Science: A Candle In The Dark: Recent Episodes
Madhusudan Katti
A podcast about the wonders of the universe and how science helps us illuminate our lives by discovering them together. A conversation about science as a creative activity at the heart of human culture. An attempt to bring science out of the ivory tower laboratory into the cafes and pubs and streets to be part of our cultural discourse.
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 16: The Urban Slender Loris Project
Airdate: 28 June 2016
Host: Vic Bedoian
Guest: Dr. Kaberi Kar Gupta, The Urban Slender Loris Project.
Summary:This month, we had co-producer Vic Bedoian in the host seat. He interviewed Dr. Kaberi Kar Gupta about her remarkable effort to bring together ordinary citizens, naturalists, and scientists to study and help conserve the Slender Loris, a tiny nocturnal primate (pictured above), within the megacity of Bangalore, India. Learn more about the Urban Slender Loris Project o [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 16: Planets, Moons, Magnets
Airdate: 26 April 2016
Host: Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guest: Dr. Alain Plattner, Dept of Earth and Environmental Sciences, CSU, Fresno.
Summary:This month, we look at planets and moons from a different perspective – a magnetic view, if you will. Dr. Alain Plattner, a magnetic geographer of sorts, who uses measurements made by satellites orbiting planetary bodies to map the magnetic fields generated by the planet or moon, shares insights from his research with host Madhusudan Katti. He also gamely subjects himself to a new segment of semi-rapid-fire questions at the end, in [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 15: Evolution and Ecology of Bird Diversity
Airdate: 22 March 2016
Host: Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guest: Dr. Christopher Trisos, Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC)
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 14: Postmodern Winemaking
Airdate: 23 February 2016
Host: Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guest: Matt Brain, Fresno State’s Winemaker
Topic: In this episode we celebrate the first anniversary of this podcast, with a look back at the wide range of topics covered since our first episode aired in February 2016. With Fresno State’s winemaker Matt Brain in the studio, we raise a glass of some wine he created, and learn a bit about the science and art of winemaking in the postmodern era. And we toast our host station, KFCF 88.1FM, and especially, the station’s Executive Director Rych Withers and our producer Vic Bedoian for taking a chance by putting a scientist on the Central Va [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 13: Sexual Harassment in Science – a roundable
Airdate: 12 February 2016
Host: Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guests: Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Dr. Kaberi Kar Gupta, Dr. Kathryn Forbes, Dr. Amanda Mortimer, Dr. Janet Stemwedel, Dr. Katie Hinde, and Dr. Karen James.
Topic: This special hour-long episode of the show features an interview with Congresswoman Jackie Speier who is shining a bright light on the longstanding issue of sexual harassment in science and academia, and leading the effort to bring about legislation to lead us towards better ethical conduct with respect to harassment in science. This is followed by a discussion by a multidisciplinary panel of women scientists on the extent of the problem in academic culture, and ways to start changing [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 12: Why do we need Charles Darwin in 2016?
Airdate: 26 January 2016
Host: Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guests: Dr. Dawn M. Digrius
Topic: With Darwin Day 2016 coming up, science historian Dr. Dawn Digrius talks to Dr. Madhusudan Katti to share stories about Charles Darwin, and how his work remains relevant to our concerns in 2016.
Birthday card courtesy of the artist Carl Buell.
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 11:Birds in the City: social and ecological drivers of urban biodiversity Airdate:22 December 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guests:**Pedro Garcia
Topic: Cities have become the primary habitat for most of humanity. They are also habitat for many other species even as we continue to fragment and destroy and disrupt natural ecosystems across the planet. How well other species manage to survive or not in our cities depends on how we manage the urban landscape, whether mindful of its impacts on wildlife or caring only for human development. Pedro Garci [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 9:Joshua Trees: the science of listing a threatened species. Airdate:*27October 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guests:Chris Clarke.*
Topic:You may recognize this iconic tree of California and Arizona deserts the Joshua Tree. Perhaps because you’ve seen images, perhaps because you’re familiar with that rock album, or perhaps you’ve even seen these strange beautiful trees in person. But how well do you know Joshua Trees? Not as well as our guest Chris Clarke, a prolific writer and environment editor at KCET TV, [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 9:A Biologist and a Sociologist talk about CRISPR! Airdate:*27October 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guests:*Dr. Tricia Van Laar and Dr. Andrew Rhys Jones
Topic:The new DNA editing technique called CRISPR has been much in the science news feeds lately because of its exciting and perhaps frightening potential to enable the editing of genomes at levels of precision that may very w [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 8:Updates from the Autism Spectrum Airdate:*22September 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guests: Dr. Amanda Mortimer*
Topic:During last week’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate, medical science made a rare appearance in the nation’s political media discourse, when Jake Tapper raised the question about appropriate schedules for childhood vaccinations. This was triggered by candidate Donald Trump’s reassertion of a new long-discredited link between vaccines and autism. The two actual medical doctors on the panel, Ben Carson and Rand Paul did dismiss the suggestion of such a link. But Trump went on to claim that we are actually faci [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 7: Fear and Learning in Science & Mathematics
Airdate:25 August 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guests: Dr. Amanda Mortimer and Dr. Beth Weinman.**
Topic:Are you afraid of science? Do you suffer from Maths Anxiety? And are you transferring some of these fears to your childre [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 6: Humans and Nature in the City
Airdate:28 July 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guests: Dr. Charles Nilon and Dr. Paige Warren.**
Topic:This month, while the Café Scientifique is on its summer break, we bring you a wide-ranging conversation about how humans interact with nature in cities, and how scientists study this human-nature relationship. As Dr. Paige Warren notes earl [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 5: Urban Ecology
Airdate:23 June 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Special Correspondent: Stephanie Slonka
Guests:Dr. Emily Minor, Dr. Kaberi Kar Gupta, Dr. John Marzluff, and Kim Eierman.
[...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 4: Exoplanets
Airdate:26 May 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guest:** Dr. Fred Ringwald
Topic:Four hundred years ago, Galileo pointed a simple telescope up at Jupiter and discovered moons orbiting around that planet. That was the first time any human had seen such a moon orbiting another planet, and it upended our entire conception of the universe and our place within it – a seminal moment in the history of the enlightenment. It took until just [...]
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Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 3
Airdate:28 April 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guest: Dr. Ulrike Müller
Commentary:**Dr. Andrew Rhys Jones
Topic:Biomechanics applies principles from physics and engineering to understand how living organisms move and function as living machines. At the same time, an engineering perspective can be quite limiting in [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 2
Airdate:24 February 2015
Host:Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guest: Dr. Mara Brady
Commentary: Dr. Paul Crosbie
Topic:Earth sciences and the insights we have gained into the history of our planet including the evolution of life leading up to our own species. In a wide ranging discussion, Dr. Brady talks about the tools used to study the age of rocks [...]
Science: A Candle In The Dark
Episode 1
Airdate: 24 February 2015
Host: Dr. Madhusudan Katti
Guest: Dr. Doug Singleton
Topic: Particle fever: its a particle zoo inside that atom! What do we know about the structure of matter at the most fundamental level? Theoretical physicist Doug Singleton explains our current understanding of subatomic particles and the recent excitement over the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle.
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