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
Caption: Emergence, Credit: Seth Shostak
Your brain is made up of cells. Each one does its own thing. But remarkable behavior emerges when lots of them join up in the grey matter club. ...

Bought by KREV-LP, KUNM, KSKQ, RadioFreePalmer, KRPS and more


  • Added: May 11, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: The Evolution of Evolution, Credit: Seth Shostak
Move over, Darwin. With genetic engineering, we can make radical changes to species in just one generation. As humans begin to tinker with their ...

Bought by KUNM, XRAY.fm, KVNF, WXDU, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Sep 12, 2016
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
Caption: Invisible Worlds, Credit: Seth Shostak
What you can’t see.

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh, KSKQ, RadioFreePalmer, KRPS, WRIR and more


  • Added: Apr 27, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Hidden History, Credit: Seth Shostak
Archeologists continue to hunt for the city of Atlantis, even though it may never have existed. And paleontologists now suspect that it wasn’t jus...

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, WRST-FM Oshkosh, WRGY, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Oct 31, 2016
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 18
Caption: Life in Space
Discovering bacteria on Mars would be big news, but a novel telescope might find intelligent life by detecting the heat of a large alien city. Plu...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh, KSKQ, RadioFreePalmer, KRPS, WRGY and more


  • Added: Apr 20, 2015
  • Length: 54:06
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Skeptic Check: Monster Mashup, Credit: Seth Shostak
Monsters don’t exist. Except when they do. And extinction is forever, except when it isn’t. From Bigfoot to the coelacanth to the wooly mammoth:...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KSKQ, KRPS, WRGY and more


  • Added: Apr 13, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Power to the People
Nikola Tesla gave energy to the masses, but the next generation might electrify their lives with hydrogen-powered cars, nuclear fusion, and orbitin...

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  • Added: Mar 23, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 10
Caption: Mars-Struck, Credit: Seth Shostak
The private company Mars One says it will land humans on Mars by 2026, but is offering passengers only one-way tickets. Meet a young woman who is r...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio, KREV-LP, KSKQ, WRGY, KRPS and more


  • Added: Mar 09, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Sesquicentennial Science, Credit: Seth Shostak
We travel to the University of Notre Dame to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its College of Science, and learn how the modern hunt for planets a...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KREV-LP, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KSKQ, KRPS and more


  • Added: Feb 16, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Digging Our Past
Digging Our Past. We hear about two projects that use the tools of modern chemistry and anthropology to deepen our understanding of a dark chapter...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio, KSKQ, WYAP, KRPS, WRGY and more


  • Added: Feb 02, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Skeptic Check: Mummy Dearest, Credit: Seth Shostak
Shh …mummy’s the word! We don’t want to provoke the curse of King Tut. We’ll unravel secrets about the famous Egyptian pharaoh, dispel myths abou...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KKWE Niijii Radio, KSKQ, WRGY, KRPS and more


  • Added: Jan 26, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Big Questions Somewhat Answered, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why are we here? What happened after the Big Bang? What is dark matter? Will dark energy tear the universe apart? Each of these big puzzlers is...

Bought by KREV-LP, KSKQ, KRPS, WYAP, WRIR and more


  • Added: Jan 19, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Meet Your Replacements, Credit: Seth Shostak
There’s no one like you. At least, not yet. But will the future have androids able to do just about everything, computers hooked directly into yo...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio, KREV-LP, KRPS, KSKQ, KUNC & The Colorado Sound and more


  • Added: Jan 05, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: Skeptic Check: Got a Sweet Truth, Credit: Seth Shostak
The sweet stuff is getting sour press. Some researchers say sugar is toxic. But should cupcakes be regulated like alcohol?

Bought by KRPS, RadioFreePalmer, WRIR, WRGY, WYAP and more


  • Added: Dec 29, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Long Live Longevity, Credit: Seth Shostak
The science of sticking around: The latest in aging studies, why there's a silver lining for the silver-haired set (older people are happier), and ...

Bought by KSKQ, KKWE Niijii Radio, CHSR-FM 97.9, KAZU Seaside, Calif., WRGY and more


  • Added: Dec 01, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 9
Caption: This Land is Island, Credit: Seth Shostak
There are many kinds of islands. There’s your iconic sandy speck of land topped with a palm tree, but there’s also our home planet – an island in ...

Bought by WVTF, KRPS, CHSR-FM 97.9, KREV-LP, WRGY and more


  • Added: Nov 24, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Skeptic Check: Are You Sure You're Sure?, Credit: Seth Shostak
You know what you know. But you probably don’t know what you don’t know. Few of us do. Scientists say we’re spectacularly incompetent at recogni...

Bought by WVTF, KSKQ, 91.7 WHUS Storrs, RadioFreePalmer, KRPS and more


  • Added: Jul 27, 2015
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Caption: Sounds Abound, Credit: Seth Shostak
The world abounds in sound. Now we know what the fuss is about. With computers we can analyze the song of birds (they give each other nicknames) ...

Bought by Gallatin Valley Community Radio, KRPS, CHSR-FM 97.9, WRST-FM Oshkosh, WYAP and more


  • Added: Nov 03, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Skeptic Check: Friends Like These, Credit: Seth Shostak
We love our family and friends, but sometimes their ideas about how the world works can seem a little wacky. We look at the examples that BiPiSci ...

Bought by WUFT, KKWE Niijii Radio, KRPS, CHSR-FM 97.9, Accessible Media Inc. and more


  • Added: Oct 27, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: What's the Difference?, Credit: Seth Shostak
We make split second decisions about others – someone is male or female, black or white, us or them. But sometimes the degrees of separation are i...

Bought by Accessible Media Inc., KREV-LP, WRST-FM Oshkosh, Accessible Media Inc. Station Account, WYAP and more


  • Added: Oct 06, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 8