Graduate Programs in the Physical Sciences, Mathematics, Agricultural Sciences (Peterson's Graduate Programs in the Physical Sciences, Mathematics, Agricultural ... the Environment & Natural Resources)
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
As health care legislation moves through Congress, bioethicist Thomas H. Murray asks if enough attention is being paid to concepts such as justice, fairness and liberty. Murray and health care economist Len Nichols discuss the role of values in the health care debate.
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
Football players take a lot of hits, but when does hard-headed play go too far? New research suggests that head trauma can do lasting damage. Two brain researchers talk about what happens in the brain when a player gets hit, and how athletes can better protect themselves.
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
At the 2009 International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, undergraduates from all over the world unveiled the living machines they'd created with snippets of DNA, from bacteria that change color when they detect pollutants to ones that secrete non-toxic superglue.
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
Faced with declining fish stocks, many nations are looking for sustainable ways to have their fish — and eat it too. But how much fishing is too much? Oceanographer Sylvia Earle discusses this and other topics in her book The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One .
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
The U.S. Department of Energy is offering $10 million to the first individual or company to develop an energy-efficient LED replacement for the standard 60-watt incandescent bulb. DOE lighting program manager James Brodrick discusses the L Prize, and what makes a better bulb.
Nova Science Now (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Evolving an ability to run long distances might have been key to survival for early humans. In this podcast, we talked to Dan Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University, to find out why. Podcast produced by David Levin. Original interview by Gaia Remerowski. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by ExxonMobil, David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,...
Scientific American (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
Anthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin Madison talks about recent human evolution, especially of our ability to digest lactose. And producer Graham Townsley discusses his three-part PBS NOVA premiering on November 3rd called "Becoming Human". Plus, we test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites related to this episode include www.snipurl.com/t1ivr
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
Psychiatrist Steven Schlozman recently expanded his practice from humans to the inhuman. Poring over his library of classic zombie films, he came up with neurobiological explanations for the behavior of the undead, such as lack of a frontal lobe and an overactive amygdala.
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
For gadget lovers, Halloween is more geeky than spooky. Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of Make Magazine , talks about the geekiest do-it-yourself Halloween costumes and decorations, from spray foam guts and singing pumpkins to a fortune-teller costume built on a Segway.
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
In her book Dinner With a Cannibal , writer Carole Travis-Henikoff documents the long — and often hidden — history of cannibalism in humans. Travis-Henikoff notes that cannibalism wasn't always taboo, whether it be eating loved ones out of respect or eating enemies out of disdain.
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
What compels hundreds of thousands of runners to compete in marathons every year? Ira Flatow and guests discuss running research — from how humans are adapted specifically for long-distance running to why working up a sweat might be good for the brain, as well as the body.
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
On Oct. 29, 1969, around 10:30 P.M., a message from one computer was sent over a modified phone line to another computer hundreds of miles away. Some say the Internet was born that day. UCLA computer scientist Leonard Kleinrock, who was there, gives his account.
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
Reporting in The Lancet , doctors found success in treating Leber's congenital amaurosis, a rare type of blindness, with gene therapy. Study author Katherine High explains how injecting a gene-carrying virus into the eye has improved vision in a handful of patients.
Nova Science Now (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
Today, humans are rapidly changing the world's climate-but some anthropologists think climate may have once changed us. In this podcast, Rick Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, explains why a rapidly shifting environment could have shaped early human behavior. Podcast produced by David Levin. Original interview by Graham Townsley. NOVA is produced...
Science Friday (Free subscription) | 10/24/2009
Forget asteroids — a new theory says algae were the key to the dinosaurs' extinction millions of years ago. Ecotoxicologist John Rodgers details the evidence for the theory and explains why some algae can be harmful in large quantities, even to present day animal populations.
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