Aug 13

A vest for blocking cosmic rays, and updates on NIH funding

First up on the podcast, ScienceInsider Editor Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi for the latest science policy news. The two discuss recent grant cancellations by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the likelihood that the agency will spend its budget by the end of it ... Show More

26m 51s

Aug 6

Did meat or fruit give people big brains, and protecting bison diversity using ancient DNA

First up on the podcast, Deputy News Editor Michael Price discusses the history of the North American bison population, its decline, and resurrection—and links to Indigenous cultures. He’s joined by University of California, Santa Cruz evolutionary molecular biologist Beth Shapir ... Show More

38m 4s

Jul 30

AI’s influence on society, measuring muscles, and a Crick biography

First up on the podcast, we catch up with Celina Zhao, a staff reporter for Science’s AI In Science reporting initiative. She talks with host Sarah Crespi about artificial intelligence’s knack for finding legal loopholes and how philosophers are navigating conflicts of interest a ... Show More

46m 56s

Apr 2023

Are Rats Running This Podcast?

This week, New York City crowned Kathleen Corradi its first rat czar. The new position is part of a multipronged approach from city officials. Reporter and New Yorker Anil Oza called up rodentologists to understand — does their approach withstand the test of scientific research? ... Show More

14m 4s

Dec 2024

The New Conservationists: AI is Making Meaning from the Sounds and Visuals of Wildlife (Part 2)

Ashleigh Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller, takes us on into the field. Conservationists and animal behaviorists were once restricted to wildlife data gathered manually. Now new technologies are expanding the amount of passively collected data—and machine learning is h ... Show More

17m 55s

Dec 2024

The New Conservationists: AI is Making Meaning from the Sounds and Visuals of Wildlife (Part 2)

Ashleigh Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller, takes us on into the field. Conservationists and animal behaviorists were once restricted to wildlife data gathered manually. Now new technologies are expanding the amount of passively collected data—and machine learning is h ... Show More

17m 55s

May 2024

How to Protect Wildlife without Leaving Home

Whether you have a large yard or a tiny planter, there are ways to use your outdoor space to protect wildlife. Senior news reporter Meghan Bartels takes us through what you can do, or stop doing, to make your yard and home friendlier to local critters. Related Reading: – 8 Ways ... Show More

7m 54s

Jul 2023

The science of sound

Scientists, conservationists and other researchers are using audio soundscapes in innovative ways to record the natural world in rich detail and help develop strategies to preserve it. Gaia Vince visits the Dear Earth exhibition at London’s Southbank Centre where she interacts wi ... Show More

35m 39s

Jul 2024

Digital Dr. Dolittle: decoding animal conversations with artificial intelligence (reprise)

Artificial Intelligence is making the stuff of science fiction a science reality, changing how humans interact with the world. It could also change the way we interact with wildlife, giving us the ability to talk to animals...but are we ready? On this episode Chris talks to Aza R ... Show More

50m 2s

Jun 2023

Rethinking The Lab Rat

For generations, scientists have leaned on seven key species, including rats and mice, for research. They're called model organisms and they've been standardized over the year — removing as much individuality as possible. But as research questions become more complicated, some re ... Show More

12m 39s

Jul 2024

Protecting wildlife from human activity

From the way we catch food, to how we generate energy, human activity inevitably impacts on wildlife and the environment in unintended ways. So this week we’re looking at ways to reduce this collateral damage. We visit a windfarm in Finland that's using AI to predict bird flight ... Show More

22m 59s

Sep 2023

Coming soon: Can AI help us speak to animals?

<p>Subscribe now to the FT's Tech Tonic podcast: Some scientists believe that rapid advances in artificial intelligence may also hold the key to decoding animal sounds, allowing us to ‘translate’ them into human language. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John T ... Show More

1m 9s

Dec 2021

What Does A Healthy Rainforest Sound Like? (encore)

On a rapidly changing planet, there are many ways to measure the health of an ecosystem. Can sound be one of them? Researcher Sarab Sethi explains how machine learning and soundscape recordings could be used to predict ecosystem health around the world.See pcm.adswizz.com for inf ... Show More

12m 46s

How rat poison endangers wildlife, and u...