Are We Alone - Cell! Cell!

Live forever? Both cancer cells and stem cells can make a claim to immortality. Left unchecked, tumors will grow indefinitely. And stem cells offer the promise of non-stop rejuvenation.

We’ll find out whether the surprising discovery of stem cells in the brain really can keep our thinking organ young. And we’ll hear the remarkable story of Henrietta Lacks, the woman who unwittingly donated tissue to science in 1951, and whose cancer cells are still grown in laboratories around the world today.

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - The Story of Henrietta Lacks
Part 2 - Randy Schekman
Part 3 - HeLa Cells
Part 4 - Stem Cells
Part 5 - Rebecca Skloot

Are We Alone - Cell! Cell!: The Story of Henrietta Lacks

Part 1 of Cell! Cell!, featuring Rebecca Skloot, journalist and author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Are We Alone - Cell! Cell!: Randy Schekman

Part 2 of Cell! Cell!, featuring Randy Schekman, molecular and cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Are We Alone - Cell! Cell!: HeLa Cells

Part 3 of Cell! Cell!, featuring Rebecca Skloot, journalist and author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Randy Schekman, molecular and cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Are We Alone - Cell! Cell!: Stem Cells

Part 4 of Cell! Cell!, featuring Fred Gage, neurobiologist at the Salk Institute, and Randy Schekman, molecular and cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Are We Alone - Cell! Cell!: Rebecca Skloot

Part 5 of Cell! Cell!, featuring Rebecca Skloot, journalist and author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, discussing the Lacks family's reaction to learning about what became of Henrietta's cells.

Are We Alone - Life of Brain

We should award frequent travel miles to your brain. After all, it’s evolved a long way from the days of guiding brachiation from tree-to-tree to become the three pounds of web-surfing, Sudoku-playing powerhouse it is today. But a suite of technologies may expand human brains further still.

From smart pills to nano-wires: discover the potential – and peril – of neuro-engineering to repair and enhance our cognitive function.

Also, how our brains got so big in the first place: a defense of the modern diet.

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - Bill Leonard
Part 2 - Michael Gazzaniga
Part 3 - Ian Pearson
Part 4 - Steven Rose
Part 5 - Ed Boyden

Are We Alone - Life of Brain: Bill Leonard

Part 1 of Life of Brain, featuring Bill Leonard, department chairman and professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University.

Are We Alone - Life of Brain: Michael Gazzaniga

Part 2 of Life of Brain, featuring Michael Gazzaniga, neuroscientist and director of the University of California - Santa Barbara’s SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. Author of Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique.

Are We Alone - Life of Brain: Ian Pearson

Part 3 of Life of Brain, featuring Ian Pearson, futurologist at Futurizon.

Are We Alone - Life of Brain: Steven Rose

Part 4 of Life of Brain, featuring Steven Rose, biologist and director of the Brain and Behavior Research Group at the Open University in London. Author of The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow’s Neuroscience.

Are We Alone - Life of Brain: Ed Boyden

Part 5 of Life of Brain, featuring Ed Boyden, neuroscientist at MIT’s Media Lab and Department of Biological Engineering.

Are We Alone - Skeptic Check: Fraudcast News

There are a lot of scientific claims out there – how do you separate the good from the bad and the outright fraudulent? Experts failed to do so for years in the case of a physicist whose published papers claimed the invention of a new bio-based transistor. Plus, other stories of deceit – such as the scientist who stooped to coloring mouse fur with markers.

Also, why climate science is solid, but its scientists need to be more open with the public.

And, from the undersea “bloop” to the Denver airport conspiracy theory. Why urban myths are so popular.

Plus, Phil Plait describes someone’s plans to meditate away the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it!

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - Phil Plait
Part 2 - Eugenie Samuel Reich
Part 3 - Michael Shermer
Part 4 - Sheila Jasanoff
Part 5 - Brian Dunning

Are We Alone - Fraudcast News: Phil Plait

Part 1 of Skeptic Check: Fraudcast News, featuring Phil Plait, Astronomer, keeper of badastronomy.com and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . ..

Are We Alone - Fraudcast News: Eugenie Samuel Reich

Part 2 of Skeptic Check: Fraudcast News, featuring Eugenie Samuel Reich, news reporter and author of Plastic Fantastic.

Are We Alone - Fraudcast News: Michael Shermer

Part 3 of Skeptic Check: Fraudcast News, featuring Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic Magazine and columnist for Scientific American.

Are We Alone - Fraudcast News: Sheila Jasanoff

Part 4 of Skeptic Check: Fraudcast News, featuring Sheila Jasanoff, Professor of science and public policy at Harvard University.

Are We Alone: Fraudcast News - Brian Dunning

Part 5 of Skeptic Check: Fraudcast News, featuring Brian Dunning, Science journalist and producer of the podcast Skeptoid.

The Gold Spotted Oak Borer

For this week's show, Alien Invasion, Molly traveled to the Cleveland National Forest in San Diego County to cover the story of the Gold Spotted Oak Borer, a beetle invading swaths of Live Oak forest. There she met U.C. Riverside biological control specialist – and entomologist – Mark Hoddle and graduate student Vanessa Lopez, who are trying to stop the invasion.

You can view the photos below as a slideshow by clicking the play button (on the far right under the main photo), or click on the main photo to advance to the next one.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Alien Invasion

They’re heeeere! Yes, aliens are wreaking havoc and destruction throughout the land. But these aliens are Arizona beetles, and the land is in California, where the invasive insects are a serious problem.

And what of space-faring aliens? We have those too: how to find them, and how to protect our planet – and theirs.

From Hollywood to SETI’s hi-tech search for extraterrestrials, aliens are invading Are We Alone?

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - The Gold Spotted Oak Borer part 1
Part 2 - Paul Davies
Part 3 - Frank Drake
Part 4 - The Gold Spotted Oak Borer part 2
Part 5 - Andy Ihnatko
Part 6 - Margaret Race and Margaret McLean
Part 7 - The Gold Spotted Oak Borer part 3

Are We Alone - Alien Invasion: Gold Spotted Oak Borer part 3

Part 7 of Alien Invasion, featuring Mark Hoddle, Biological Control Specialist at the University of California, Riverside and Vanessa Lopez, graduate student in entomology, University of California, Riverside in the search for a tree destroying insect invading the Cleveland National Forest in California.

Are We Alone - Alien Invasion: Margaret Race and Margaret McLean

Part 6 of Alien Invasion, featuring Margaret Race, biologist and Principal Investigator at the SETI Institute, and Margaret McLean, director of bioethics at the Markkula Center for Ethics, Santa Clara University.

Are We Alone - Alien Invasion: Andy Ihnatko

Part 5 of Alien Invasion, featuring Andy Ihnatko, journalist and tech blogger.

Are We Alone - Alien Invasion: Gold Spotted Oak Borer part 2

Part 4 of Alien Invasion, featuring Mark Hoddle, Biological Control Specialist at the University of California, Riverside and Vanessa Lopez, graduate student in entomology, University of California, Riverside in the search for a tree destroying insect invading the Cleveland National Forest in California.

Are We Alone - Alien Invasion: Frank Drake

Part 3 of Alien Invasion, featuring Frank Drake, Senior Scientist, SETI Institute.

Are We Alone - Alien Invasion: Paul Davies

Part 2 of Alien Invasion, featuring Paul Davies, physicist and author of The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence.

Are We Alone - Alien Invasion: Gold Spotted Oak Borer part 1

Part 1 of Alien Invasion, featuring Mark Hoddle, Biological Control Specialist at the University of California, Riverside and Vanessa Lopez, graduate student in entomology, University of California, Riverside in the search for a tree destroying insect invading the Cleveland National Forest in California.

Robots Call the Shots

Dr. Robot, I presume? Your appendix may be removed by motor-driven, scalpel-wielding mechanical hands one day. Robots are debuting in the medical field… as well as on battlefields. And they’re increasingly making important decisions – on their own. But can we teach robots right from wrong? Find out why the onslaught of silicon intelligence has prompted a new field of robo-ethics.

Plus, robo-geologists: NASA’s vision for autonomous robots in space.

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - P.W. Singer
Part 2 - Pablo Garcia
Part 3 - Robyn Asimov
Part 4 - Wendell Wallach
Part 5 - Robert Anderson

Robots Call the Shots - P.W. Singer

Part 1 of Robots Call the Shots, featuring P.W. Singer, director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and the author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.

Robots Call the Shots - Pablo Garcia

Part 2 of Robots Call the Shots, featuring Pablo Garcia, principal engineer working on medical robotics at SRI International, Menlo Park, California.

Robots Call the Shots - Robyn Asimov

Part 3 of Robots Call the Shots, featuring Robyn Asimov, daughter of author Isaac Asimov on the three laws of robotics.

Robots Call the Shots - Wendell Wallach

Part 4 of Robots Call the Shots, featuring Wendell Wallach, Chair of a technology and ethics working group for Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, and the co-author of Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong.

Robots Call the Shots - Robert Anderson

Part 5 of Robots Call the Shots, featuring Robert Anderson, Planetary geologist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discussing robot and rover autonomy.

Seth on Larry King Live - April 30, 2010

On Friday, April 30, 2010, Seth appeared as part of a panel on Larry King Live, to discuss Stephen Hawking's assertion that intelligent aliens would most likely be hostile. The panel also includes astrophysicist Michio Kaku, science fiction author David Brin, and comedian Dan Aykroyd.

The program is divided into three segments here:

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3