Podcasts by Big Science: Whats the Big Idea? From Resonance FM
Big Science FM began as an experiment borne of a belief that the laws that govern the Universe are simple. Fantastical, astonishing, often unbelievable, but ultimately comprehensible to anyone who wants to understand. For an hour each week, Dr Ed Gerstner and guests explore the ideas that make the Universe tick.
Further podcasts by Ed Gerstner
Podcast on the topic Naturwissenschaften
All episodes
Big Science FM: Teaching relativity to your dog from 2021-11-10T12:40:16.597784
Dogs were the first sentient beings to venture into space. Yet, they know surprisingly little about physics. Chad Orzel, professor of physics at Union College in upstate New York, hopes to redress ...
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Big Science FM: Newt's in space? from 2021-11-10T12:40:16.593855
US Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich declared that if he were elected president, he would build a manned base on the Moon by 2020. Does this make him a visionary or a fantasist? We ask ...
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Big Science FM: Neuroscience in the sky with diamonds from 2021-11-10T12:40:16.589730
Within ten years of the first synthesis of LSD in 1938, it was being used to treat a range of psychiatric conditions, including addiction, anxiety and even headaches. It fell out of favour in the 6...
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Big Science FM: Update on Fukushima from 2021-11-10T12:40:16.571576
Five months after the nuclear disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiich power plant, the crisis has all but slipped off the front pages. But the crisis continues. Nature reporter, Geoff Brumfiel gives u...
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Big Science FM: The Mathematics of Donkey Kong from 2012-04-18T22:00
What is it about video games that makes them so addictive? Do we play these things not because they are easy but because they are hard? How hard are they? We asked MIT mathetmaticians Erik Demaine ...
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Big Science FM: Medicating morality from 2012-03-21T22:00
Can racism be treated with heart drugs? A recent study suggests so. Does this mean that we can alter a person's moral values with drugs? And what other possibilities are there for engineering the h...
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Big Science FM: Drug discovery crowdsourced from 2012-02-22T22:00
There are several ways that the public can contribute to the world of scientific exploration. We talk to David Baker and Chris Eibens how the networked computer game 'Foldit' is contributing to the...
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Big Science FM: Have we found the Higgs, yet? from 2011-12-14T22:00
The Large Hadron Collider is working better than expected. And it's collected oodles of data. But have they found the Higgs, yet? We ask Davide Castelvecchi, who flew to Geneva to find out.
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Big Science FM: The trouble with neutrinos from 2011-11-30T22:00
In September, physicists announced results suggesting that beams of neutrinos were travelling from Switzerland to Italy at faster than the speed of light, in flagrant violation Einstein's Theory of...
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Big Science FM: How to build a brain from 2011-11-16T22:00
IBM's BlueGene supercomputer can carry out a similar number of operations per second as the brain of a rat. But while a rat's brain takes up a half a cubic centimetre and uses 50 milliwatts of powe...
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Big Science FM: It's a Small World after all from 2011-11-09T22:00
In 1929, Frigyes Karinthy wrote a short story suggesting that everyone is connected to everyone else by six or seven degrees of separation. In 1967, Stanley Milgrim did an experiment proving it. An...
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Big Science FM: Multiverses and the Big Bang from 2011-10-12T22:00
How did the Universe begin? What made it expand from the size of a grapefruit to billions of lightyears across in a fraction of a second after the Big Bang? And why did it stop? And is ours the onl...
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Big Science FM: Understanding the Cosmos, Part 1 from 2011-10-05T22:00
2011 Nobel Prize in Physics Special. In this show, we talk supernovae, cosmic acceleration, dark energy and the history and implications of this year's physics award to Perlmutter, Schmidt, and Rie...
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Big Science FM: History of an Ancient Sponge from 2011-09-28T22:00
Geological evidence suggests that around 650 million years ago, the Earth was covered in ice. It was believed only single-celled organisms could have survived 'Snowball Earth'. Until Adam Maloof fo...
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Big Science FM: Higgs update from 2011-09-14T22:00
In this episode we discuss the intriguing results hot off the press from Cern's Large Hadron Collider with particle physicist Professor Jonathan Butterworth. Have we found the Higgs particle, yet? ...
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Big Science FM: Probing unconsciousness from 2011-09-07T22:00
We assume that modern medicine can distinguish between life and death. But when it comes to ‘brain death’, things aren't so clear cut. In this episode we explore unconsciousness, coma, and the bits...
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Big Science FM: Green car tech from 2011-08-31T22:00
In recent shows we've been talking about technologies for generating energy. In this episode we look at the flip side with Ralph Clague who's working on green car technologies that use the energy w...
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Big Science FM: Alternative nuclear power from 2011-08-17T22:00
Conventional nuclear fission won't solve the world's energy problems. Thankfully, it's not the only nuclear game in town. Tonight we explore an alternative nuclear tech, in accelerator-driven subcr...
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Big Science FM: Of Mice and Flies from 2011-07-20T22:00
How do you make a fly with the same genes you use to make a mouse? It's complicated. But that's what Big Science is all about.
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Big Science FM: Anaesthesia, What's Your Poison? from 2011-07-13T22:00
From alcohol to ether and beyond, in this episode we explore the science of anaesthesiology with clinical anaesthetist, Dr Katie Grant.
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Big Science FM: The History of Mathematics from 2011-06-29T22:00
This week we take a rollercoaster ride through the history of maths. From the four Greek 'mathematics' - geometry, astronomy, arithmetic and music. To fierce opposition to arabic numerals from Euro...
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Big Science FM: Nanotechnology, What's the Big Idea? from 2011-06-22T22:00
What so big about nanotechnology? Does it represent a brave new world, or a means to hype more of the same. We ask nanotech guru Tim Harper.
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Big Science FM: Truth, Gödel and Science Fundamentalism from 2011-06-15T22:00
Science is all about truth, right? So anything that is true can be determined by science, right? Probably not.
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Big Science FM: Fukushima Meltdown from 2011-03-16T22:00
In the light of events at the Fukushima nuclear plant following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, we discuss nuclear power and the implications of the unfolding situation.
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Big Science FM: What does life know? from 2011-02-16T22:00
This week we start with the question, what does DNA know about the Universe? But, as usual, we don't stay on topic for long, instead segueing into a much more interesting discussion of Sarah Palin,...
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Big Science FM: Proteins, the building blocks of life, pt 2 from 2011-02-09T22:00
There's more to life than DNA... much more. This week we continue our exploration of proteins, the true building blocks of life. How are they made? And what exactly do they do?
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Big Science FM: Proteins, the building blocks of life, pt 1 from 2011-02-02T22:00
This week we go beyond DNA to the real workhorses of life, proteins. How are they made? What do they do? And how do they interact to build a hedgehog?
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Big Science FM: DNA, Blueprint of life? pt 2 from 2011-01-26T22:00
This week we continue to ask whether it's meaningful to describe DNA as the blueprint of life. And if the blueprint isn't in DNA where the hell is it?
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Big Science FM: DNA, Blueprint of life? pt 1 from 2011-01-19T22:00
This week we talk DNA, with Nature's biological sciences editor, Tanguy Chouard. Is it really a blueprint? If not, why not?
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Big Science FM: Plasma - the fourth state of matter from 2010-11-17T22:00
Everyone knows about the three states of matter, solids, liquids and gases. But few know about the fourth, plasmas. They're all around us, from neon signs to TVs. And they could provide us with an ...
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Big Science FM: Antimatter - Fantasy to Reality from 2010-09-15T22:00
By the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, physicists increasingly realized that quantum mechanics provided a powerful means of describing the behaviour of subatomic particles. But until ...
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Big Science FM: What IS a Higgs boson, anyway? from 2010-09-08T22:00
So what the hell is a hadron, and why are they colliding large ones to find a Higgs botswain?
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Big Science FM: Everything is Waves, pt 2 from 2010-08-04T22:00
Quantum mechanics is by far and away the most accurate and successful theory that has ever been devised. It’s also the most bizarre. This week, Big Science continues to explore how the particle the...
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Big Science FM: Everything is Waves, pt 1 from 2010-07-28T22:00
Quantum mechanics is by far and away the most accurate and successful theory that has ever been devised. It’s also the most bizarre. This week, Big Science explores how the particle theory of light...
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Big Science FM: Everything is Bits from 2010-07-21T22:00
To a casual observer, the Universe looks likes *really* complex. It isn't. In this show we'll discuss how just a handful of building blocks and the idea of beauty (or, rather, symmetry) produces di...
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Big Science FM: Everything is Light, pt 1 from 2010-07-14T22:00
Wouldn't it be nice if the laws of physics where same everywhere in the Universe, regardless of how fast you were travelling? In this episode Big Science explores the consequences of the laws of el...
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Big Science FM: Everything is Light, pt 2 from 2010-07-14T22:00
This week, we continue on from the previous week, to discuss the implications of the fact that the laws of electricity and magnetism, and therefore the speed of light, are always the same regardles...
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