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.


329 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
¡A.I. CARAMBA!
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: A.I. Caramba!, Credit: Seth Shostak
When the IBM computer, Watson, snatched the “Jeopardy” title from humans, that raised the question: could artificial intelligence ever beat humans ...

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Nov 20, 2014
  • Length: 54:14
  • Purchases: 1
Skeptic Check: Monsters, Magic, and Music
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Monster, Magic, and Music, Credit: Seth Shostak
A combo of critical thinking; from tracking Bigfoot and magic’s ability to fool the brain to whether a study about music supports the “Mozart Effec...

Bought by KSKQ, KREV-LP, and KVSC


  • Added: Aug 27, 2012
  • Length: 54:02
  • Purchases: 3
The Invisible In-Between
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: The Invisible In-Between, Credit: Seth Shostak
To need air is human. Catch a skydiver in action and discover what’s in supposedly empty interstellar space.

Bought by KSKQ and KREV-LP


  • Added: Sep 03, 2012
  • Length: 54:02
  • Purchases: 2
Oh, Rats!
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Oh, Rats!, Credit: Seth Shostak
Before you chase it with a broom, consider this: Without the rat, we might miss critical insights into the nature of stress, cancer … and even love...

Bought by KVSC and KREV-LP


  • Added: Sep 10, 2012
  • Length: 54:32
  • Purchases: 2
Skeptic Check: Energy Vortex
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Energy Vortex, Credit: Seth Shostak
The science behind “mysterious energy,” from magnetic poles to haunted houses, and just what the heck is an “energy vortex” anyway?

Bought by KSKQ and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Sep 17, 2012
  • Length: 54:03
  • Purchases: 2
Big Data
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Big Data, Credit: Seth Shostak
Big data is revolutionizing research. Learn how it might cure disease, or find ET. But is it a threat to our privacy?

Bought by WERA-LP, WMUU-LP, WMUU-LP, KUNM, WRST-FM Oshkosh and more


  • Added: Sep 24, 2012
  • Length: 54:02
  • Purchases: 6
Skeptic Check: Mysterious Illness
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Mysterious Illness, Credit: Seth Shostak
The strange case of stuttering in Le Roy, N.Y. and an update on the cellphone cancer debate.

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh and KREV-LP


  • Added: Oct 01, 2012
  • Length: 54:02
  • Purchases: 2
[Rectangular Container] Thinking
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: [Rectangular Container] Thinking, Credit: Seth Shostak
Discover the original thinking that led to the discovery of dark matter and the invention of a.c. power grids, disinfectant, and the Greek “death r...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh, KREV-LP, and KVSC


  • Added: Oct 08, 2012
  • Length: 54:02
  • Purchases: 3
As the Worlds Turn
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: As the Worlds Turn, Credit: Seth Shostak
If you’re itching to get away from it all, really get away from it all, have we got some exotic destinations for you. From Mars to Jupiter’s moon...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh and KREV-LP


  • Added: Oct 15, 2012
  • Length: 54:02
  • Purchases: 2
Space Archaeology
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Space Archaeology, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why modern archaeologists forsake digging in the dirt in favor of a satellite view, and how we might track extraterrestrials from the trash they le...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh and KREV-LP


  • Added: Oct 22, 2012
  • Length: 54:01
  • Purchases: 2
Going Global
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Going Global, Credit: Seth Shostak
Writer David Quammen on what it takes for an animal disease to become a human pandemic. Also, was hurricane Sandy a man-made disaster?

Bought by KVSC, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and KREV-LP


  • Added: Nov 05, 2012
  • Length: 54:02
  • Purchases: 3
Skeptic Check: Zombies Aren't Real
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Zombies Aren't Real, Credit: Seth Shostak
Writer Guy Harrison on why Zombies might be a ghosts from our Pleistocene past, and how mathematical modeling of these mythical creatures could hel...

Bought by KMUN, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KUNM, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and KREV-LP


  • Added: Jan 13, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 5
No Expiration Date
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: No Expiration Date, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why food molds, people age and plastic sticks around so gosh darn long.

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Nov 19, 2012
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Doomsday Live, Part I
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Doomsday Live, Part I, Credit: Molly Bentley
If there is only one show you hear about the end of the world, let it be this one. Recorded before a live audience at the Computer History Museum ...

Bought by WCPN, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KREV-LP, and KSKQ


  • Added: Nov 26, 2012
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Doomsday Live, Part 2
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Doomsday Live, Part 2, Credit: Seth Shostak
If there is only one show you hear about the end of the world, let it be this one. Recorded before a live audience at the Computer History Museum ...

Bought by WCPN, KREV-LP, and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Dec 03, 2012
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Remembers Only
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Remembers Only, Credit: Seth Shostak
Almost everything we know about memory comes from the life of one man born in 1926 and known as H.M., the world’s “most unforgettable amnesiac.”

Bought by KSKQ, KREV-LP, and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Dec 24, 2012
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Skeptic Check: They're Baack!
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: They're Baack!, Credit: Seth Shostak
When we return: the mythos and the science of reincarnation, hibernation, and suspended animation.

Bought by Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and KREV-LP


  • Added: Dec 31, 2012
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Ultimate Hook Up
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Ultimate Hook Up, Credit: Seth Shostak
Our love-affair with computers marches on: if we wire human brains directly to them, where does the mind end and the machine begin?

Bought by KREV-LP and WNJR


  • Added: Aug 18, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 2
Whither the Weather?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Whither the Weather?, Credit: Seth Shostak
BiPiSci 110914 Whither the Weather? BiPiSci11-09-12 09/14/11 10/11/11 We all talk about the weather, and now scientists are doing something about i...

Bought by Northeast Indiana Public Radio, KREV-LP, WNJR, and KVSC


  • Added: Jan 14, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Whodunit, Who'll Do It?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Whodunit, Who'll Do It?, Credit: Seth Shostak
The tools of forensics have moved way beyond fingerprint kits - discover why, these days, a prosecutor is as likely to wave a fMRI brain scan as a ...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh and WNJR


  • Added: Feb 18, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 2

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