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Vroom!
Self-driving cars, once a thing of science fiction, have become a reality in a handful of cities across the country. As our vehicles gain autonomy, they may provoke a profound shift not unlike the…
Outside of Our Minds
Since humans first chiseled marks into stone, we have externalized our thoughts and ideas. Our tools may have evolved—now we clack away at computer keyboards—but written communication remains a…
Skeptic Check: Cryptids
Bigfoot could get official status if proposed legislation passes making it the state cryptid of California. If nothing else, the effort shows that fascination with cryptids has an outsized footprint…
Allergy Reason
Runny nose. Itchy, watery eyes. Sneezing. If you don’t have allergies, you probably know someone who does. The number of people with allergies, including food allergies and eczema, is increasing.…
Preventing Future Pandemics
We may not want to think about another pandemic, but, as epidemiologists say, it is once again a “when,” not “if,” scenario. For his latest book, journalist Jon Cohen, who has written extensively…
Shadow of Chernobyl
Forty years later, the exclusion zone surrounding the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant remains uninhabited by humans. But among the radioactive remnants, wildlife is flourishing, including…
40 Years After Chernobyl
On April 26th, 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union blasted a plume of radioactive debris a half mile into the sky, blanketing Europe. Witnesses described a…
Skeptic Check: Feeling Risky
It’s not just facts that inform our decisions. They’re also guided by how those facts feel. From deciding whether to buckle our seat belts to addressing climate change, how we regard risk is…
Old School
Great news! We've been nominated for a Webby Award! Our three-part Katrina series is a finalist for Best News & Politics limited series podcast. Now, we need your help. Voting ends Thursday,…
Amazing Arctic
What’s it like to live on a block of ice, especially when it thaws? An environment writer shares his forty-year experience in the Arctic, including the time a paddling polar bear tracked him on a…
Flower Power
Before everything could come up roses, there had to be a primordial flower – the mother, and father, of all flowers. Now scientists are on the hunt for it. The eFlower project aims to explain the…
Fantastic-er Voyage
Thinking small can sometimes achieve big things. A new generation of diminutive robots can enter our bodies and deal with medical problems such as intestinal blockages. But do we really want them…
Skeptic Check: Project Hail Mary
As protagonist Ryland Grace fights to save Earth - and possibly the universe - in Project Hail Mary, author Andy Weir discusses the science behind his sci-fi story and what it’s like to see it…
Skeptic Check: Moon Conspiracy
As NASA’s Artemis program promises to take us back to the moon for the first time in fifty years, we consider what it means that as many as 10% of Americans don’t believe we went there in the first…
Chasing an Asteroid
Everyone knows that a big rock wiped out the dinosaurs. But the danger from an asteroid hitting Earth is not limited to ancient history. To deal with this threat, scientists recently ran an…
Birds of a Feather
With only a microscope and a collection of birds, taxidermist Roxie Laybourne became the world’s first forensic ornithologist. The “feather detective” was on the case, examining pieces of plumage to…
Celestial Shake-Up
We’re going back to the Moon. The planned March 2026 launch of Artemis II is the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972. Historic as it is, it isn’t the only lunar event creating a stir at NASA.…
Hot to Cold
There are benefits to chilling out. When we cool superconductors to 460℉ degrees below zero, they acquire extraordinary properties that help run quantum computers. Can artificially cooling human…
Like Lightning
Every second, lightning strikes 50 to 100 times somewhere. It can wreak havoc by starting wildfires and sometimes killing people. But lightning also produces a form of nitrogen that’s essential to…
Cold to Hot
The icy-white crust of Arctic permafrost is melting, and increased plant growth is turning the glacial north green. Metals like iron, once locked inside the ice, are leaching into hundreds of Arctic…
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Big Picture Science has published 680 episodes since May 2006, covering topics in Science, Technology.
Big Picture Science is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 54m.
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