2 October 2009
Ardipithecus ramidus; Origin of Community Structure; Your Letters To Science [Listen to MP3] 
The most detailed snapshot of early hominid life shows our common ancestor with chimpanzees was not chimp-like; an essay on the origins of community ecology; your Letters to Science; and more. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
25 September 2009
Science Podcast: Carbon Sequestration; Human Correspondence Patterns; Nutrition's Link to Violence [Listen to MP3]
Political and technical challenges to sequestration, transport, and storage of carbon dioxide; letter-writers and e-mailers fit the same mathematical model for human activity; measuring the effects of giving vitamin supplements to inmates on the incidences of prison violence; and more. (39 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
18 September 2009
Science Podcast: An Indicator of Terrorism; Locust Aerodynamics; Sterilizing Companion Animals [Listen to MP3]
Public disapproval as an indicator for incidences of international terrorism; modeling insect-wing deformation and the engineering challenges of copying nature; developing non-surgical methods of sterilizing cats and dogs; and more. (39 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
11 September 2009
Science Podcast: Swine-Origin Influenza; Multiple-Gene Adaptations [Listen to MP3]
Starting vaccinations now in the northern hemisphere is optimal to control influenza A (H1N1); understanding the genetic complexity of beach mouse adaptations; and more. (33 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
4 September 2009
Science Podcast: Focus on Cooperation [Listen to MP3]
Rewards, not punishments, promote more cooperation; similar sensitivity by dogs and infants to human communication signals suggests dogs' evolutionary novel skill; on the origin of cooperation; and more. (39 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
28 August 2009
Science Podcast: Depleting The Ozone Layer; Studying Dogs Behavior; Your Letters to Science [Listen to MP3]
Nitrous oxide is becoming the dominant ozone-depleting substance; using dogs to better understand how social cognition evolved; your Letters to Science; and more. (31 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
21 August 2009
Science Podcast: Distributing Flu Vaccines; Chinese Archaeology; The "Green Bomber" [Listen to MP3]
The optimal way to distribute limited quantities of flu vaccines may mean bypassing infants and the elderly; preserving ancient sites amidst China's development boom; new species of sea worms that drop glowing green bombs; and more. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
14 August 2009
Science Podcast: Imitation Affects Affiliation; Early Use of Fire as Engineering Tool; Improving Energy Efficiency [Listen to MP3]
Capuchin monkeys affiliate more with people who imitate them; early humans used fire used as an engineering tool 100,000 years earlier than previously thought; persuasion, regulation, and taxation for improving energy efficiency; and more. (42 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
7 August 2009
Science Podcast: Designer DNA Shapes; Technologies for Toxicity Testing; Origin of Eukaryotes [Listen to MP3]
Making twisted and curved nanoscale shapes from folded DNA; moving beyond animal testing for chemical toxicity; an essay on the origin of eukaryotes; and more. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
31 July 2009
Science Podcast: Assessing Ecological Restoration; Rethinking Funding for Graduate Schools; Science in Venezuela [Listen to MP3]
Measuring the biodiversity and benefits to people from restored ecosystems; a proposed switch in funding graduate school science education; Letters on Venezuelan science; and more. (37 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
24 July 2009
Science Podcast: The Cloud Effect; Socioeconomics And Physicists; Policing Nuclear Testing [Listen to MP3]
Positive feedback on the climate from low-level clouds; physicists and social scientists working together to model society; detecting nuclear blasts anywhere on Earth; and more. (43 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
17 July 2009
Science Podcast: Rotavirus Epidemics; an Aerial Arms Race; NIH's New Director [Listen to MP3]
Understanding the dynamics of a major worldwide killer; how tiger moths have evolved the ability to "jam" bat sonar; what Francis Collins brings to NIH; and more. (33 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
10 July 2009
Science Podcast: Reston ebolavirus in Swine; Reconstructing Hominins; What's Next after Yucca Mountain [Listen to MP3]
A nonlethal species of ebolavirus shows up in the human food chain; the art and science of creating reconstructions of our ancestors; the dilemmas confronting U.S. nuclear waste management; and more.
(40 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
3 July 2009
Science Podcast: H20 at the Mars Phoenix Landing Site; Serengeti Birds Help Their Forests; Origins of Nervous Systems [Listen to MP3]
Evidence of water in the geologically recent past in Mars's polar regions; how birds in the Serengeti maintain and stabilize sparse forest habitats; looking back to the first neuron; and more. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
26 June 2009
Science Podcast: New Draft Guidelines for Stem Cells; Neural Basis of Memory; Your Letters to Science [Listen to MP3]
New draft guidelines for U.S. stem cell research have some surprising omissions; digitally reconstructing brains to explore neuroanatomy – starting with an amnesic patient; your Letters to Science; and more. (35 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
19 June 2009
Science Podcast: Direct Aerosol Effect; Demystifying Merkel Cells; Cystic Fibrosis Update [Listen to MP3]
The cooling effect of aerosols on the climate; solving a 100-year-old mystery about the role of the body's Merkel cells; 20 years and counting since the discovery of the cystic fibrosis gene – still without a cure; and more. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
12 June 2009
Science Podcast: Development in the Amazon; Stamping Out Kashin-Beck Disease; Measuring Individual Atoms [Listen to MP3]
Deforestation leads to a "boom and bust" cycle in the Brazilian Amazon; China's efforts to stamp out Kashin-Beck disease; measuring the charge states of individual atoms of gold and silver; and more. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
5 June 2009
Science Podcast: Origins of Sexual Reproduction; Human Social Evolution; Assessing the Impact of Investing in Science [Listen to MP3]
Understanding the "why" of sexual reproduction; war and trade each drive the evolution of human social behavior; challenges to predicting outcomes of scientific investments; and more. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
29 May 2009
Science Podcast: Arctic Oil And Gas Reserves; Bat White-Nose Syndrome; Your Letters to Science [Listen to MP3]
Assessing the undiscovered oil and gas reserves in the Arctic; struggling to understand whether a white fungus is the real killer of bat populations; your Letters to Science; and more. (34 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
22 May 2009
Science Podcast: Controlling Blood Vessel Growth; Listening to A New Radio Pulsar; Detecting Scientific Plagiarism [Listen to MP3]
A microRNA that controls blood vessel growth; seeing and hearing a neutron star as it transitions into a radio pulsar; detecting scientific plagiarism with the Deja vu database; and more. (40 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
15 May 2009
Science Podcast: Vicarious Rewards; Potential Sea Level Rise Reassessment; Monies Budgeted for U.S. Science [Listen to MP3]
Seeing unrelated strangers succeed modulates neural systems associated with reward; reassessing the potential global sea level rise from the collapse of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet; the coming year's proposed budget for U.S. science; and more. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
8 May 2009
Science Podcast: Imaging Animal Cells; Bioelectricity Versus Bioethanol; Combating Wheat Rust [Listen to MP3]
Using infrared fluorescent proteins to image mammalian cells; greater transportation energy and greenhouse gas offsets from bioelectricity than bioethanol; fighting the fungus that threatens wheat; and more. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
1 May 2009
Science Podcast: African and African American Evolutionary History; Immune System Origins; Your Letters to Science [Listen to MP3]
The genetic structure and history of Africans and African Americans; an essay on the origins of the innate and adaptive immune systems; we read from your Letters to Science; and more. (39 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
24 April 2009
Science Podcast: Focus on Livestock Research [Listen to MP3]
Insights into mammalian evolution from the complete cow genome; the history of domestication of the sheep; and other advances in livestock research. (39 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
17 April 2009
Science Podcast: Improving Minority Student Performance; Laser Fusion at the National Ignition Facility [Listen to MP3]
A values-affirmation intervention shows a long-term performance benefit for minority students; using lasers to start a fusion reaction with the hope of producing more energy than was put into create it; and more. (36 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
10 April 2009
Science Podcast: Animal Flight Dynamics; Genetic Screening in Newborns; Ocean Ecosystems [Listen to MP3]
Flying bugs, bats, and birds exhibit the same turning method; ethical questions around screening newborn blood samples for more than for the health of the baby; a public trust doctrine for managing ocean ecosystems; and more. (40 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
3 April 2009
Science Podcast: Cardiac Renewal; Automating Science; Origin of Flowering Plants [Listen to MP3]
Evidence that muscle cells in our hearts are generated during our lifetimes; using robots to further automate science; an essay on the origin of flowering plants; and more. (35 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
27 March 2009
Science Podcast: Genetic Influences on Cognition; Visualizing HIV Infection; Professional Science Master's [Listen to MP3]
The genetic contribution to individual differences in the brain's neural networks; watching HIV jump from cell to cell in real time; arguing for an alternative to a PhD for science students; and more. (34 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
20 March 2009
Science Podcast: Self-Repairing Materials; Erasing a Fear Memory; Coming Coal Crunch [Listen to MP3]
Alfvén waves in the lower solar atmosphere are energetic enough to heat the Sun's corona; asking for advice from an experienced peer appears to be a better predictor of how you'll feel about a future event than your own imagination; treating neuropsychiatric disorders by putting electrodes in the brain; and more. (39 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
13 March 2009
Science Podcast: Self-Repairing Materials; Erasing a Fear Memory; Coming Coal Crunch [Listen to MP3]
Materials that heal themselves when exposed to sunlight; tracing a fear memory through a mouse's brain and eliminating it; nearing the peak production of coal; and more. (37 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
6 March 2009
Science Podcast: Markets versus Patents for Intellectual Discovery; Data Deluge in Science; U.S. Science Budget [Listen to MP3]
Increasing the speed of intellectual discovery; new computing methods needed to handle the deluge of data; more money for science in the stimulus package and U.S. budget; and more. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
27 February 2009
Science Podcast: Predicting Election Outcomes; Drug-Resistant Influenza; Letters to Science [Listen to MP3]
Young children playing a game predict actual election outcomes; virus mutation confers resistance against most widely used flu drug; your Letters to Science; and more. (37 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
20 February 2009
Science Podcast: New Materials for Microchips; Open-Access Science; Water Vapor Feedback [Listen to MP3]
Microchip makers forced to consider other materials; the effect of "open access" -- free and unrestricted access to scientific publications -- on citation statistics; and accounting for water vapor in climate change models. (26 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
13-16 February 2009
Science Podcast: 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting Stories
A series of stories and interviews from this year's meeting in Chicago, IL
13 February 2009
Science Podcast: Children's Gesturing; Seeing the Whole Moon; Neandertal Genome Update [Listen to MP3]
Toddler gesturing may explain disparities in school-aged children's vocabularies; the Kaguya satellite's view of the moon; completing the first draft of the Neandertal genome; and more. (40 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
6 February 2009
Science Podcast: Short-term Memory Biochemistry; Wolf Coat Color; Origin of Art [Listen to MP3]
Changes in dopamine levels in the brain are associated with better short-term memory; a mutation in wolves that gives them black coats comes from domesticated dogs; seeing the beginnings of symbolic behavior as the origin of art; and more. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
30 January 2009
Science Podcast: Swarming Behavior; Predicting Protests in China; Your Letters to Science [Listen to MP3]
Locusts' behavior changes mediated by serotonin; social scientists work to forecast protests in China; your Letters to Science; and more. (36 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
23 January 2009
Science Podcast: Increased Tree Mortality; Human Population History; Social Networks and Health [Listen to MP3]
Trees are dying at a faster rate in the western U.S.; research in bacteria and linguistics confirm each other in how human populations spread across the Pacific; who you know may influence your health; and more. (36 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
16 January 2009
Science Podcast: Modeling Massive Stars; Personalized Medicine; Culture of Astronomy [Listen to MP3]
The formation of stars more than twenty times larger than the Sun; setting an agenda for personalized medicine; and how the culture and practice of astronomy is changing. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
9 January 2009
Science Podcast: Responses to Racism; Love Songs of Mosquitoes; On the Origin of Species [Listen to MP3]
People mispredict how they would feel and behave after seeing racism; understanding how sounds affect the interactions among dengue vector mosquitoes; and a new series about evolution. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
2 January 2009
Science Podcast: Focus on Education and Technology [Listen to MP3]
A companion podcast to our Education and Technology special issue: immersive interfaces for learning; computer-assisted military training; and a new home-learning system in Korea. (28 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
Previous Years' Podcasts
2008 Shows
2007 Shows
2006 Shows
2005 Shows
Podcast content ©2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Music ©2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Jeffrey E. Cook
Fast-Evolving Supernova; Origins of Religion; Letters to Science [Listen to MP3] 
Pandemic H1N1 and the 2009 Hajj; Transfer of Wealth; Conversation with Nobel Laureates [Listen to MP3] 
Climate Accounting; Catastrophic Amphibian Declines; Big Telescopes [Listen to MP3] 
Interstellar Interactions; Saudi Arabia's KAUST; Carbonation's Taste [Listen to MP3] 
Personalized Cancer Treatments; Persistent Currents; Chromosome Organization [Listen to MP3] 
