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.


94 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
The Big Picture
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: The Big Picture, Credit: Ly Ly
How did life begin, what makes up the universe and the true nature of consciousness are some of the biggest puzzlers in science, but answers are in...

Bought by KREV-LP, New Hampshire Public Radio, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and WRIR


  • Added: Jul 11, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 4
Know Laughing Matter
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Know Laughing Matter, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why we evolved to laugh plus side-splitting jokes about electrons and relativity.

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and WRIR


  • Added: Jul 18, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Water the Chances
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Water the Chances, Credit: Seth Shostak
Getting the salt out: the most promising technologies for desalination… how astronauts filter “water-closet water” to drink… and, turning salt pond...

Bought by WRIR, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Jul 25, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Cell! Cell!
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Cell! Cell!, Credit: Seth Shostak
The story of Henrietta Lacks who unwittingly donated her tissue to science in 1951 and whose cells still grow in laboratories around the world today.

Bought by WRIR, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Aug 01, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 3
Written in Code
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Written in Code, Credit: Seth Shostak
Genes aren’t worth much unless they’re turned on – find out what factors influence gene expression and how to unleash your inner-Einstein

Bought by WRIR


  • Added: Aug 08, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Skeptic Check: Plotting Along
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Plotting Along, Credit: Seth Shostak
Why conspiracy theories persist – from 9-11 to UFOs to fluoride in our water.

Bought by WRIR and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Aug 15, 2011
  • Length: 54:01
  • Purchases: 2
Swarm in here... Or Is It Just Me?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Swarm in Here, Credit: Seth Shostak
Collective intelligence is what makes bees and ants so successful – find out how researchers are helping humans to get their collective act together.

Bought by WRIR


  • Added: Aug 22, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Into the Unknown
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Into the Unknown, Credit: Seth Shostak
From voyages to the bottom of the sea, to the edges of space: join us on treks of modern exploration.

Bought by WRIR


  • Added: Aug 29, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Seth's Tool Shed
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Seth's Tool Shed, Credit: Seth Shostak
A scheme for finding life on Mars, adopting to climate change, and a new moon of Pluto.

Bought by WRIR


  • Added: Sep 05, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Rend Me Your Ears
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Rend Me Your Ears, Credit: Seth Shostak
Our buzzing, humming, whirling, machine-driven world is a poster child for technological progress, and has driven one man to search for silence; we...

Bought by WRIR


  • Added: Sep 26, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
What's Your Poison?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: What's Your Poison?, Credit: Seth Shostak
“Aspirin and Old Lace?” Okay, you’d need a bottle of pills in a cup of elderberry wine, but aspirin can be deadly – hear why dose is key in toxicol...

  • Added: Oct 10, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
Skeptic Check, Beast Of
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check, Beast Of, Credit: Seth Shostak
Zombies, aliens, Bigfoot, oh my - we've covered - or rather uncovered - them all and more on Skeptic Check, our monthly look of critical thinking, ...

Bought by KREV-LP and WRIR


  • Added: Oct 03, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 2
Bug Off!
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Bug Off!, Credit: Seth Shostak
Humans have been battling viruses and bacteria since the beginning of time; stories from the frontier of epidemiology.

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Oct 31, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
NASA or What?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: NASA or What?, Credit: Seth Shostak
NASA in motion: the GRAIL mission takes us back to the moon, and – can you dig it? The rover Curiosity can. It’ll hunt for evidence of Martian lif...

  • Added: Nov 07, 2011
  • Length: 54:01
Blame it on Bacterio
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Blame it on Bacterio, Credit: Seth Shostak
Think small! Microbes are tinier than the dot at the end of this sentence, yet they can make humans sicker than dogs, dogs sicker than humans, jum...

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Nov 14, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
We've Got You Made
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: We've Got You Made, Credit: Seth Shostak
Computers are not only a part of your life, they may soon be a part of you - We’ll hear from the world’s first cyborg as to why we should make nice...

  • Added: Nov 21, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
Skeptic Check: Dubiology
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Dubiology, Credit: Seth Shostak
From earthquake-predicting cats to dangerous "pox parties" - instances of questionable biology and the history of American scientific literacy.

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Nov 28, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Science's Alliances
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Science's Alliances, Credit: Seth Shostak
A particle physicist-turned-U.S. Congressman, Muppets teach toddlers engineering, and other unique science pairings.

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Dec 05, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Sensor Sensibility
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Sensor Sensibility, Credit: Seth Shostak
“Ubiquitous sensing” aims to blanket the world in tiny sensors, the out-of-this world detection system that discovered a possibly Earth-like planet...

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Dec 19, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 1
Skeptic Check: Superstition
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Superstition, Credit: Seth Shostak
From fears of Friday the 13th to shattered mirrors - find out why our brains are wired for supernatural belief.

Bought by KREV-LP and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Dec 26, 2011
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 2

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