep, even endless hole. I guess the guy didn't realize it was a hole and fell. But this leads to some great physics ideas to discuss about vision and the color black. Let me start with one of my favorite party questions. It goes like this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

en

6:38

The Globe-Trotting Show Bringing Science and Tech to...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/27

A large yet tidy refugee camp rises from the desert near the Syrian-Jordanian border. Most people wouldn’t think of this as a hub of innovation, but nevertheless, a science and technology show has arrived with cameras and microphones. They’re interviewing officials from UNICEF who describe the techniques they developed to safely remove sewage from the camp. Another week, and the cameras arrive in Stockholm to watch a new type of drone make its way through a dark tunnel. Learn more about your ad

en

2:48

The Spiky Simulator That Will Help Find Oceans in Space

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/27

The electric-blue chamber looks like a crowd of punk mohawks or the Night King’s jagged skull. In fact, this 4,306-square-foot room is where antennas are torture-tested before being launched into space. Called the Hybrid European Radio Frequency and Antenna Test Zone, or HERTZ, it’s located in Noordwijk, Netherlands. The 33-foot-high steel walls are studded with 18-inch foam pyramids that block external electromagnetic interference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

8:12

The Serious Security Problem Looming Over Robotics

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/24

They call it Herb2. It’s a dapper robot, wearing a bowtie even while it sits at home in its lab at the University of Washington. Its head is a camera, which it cranes up and down, taking in the view of a dimly lit corner where two computer monitors sit. All perfectly normal stuff for a robot—until the machine speaks: “Hello from the hackers.” Clear across the country at Brown University, researchers have compromised Herb2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

8:06

How Much Energy Can You Store in a Stack of Cement...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/24

This is sort of awesome. It's a concrete gravity battery. What? Yup. The idea is to even out the balance between power generation and power usage; like with any battery, this one allows you to store extra energy for use at a later time when demand is higher. Or maybe you could use solar power during the day to store energy in the battery to be used at night—you know, when the sun doesn't shine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

8:08

How NASA Built a Shark Tank for Space Inventions

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/23

Heather Potters is trying to get to the point. On a stage at Denver's Air & Space museum, a 182,000 square-foot space filled with decommissioned aircraft, she stands in front of a PowerPoint and describes her company's no-needle syringes, which can deliver vaccines by accelerating the liquid into a superfast stream that punctures the skin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

8:06

Trump's New Power Plan Comes With a Deadly Price

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/23

West Virginia is second only to Wyoming in both coal production and President Trump’s winning vote percentage in the 2016 general election. So it was no surprise that Trump flew to the Mountain State Tuesday to stump for his new plan to boost coal-fired power plants by cutting regulations on planet-warming carbon emissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

5:43

Prepare to Be Hypnotized By These Delicate Paper Robots

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/22

As far as plant names go, the sleepy plant—or shy plant, or shameplant, known more formally as Mimosa pudica—is hard to beat. Touch one of its leaves and it curls up like it’s embarrassed, the leaflets folding in on each other. It’s hypnotic and, well, kind of a surprising response for an organism without a brain. Now, the shameplant is getting its very own robotic doppelganger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

9:34

How to Prove That the Earth Orbits the Sun

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/22

One of my favorite classes to teach is Physics for Elementary Education. It's a physics class designed to address the needs of future elementary school teachers—grades 1 through 6 or so. To guide the class, I've been using a version of Next Gen Physical Science and Everyday Thinking for a long time, maybe 13 years or so, and it is super awesome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

6:39

An Adorable Rodent Gives a Glimpse Into Earth’s...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/21

Bounding around on giant hind limbs, using its giant tail to balance, the well-named giant kangaroo rat of Southern California is half Pokemon, half Mighty Mouse. It emerges at night to forage on seeds, building up underground stores. When it’s not busy foraging, it’s busy scrapping with its peers to claim territory. It dominates these grasslands, outcompeting smaller rodents while doing its best to dodge foxes and snakes. But the giant kangaroo rat isn’t invincible. Learn more about your ad

en

6:40

Think Rivers Are Dangerous Now? Just Wait

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/21

A river is a mercurial thing, running deep and fast in the rainy season, and low and slow when the rains fade. It can dry up completely one year, then turn into a raging flood the next. Every so often, a river disappears entirely, bringing down the communities it once nourished. You hear a lot about how climate change is fueling the rise of our seas, but not so much about how it will transform our rivers, the flooding of which currently affects almost 60 million people a year. Learn more about your

en

9:50

The Curious Case of a Revolutionary (But Imaginary?)...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/20

On July 23, Dev Kumar Thapa and Anshu Pandey made an extraordinary claim online. It wasn’t your garden variety fake news: By cramming microscopic particles of gold and silver together into pellets, they said, they’d constructed the first ever room-temperature superconductor. In a 13-page PDF, the two chemists at the Indian Institute of Science laid out measurements that indicated the pellets could conduct electricity perfectly at temperatures as warm as 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Learn more about your

en

9:16

After 13 Years, Scientists Finally Map the Massive...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/20

In a field at the edge of the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus, half a dozen students and lab technicians glance up at the darkening afternoon skies. The threatening rain storm might bring relief from the 90-degree August heat, but it won’t help harvest all this wheat. Moving between the short rows, they cut out about 100 spiky heads, put them in a plastic container, and bring them back to a growling Vogel thresher parked at the edge of the plot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

en

5:43

The Physics of Catching a Gnarly 80-Foot-Tall Wave

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/17

I've never been surfing—but I'm willing to give it a try. I would not, however, be interested in attempting to surf a massive wave like this one off the coast of Portugal. That's a pass for me. Of course even if you don't surf, there is still some cool physics involved in the act of surfing (let alone all the physics of wave formation). So, how does a rider stay moving with a huge wave like this? As with all motions, the key is to look at forces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

en

6:08

Your Tweets Can Help Map the Spread of Wildfire Smoke

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/17

This storyoriginally appeared on High Country Newsand is part of theClimate Deskcollaboration. At the end of July, Twitter user Alicia Santana posted a photo of a man sitting in a plastic folding chair in his yard. He’s looking away from the camera, towards a monstrous, orange cloud of smoke filling the sky beyond a wire fence. “My dad not wanting to leave his home,” Santana wrote, ending it with #MendocinoComplexFire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

7:06

Three Science Experiments You Can Do With Your Phone

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/17

Everyone already knows that you are carrying around a computer in your pocket. But your smartphone is more than just a computer—it's also a data collector. I'm going to guess that yours can measure acceleration, magnetic field, sound, location, and maybe more. Many phones also can measure pressure. Oh, and some phones can even make phone calls. With all of those sensors available, I'm going to go over three fun experiments you can do with your phone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

en

4:43

Drone Swarms as You Know Them Are Just an...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/15

Look at all the pretty drones. Hovering above sports stadiums from Houston to Pyeongchang, many hundreds of them have lately sparkled in artful murmuration. On a recent Time magazine cover, 958 drones pixelated the sky. The world record, 1,374 LED-bedazzled microbots, was set by Chinese company EHang UAV in May. So-called drone swarms—the phrase people have taken up with gusto—are having their biggest, buzziest year ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

7:04

Wildfire Smoke Is Smothering the US—Even Where You...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/14

America is on fire … again. More than a million and a half acres are burning in 15 states, from Arizona to Alaska. More than 3,000 firefighters are working to contain the Mendocino Complex Fire 100 miles north of San Francisco, now the largest in California history, and over the weekend, lightning strikes sparked dozens of new wildfires across the state of Washington. Near Mount Shasta, the deadly Carr Fire has so far incinerated 1,077 homes, forced mass evacuations, and killed eight. Learn more

en

14:51

Star-Swallowing Black Holes Reveal Secrets in Exotic...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/14

Black holes, befitting their name and general vibe, are hard to find and harder to study. You can eavesdrop on small ones from the gravitational waves that echo through space when they collide—but that technique is new, and still rare. You can produce laborious maps of stars flitting around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way or nearby galaxies. Or you can watch them gulp down gas clouds, which emit radiation as they fall. Now researchers have a new option. Learn more about your ad

en

7:19

How Engineering the Climate Could Mess With Our Food

Science, Spoken ·

2018/08/13

On June 15, 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blew its top in an eruption of staggering proportions. It sent an ash cloud 28 miles high, filling surrounding valleys with deposits 660 feet thick and destroying almost every bridge within 18 miles. Over 800 people lost their lives. The volcano also ended up affecting humans all over the world. Its aerosols circled the Earth, reducing direct sunlight by 21 percent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

2,360 results

Similar Podcasts

Classic Radio Science Fiction

solgoodmedia.com

Mission to Mars

Inception Point Ai

The 365 Days of Astronomy

365DaysOfAstronomy.org

Creek Devil

william Jevning

UFO Chronicles Podcast

Nik Hunter