Science Straight Up

Nov 13 2024 33 ep. 26 mins 1
Science Straight Up Podcast artwork

In conjunction with Telluride Science, "Science Straight Up" delves into how science impacts our everyday lives. Your hosts, veteran broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis talk to leading scientists and engineers from around the world.

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Chromatin: Your DNA in a Package

Nov 13 2024 24 mins  
Send us a textThe double helix structure of DNA discovered in 1953 explained the basic mechanism for how our genetic information can be inherited through replication. But, we've since found that those genes have on/off switches. Understanding how our genes are turned on and off has been complicated partly due to the compacting of DNA with proteins (the histones) into chromatin. Dr.

Can we opt out of Aging?

Nov 12 2024 26 mins  
Send us a textMankind has long searched for the fountain of youth. Recent studies indicate that both immunological and global aging processes can be reversed in humans now using repurposed medicines that are known to be safe. The key is the thymus, the center of your adaptive immune system, which withers starting at puberty but can be fanned back to life even after the age of 60. I

Clean Energy's Reliance on Dirty Magnets: The Source and a Solution--Dr. Peter Ladwig, Niron Magnetics

Oct 03 2024 22 mins  
Send us a textAs climate change worsens, the need for a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy sources gets more urgent. But clean energy often has its own environmental costs. The risks posed by nuclear reactors and mining lithium for batteries are well known, but our speaker, Dr. Peter Ladwig, a materials scientist, is working on another aspect of the problem: dirty magnets

Methane: Supercharging Nature's Solution to Reverse Climate Change

Sep 27 2024 21 mins  
Send us a textMethane is a greenhouse gas that's 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And unvortunately, methane concentrations in our atmosphere are rapidly increasing. Yet, methane may also offer a potential climate solution. With a much shorter half-life than CO2, reductions in methane pack a punch. Dr. Jessica Swanson has a plan to use methane-eating bacteria called methan

Storm Chasing From Space--Dr. Susan van den Heever, Colorado State University

Sep 22 2024 27 mins  
Send us a textLife on Earth is fundamentally impacted by thunderstorms, from the life-sustaining fresh water they supply, to the life-threatening severe weather they produce. T In spite of the critical role of thunderstorms in our weather and climate system, we've fallen short in predicting how they'll behave. But Dr. Susan van den Heever's team and NASA plan to observe these storm

Quantum Simulations of the Origins of Life: Life-Giving Molecules From Planetary Impacts--Dr. Nir Goldman, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory

Sep 18 2024 22 mins  
Send us a textBefore there was life on Earth, there was something called "the period of maximum bombardment" when comets, meteors and other space objects crashed into the planet. Some of those carried materials necessary for life to emerge. Dr. Nir Goldman of Lawrence Livermore has been using computer simulations to investigate the hypothesis that some of these collisions synthesiz

Inspired by Nature: The Chemistry That Powers our Planet--Dr. Jenny Yang, UC Irvine

Jul 02 2024 24 mins  
Send us a textOur planet has always been powered by sunlight. Plants use light and water and air to grow through the process of photosynthesis. Dr. Jenny Yang, Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine proposes that we imitate plants to produce fuel through artificial photosynthesis. That fuel would be carbon neutral because we would be pulling CO2 out ot the a

The Ethics of Emerging Technology: The Era of Artificial Intelligence--Dr. Teresa Head-Gordon

Jun 20 2024 22 mins  
Send us a textArtificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are relatively new, powerful, and disruptive technologies that are rapidly entering practice in our daily lives and shaping our future in areas ranging from employment, health, politics, and what it means to be human. This talk, by Dr. Teresa Head-Gordon of the University of California, Berkeley considers the curr

"Beam me up, Scotty:" Demystifying the Quantum World

Jun 15 2024 19 mins  
Send us a textOur fifth season of "Science Straight Up" kicks off with Dr. Michael Wasielewski of Northwestern University talking about the basics of quantum theory and how it will change our lives. We can't beam people aboard the starship just yet, but teleportation of information using quantum techniques is happening right now. Many of us have heard about quantum computers and so

The True Colors of Cancer--shining a new light on disease--Dr. Stephen Boppart

Jul 27 2023 25 mins  
Send us a textCancer biopsies are scary. The patient gets tissue removed from his or her body, the sample gets sent off to the lab and then there's the agonizing wait for the results. Dr. Stephen Boppart of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, both a physician and an engineer, is working on instant biopsies that will produce results in minutes. Using laser light and artific