Mon, 5 October 2009 Find show notes at: http://www.laboutloud.com/ |
Mon, 6 October 2008 Find show notes for this episode at: http://www.laboutloud.com/ |
Mon, 4 February 2008  In this episode, we chat with PZ Myers - lead author of the blog Pharyngula (Pharyngula is hosted at Science Blogs - a project from Seed Magazine). Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
Myers: What you want to do with a blog - it's such an informal medium - if you get all stuffy and treat it as something where you are going to write a formal treatise everyday, I don't think you'll get as much interest. So by keeping it personal, keeping it human, what I think I've done is open up a little window into a science professor's life, which is sometimes scary, but fun. Basler: Do you think that this type of casual communication [blogging] is something really important that the students are going to need in the future, or was it just an experiment to try out because you were blogging? Myers: Oh it's both. I mean, this is a brave new medium. I'm trying new things; I wanna explore this and see what we can do with our students. But I also think it's important for the future of science and science education - that what we want is active, involved learners at every stage of the game. And if this is a way that we can get people talking about science, then that's a huge step - that's important. Myers: My schedule's turning into a frightening thing; it's getting so packed full of requests to talk, but I try to indulge in as much as possible. Bartel: So you're working on Darwin Day instead of enjoying it, is what you're saying? Myers: Well, getting up in front of an audience and talking about evolution and talking about science, talking about philosophy in these ideas - that's not working is it? Links:
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Mon, 7 January 2008  On this week's episode, we talk with Dr.
Shoukhrat Mitalipov. Dr. Mitalipov is an Assistant Scientist and a Co-Director
of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Embryonic Stem Cell Core Laboratory
at the Oregon National
Primate Research Center, Oregon
Health & Science University. We talk with Dr. Mitalipov about his recent
breakthrough in cloning monkey embryos and the scientific methods that got him
there.
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Mon, 3 December 2007  Professor Sir Alec Jeffries talks to us about the discovery of DNA fingerprinting, its uses/abuses and its impact on society. Preview from the Show: I’ve been called the father of DNA fingerprinting - I think grandfather is more appropriate. So basically the baby has grown up and spawned its own offspring – so I’m now granddad – and they are thriving. …But obviously I keep a very, very great interest in watching… just how it’s being used, and indeed, on occasion how it’s being misused, or potentially misused. And on that point, I will certainly stand up and raise these issues. BARTEL: Can you tell us a little bit about how you
discovered the technology? First, DNA fingerprinting wouldn’t have happened without basic blue skies research; it came out of nowhere – it was unpredictable. And secondly, science is a lot of fun. Without that sense of fun, I wouldn’t have come up with this either. I think those are two important messages for the policy makers, but certainly for the young people of today – tomorrow’s future scientists.
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Mon, 22 October 2007 Dr. Sean B. Carroll (Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and
an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the
University of Wisconsin) talks to us about evolution, his new project, and science literacy.
"What I am very convinced of, from all sorts of experiences of trying to communicate science, is that storytelling is a really valuable ingredient of that. And I don't mean storytelling in sort of a simplistic way, but just engaging the audience, whether they are students or teachers or laypersons, with the drama of scientific exploration, scientific discovery, even scientific debate. Because it's pretty darn common that when scientists find something new, something unexpected, there's a wrestling match for a while, figuring out whether a new view is emerging, or whether someone else is off base. And all of this is a very human enterprise - there's a whole lot of human nature in the game of science." -Sean B. Carroll, discussing a textbook adjunct from Benjamin Cummings that will be available next year "I really wish that teachers had fossil collections...I think that when kids put their hands on fossils - something happens." -Sean B. Carroll, on a wish he has for teachers "Scientific Literacy is broader than just evolution. Evolution is perhaps the poster child for the acute problem that we have. But I think that it's really hard for a student to grasp, and I think it's really hard, I think for a citizen to grasp, when they are just getting the moving banner at the bottom of CNN - [like] "scientists say", "this fossil means that" or "this gene discovery means that." Those are just punchlines and don't really understand the size of the entire enterprise or the cumulative knowledge that's built up and how that's tested and things. Now you could say - how do you convey all that? Practically speaking, I think part of the way you convey all that is that those who are communicating to the public, and I would say especially the media - have to have a better grasp of it." -Sean B. Carroll, on scientific literacy "I think getting the scientific method, and knowledge of the scientific method across in the classroom is really more important than any particular science content." -Sean B. Carroll, on teaching science "I can't encourage anyone more strongly to read what the judge said about the intelligent design case in Dover... It's a masterful opinion." -Sean B. Carroll, on intelligent design in schools
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