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Are We Alone - Written in Code

Genes – what are they good for? Absolutely… something. But not everything. Your “genius” genes need to be turned on – and your environment determines that. Find out how to unleash your inner-Einstein, and what scientists learned from studying the famous physicist’s brain.

Also, the bizarre notion that your children inherit not just your genes, but also the consequences of your habits – smoking, stress, diet, and other behaviors that turn the genes on.

Plus Francis Collins on affordable personal genomes, and a man who decoded his own DNA in under a week.

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - David Shenk (part 1)
Part 2 - Dean Falk
Part 3 - David Shenk (part 2)
Part 4 - Francis Collins
Part 5 - Stephen Quake

Are We Alone - Written in Code: David Shenk part 1

Part 1 of Written in Code, featuring David Shenk, journalist, and author of The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong.

Are We Alone - Written in Code: Dean Falk

Part 2 of Written in Code, featuring Dean Falk, anthropologist and Senior Scholar at the School For Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Are We Alone - Written in Code: David Shenk part 2

Part 3 of Written in Code, featuring David Shenk, journalist, and author of The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong.

Are We Alone - Written in Code: Francis Collins

Part 4 of Written in Code, featuring Francis Collins, geneticist, Director of the National Institutes of Health.

Are We Alone - Written in Code: Stephen Quake

Part 5 of Written in Code, featuring Stephen Quake, biophysicist, Stanford University.

Interpreting your PhD thesis... through dance

What if you were challenged to describe your PhD thesis without words, slides, or anything other than dance? Here are some examples, described in this week's show, which you can review to see how effective their interpretation is.

Are We Alone - Seth's Garage

It’s always a surprise to go digging in Seth’s garage – who knows what we’ll find! In this impressive heap of paraphernalia, tucked between boxes of old radio tubes and hydraulic jacks, we stumble upon the secrets to our galaxy’s central black hole… witness the dance of the PhD theses… uncover the genome of milk (while moo-ving boxes) and … hey? Who’s that crunching numbers in the corner? It’s astrophysicist Mario Livio addressing the mathematical mysteries of universe.

Listen to individual segments here:
Part 1 - Andrea Ghez
Part 2 - Kathryn Denning
Part 3 - Mario Livio
Part 4 - Danielle Lemay
Part 5 - John Bohannon & Katrien Kolenberg

Are We Alone - Seth's Garage: Andrea Ghez

Part 1 of Seth's Garage, featuring Andrea Ghez, Astronomer at University of California, Los Angeles.

Are We Alone - Seth's Garage: Kathryn Denning

Part 2 of Seth's Garage, featuring Kathryn Denning, Professor of Anthropology at York University.

Are We Alone - Seth's Garage: Mario Livio

Part 3 of Seth's Garage, featuring Mario Livio, Senior Astronomer at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute and author of Is God a Mathematician?.

Are We Alone - Seth's Garage: Danielle Lemay

Part 4 of Seth's Garage, featuring Danielle Lemay, Nutrition Scientist at the University of California, Davis.

Are We Alone: Seth's Garage: Bohannon & Kolenberg

Part 5 of Seth's Garage, featuring John Bohannon, Gonzo Scientist and Contributing Correspondent for Science, and Katrien Kolenberg, astrophysicist, University of Vienna.

You can see their theses interpretations here.

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.