Big Picture Science Podcast
1) Mars Attracts
Earth invades Mars in February. In a historic trifecta for space exploration, spacecraft of three countries will arrive at Mars, and for two of those it will be their first time at the Red Planet. We ...Show More
2) Movie Mayhem
Science fiction movies force us to face a multitude of end-of-the-world scenarios. Whether the final curtain is dropped by rampaging aliens, killer rocks from space, or virus-infected zombies, these b...Show More
3) The Best Things in Life are Tree(s)
While humans were leaving the Stone Age and entering the Bronze, some Bristlecone pine trees grew from seeds to sprouts. They’ve been growing ever since. These 5,000-year-old pines are among the oldes...Show More
4) A Real Gas
Just because something is invisible doesn’t mean it isn’t there. We can’t see gases in our atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen, but we benefit from their presence with every breat...Show More
5) Amazing Amazonia
The Amazon is often described as an ecosystem under dire threat due to climate change and deliberate deforestation. Yet there is still considerable hope that these threats can be mitigated. In the fa...Show More
6) Flu the Coop
The worry about whether H5N1 will trigger a human pandemic has concealed a startling reality. Avian influenza has already taken an enormous toll on the lives of other animals. Since 2005, the number o...Show More
7) Skeptic Check: String Theory
The idea that the universe is made of tiny vibrating strings was once the science theory du jour. String theory promised to unite the disparate theories describing particles and gravity, and many peop...Show More
8) Solar Good
In Brazil, leaders from across the globe are gathering for COP30, the premier climate summit in the world. For the first time, the U.S. is sitting it out, after exiting the Paris Agreement. There is, ...Show More
9) Katrina and the River
“The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise,” said Mark Twain. In this, our final episode marking the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrin...Show More
10) The Decomposers
What happens to us after we die is as much a question for anthropology and ecology as it is for theology. Â Death and decay are not comfortable subjects, but some scientists study them unflinchingly, k...Show More