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Episodes

Date Title & Description Contributors
2024-10-28

  How Hot is Too Hot?*

Extreme heat is taking its toll on the natural world. We use words like “heat domes” and “freakish” to describe our everyday existence. These high temperatures aren’t only uncomfortable - they are lethal to humans, animals, and crops. In search of an a...
  SETI Institute author
2024-10-21

  Platypus Crazy*

They look like a cross between a beaver and a duck, and they all live Down Under. The platypus may lay eggs, but is actually a distant mammalian cousin, one that we last saw, in an evolutionary sense, about 166 million years ago. Genetic sequencing is ...
  SETI Institute author
2024-10-17

  Spotlight on SETI ep 2: Nathalie Cabrol

What is life? Even as the search for life in the universe evolves, surprisingly, there is no consensus on what life is. We must consider hunting for life not as we know it.  The existence of extremophiles on Earth has broadened the types of environment...
  SETI Institute author
2024-10-14

  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 people, not just scientists, were optimistic that a theo...
  SETI Institute author
2024-10-07

  We'll Always Have Parasites

Imagine tapeworms longer than the height of an adult human. Or microbes that turn their hosts into zombies. If the revulsion they induce doesn’t do it, the sheer number of parasites force us to pay attention. They are the most abundant form of animal l...
  SETI Institute author
2024-09-30

  Measure For Measure

Whether in miles or pounds, meters or kilograms, we take daily measure out our lives. But how did these units ever come to be, and why do we want to change them? From light-years to leap seconds, we look at the history of efforts to quantify our lives ...
  SETI Institute author
2024-09-23

  Skeptic Check: Cell Phone Bans

As middle and high schools across the country implement new cell phone bans, we consider what drove this bold step and what science says about how digital devices affect our attention and focus. An assistant principal describes how his school implement...
  SETI Institute author
2024-09-16

  Cold Comfort

Air conditioning and refrigeration may beat the heat, but they also present a dilemma. The more we use them, the more greenhouse gases we emit, the hotter the planet becomes, and the more we require artificial cooling. Can we escape this feedback loop?...
  SETI Institute author
2024-09-12

  Introducing Spotlight on SETI!

Are we alone? The search for life in the universe is on! For 40 years, the SETI Institute has been a leader in the search for life and intelligence beyond Earth. Recent discoveries, such as exoplanets, have brought us closer than ever to answering the ...
  SETI Institute author
2024-09-09

  Shipwrecks

Shipwrecks are scenes of tragedy, but they are also bits of history frozen in time that can provide insights into events and ideas from long ago. That is, if we can find them. From an 11th century Viking sailing ship to a WW II era British cargo ship w...
  SETI Institute author