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.


91 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Skeptic Check: Hostile Climate
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Hostile Climate, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s a record we didn’t want to break. Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is at an all-time high. Meanwhile an op-ed in a leading new...

Bought by KVSC and WOUB


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 2
Going Viral
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Going Viral, Credit: Seth Shostak
Discover how viruses go from birds to pigs to you, how fossil viruses got into your genome, whether E.T. might be a virus, and what it takes for id...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Stomach This
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Stomach This, Credit: Seth Shostak
Not all conversation is appropriate for the dinner table – and that includes, strangely enough, the subject of eating. Yet, what happens during th...

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


  • Added: May 06, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
De-Extinction Show
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: De-Extinction Show, Credit: Seth Shostak
Maybe goodbye isn’t forever. Get ready to mingle with mammoths and gaze upon a ground sloth. Scientists want to give some animals a round-trip ti...

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


  • Added: Apr 29, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 5
Deep Time
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Deep Time, Credit: Seth Shostak
Think back, way back. Beyond last week to what was happening on Earth 100 million years ago or earlier. It’s hard to fathom such enormous stretch...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh, WNJR, KREV-LP, WOUB, and Royalton Community Radio


  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 5
Skeptic Check: Forget with the Program
From: Big Picture Science
Series: 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, Royalton Community Radio, WNJR, and KVSC


  • Added: Apr 15, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Seth's Wine Cellar
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Seth's Wine Cellar, Credit: Seth Shostak
In this potpourri show: from atomic clocks … to solar storms … to gold particles that might make gasoline obsolete … there are lots of science surp...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh, Royalton Community Radio, KSKQ, and WNJR


  • Added: Apr 08, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Anthropocene and Heard
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Anthropocene and Heard, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why climate change and loss of biodiversity may mean goodbye to the "Holocene," and hello to a new geologic epoch, the "Age of Man."

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh, WNJR, and Royalton Community Radio


  • Added: Apr 01, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Skeptic Check: Friends Like These
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
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 WRST-FM Oshkosh, KREV-LP, WNJR, and WOUB


  • Added: Mar 25, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Time for a Map
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Time for a Map, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s hard to get lost these days. GPS pinpoints your location to within a few feet. Discover how our need to get from A to B holds clues about wh...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh, Royalton Community Radio, KREV-LP, and WNJR


  • Added: Mar 18, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Our Tasteless Show
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Our Tasteless Show, Credit: Seth Shostak
Imagine biting into a rich chocolate donut and not tasting it. That’s what happened to one woman when she lost her sense of smell. Discover what ...

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


  • Added: Mar 11, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 5
Happy Daze
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Happy Daze, Credit: Seth Shostak
Calling all pessimists – discover why your brain is wired for optimism, the evolutionary advantage of thinking positive and other research into th...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh and WNJR


  • Added: Mar 04, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 2
Skeptic Check: About Face
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: About Face, Credit: Seth Shostak
Humans are pattern seeking animals – and the silhouette of Elvis appears in our burrito. Does that mean The King is speaking to us through TexMex?...

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


  • Added: Feb 25, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
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
Say La Vie
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Say La Vie, Credit: Seth Shostak
Researchers discover life in a subglacial Antarctic lake. James Cameron takes the first solo dive to the deepest, darkest part of the ocean.

Bought by KAZU, WOUB, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KREV-LP, and WNJR


  • Added: Feb 11, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 5
That's Containment!
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: That's Containment!, Credit: Seth Shostak
We all crave power - to run laptops, charge cell phones, and play Angry Birds. But why don’t batteries last longer? Discover why their technolog...

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


  • Added: Feb 04, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Skeptic Check: Science Blunders
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Science Blunders, Credit: Seth Shostak
We’ve all had an “oops” moment. Scientists are no exception. Sometimes science stumbles in the steady march of progress. Hear a few of those bum...

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


  • Added: Jan 28, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
We Heart Robots
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: We Heart Robots, Credit: Seth Shostak
Here come the machines. Meet the prototypes of your future robot buddies and discover how you may come to love a hunk of hardware. Also, should ...

Bought by KREV-LP and WNJR


  • Added: Jan 21, 2013
  • 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 KREV-LP, WNJR, and KVSC


  • Added: Jan 14, 2013
  • 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: Jan 07, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 2

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