The Poetry of Reality

The Poetry of Reality is the fifth installment in the Symphony of Science music video series. It features 12 scientists and science enthusiasts, including Michael Shermer, Jacob Bronowski, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Jill Tarter, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Feynman, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Carolyn Porco, and PZ Myers, promoting science through words of wisdom.

Space Race 2.0

It’s goodnight moon from President Obama, as he calls for canceling the program that would return astronauts to the moon by 2020. We’ll hear from the private sector, which might win in this deal, and consider whether we should really replace human explorers with robots.

Plus, if we can’t fly you to the moon, would you settle for a few acres and a deed? Meet the man who claims to have property on the moon – but will it hold up in court?

Wernher von Braun was one of America’s premier rocket engineers and, a new book contends, an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazi party. Find out what the U.S. space program was willing to ignore for the prize of beating the Russians to the moon.

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - Phil Chapman
Part 2 - Burt Rutan
Part 3 - Steven Weinberg
Part 4 - Steven Durst
Part 5 - Frans von der Dunk
Part 6 - Wayne Biddle

Space Race 2.0 - Phil Chapman

Part 1 of Space Race 2.0 featuring Phil Chapman, first Australian-born astronaut and Apollo 14 Mission Scientist, now a consultant on energy and astronautics.

Space Race 2.0 - Burt Rutan

Part 2 of Space Race 2.0 featuring Burt Rutan, aerospace engineer, founder of Scaled Composites and designer of SpaecShipOne and SpaceShipTwo.

Space Race 2.0 - Steven Weinberg

Part 3 of Space Race 2.0 featuring Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize-winning physicist at University of Texas at Austin and author of Lake Views: This World and the Universe.

Space Race 2.0 - Steven Durst

Part 4 of Space Race 2.0 featuring Steven Durst, editor of Space Age Publishing, and potential owner of one acre of the moon.

Space Race 2.0 - Frans von der Dunk

Part 5 of Space Race 2.0 featuring Frans von der Dunk, professor of space law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Space Race 2.0 - Wayne Biddle

Part 6 of Space Race 2.0 featuring Wayne Biddle, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race.

Dolphins and the evolution of intelligence

Lori Mario explains why dolphins are the friskiest of mammals on "Sex and the SETI." But the focus of her work is studying the nature of their intelligence and how to protect this remarkable creature.

For the past fifteen years I have been a faculty member in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University. I study the evolution of intelligence and self-awareness in other animals, such as dolphins and primates, and work closely with The SETI Institute and astrobiology community on projects related to the evolution of intelligent life.

My focus on dolphins (and other cetaceans) has allowed me to study a complex intelligence that evolved into an alternative to human intelligence and, thus, theorize about the different forms intelligence might take.

We’ve shown that dolphin brains are very large and complex but differently organized than primate brains. Yet, dolphins and humans share a number of psychological characteristics, including self-awareness and strong social ties with each other.

You can read more about the work here.

Sex and the SETI

Birds do it. Bees do it. But no one sings about how they do it. And frankly, not even Cole Porter can make bedroom behavior that involves decapitating your mate sound romantic. And what rhymes with “cannibalism?” But the animal world abounds with bizarre sexual behavior… and it’s all perfectly normal.

Find out how female spiders lure males to their doom… why dolphins are the friskiest of mammals… whether E.T. would have sex… and why sexual reproduction evolved in the first place.

Also, why the marketing gurus have it all wrong: driving a Hummer or wearing Gucci won’t help you land a mate. Find out what will.

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - Olivia Judson
Part 2 - Lori Marino on dolphins
Part 3 - Lori Marino on aliens
Part 4 - Sharon Moalem
Part 5 - Geoffrey Miller

Sex and the SETI - Olivia Judson

Part 1 of Sex and the SETI featuring Olivia Judson, evolutionary biologist at Imperial College in London and author of Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex.

Sex and the SETI - Lori Marino on dolphins

Part 2 of Sex and the SETI featuring Lori Marino, evolutionary biologist at Emory University.

Sex and the SETI - Lori Marino on aliens

Part 3 of Sex and the SETI featuring Lori Marino, evolutionary biologist at Emory University.

Sex and the SETI - Sharon Moalem

Part 4 of Sex and the SETI featuring Sharon Moalem, neuro-geneticist, evolutionary biologist and author of How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do.

Sex and the SETI - Geoffrey Miller

Part 5 of Sex and the SETI featuring Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico and author of Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior.

Pave New Worlds

The extra-solar planet count is more than 400 and rising. Before long we may find an Earth-like planet around another star. If we do, and can visit, what next? Stake out our claim on an alien world or tread lightly and preserve it?

We’ll look at what our record on Earth says about our planet stewardship. Also, whether a massive technological fix can get us out of our climate mess. Plus, what we can learn about extreme climate from our neighbors in the solar system, Venus and Mars.

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - Keith Cowing
Part 2 - Gary Davis
Part 3 - Kathryn Denning
Part 4 - David Grinspoon
Part 5 - Ken Caldeira

Pave New Worlds - Keith Cowing

Part 1 of Pave New Worlds featuring Keith Cowing, biologist and editor of NASAwatch.com.

Pave New Worlds - Gary Davis

Part 2 of Pave New Worlds featuring Gary Davis, Director of the Joint Astronomy Center in Hilo, Hawaii.

Pave New Worlds - Kathryn Denning

Part 3 of Pave New Worlds featuring Kathryn Denning, Anthropologist at York University in Toronto, Canada.

Pave New Worlds - David Grinspoon

Part 4 of Pave New Worlds featuring David Grinspoon, Curator of the Denver Museum of Science and Nature

Pave New Worlds - Ken Caldiera

Part 5 of Pave New Worlds featuring Ken Caldeira, climate scientist from the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University.

It's the Science, Cupid!

Love makes us feel warm and mushy, but the sweet sting of Cupid’s arrow makes a compelling chemistry lesson, too. Research into animal mating and human courtship provides clues to an eternal mystery: what’s the purpose of love?

Learn lessons from the family values of field mice, and affectionate same-sex penguin pairs. Plus: Darwin’s take on speed dating, and the science of smooching.

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - The biology of love
Part 2 - Helen Fisher
Part 3 - Sarah Woodley
Part 4 - Skyler Place
Part 5 - Larry Young
Part 6 - Marlene Zuk

Study linking autism to vaccine retracted

This week, the medical journal The Lancet retracted a 1998 study linking autism to vaccines after it was found to be rife with bias and error. Britain's General Medical Council concluded that the author of the study, Andrew Wakefield, had acted "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in conducting the study, including accepting payment from lawyers of parents who thought their children had been harmed by the MMR vaccine. Wakefield was also found to have subjected children to painful and unnecessary tests, including paying children at his son's birthday party to have blood drawn for research purposes.

Hopefully, some of the resources spent combating the antivaccine movement inspired by Wakefield's flawed report will be reallocated to developing effective treatments for childhood disorders like autism. In a New York Times editorial by a parent who spent thousands of dollars on untested treatments for her son, Liane Kupferberg Carter decries the touted anecdotal evidence of antivax crusaders like Jenny McCarthy, writing, "Warm and fuzzy anecdotes don’t do it for me. Give me hard science any day, with its double blind studies and rigorous peer review."

It's the Science, Cupid! - The Biology of Love

Part 1 of It's the Science, Cupid! We ask what makes love possible, why it's pleasant, and how it became a necessary part of our existence.

Oh, and Seth sings.

It's the Science, Cupid! - Helen Fisher

Part 2 of It's the Science, Cupid! featuring Helen Fisher, Anthropologist, Rutgers University.

It's the Science, Cupid! - Sarah Woodley

Part 3 of It's the Science, Cupid! featuring Sarah Woodley, Biologist, Duquesne University.

It's the Science, Cupid! - Skyler Place

Part 4 of It's the Science, Cupid! featuring Skyler Place, Doctoral Student, Indiana University’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

It's the Science, Cupid! - Larry Young

Part 5 of It's the Science, Cupid! featuring Larry Young, Neurobiologist, Emory University.

It's the Science, Cupid! - Marlene Zuk

Part 6 of It's the Science, Cupid! featuring Marlene Zuk, Biologist, University of California, Riverside in a discussion of the phenomenon of same sex partnerships in the animal kingdom.