Podcasts by Bridging the Gaps: A Portal for Curious Minds
In-depth conversations with researchers, explorers and thought leaders from around the world, on cutting edge research and original ideas.
Further podcasts by Dr Waseem Akhtar
Podcast on the topic Technologie
All episodes
On Public Communication of Science and Technology with Professor Bruce Lewenstein from 2022-02-12T14:12:49
From the museums of the fifteenth century, to the public lectures of Michael Faraday in the nineteenth century, and to various science fairs & festivals of the twenty-first century, public engageme...
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"Forgetting: The Benefits of Not Remembering" with Dr Scott Small from 2022-01-20T13:37:26
We all wish to have a better memory, yet there are times when it fails us. Until recently, most people, even memory scientists, believed that forgetting served no purpose. However, new research in ...
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"Learning How to Learn": Techniques to Help You Learn with Dr Barbra Oakley (CLASSIC) from 2022-01-03T16:59:55
Humans have fundamental ability and cognitive resources to learn new concepts and acquire new skills and knowledge, although this may not seem natural to most of us at first. The key is to understa...
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"The Self-Assembling Brain" and Quest for Improved AI with Professor Peter Robin Hiesinger from 2021-11-07T22:48:57
How does a network of individual neural cells become a brain? How does a neural network learn, hold information and exhibit intelligence? While neurobiologists study how nature achieves this feat, ...
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Quantum Computers: Building and Harnessing the Power of Quantum Machines with Prof. Andrea Morello from 2021-08-31T00:02:22
Quantum computers store data and perform computations by utilizing properties of quantum physics. Quantum computations are performed by these machines by utilizing quantum state features such as su...
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"Nano Comes to Life": DNA NanoTech, Medicine and the Future of Biology with Professor Sonia Contera from 2021-08-22T13:46:33
Nanotechnology allows scientists to better understand, interact with, and manipulate biology by creating and manufacturing artificial structures and even machines at the nanoscale out of DNA, prote...
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"Free Will" Through the Lenses of Philosophy and Neuroscience with Dr Alfred Mele from 2021-07-25T19:33:39
The debate over whether or not free will exists is not new. The main points of contention in this discussion are whether or not we have control over our actions, and if so, what kind of control we ...
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Time, Space and Nature of Reality through the Lens of Quantum Theory with Dr Carlo Rovelli from 2021-06-13T18:47:58
What is time? Is time real or just an illusion? Time is an enigma, a mystery that never ceases to perplex us. Philosophers, poets, painters and thinkers have long debated its significance, while sc...
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The Spike: Journey of Electric Signals in Brain from Perception to Action with Prof. Mark Humphries from 2021-06-07T14:10:54
Neurons are the fundamental building blocks of the brain. In the human brain, billions of these neurons communicate and liaise with one another using spikes, blips of electric voltages. Studying a...
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History of Information with Professor Paul Duguid from 2021-04-19T18:57:03
Over centuries “information has shaped and been shaped by human society”, writes professor Paul Duguid at the start of the book “Information: A Historical Companion”. Duguid is one of the editors o...
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"On Task: How Our Brain Gets Things Done" with Professor David Badre from 2021-02-09T00:35:13
Neural mechanisms in the human brain that are responsible for generating and keeping track of plans, and influencing a cascade of brain states that can link our goals with the correct actions are k...
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New Horizons Spacecraft's Pluto Flyby with Dr Mark Showalter from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft approaches Pluto, Dr Mark Showalter describes in detail the nature of the mission and what to expect in terms of scientific findings. Dr Showalter discusses in de...
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"Philosophy & Ethics of Technology" with Professor Peter-Paul Verbeek from 2021-01-31T01:00:48
Philosophical reflection on technology is not new, it is about as old as philosophy itself. However, as the impact of technology on everyday human life and on society keeps increasing, and new and ...
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"A Passion for Ignorance" and for Denials and Negations with Professor Renata Salecl from 2020-10-26T15:24:54
Ignorance, denials and negations have always been part of human experience. In this post-truth, post-industrial world, we often feel overwhelmed by the information and misinformation overload. Alth...
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Intriguing Science of Sense of Smell with Professor Matthew Cobb from 2020-10-12T23:03:30
Sense of smell is the process of creating the perception of smell. Animals use smell for a range of essential functions such as to find food or a mate, to sense danger and to send and receive signa...
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"Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe's First Seconds" with Dr Dan Hooper from 2020-09-20T16:44:28
Scientists now have a good understanding of how our universe evolved over the past 13.8 billion years, but we know very little about what happened in the first few seconds after the Big Bang. Dr Da...
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"The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)" with Dr Katie Mack from 2020-08-27T12:37:21
Throughout history philosophers, poets and explorers have been pondering upon and debating the question that what the long term future of our universe would be. The focus has been on two intriguing...
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Artificial Intelligence: Fascinating Opportunities & Emerging Challenges with Professor Bart Selman from 2020-08-14T11:54:32
Research and development in the field of Artificial Intelligence is progressing at an amazing pace. These developments are moving beyond simple applications such as machine vision, autonomous vehic...
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"Philosophy of Information" and "Ethics of Information" with Professor Luciano Floridi from 2020-07-05T14:32:34
Information is a crucial concept. Its significance is evident by the fact that the present era is labelled as the information age. An intriguing question is: What is information? Although informati...
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"The Evolution of Knowledge: Rethinking Science for The Anthropocene" with Professor Jürgen Renn from 2020-06-02T15:26:59
Most history of science publications narrowly focus on specific periods in human history, or particular disciplines of scientific discovery, or small sets of scientists and philosophers. However th...
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"Dark Data: Why What You Don't Know Matters" with Professor David Hand from 2020-03-11T22:03:12
In the era of big data and super-fast information capturing and processing systems, it is easy to imagine that we have all the information that lead to actionable insights, that we need to make go...
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Origin Of Mathematics and Mathematical Thinking with Dr Keith Devlin from 2020-03-02T08:42:32
Mathematics is everywhere. We use numbers, quantities, values and measurements almost all the time. Counting and quantifying is part of almost everything that we do.
An interesting ques...
Timefulness: Thinking Like a Geologist with Professor Marcia Bjornerud from 2019-12-04T13:47:56
Our planet’s history, from its initial formation to present day, spans over a long period of time. It is not easy to conceptually imagine such a large timescale and most of us adopt a narrow perspe...
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"The Technology Trap" and the Future of Work with Dr Carl Frey from 2019-10-22T16:58:12
An intriguing set of questions that is being explored by researchers across the globe and is being discussed and brainstormed in various organisations and think tanks is: “what is the future of wor...
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How Cooking Made Us Human with Professor Richard Wrangham from 2019-07-20T22:12:32
Humans are the only animals that cook their food. One of the implications of cooking food, as noted by Oliver Goldsmith is, “of all other animals we spend the least time in eating”. In a ground-bre...
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Spitzer Space Telescope: Discovering "More Things in the Heavens" with Michael Werner from 2019-07-02T11:31:17
Since 2003, in a unique Earth-trailing orbit around the sun, the Spitzer Space Telescope has been observing in infrared an optically invisible universe dominated by dust and stars. Astronomers have...
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"Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason" with Justin Smith from 2019-06-16T16:16:33
In his new book, "Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason" philosopher Justin Smith presents a fascinating narrative that reveals the ways in which the pursuit of rationality often lead...
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"2062: The World That AI Made" with Professor Toby Walsh from 2019-04-10T20:10
Professor Toby Walsh is a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, and has spent his life dreaming about machines that might think. He is a Professor of AI at the University of New Sou...
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Robots, Artificial Life and Technology Imagined by the Ancients with Adrienne Mayor from 2018-12-17T22:20:52
Adrienne Mayor is an author and historian of ancient science and human curiosity. She is a research scholar at Stanford University who investigates natural knowledge contained in pre-scientific myt...
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Origin of Human Emotions and Underlying Neurophysiological Functions with Professor Joseph LeDoux from 2018-12-10T23:57:05
Origin of Human Emotions and Underlying Neurophysiological Functions with Professor Joseph LeDoux by Dr Waseem Akhtar
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A History of the Concept of Genius from Antiquity to the Modern Time with Professor Darrin McMohan from 2018-12-10T23:56:52
A History of the Concept of Genius from Antiquity to the Modern Time with Professor Darrin McMohan by Dr Waseem Akhtar
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Memory Slips, Ageing and Strategies For Keeping Brain Healthy with Dr Gary Small from 2018-11-17T21:32:39
Memory Slips, Ageing and Strategies For Keeping Brain Healthy with Dr Gary Small by Dr Waseem Akhtar
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Phoenix Mars Mission with NASA's Peter Smith from 2018-11-17T21:31:09
Phoenix Mars Mission with NASA's Peter Smith by Dr Waseem Akhtar
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False Memories, Misinformation Effect and Eyewitness Testimony: Professor Elizabeth Loftus from 2018-04-02T12:24:54
False Memories, Misinformation Effect and Eyewitness Testimony: Professor Elizabeth Loftus by Dr Waseem Akhtar
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Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age with Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger from 2018-02-17T22:32:36
Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age with Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger by Dr Waseem Akhtar
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Why You Are Not Your Brain? A Conversation on Consciousness with Alva Noe from 2017-04-24T12:49:38
Human Consciousness is a fascinating research topic. Discussed previously in a number of Bridging the Gaps conversations, cutting edge research on consciousness – an ungrasped concept and an unsolv...
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Everything a Curious Mind Should Know About Planetary Ring Systems: Dr Mark Showalter @ BTG from 2016-11-27T22:27:13
When Galileo pointed his telescope towards Saturn (circa 1610), he was not able to fully understand what was around the planet; in 1659 Christian Hygen published a drawing of the rings of Saturn an...
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A Conversation with Dr Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut and Sixth Person to Walk on the Moon from 2016-11-06T19:31:47
Dr Edgar Mitchell discusses his journey to the moon on board Apollo 14 in this very interesting conversation at Bridging the Gaps. He describes when and how he joined NASA, talks about the "Origina...
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Giant Magellan Telescope: Past, Present and Future of Space Exploration with Ground Based Telescopes from 2016-10-13T21:17:13
An in-depth conversation with Professor Wendy Freedman on the topic of space exploration with ground based telescopes. We discuss the history of space exploration using ground based telescopes, and...
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Education: What works and what does not, with Professor John Hattie from 2015-12-31T21:39:16
Evaluating the quality of teaching and learning in our schools, and assessing the effectiveness of our school systems and primary education frameworks is an important research area that focuses on ...
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Search for Exoplanets: A Discussion with Professor Sara Seager @ BTG from 2015-10-16T22:14:17
One of the most existing developments of the last two decades in the field of astronomy is the discovery of exoplanets: planets that orbit around the stars other then our sun. The idea of finding p...
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Multiple Intelligences and Future Minds with Dr Howard Gardner from 2015-03-07T23:25:38
Multiple intelligences, future minds, and characteristics and expectations of 21st century learners with Dr Howard Gardner.
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From Consciousness to Synthetic Consciousness: Prof. David Chalmers from 2015-03-01T22:47:16
What is consciousness? In this podcast David Chalmers starts addressing this question by saying that “being conscious is when there is something it is like to be that being”. This argument was init...
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Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Dr Jill Tarter from 2014-12-27T16:13:12
A conversation with Dr Jill Tarter on the past, present and future for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
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Growth Mindset: Professor Carol Dweck at BTG from 2014-11-30T22:03:31
A Conversation with Professor Carol Dweck
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Memory: Professor Daniel Schacter at BTG from 2014-11-30T17:21:05
What exactly is a memory? How much do we know about the processes that a human brain executes to store and retrieve a memory? An individual memory may contain different elements such as explicit in...
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Philosophy of Science: Professor Tim Maudlin at BTG from 2014-11-30T14:47:55
Is philosophy dead? Well over the past few years a number of scientists and researchers have said that we don’t need philosophy, philosophy should not be taught, it is waste of time and some have s...
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Meta-awareness and Mind Wandering: Professor Jonathan Schooler at BTG from 2014-10-24T17:33:21
How much do we think about thinking? How aware usually are we of our awareness, and about what is happening around us? Jonathan Schooler, professor of psychology at the University of California (Sa...
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