Big Picture Science

You know the joke about the car and the snail. Look at that escargot? Well, snails may be the only thing not powering the automobiles of the future. Trees, grass, algae, even the garbage you toss on the sidewalk has potential for conversion into biofuel. What is America’s next top model fuel? Join us on a tour of the contenders. Meet a man who’s mad about miscanthus … an astrobiologist’s attraction to algae… and the blueprint for building your own biofuel bugs. Also, discover whether any of these next-generation fuel sources could take us to the stars. Put that in your rocket and burn it! Guests: • Madhu Khanna – Professor of Agriculture and Environmental Economics at the University of Illinois and at the Energy Biosciences Institute • Stephen Long – Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • Michelle Chang – Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley • Bret Stroegn – Graduate student researcher, Energy Bioscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley • Jonathan Trent – Bioengineering Research Scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center and founder of Global Research into Energy and the Enviornment (GREEN ) • Richard Obousy – Physicist and co-founder and project leader for Project Icarus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let the games begin! The mad dash to the phone … the sudden spring out of bed … the frantic juggling of car keys, grocery bags and a cell phone! Olympic athletes may have remarkable speed and strength, but it’s easy praise the extraordinary. Here’s to the extreme averageness of the rest of us. From beer bellies to aching backs, we’re all winners in the Darwinian Olympics just by virtue of being here. Identify the one physical trait that you share with all Olympians – your head - and why it’s a remarkable human evolutionary achievement. Plus, the role of genes in putting on the pounds … and what event Spiderman would enter to win the gold. Guests: Daniel Lieberman - Professor of human evolutionary biology, Harvard University, author of The Evolution of the Human Head Callum Ross - Professor of organismal biology and anatomy, University of Chicago Kelly Brownell - Psychologist, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University Robert Peaslee - Assistant professor, College of Media and Communications, Texas Tech University and author of Web-Spinning Heroics: Critical Essays on the History and Meaning of Spider-Man Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mooooove over, make way for the cows, the chickens … and other animals! Humans can learn a lot from our hairy, feathered, four-legged friends. We may wear suits and play Sudoku, but Homo sapiens are primates just the same. We’ve met the animal, and it is us. Discover the surprising similarity between our diseases and those that afflict other animals, including pigs that develop eating disorders. Plus, what the octopus can teach us about national security … how monkeying around evolved into human speech … and the origins of moral behavior in humans. Guests: Rafe Sagarin - Marine ecologist, Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona, author of Learning From the Octopus: How Secrets from Nature Can Help Us Fight Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters, and Disease Barbara Natterson-Horowitz - Professor of cardiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, and co-author of Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing Kathryn Bowers - Writer, co-author of Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing Asif Ghazanfar - Neuroscientist, psychologist, Princeton University Christopher Boehm - Biological and cultural anthropologist at the University of Southern California, director of the Jane Goodall Research Center, author of Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Think small to solve big problems. That, in a nutshell, is the promise of nanotechnology. In this barely visible world, batteries charge 100 times faster and drugs go straight to their targets in the body. Discover some of these nano breakthroughs and how what you can’t see can help you… …or hurt you? What if tiny machines turn out to be nothing but trouble? We’ll look at the health and safety risks of nanotech. Plus, scaling up in science fiction: why a Godzilla-sized insect is fun, but just doesn’t fly. Guests: Bill Flounders - executive director of the Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley Joseph DeSimone - professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and chemical engineering at North Carolina State University David Guston - political scientist at Arizona State University where he directs The Center for Nanotechnology in Society Stan Williams - Senior Fellow and founding director of the Information and Quantum Systems Lab at Hewlett-Packard Michael LaBarbera - Professor in organismal biology, anatomy and geophysical sciences, University of Chicago Descripción en español First released February 21 2011 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Expect the unexpected when we go digging in Seth’s storm shelter – who knows what we’ll find! In this cramped never-never land, tucked between piles of dehydrated food packets and old civil defense helmets, we stumble (but don’t step) upon marauding ants … a mission to Pluto…. “evidence” of a spaceship crash … the Apollo astronaut who shot the “Earth Rise” photograph … and Jonah Lehrer meditating on creativity. Tune in, find out and, help move this box of canned soup, will you? Guests: Mark Moffett - Entomologist, research associate at the Smithsonian Institution, author of Adventures among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions John Spencer - Planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and member of the New Horizons science team Joe Nickell - Paranormal investigator, Senior Research Fellow, Skeptical Inquirer Magazine William Anders - Astronaut on Apollo 8, and photographer of “Earth Rise” Jonah Lehrer - Author of Imagine: How Creativity Works Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You are what you eat. But what does that mean if your food is genetically engineered? And the chances are good that it has been engineered if you munch down on corn or soybean. The prospect of eating GM food makes some folks afraid, but is their fear warranted? Discover what experts say about the safety of genetically engineered foods … whether the technology delivers on the promised increase in yield … and the argument for and against labeling. Also, why some say the issue is not food safety, but the unethical business practices of multinationals. A filmmaker reports from the fields of India. Plus, GM crops off this planet: the role of synthetic biology in terraforming Mars. It’s Skeptic Check … but don’t take our word for it. Guests: Pamela Ronald - Professor in the department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at the University of California, Davis, co-author of Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food Ronald Lindsay - President and Chief Executive Officer and Senior Research Fellow, Center for Inquiry, and author of Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas Micha Peled - Founder, Teddy Bear Films, and the filmmaker for “Bitter Seeds” Doug Gurian-Sherman - Plant pathologist, senior scientist, Food and Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists John Cumbers - Synthetic biologist, working in Northern California Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can get your point across in many ways: email, texts, or even face-to-face conversation (does anyone do that anymore?). But ants use chemical messages when organizing their ant buddies for an attack on your kitchen. Meanwhile, your human brain sends messages to other brains without you uttering a word. Hear these communication stories … how language evolved in the first place… why our brains love a good tale …and how Facebook is keeping native languages from going extinct. Guests: Mark Moffett - Entomologist, research associate at the Smithsonian Institution, author of Adventures among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions V.S. Ramachandran - Neuroscientist, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego Clare Murphy - Performance storyteller, Ireland Mark Pagel - Evolutionary biologist, University of Reading, U.K., and author of Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind Margaret Noori - Poet and linguist at the University of Michigan, specializing in Ojibwe, and director of the Comprehensive Studies Program Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the perennial dream: build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. We go to San Jose’s famed Tech Museum to learn what it takes to turn a good idea into a grand success. Remember the Super Soaker squirt gun? Hear how its inventor is now changing the rules for solar energy. Where do good ideas come from? A Eureka moment in the bathtub? We’ll find out that it doesn’t happen so quickly – or easily. And finally, the life cycle of society-changing technologies, from the birth of radio to the future of the Internet. Inventions, inventors and innovation: all part of the mix on “Better Mousetrap.” Guests: Steven Johnson - Author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation Lonnie Johnson - Inventor and former NASA engineer; CEO of Johnson Research and Development Company Tim Wu - Professor of Communication Law at Columbia University and author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Borzoi Books) Alana Connor - Vice President Content Development, The Tech Museum, San Jose Descripción en español Originally released February 7, 2011 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On June 5, our sister planet Venus will slowly slide across the face of the sun. This will be the last transit of Venus until 2117, so there’s no subsequent chance to observe this celestial spectacular for anyone alive today. Join us for a special episode devoted to this rare event. Two centuries ago, nations were locked in a race to be the first to measure the Venus transit. From the first observation by the “father” of British astronomy to Captain Cook’s Tahitian expedition in the 18th century, meet the pioneers who were trying to nail down the scale of the cosmos Plus, tips for observing the 2012 transit … how the Kepler spacecraft uses transits to detect Earth-like worlds … and could there be life floating in Venusian clouds? Guests: Jay Pasachoff - Astronomer, Williams College Peter Aughton - Astronomer and author of The Transit of Venus: The Brief, Brilliant Life of Jeremiah Horrocks, Father of British Astronomy Nick Lomb - Former Curator of Astronomy, Sydney Observatory, and author of Transit of Venus: 1631 to the Present Andrea Wulf - Author of Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens David Grinspoon - Curator of Astrobiology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science Jon Jenkins - Lead analyst with the Kepler Mission and senior scientist with the SETI Institute Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are all Martians … or could be, if, billions of years ago, Red Plant microbes fell to Earth and eventually evolved to us. Okay, that one’s a big “if.” But microbes can survive space travel. Meet the NASA officer whose task is to keep Earth, Mars - and the entire solar system –safe from hitchhiking bacteria. And, even if we’re not Martians (darn!), did life once thrive on the Red Planet ... and does it still today? Plus, why meteorites may be happy habitats for life. Guests: Catharine Conley - NASA planetary protection officer Chris McKay - Planetary scientist, NASA Ames Research Center Paul Davies - Director of the BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University Aaron Burton - Astrobiologist, NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center Debbie Kolyer - Grants Manager, SETI Institute Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Random is as random does… makes sense doesn’t even that anyway in tune hear to randomness how lives rules. Brain chaos the drives, restoration role of help insight ecology may into randomness the, numbers sense of make statistics can’t why we or, ants not seem of erratic behavior why the may but is. Guests: Leonard Mlodinow - Theoretical physicist and author of The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Vintage) Jon Chase - Biologist and director of the Tyson Research center at Washington University in St. Louis Lori Marino - Evolutionary biologist, Emory University Deborah Gordon - Biologist, Stanford University John Beggs - Physicist, Indiana University at Bloomington First released January 10, 2011 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The times are a’changing – rising temperatures, growing population, and new technology coming at us faster than a greased cheetah. So how will humans respond? Find out about future farming in the city – your vegetables might be grown in downtown, hi-rise greenhouses. Also, a population expert tells us how our planet can cope with billions more people, and the man who invented the term ‘cyberspace’ describes what the future might hold for the techno-savvy. Darwinian evolution takes a long time to accommodate to new environments. But Homo sapiens can beat that rap by wielding the right technology – and becoming early adapters. Guests: Dickson Despommier - Emeritus professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia University, author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century William Gibson - Author, most recently, of Zero History Joel Cohen - Mathematician and biologist at Rockefeller University David DeGusta - Paleoanthropologist at the Paleoanthropology Institute in California Descripción en español First aired December 6, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You are one-of-a-kind, unique, indispensible… oh, wait, never mind! It seems that computer over there can do what you do … faster and with greater accuracy. Yes, it’s silicon vs. carbon as intelligent, interactive machines out-perform humans in tasks beyond data-crunching. We’re not only building our successors, we’re developing emotional relationships with them. Find out why humans are hard-wired to be attached to androids. Also, the handful of areas where humans still rule… as pilots, doctors and journalists. Scratch that! Journalism is automated too – tune in for a news story written solely by a machine. Guests: Clifford Nass - Social psychologist at Stanford University and Director of the Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media Lab Tom Jones - United States astronaut, space consultant, and veteran of four Space Shuttle flights Chris Ford - Business director at Pixar Animation Studios Eric Van De Graaff -Cardiologist at Alegent Health James Bennighof - Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and professor of music theory at Baylor University in Texas Kathy Abbott - Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Flight Deck Human Factors at the Federal Aviation Administration Kristian Hammond - Co-founder, Narrative Science Descripción en español First aired November 22, 2010. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So you weep at sappy commercials and give drivers the bird. Have no regrets: emotion is what makes us human! Discover the survival value in feeling disgust … why humans are terrible liars … and how despair fuels creativity. Also, mis-firing emotions and the emotional consequences of facial paralysis. And why E.T. will need to feel fear and joy to survive. Guests: Rachel Herz - Psychologist, author of That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion Paul Ekman - Psychologist, professor emeritis, University of California, San Francisco Kathleen Bogart - Psychologist, Tufts University Gordy Slack - Science writer Jonah Lehrer - Author of Imagine: How Creativity Works Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If someone asks where you get off, you can now respond with precision. Satellites and computers spit out coordinates accurate to a few paces. And digital maps stand the Copernican principle on its head – putting you at the center of everything (how does it feel?). Find out how today’s maps are shuffling our world view. Also, how does a rat navigate a maze without GPS? Hear of the plotting that goes on in that tiny rodent brain. Plus, mapping the universe and pinpointing just where we are in cosmic time – lucky for us, human evolution is right on schedule. Guests: Josh Winn - Astronomer, MIT David Redish - Neuroscientist, University of Minnesota Mario Livio - Astrophysicist, Space Telescope Science Institute and author of Is God a Mathematician? Mike Goodchild - Professor of Geography, Center for Spatial Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s always a surprise to sort through Seth's cabinet of wonders – who knows what we’ll find! In this cramped cupboard, tucked between shelves of worm gears and used clarinet reeds, we discover a forgotten U.S. sea floor laboratory … copies of the new Cosmos TV series … evidence of science fiction’s predictive powers … software that may replace scientists … and tips on surviving a deadly poison (hint: it helps to be a snake). Tune in, find out and grab a duster, will you? Guests: Neil deGrasse Tyson - Astrophysicst at the American Museum of Natural History and author of Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier Robert J. Sawyer - Hugo award-wining science fiction author; his newest title is Triggers Ben Hellwarth - Author of Sealab: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor Hod Lipson - Roboticist at Cornell University Chris Feldman - Biologist, University of Nevada, Reno Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The future is no mystery … according to psychics who say they have special access to tomorrow’s events. For example, adherents to the Mayan doomsday prophecy warn that when 2012 ends, so will the world. Discover what’s behind claims of prognostication, and why – if it really works – no one is making a killing in Las Vegas. Also, could science divine the future? Programmers with the Living Earth Simulator say that with sufficient data, their billion-dollar computer project can predict world events. It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it! Guests: Phil Plait - Skeptic and keeper of Discover Magazine’s blog, badastronomy.com Christopher French - Psychologist, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London Guy Harrison - Writer and business owner, author of 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True Alessandro Vespignani - Physicist, Northeastern University Ken Caldeira - Climate scientist in the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology, Stanford University Sue Wilhite - Master Tarot card reader at East West Bookstore in Mountain View, California Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They’re here! About one-third of all Americans believe we’re being visited by extraterrestrial spacecraft. But wait, you want evidence? UFO sighting are as prevalent as flies at a picnic. But proof of visitation – well, that’s really alien. Hear why belief in extraterrestrial UFOs persists … and why military sightings that “can’t be explained” don’t warrant rolling out a welcome mat for ET. Plus, the most fab UFOs in the movies! It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it! Guests: Phil Plait - Keeper of the skeptical website badastronomy.com Benjamin Radford - Research Fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and managing editor of “Skeptical Inquirer Science Magazine” Leslie Kean - Journalist, and author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record Susan Clancy - Psychology Researcher, Harvard University and author of Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens Thomas Bullard - Folkorist at Indiana University and author of The Myth and Mystery of UFOs FIrst aired November 15, 2010. Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humans are pleasure-seekers – from food to sex to fine art. But do we know why we crave what we do? Discover the surprising motivation behind our desires. Also, why our hedonistic cousins, the bonobos, may hold the secret to world peace. Plus, self-awareness in monkeys: can they really pass the mirror test? Can bacteria, for that matter? Nope! But since you are, cell for cell, more microbe than human, you’ll want to know just how cognitively aware these critters are. Guests: Paul Bloom - Psychologist at Yale University and author of How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like Julie Neiworth - Psychologist, Carleton College Vanessa Woods - Research scientist at Duke University and author of Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo. Find out more about helping bonobos. Jim Shapiro - Bacterial geneticist, University of Chicago First aired November 1, 2010. Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A cup of coffee can leave you wired for the day. But a chip in your brain could wire you to a machine forever. Imagine manipulating a mouse without moving a muscle, and doing a Google search with your mind. Welcome to the future of the brain-machine interface. Don your EEG thinking-cap, and discover a high-tech thought game that may be the harbinger of machine relationships to come. Plus, the ultimate mapping project: the Human Connectdome Project aims to identify all the neural pathways in the human brain. It may help us understand what makes us human, but could it also point the way to making us smarter? And, what all this brain research reveals about the mind and free will – who, or what, is really in charge? Guests: Jan Rabaey - Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), University of California, Berkeley Arthur Toga - Neurologist at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, UCLA School of Medicine, and researcher on the Human Connectome Project Michael Gazzaniga - Neuroscientist, director of the University of California Santa Barbara’s SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, and author of Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain Bradley Voytek - Neuroscientist, University of California, San Francisco Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What’s it all about? And we mean ALL. What makes up this vast sprawling cosmos? Why does it exist? Why do we exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? Ow, my head hurts! For possible answers, we travel to the moment after the Big Bang and discover all that came into being in those few minutes after the great flash: time, space, matter, and light. Plus, the bizarre stuff that makes up the bulk of the universe: dark energy and dark matter. Also, what we set in motion with the invention of the light blub. How artificial light lit up our homes, our cities and – inadvertently – our skies. Guests: Sean Carroll - Theoretical physicist at California Institute of Technology Leonard Susskind - Theoretical physicist, Stanford University Jane Brox - Author of Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light Peter Fisher - Physicist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Descripción en español First aired September 6, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wait! Before you step outside... is it Friday the 13th? Any black cats prowling around? Broken a mirror lately? Homo sapiens are a superstitious lot. Find out why our brains are wired for irrational belief. Plus, from the 2012-end-of-the-world prophesy to colliding planets - why some people believe the universe is out to get ‘em. Also, Brains on Vacation takes on a challenge to relativity and our Hollywood skeptic has doubts about exorcism. It’s enough to make your head spin on Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it! Guests: Bruce Hood - Cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol in the U.K. and author of The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs David Morrison - Director of the Carl Sagan Center for The Study of Life in The Universe at the SETI Institute and keeper of the NASA website Ask an Astrobiologist Martin Snow - Research Scientist, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder Jim Underdown - Executive Director, Center for Inquiry, West - Los Angeles Phil Plait - Astronomer, keeper of badastronomy.com, and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . . Descripción en español First aired August 16, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you lost your senses? You’ll find them everywhere you look. Sensors respond to external stimuli – light, sound, temperature and much else – to help us make sense (ha!) of our universe. And more are on their way. “Ubiquitous sensing” is the term that describes a world blanketed by tiny sensors: on bridges, in paint and medicine bottles, and even in our brains! Discover where you’ll find sensors next. And, has the world’s largest detection device found the elusive particle that will help explain the universe? Where are you, Higgsy-wiggsy? Also, out-of-this world sensors have detected a possibly Earth-like planet. What’s next for the Kepler planet-hunters? Plus, DIY sensor kits, and, if computers can do all that, why can’t we send the odor of, say, freshly-baked bread over the Internet? The case for a smell-o-meter. Guests: Frank Close - Physicist at Oxford University, author of The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe Jan Rabaey - Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), University of California, Berkeley Barry Shell - Writer in Vancouver, Canada Andy Huntington - Interaction designer, based in London Sara Seager - Professor of planetary science and physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Planet hunters - Daryll LaCourse and Tom Jacobs, citizen scientists with Planet Hunters Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The term “bird flu” is a misnomer, scientists say, because almost all human influenza originates in our feathered friends. How it lands in you and spreads is another matter … Hear what it takes for a virus to go global, from a virus hunter who plans to stop epidemics in their tiny DNA tracks with an innovative global surveillance system. Also, why your genome is littered with fossil viruses of the past … the two largest viruses discovered so far, Mimi and Mega, square off … and, what it takes for ideas to “go viral.” Guests: Nathan Wolfe - Viral Ecologist, Director of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative Robert Gifford - Evolutionary virologist, Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller University Vincent Racaniello - Virologist at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, host of the podcast, “This Week in Microbiology,” and author of the “Virology Blog” Bill Wasik - Senior Editor at Wired, author of And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mom and apple pie. Computers and silicon. Martians and death rays. Some things just go together naturally. But how about science and politics? Science and religion? Science and fiction? These pairings are often unnatural and contentious … but they don’t have to be. Discover how science can team up with other endeavors in productive, if surprising, symbiosis. Meet a particle physicist, turned U.S. Congressman, who calls for more scientists on Capitol Hill. Also, a tour of the Golden Age of Islamic Science. Plus, scientists named Elmo and Super Grover 2.0 teach small children to conduct experiments with the help of chickens and dancing penguins. And, it’s not quite science but it’s not entirely fiction either: how sci-fi helps shape our cultural debates about the future. Guests: Bill Foster - Physicist and former U.S. representative from Illinois Carol-Lynn Parente - Executive Producer, Sesame Street Ranjana Mehra - Docent at The Tech Museum, San Jose, California Brooks Peck - Curator, EMP Museum, Seattle, Washington Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s no harm talking to your houseplant, but will your chatter really help it grow? We look at various biological claims, from whether plants feel pain to the ability of cats to predict earthquakes. Feline forecasters, anyone? Also, when does understanding biology have important implications for health and policy? The arguments for and against genetically modified foods, and the danger of “pox parties” as a replacement for childhood vaccination. Plus, the history and current state of scientific literacy in the United States. When did we stop trusting science? Guests: Andy Michael - Seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California Ron Lindsay - President of the Center for Inquiry, headquartered in Amherst, NY Steven Novella - Clinical neurologist and Director of General Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine; host of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast Shawn Lawrence Otto - Author of Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America Chelsea Specht - Professor, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wish you could ditch computers? There’s no escape button for that. Computers are not only a part of your daily grind, they may soon be a part of you. We’ll hear from the world’s first cyborg about why we should make nice in our arms race with machines. Also, the secret behind the extraordinary breakthroughs that DARPA scientists are making – from building autonomous cars to wiring robotic surgeons. Plus, making space for humans… and their bodily functions: the engineering tricks of toiletry. And, a carbon-based astronaut on the view of Earth from orbit. Guests: Kevin Warwick - Professor of Cybernetics at University of Reading in the U.K. Santiago Bilinkis - Student at the Singularity University Mary Roach - Writer and author of Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Tom Jones - United States astronaut, space consultant, and veteran of four Space Shuttle flights Michael Belfiore - Space and Technology writer, and author of The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs Descripción en español First aired August 23, 2010. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Think small! Microbes are tinier than the dot at the end of this sentence, yet they can make humans sicker than dogs, dogs sicker than humans, jump from animal to human and keep scientists guessing when and where the next disease will appear. Discover how doctors diagnosed one man’s mysterious infection, the role that animals play as hosts for disease, and why the rate of emerging diseases is increasing worldwide. Also, why your kitchen is a biosafety hazard, and how the Human Microbiome Project will tally all the microbes on – and in - you. Plus, the extreme places on Earth where microbes thrive and what it suggests for the existence of alien life. And, how one strain of bacteria helped a farmer grow a pumpkin the weight of a small car! Guests: Peter Hudson - Biologist, Director of Life Sciences at Penn State University Peter Krause - Senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health Durland Fish - Epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health. Information on his Lyme disease app David Relman - Stanford University microbiologist and infectious disease clinician Erich Fleming - Biologist, SETI Institute O. Peter Snyder - Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management John Raeside - Oakland, California Frances Raeside - Oakland, California Jennifer Kate Arnold - Infectious Disease Clinic, Kaiser Permanente Medical Group Dave Stelts - Farmer, head of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth Neil Anderson - Owner, president of Reforestation Technologies International. Find retail products. Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Making space for everyone” could be NASA’s motto. But as commercial spaceships get ready to blast off, that populist idea is being tested. Space cowboys in the private sector say they’re the ones who can provide unfettered access to space, for tourists and scientists alike. Meet a scientist who already has a ticket to ride on SpaceShip Two and discover what he hopes to learn about asteroids during his five minutes of weightlessness. Plus, NASA in motion: it’s back to the moon as the GRAIL mission probes the interior of our lovely lunar satellite. Also, can you dig it? The rover Curiosity can. It’s headed to Mars to hunt for clues to alien life … with a jackhammer. Also, as the Hubble Space Telescope shuts down, the James Webb Space Telescope revs up. Or does it? The telescope is designed to study the birth of galaxies and hunt for evidence of water on far away worlds. But will Congress pull the plug? Guests: James Oberg - former Space Shuttle Mission Control engineer, and space expert Maria Zuber - Planetary scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Principal Investigator of NASA’s GRAIL mission Joy Crisp - Geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Principal Investigator on the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity Massimo Stiavelli - Astronomer at the Space Science Telescope Institute, and Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope Dan Durda - Planetary scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado More about the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What you can’t see … can make you sick. Humans have been battling viruses and bacteria since the beginning of time. The malaria parasite has been keeping deadly company with us for 500,000 years. King Tut had it and so did Julius Caesar. What’s keeping this bug going today? Also, how disease almost halted the most ambitious engineering project in the world … how elite disease detectives puzzle out perplexing epidemics … And – could tiny bugs from spaaace, ace, ace be our ancestors? Guests: Sonia Shah - Author of The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years Michael Conniff - Historian, director of Global Studies at San Jose State University, and author of Black Labor on a White Canal: Panama, 1904-1981 (Pitt Latin American Series) Mark Pendergrast - Author of Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service Robert Zubrin - President of the Mars Society Descripción en español First aired August 2, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Calling all pessimists! Your brain is wired for optimism! Yes, deep down, we’re all Pollyannas. So wipe that scowl off your face and discover the evolutionary advantage of thinking positive. Also, enjoy other smile-inducing research suggesting that if you crave happiness, you should do the opposite of what your brain tells you to do. Plus, why a “well-being index” may replace Dow Jones as a metric for success … a Twitter study that predicts your next good mood … and whether our furry and finned animal friends can experience joy. Guests: Frank Drake - Astronomer and author of the Drake Equation Tali Sharot - Cognitive neuroscientist at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at the University College London and the author of The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain Michael Macy - Sociologist at Cornell University His team’s Twitter study: http://timeu.se/ Carol Graham - Economist at the Brookings Institution and author of The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being David DiSalvo - Science and technology writer, author of What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite Robin Ince - U.K.-based comedian Jonathan Balcombe - Animal behavior scientist and author of The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zombies, aliens, Bigfoot, oh my!! We've covered - or rather uncovered - them all and more on Skeptic Check, our monthly look of critical thinking. And now we've collected enough strange encounters to assemble a sordid retrospective of sorts. Sharpen your brain, it's Skeptic Check, Beast Of. But don't take our word for it! Guests: Phil Plait - Skeptic and keeper of Discover Magazine’s blog, badastronomy.com Bruce Hood - Cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol in the U.K. and author of The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs Susan Jacoby - Author of The Age of American Unreason Steve Silberman - Contributing editor, Wired Magazine, author of “The Placebo Problem” in the September 2009 issue Mary Pope-Handy - Estate Agent, Silicon Valley and keeper of the website hauntedrealestate.com Jim Underdown - Executive Director, Center for Inquiry, West – Los Angeles Paul Offit - Pediatrician, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and author of Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure Stephen Schneider - Climate scientist, Stanford University Brendan Riley - Assistant professor of English, Columbia College, Chicago Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shh - can you keep it down? Nope. Not unless you want to do away with civilization. Our buzzing, humming, whirling, machine-driven world is a poster child for technological progress, right? As is hearing loss. It’s driven one man to search the world for silence. We’ll hear what he didn’t hear, and what Einstein predicted we should hear in deep space, where gravitational waves may reveal the hidden sounds of the universe, including the birth of black holes. Guests: George Foy - Author of Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute Silence Garret Keizer - Author of The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want Craig Hogan - Director for Particle Astrophysics at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Descripción en español First aired July 5, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anyone who does gardening knows that life is tough. It’s also ancient – the first living things appeared on this planet nearly as soon as our world was habitable. We consider life on real worlds – like Earth and Mars – as well as fictional ones, such as the desert planet from the movie “Dune”. We’ll hear about a new scheme to find Martians, and practical approaches to coping with climate change. And is Pluto seeking revenge? The unmasking of a fourth moon around this former planet! We’re making some lively discoveries in Seth’s Tool Shed on Big Picture Science. Guests: Philip Duffy - Physicist and senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Kevin Zahnle - Planetary scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center David Summers - Astrobiologist at the SETI Institute Christopher Carr - Researcher in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mark Showalter - Research scientist at the SETI Institute Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the great age of exploration men risked their lives to set foot upon unknown lands, whether in the humid jungles of Peru or on the barren ice cap of the South Pole. We'll hear those dramatic tales… … but also where modern exploration is taking us. Could it be to the deepest, darkest part of the sea? Or to space? Discover how to build a space suit that will let you move like an athlete on Mars. Also, why some say that the ultimate frontier requires no packing and no travel: voyages into the human brain. Guests: Dava Newman - Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering Systems, MIT David Eagleman - Neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine and author of Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain Mark Adams - Author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu Edward Larson - Author of An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science Liz Taylor - President, Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Alameda, CA Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The recipe for being a scientist was easy in the old days… just be born into a rich family, have an interest in nature and plenty of time to indulge yourself. But are the days of gentlemen scientists over? Maybe not. We go to the Maker Faire and check out how small-scale projects have big-scale ambitions. Also, how everyday experience often tells us something profound about the universe. Guests: Spencer Weart – Former director of the Center for the History of Physics, at the American Institute of Physics Tim Russ – Actor, and the character Tuvok on Star Trek Voyager Marcus Chown – Science writer and author of The Matchbox That Ate a Forty-Ton Truck: What Everyday Things Tell Us About the Universe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An ant … can’t … move a rubber tree plant… but the colony can. As a group, ants are an efficient, organized, can-do bunch. And a model for humans trying to manage complex systems. Find out about the eerie collective intelligence of animals, and how an MIT researcher is hoping to put humans to work collaboratively to solve problems like climate change. Also … hear how research into flocking behavior helps Hollywood film a herd of stampeding dinosaurs. Guests: Steve Strogatz - Applied mathematician at Cornell University and author of Sync: How Order Emerges From Chaos In the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life Craig Reynolds - Senior researcher for Sony Computer Entertainment Thomas Malone - Director of the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT Iain Couzin - Biologist at Princeton University Descripción en español Originally aired June 21, 2010 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been ten years since the fall of the Twin Towers, but some still believe that the attack was an inside job. They’re not the only ones to buy into a conspiratorial view of world events. Others deny President Obama’s American birth… link autism with vaccines… and even claim that the fluo ride in our drinking water is there to control our minds. Is it the truth - or the fringe groups - that are “out there?” Find out why some tinfoil hat ideas never go away. Also, the roots of rational argument: did our brains evolve to seek the truth… or just win arguments? It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it! Guests: Jonathan Kay - Managing editor of National Post in Canada and author of Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground Michael Shermer - Founding Publisher of Skeptic Magazine and author of The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies – How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them As Truths Phil Plait - Skeptic and keeper of Discover Magazine’s blog, badastronomy.com Hugo Mercier - Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Darcia Narvaez - Psychologist at the University of Notre Dame Ben Recht - Computer Scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and author of the paper “On the Effectiveness of Tinfoil Hats” Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Guests: Francis Collins - Geneticist, Director of the National Institutes of Health 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 Stephen Quake - Biophysicist, Stanford University Dean Falk - Anthropologist and Senior Scholar at the School For Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Guests: Rebecca Skloot - Journalist and author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Fred Gage - Neurobiologist at the Salk Institute Randy Schekman - Molecular and cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Water, water everywhere. But most of it is sea water - you can’t drink it. Discover the most promising technologies for desalination and why solar cells are key. Also, how astronauts filter “water-closet water” to drink it, and how to turn a salt pond back to a wetland. Plus, from Roman aqueducts to modern-day pumps: a history of quenching human thirst. And, why NASA strives to “follow the water.” Guests: Brian Fagan - Anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, author of Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind John Bourgeois - Biologist and Executive Project Manager, South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project Michael Meyer - Lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program Farouk El-Baz - Geologist and Director of the Center for Remote Sensing, Boston University Michael Flynn - Principal investigator for NASA’s advanced life support branch, Ames Research Center Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. It’s nearly impossible to fake a laugh. Yet, humans will laugh even if something isn’t funny. Discover the evolutionary function of cracking up and meet the other species that love to giggle (and monkey around). Also, hilarious science comedy. Yes, science comedy. Plus, teaching machines to write punch lines… and stretching – and splitting – your sides with laughter yoga. Guests: Frans de Waal - Primatologist, Emory University and the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta, Georgia Brian Malow - Science comedian Robert Provine - Neuroscientist, University of Maryland, Baltimore, author of Laughter: A Scientific Investigation Tony Veale - Computer scientist and natural language processing researcher. University College, Dublin, Ireland Tommy Westerfield - Instructor, We Are Laughter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did life begin? What’s the universe made of, and what’s the nature of consciousness? These are truly some of the biggest puzzlers in science, but answers are in the offing. We consider the modern-day hunt for life beyond Earth, as well as a new theory of consciousness: could it be merely an illusion to entertain us and make our lives more worthwhile? Also, after thousands of years of examining the heavens, are we finally learning the true nature of the cosmos? Guests: Marc Kaufman - Reporter for the Washington Post, and author of First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth Carolyn Porco - Planetary scientist and leader of the Cassini Imaging Team Michael Russell - Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Nicholas Humphrey - Theoretical psychologist and author of Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness Saul Perlmutter - Physicist at the University of California, Berkeley and senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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? Guests: Paul Davies - Physicist and author of The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence Frank Drake- Senior Scientist, SETI Institute Andy Ihnatko - Journalist and tech blogger Margaret Race - Biologist and Principal Investigator at the SETI Institute Margaret McLean - Director of bioethics at the Markkula Center for Ethics, Santa Clara University Mark Hoddle - Biological Control Specialist at the University of California, Riverside Vanessa Lopez - Graduate student in entomology, University of California, Riverside Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Physics means getting physical if you’re tackling the biggest, most mysterious questions in the universe. Stoic scientists endure the driest, darkest, coldest spots on the planet to find out how it all began and why there’s something rather than nothing. From the bottom of an old iron mine to the top of the Andes, we’ll hear their stories. Plus, Steven Weinberg on this weird stuff called dark energy, and Leonard Susskind sees double, no, triple, no, …infinite universes. Guests: Anil Ananthaswamy - Corresponding editor for New Scientist magazine in London and author of The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe Steven Weinberg - Nobel Prize-winning physicist at University of Texas at Austin and author of Lake Views: This World and the Universe Leonard Susskind - Professor of theoretical physics, Stanford University André de Gouvêa - Associate professor of physics, Northwestern University Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memories are slippery things – some are crystal clear, others more like a muddy pool, and some… well, they seem to vanish completely. Scientists admit that memory is all very complicated, but one piece of the puzzle lies in how we age – we’ll hear the latest research. Meanwhile, meet the man who digitally logged his every waking moment - and why maybe the secret to happiness isn’t in remembering but in forgetting. Plus, the case for deleting data from your hard-drive… and from your brain itself. Guests: Adam Gazzaley - Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center at University of California, San Francisco Gordon Bell - Principal researcher at Microsoft Research Jim Gemmell - Senior researcher at Microsoft Research James McGaugh - Neurobiologist at the University of California, Irvine Viktor Mayer-Schönberger - Director of the Information and Innovation Policy Research Center at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and the author of Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age Todd Sacktor - Neurologist, SUNY Downstate Medical Center Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The end is nigh. Only, on which nigh should we rely? According to billboards, Judgment Day is in May and the end of the world follows months later. But other authorities claim 2012 as the apocalyptic year, as predicted by the ancient Mayans. It’s a busy time for doomsday prophecy. Find out what’s driving these pessimistic predictions and whether it’s time to cash in your stock portfolio. Meanwhile, a survey of the real threats to Earth, and indeed to the universe, from asteroids, exploding stars, or a big cosmic rip. And the lingering menace of atomic weapons... Is nuclear war inevitable or can intelligence and political will forestall atomic Armageddon? Finally, why everything’s going to be alright! An optimist’s tour of the future. It’s Skeptic Check, our monthly look at critical thinking on Are We Alone. Guests: Phil Plait - Astronomer, and author of the Bad Astronomy blog at Discover Magazine Ron Rosenbaum - Author of How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III Catherine Wessinger - Professor of religious studies at Loyola University in New Orleans Mark Stevenson - Author of An Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next?" Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The universe is big – really big.* Galaxies, for instance, are often large enough to hold a trillion stars. But how did these heavenly heavyweights come to be? Hear how still-mysterious dark matter is implicated in the birth of galaxies. Also, gamma ray bursts - explosions more energetic than anything since the Big Bang - take place somewhere in the visible universe every day. What are they, and could they obliterate life on Earth? And, the biggest cosmic mystery de jour: dark energy. Why new, super-size telescopes may finally reveal just what it is. We’re living large on “Big, Really Big.” *appreciative nod to Douglas Adams Guests: George Djorgovski - Astronomer, California Institute of Technology Sandra Faber - Astronomer and Chair of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California at Santa Cruz; leads the CANDELS survey that uses the Hubble Space Telescope to image more than 250,000 distant galaxies Daniel Perley - Astronomer, University of California at Berkeley Ed Stone - Former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and physicist at the California Institute of Technology Richard Panek - Author of The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Public distrust of science is higher than at any time since the Enlightenment. New Yorker writer Michael Specter argues how our anti-science bias and our irrationalism about everything from genetically modified foods to climate change to childhood vaccines endangers our future. And remember when… a look back at scientists who at first pooh-poohed plate tectonics... meteorites, and quantum physics. How the evidence turned them around. It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it. Guests: Michael Specter - Writer for The New Yorker and author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives Read Montague - Director of the Human Neuroimaging Lab at Baylor College of Medicine and author of Why Choose This Book?: How We Make Decisions Spencer Weart - Historian of science Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Guests: 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 Lori Marino - Evolutionary Biologist at Emory University Sharon Moalem - Neuro-geneticist, evolutionary biologist and author of How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do Geoffrey Miller - Evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico and author of Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices