Perpetual Notion Machine

Jan 24 2025 10 ep. 27 mins 86

Perpetual Notion Machine Podcast artwork

Perpetual Notion Machine is a look at contemporary scientific issues and discoveries in a way that is accessible, understandable and entertaining to the non-scientists of the listening community.

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Conserving the Siberian Crane Population in China

Jan 24 2025 29 mins

Perpetual Notion Machine speaks with Dr. Mahendra Shrestha with the International Crane Foundation, about a successful collaboration to preserve flyway habitat for the Siberian Crane in China. This 10-year effort almost doubled the population of the bird within their range. Photo courtesy of the International Crane Foundation. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, loc

Monarch Butterfly Conservation in Wisconsin

Dec 05 2024 27 mins

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering the addition of the monarch butterfly to the endangered species list, and are set to announce a decision the week of December 9, 2024. We speak with Dan Salas, he and his team work with the Wisconsin Butterfly Collaborative to preserve Monarch habitat on utility and transportation rights of way in the state. Landowner resources for

Land Restoration and Bird Monitoring at the Oneida Nation

The Perpetual Notion Machine speaks with Tony Kuchma and Erin Giese. They are working with the Oneida Nation to restore historically tribal land that was once farmland. Photo: Oneida Bird Monitoring Program Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

Dr. Edgar Spalding on Dragonflies, Damselflies, and Citizen Science

Sep 07 2024 29 mins

Dr. Edgar Spalding sat down with WORT to talk about citizen science, dragonfly walks at the UW Arboretum, recently discovered species of dragonflies, and more! Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

A Conversation with USDA Forester Karl Welch

Jul 25 2024 30 mins

The Perpetual Notion Machine speaks with USDA Forester Karl Welch about his work in the Chequamegon National Forest. We talk about Wisconsin’s evergreen trees, among them pines, spruce, tamarack, and cedars. This show is part of WORT’s two-day drive to inform our listeners about easy ways to provide financial support to WORT! We talk about both Evergreen donations (get

Professor Randy Goldsmith on new technique to unlock a molecule’...

Jun 27 2024 28 mins

UW-Madison scientists have developed a new technique for identifying and analyzing a single molecule. The new development, published in the May edition of the journal Nature, is the most sensitive way of identifying single molecules yet. With a variety of applications in a wide variety of scientific fields, it offers a future of “new microscopic perspective of unprecedented

The Great Lakes Biobank: DNA preservation to save threatened species

Apr 25 2024 28 mins

The Perpetual Notion Machine speaks with UW Professor Francisco Pelegri about his research and how it is advancing work within the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Great Lakes Biobank. Pelegri is a professor and genetics researcher who is department chair at the UW-Madison Departments of Genetics and Medical Genetics. His work includes finding ways to pres

Fossil Librarian Kallie Moore on Speaking Science

Apr 04 2024 28 mins

Kallie Moore manages the paleontology collection at the University of Montana and co-hosts the YouTube channel PBS Eons. She also recently published a children’s nonfiction book, Tales of the Prehistoric World: Adventures from the Land of the Dinosaurs (Neon Squid Books, 2022). In March, she came to Madison as the campus’s spring Science Journalist in Residence, where

The Glacial Geology of the Driftless Area

The Perpetual Notion Machine speaks with geologist Eric Carson about the geological history of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, where the lack of glacial deposits and glacial landforms indicate that this portion of the midwest has apparently never been covered by glaciers (source: Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey publication). Research is still underway to further u

Data Visualization Using Fabric

Feb 29 2024 20 mins

You may have seen trendy temperature blankets on social media where crocheters around the world record their temperature each day or week using different colors for different temperatures. This results in a colorful array, and a crafty way to visualize trends over time. Our guest on this episode of Perpetual Notion Machine is Andrew Hahn, a Newsroom Developer at the Milwaukee Journ