As You Were
09/22/14 • 54 min
We all want to turn back time. But until we build a time machine, we’ll have to rely on a few creative approaches to capturing things as they were – and preserving them for posterity. One is upping memory storage capacity itself. Discover just how much of the past we can cram into our future archives, and whether going digital has made it all vulnerable to erasure.
Plus – scratch it and tear it – then watch this eerily-smart material revert to its undamaged self. And, what was life like pre-digital technology? We can’t remember, but one writer knows; he’s living life circa 1993 (hint: no cell phone).
Also, using stem cells to save the white rhino and other endangered species. And, the arrow of time itself – could it possibly run backwards in another universe?
Guests:
- Michael S. Malone – Professor of professional writing at Santa Clara University and the author of The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory
- Oliver Ryder – Director of genetics, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research
- Michael E. Smith – Chemist, Arkema, Inc
- Sean Carroll – Theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, author of The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World
- Pico Iyer – Writer, author of The Man Within My Head and the New York Times article, “The Joy of Quiet”
First released October 29, 2012.
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We all want to turn back time. But until we build a time machine, we’ll have to rely on a few creative approaches to capturing things as they were – and preserving them for posterity. One is upping memory storage capacity itself. Discover just how much of the past we can cram into our future archives, and whether going digital has made it all vulnerable to erasure.
Plus – scratch it and tear it – then watch this eerily-smart material revert to its undamaged self. And, what was life like pre-digital technology? We can’t remember, but one writer knows; he’s living life circa 1993 (hint: no cell phone).
Also, using stem cells to save the white rhino and other endangered species. And, the arrow of time itself – could it possibly run backwards in another universe?
Guests:
- Michael S. Malone – Professor of professional writing at Santa Clara University and the author of The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory
- Oliver Ryder – Director of genetics, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research
- Michael E. Smith – Chemist, Arkema, Inc
- Sean Carroll – Theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, author of The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World
- Pico Iyer – Writer, author of The Man Within My Head and the New York Times article, “The Joy of Quiet”
First released October 29, 2012.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Previous Episode
Skeptic Check: Is It True?
We often hear fantastic scientific claims that would change everything if true. Such as the report that algae is growing on the outside of the International Space Station or that engineers have built a rocket that requires no propellant to accelerate. We examine news stories that seem too sensational to be valid, yet just might be – including whether a killer asteroid has Earth’s name on it.
Plus, a journalist investigates why people hold on to their beliefs even when the evidence is stacked hard against them – from skepticism about climate change to Holocaust denial. And, why professional skeptics are just as enamored with their beliefs as anyone else.
Guests:
- Lynn Rothschild – Evolutionary biologist and astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center
- Will Storr – Journalist, author of The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science
- Steven Novella – Assistant professor, Yale University School of Medicine, host of the “Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe” podcast
- David Morrison – Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
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Next Episode
What's the Difference?
We make split second decisions about others – someone is male or female, black or white, us or them. But sometimes the degrees of separation are incredibly few. A mere handful of genes determine skin color, for example.
Find out why race is almost non-existent from a biological perspective, and how the snippet of DNA that is the Y chromosome came to separate male from female.
Plus, why we’re wired to categorize. And, a groundbreaking court case proposes to erase the dividing line between species: lawyers argue to grant personhood status to our chimpanzee cousins.
Guests:
- David Page – Biologist and geneticist, at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Stephen Stearns – Evolutionary biologist, Yale University
- John Dovidio – Social psychologist at Yale University
- Steven M. Wise – Lawyer, Nonhuman Rights Project
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