Communicating Science: Blogs and the Media

As newspapers and cable news cut science coverage, where can the science-curious get reliable science and technology news? Ira Flatow and guests discuss how the Internet — including blogs and social media — is filling the coverage gap.

Great conversation - Listen to the Audio!

Go to the NPR webpage and click on Communicating Science in the Recent Episodes column: Here

From NPR's Science Friday

Problems with Obama’s Stem Cell Policy?

Patrick Taylor of Harvard Medical School discusses how President Obama’s new stem cell policies will affect science research – retroactive informed consent guidelines may actually hamper some research…

Interesting discussion on NPR’s Science Friday last week – Download the MP3 or LISTEN HERE.

Night Vision and DNA

Science Friday at NPR -

Why do some animals have much better night vision than others? We'll talk about new research tracing the root of improved night vision to the architecture of the DNA inside the photoreceptor rod cells of the animals' eyes. Writing in the journal Cell, researchers say that an unusual way of packing the DNA within the rod cell nuclei turns the nuclei themselves into into tiny light-collecting lenses. The structure prevents light from excessive scattering within the eyes, improving their light collecting efficiency.

Guests:
Jochen Guck Lecturer, Physics DepartmentUniversity of Cambridge

Click here to hear the broadcast.

Eugenie Scott on Texas Schools

Today on NPR's Science Friday, Eugenie Scott talks about the Texas School Board and its endorsement of ignorance. Audio HERE.

Recorded Today.

Astrobiology and the Origins of Life

Recorded April 3, 2009 @ NPR Science Friday
Is the appearance of life on Earth a fluke, or is the universe teeming with alien life? In a special broadcast from the Origins Symposium at Arizona State University, leading astrobiologists debate the origin of life on this planet and talk about the best places to look for other life in the universe.

Guests:
Ariel Anbar, principal investigator, NASA Astrobiology Institute team, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe , Ariz.

Barry Blumberg, M.D., winner, 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, founding director, NASA Astrobiology Institute, senior advisor to the President, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Penn.

Paul Davies, cosmologist, physicist, astrobiologist, director, The Beyond Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.

Peter Ward, professor, department of biology, The Astrobiology Program, The University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST