Big Picture Science

Series produced by Big Picture Science

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Big Picture Science is a weekly one-hour science magazine that connects ideas in surprising and humorous ways to illuminate the origins and evolution of life and technology on this planet… and beyond.

From free-thinking robots... to the recipe for dark matter... to the mix-and-match genes of synthetic biology, we have it all! One episode a month, Skeptic Check, is devoted to critical thinking.

Produced at the SETI Institute and hosted by Seth Shostak and Molly Bentley.

Big Picture Science can be found on iTunes and other podcast sites. Radio stations carrying the program are listed on our "listening" page at radio.seti.org

The program is freely available to radio stations for broadcast.

The show began with the title Are We Alone? in 2002.


330 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Space Rocks!
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Space Rocks!, Credit: Seth Shostak
Some astronomers have proposed that an oddly-shaped object that recently passed through our solar system could be an alien artifact, and not an ast...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, KCSB-FM, WUFT, KFOI Radio and more


  • Added: Nov 19, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 12
Wonder Women
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Wonder Women, Credit: Seth Shostak
Science is supposed to be merit-based and objective. And yet the data say otherwise. A new study reveals widespread harassment of women of color i...

Bought by High Plains Public Radio, WMUU-LP, KICI Iowa City, KUNM, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Oct 01, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 22
DNA: Nature's Hard Drive
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: DNA: Nature's Hard Drive, Credit: Seth Shostak
A new place to store your animated GIF: in a living organism’s DNA. Researchers have done that as proof of concept that the molecule is a great rep...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KVNF, KCSB-FM and more


  • Added: Sep 17, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Angles of a Hack
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Angles of a Hack, Credit: Seth Shostak
The idea of “hacking” has changed a lot from the days when it meant nosing around the phone system. Today computer hacking poses a strategic threa...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, KIDE Hoopa Tribal Radio 91.3fm, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Sep 10, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Plan of a Hack
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Plan of a Hack, Credit: Seth Shostak
Before cyber criminals were stealing ATM passwords, phone phreaks were tapping into the telephone system. Today “hacking” can apply to cyberwarfare...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, KIDE Hoopa Tribal Radio 91.3fm, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Sep 03, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Too Big To Prove
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Too Big To Prove, Credit: Seth Shostak
Celebrations are in order for the physicists who won the 2017 Nobel Prize for the detection of gravitational waves. Unfolding over a century, the ...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, KTSW 89.9, KMXT and more


  • Added: Aug 20, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
What Goes Around
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: What Goes Around, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s not just tin cans and newspapers. One man says that everything can be recycled – cigarette butts, yoga mats, dirty diapers. Even radioactive...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, WMRA, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Jul 09, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
Imagining Planets
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Imagining Planets, Credit: Seth Shostak
Get to know your planetary neighbors. Dive into a mountain lake and trek though the driest desert on Earth with a scientist who’s had not one but ...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Royalton Community Radio, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., KBBI Alaska and more


  • Added: Jun 04, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 10
We Are VR
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: We Are VR, Credit: Seth Shostak
Will virtual reality make you a better person? Seth puts on a VR headset for an immersive experience of a man who’s evicted from his apartment. F...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WPCA-LP, WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, RadioFreePalmer and more


  • Added: Feb 25, 2019
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 10
DIY Diagnosis
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: DIY Diagnosis, Credit: Seth Shostak
You can use your DNA to explore your genetic health – but are you ready for what you might find when your genome is sequenced? Plus, practitioners...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, WMUU-LP, Royalton Community Radio, KBBI Alaska and more


  • Added: Dec 25, 2017
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 16
Weather Vain
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Weather Vain, Credit: Seth Shostak
History is replete with attempts to control the weather, but we’d settle for an accurate, seven-day forecast. Find out how sophisticated technolog...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, CHSR-FM 97.9, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Jan 01, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 21
Are Animals Really That Smart?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Are Animals Really That Smart?, Credit: Seth Shostak
Find out how housecats manage to wrap their owners around their paws, and primatologist Frans de Waal on the surprising smarts of chimps, elephants...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, WUFT, KAZU Seaside, Calif., KTSW 89.9 and more


  • Added: Jan 08, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 19
DIY Spaceflight
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: DIY Spaceflight, Credit: Seth Shostak
How the geeky son of immigrant parents incentivized construction of the first private spaceship and kick started the commercial launch industry. A...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Royalton Community Radio, KBBI Alaska, KUER and more


  • Added: Jan 22, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 12
Skeptic Check: New UFO Evidence
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: New UFO Evidence, Credit: Seth Shostak
It was a shocker of a story, splashed across the New York Times front page: The existence of a five-year long, hidden Pentagon study of UFOs. We c...

Bought by WMUU-LP, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, CHSR-FM 97.9, WRST-FM Oshkosh, Bandon Community Radio and more


  • Added: Jan 29, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 10
Bacteria to the Future
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Bacteria to the Future, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why did the chicken take antibiotics? To fatten it up and prevent bacterial infection. But farms have become superbug factories, threatening our l...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, KFOI Radio, Royalton Community Radio, CHSR-FM 97.9 and more


  • Added: Nov 26, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 10
Quantum: Why We Want 'Em
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Quantum: Why We Want 'Em, Credit: Seth Shostak
Today, everything from cell phones to LED lighting depends on the weird behavior described by quantum mechanics. But will this strange physics soo...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Royalton Community Radio, KBBI Alaska and more


  • Added: Feb 19, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Meet Your Robot Barista
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Meet Your Robot Barista, Credit: Seth Shostak
We sip lattes in a robot café and contemplate the future of work. Our mechanical barista is just a start as robots and A.I. train to do a variety o...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WHCP-LP Cambridge, CHSR-FM 97.9, WRST-FM Oshkosh, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Jan 28, 2019
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 9
Skeptic Check: Your Inner Lab Coat
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Your Inner Lab Coat, Credit: Seth Shostak
Sherlock Holmes doesn’t have a science degree, yet he thinks rationally like a scientist. You can too! Learn the secrets of being irritatingly lo...

Bought by WVTF, WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRST-FM Oshkosh and more


  • Added: Mar 26, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 12
Hawkingravity
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Hawkingravity, Credit: Seth Shostak
Stephen Hawking felt gravity’s pull. His quest to understand this feeble force spanned his career, and he was the first to realize that black hole...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WHCP-LP Cambridge, CHSR-FM 97.9, WRST-FM Oshkosh, Royalton Community Radio and more


  • Added: Mar 11, 2019
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 9
Brain Dust
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Brain Dust, Credit: Seth Shostak
The brain is a hot research topic, but despite all efforts, your grey matter largely remains a black box – an indecipherable web of neurons with a ...

Bought by WMUU-LP, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, CHSR-FM 97.9, Royalton Community Radio, RadioFreePalmer and more


  • Added: Apr 09, 2018
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13

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