general science

#832 Ursula Goodenough - The Sacred Depths of Nature: How Life Has Emerged and Evolved

Sep 8, 2023

Dr. Ursula Goodenough is a Professor of Biology Emerita at Washington University in St. Louis where she engaged in research on eukaryotic algae. She has presented the paradigm of Religious Naturalism and the Epic of Evolution in numerous venues around the world. She currently serves as president of the Religious Naturalist Association. She is the author of The Sacred Depths of Nature: How Life Has Emerged and Evolved. More»
#819 Geoffrey West - Scale; Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies

Aug 10, 2023

Dr. Geoffrey West is Shannan Distinguished Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a theoretical physicist whose primary interests have been in fundamental questions in physics, especially those concerning the elementary particles, their interactions and cosmological implications. His long-term fascination in general scaling phenomena evolved into a highly productive collaboration on the origin of universal scaling laws that pervade biology from the molecular genomic scale up through mitochondria and cells to whole organisms and ecosystems. He is the author of several books, including Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies. More»
#816 Gareth Leng - The Matter of Facts: Skepticism, Persuasion, and Evidence in Science

Aug 3, 2023

Dr. Gareth Leng was one of the founders in 1983 of the British Society for Neuroendocrinology. He was appointed as the Chair of Experimental Physiology at the University of Edinburgh in 1994, after 17 years at what is now the Babraham Institute, Cambridge. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology, and a former President of the International Neuroendocrine Federation. He is the author of The Matter of Facts: Skepticism, Persuasion, and Evidence in Science. More»
#814 Christopher Ferrie - Quantum Bullsh*t: How to Ruin Your Life with Advice from Quantum Physics

Jul 28, 2023

Dr. Christopher Ferrie is an Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and Centre for Quantum Software and Information. His research interests include quantum estimation and control, and, in particular, the use of machine learning to solve statistical problems in quantum information science. He is the author of several books, the latest one being Quantum Bullsh*t: How to Ruin Your Life with Advice from Quantum Physics. More»
#806 James Cortada - Birth of Modern Facts; Information, Government, Business, and Science

Jul 10, 2023

Dr. James W. Cortada is Senior Research Fellow at the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota. He worked at IBM for thirty-eight years in sales, consulting, managerial, and research positions. His latest book is Birth of Modern Facts: How the Information Revolution Transformed Academic Research, Governments, and Businesses. More»
#733 Andrew Knoll - A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters

Jan 20, 2023

Dr. Andrew Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University. Dr. Knoll’s research focuses on the early evolution of life, Earth’s environmental history, and, especially, the interconnections between the two. For the past decade, he has served on the science team for NASA’s MER mission to Mars. Professor Knoll’s honors include the Walcott Medal and the Mary Clark Thompson Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science (for his 2003 book Life on a Young Planet), the Moore Medal of the Society for Sedimentary Geology, the Paleontological Society Medal, and the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London. Dr. Knoll is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Microbiology. He is the author of A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters. More»
#704 Matthew Cobb - As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age

Nov 14, 2022

Dr. Matthew Cobb is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester, where his research focuses on the sense of smell, insect behavior and the history of science. He is also a historian of the French Resistance. He’s the author of several books, including As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age. More»
#698 James Zimring - Partial Truths: How Fractions Distort Our Thinking

Oct 31, 2022

Dr. James Zimring is Thomas W. Tillack Professor of Experimental Pathology at the University of Virginia. He is the author of What Science Is and How It Really Works (2019). His latest book is Partial Truths: How Fractions Distort Our Thinking. More»
#697 John Allen Paulos - Who’s Counting?; Uniting Numbers and Narratives with Stories

Oct 28, 2022

Dr. John Allen Paulos is a Professor of Mathematics at Temple University. He has written scholarly papers on probability, logic, and the philosophy of science as well as scores of OpEds, book reviews, and articles in publications such as the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Nation, Discover, the American Scholar, and the London Review of Books. In 2003, he received the American Association for the Advancement of Science award for promoting public understanding of science, and in 2013 the Mathematics Communication Award from the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics. He is the author of several books, the most recent one being “Who’s Counting?: Uniting Numbers and Narratives with Stories from Pop Culture, Puzzles, Politics, and More”. More»
#693 Stuart Vyse - The Uses of Delusion: Why It's Not Always Rational to Be Rational

Oct 20, 2022

Dr. Stuart Vyse is a psychologist, teacher, speaker, and author who specializes in belief in superstitions and critical thinking. He is a contributing editor for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He has written personal and professional essays in a variety of places, including the Observer, Medium, The Atlantic, The Good Men Project, Tablet, and Time. His book Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition won the American Psychological Association's William James Book Award. His latest book is The Uses of Delusion: Why It's Not Always Rational to Be Rational. More»