On this week’s show: evaluating scientific collaborations between independent scholars and industry, farming in ancient Europe, and a book from our series on sex, gender, and science.
First up on this week’s show, a look behind the scenes at a collaboration between a social media company and 17 academics. Host Sarah Crespi speaks with Michael Wagner, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication who acted as an impartial observer for Meta’s U.S. 2020 election project. Wagner wrote a commentary piece about what worked and what didn’t in this massive project, which will spawn more than 15 papers, three of them out this week in Science.
Then, producer Meagan Cantwell speaks with Silvia Valenzuela Lamas about her talk about how sociopolitical changes shaped livestock in ancient Europe. Her talk was part of a session on migrations and exchanges in ancient civilizations from this year’s AAAS Annual Meeting.
Also this week, the latest in our book series on sex, gender, and science. Host Angela Saini talks with author Amanda Lock Swarr about her book: Envisioning African Intersex: Challenging Colonial and Racist Legacies in South African Medicine.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
About the Science Podcast
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What killed off North American megafauna, and making languages less complicated
Why some trees find one another repulsive, and why we don’t know how much our hands weigh
Tracing the genetic history of African Americans using ancient DNA, and ethical questions at a famously weird medical museum
Adding thousands of languages to the AI lexicon, and the genes behind our bones
The AI special issue, adding empathy to robots, and scientists leaving Arecibo
Putting the man-hunter and woman-gatherer myth to the sword, and the electron's dipole moment gets closer to zero
Putting organs into the deep freeze, a scavenger hunt for robots, and a book on race and reproduction
A space-based telescope to hunt dark energy, and what we can learn from scaleless snakes
Why it’s tough to measure light pollution, and a mental health first aid course
Contraception for cats, and taking solvents out of chemistry
How we measure the world with our bodies, and hunting critical minerals
Talking tongues, detecting beer, and shifting perspectives on females
The earliest evidence for kissing, and engineering crops to clone themselves
Debating when death begins, and the fate of abandoned lands
Building big dream machines, and self-organizing landscapes
The value of new voices in science and journalism, and what makes something memorable
Mapping uncharted undersea volcanoes, and elephant seals dive deep to sleep
More precise radiocarbon dating, secrets of hibernating bear blood, and a new book series
Why not vaccinate chickens against avian flu, and new form of reproduction found in yellow crazy ants
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