Series: Big Picture Science

Produced by Big Picture Science

Series image

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.


46 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
To Earth and Back
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: To Earth and Back, Credit: Seth Shostak
Meet the NASA officer whose task is to keep Earth, Mars - and the entire solar system - free of hitchhiking bacteria.

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: May 21, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:02
  • Purchases: 1
That's So Random!
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: That's So Random!, Credit: Seth Shostak
We crave order in things, but we can’t iron out every chaotic crease, nor would we want to: from brain cell activity to the evolution of species, ...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: May 14, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:03
  • Purchases: 1
Skeptic Check: Forget with the Program
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Forget with the Program, Credit: Seth Shostak
Just remember this: Even our memories of dramatic events that seem to burn themselves directly into our brain are riddled with errors.

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: May 07, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:02
  • Purchases: 1
Group Think
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Group Think, Credit: Seth Shostak
If two is company and three a crowd, what’s the ideal number for to write a play or invent a new operating system? Experts disagree whether creati...

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Apr 30, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:02
  • Purchases: 1
Early Adapters
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Early Adapters, Credit: Seth Shostak
How Homo sapiens can wield technology to adapt to the onslaught of climate change, a growing population, and the blitz of hi-tech.

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Apr 23, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:02
  • Purchases: 1
Humans Need Not Apply
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Humans Need Not Apply, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s silicon vs. carbon as intelligent, interactive machines out-perform humans in tasks beyond data-crunching – find out what jobs are left for hu...

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Apr 16, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:03
  • Purchases: 1
Second that Emotion
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Second that Emotion, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why flies in milk gross you out and other voyages through human emotion.

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Apr 09, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:02
  • Purchases: 1
Life Back Then
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Life Back Then, Credit: Seth Shostak
Time keeps on ticking, ticking … and as it does, evolution operates to produce remarkable and transformative changes in species.

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Apr 02, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:01
  • Purchases: 1
Found in Space
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Found in Space, Credit: Seth Shostak
From Google to GPS – how modern mapping is reshaping our world view.

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Mar 26, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:02
  • Purchases: 1
Catch a Wave
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Catch a Wave, Credit: Seth Shostak
What your eye sees is but a narrow band in the electromagnetic spectrum. Discover what the rest reveals about the secrets of the universe.

Bought by KREV-LP and KSJD


  • Added: Mar 19, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:02
  • Purchases: 2
Seth's Cabinet of Wonders
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Seth's Cabinet of Wonders, Credit: Seth Shostak
A potpourri show: from Sealab … to the next Cosmos series… to software to replace scientists, you never know what you’ll find when you root around ...

Bought by KREV-LP, Yellowstone Public Radio, and KSJD


  • Added: Mar 12, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:02
  • Purchases: 3
Skeptic Check: Prog-Not-Stication
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Prog-Not-Stication, Credit: Seth Shostak
From psychics to the Mayan end-of-world prophesy to computer forecasts: who can divine the future?

Bought by KREV-LP and KSJD


  • Added: Mar 05, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:00
  • Purchases: 2
Rife with Life
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Rife with Life, Credit: Seth Shostak
Follow the water is the astrobiology mantra. Where there’s water, there may be life. Join us for a tour of watery solar system bodies.

Bought by KSJD


  • Added: Feb 27, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Skeptic Check: Saucer's Apprentice
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Saucer's Apprentice, Credit: Seth Shostak
UFO sightings are as common as flies at a picnic, but proof of visitation is alien – find out why belief persists.

Bought by KREV-LP and KSJD


  • Added: Feb 20, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:00
  • Purchases: 2
Aware am I?
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Aware am I?, Credit: Seth Shostak
From food to sex to fine art, humans are pleasure-seekers - discover the surprising motivation behind our desires.

Bought by KSJD


  • Added: Feb 13, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Getting a Spacelift
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Getting a Spacelift, Credit: Seth Shostak
The future of spaceflight, why humans should go to Mars, the techno-wizardry needed to get there, working on an asteroid, and a space tourist’s pri...

Bought by KREV-LP and KSJD


  • Added: Feb 06, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:00
  • Purchases: 2
Material Whirl
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Material Whirl, Credit: Seth Shostak
The future of man-made materials from 3D printers to artificial skin. Also, why ancient Roman concrete was better than ours.

Bought by KREV-LP and Yellowstone Public Radio


  • Added: Jan 30, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:30
  • Purchases: 2
Skeptic Check: Energy Vortex
Series: Big Picture Science
From 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 KREV-LP and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Jan 23, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:00
  • Purchases: 2
Wired for Thought
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Wired for Thought, Credit: Seth Shostak
A cup of coffee can leave you wired for the day, but a chip in your brain could wire you to a machine forever; the future of brain-machine interfaces.

Bought by KREV-LP, Yellowstone Public Radio, and KUNM


  • Added: Jan 16, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Cosmos: It's Big, It's Weird
Series: Big Picture Science
From Big Picture Science
Caption: Cosmos: It's Big, It's Weird, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s all about you. And you, and you, and you and you … that is, if we live in parallel universes. Physicist Brian Greene’s case for multiverses.

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


  • Added: Jan 09, 2012
  • Length: 00:54:00
  • Purchases: 3

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