Inquiring Minds

We talk to biologist and science writer Carin Bondar about her latest book Wild Moms: Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week: New research into controlling robot arms with your brain, a surprising link between a common virus and Alzheimer's Disease, and remembering Koko the gorilla.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

How do we create artificial intelligence that isn't bigoted? Can we teach machines to work exactly like our brains work? “You don’t program a machine to be smart,” says our guest this week, “you program the machine to get smarter using data.”We talk to James Scott, statistician, data scientist, and co-author (with Nick Polson) of the new book AIQ: How People and Machines Are Smarter Together.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to Peter Rubin, editor at Wired and author of Future Presence: How Virtual Reality Is Changing Human Connection, Intimacy, and the Limits of Ordinary Life.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week: New research shows a 6-month treatment for breast cancer is nearly as successful as the previously-standard 12-month course; the surprising effects that clay can have on your body; and a look into new studies that give new reasons why dark chocolate is good for you.Huge thanks to guest co-host Adam Bristol!Links mentioned:https://www.jwatch.org/fw114187/2018/05/18/herceptin-study-suggests-shorter-6-month-course-breasthttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-26958-5Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to Carl Zimmer, New York Times columnist and author of 13 books about science about his latest book She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

In this mini-episode, Kishore talks to neuroscientist and author Dean Burnett about his new book Happy Brain: Where Happiness Comes From, and Why.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to Adam Alter, author and marketing and psychology professor at NYU's Stern School of Business about his book Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to planetary scientist and New Horizons’ mission leader Alan Stern and astrobiologist David Grinspoon about their new book Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week: There are reports that scientists have ‘transferred a memory' in snails—what does the research actually say?; we examine a study that suggests people can form a “sphere a sensitivity” around their heads; and we look at new research on using Cannabidiol (CBD), a compound derived from the cannabis plant as treatment for a severe form of epilepsy.Links mentioned:https://www.inquisitr.com/4898738/we-have-eyes-in-the-back-of-the-head-study-shows/http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44111476http://www.psypost.org/2018/05/cannabidiol-significantly-reduces-seizures-patients-severe-form-epilepsy-51258Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to Danna Staaf, a science writer with a PhD in invertebrate biology from Stanford University, about her new book Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week: A study looking at how much actionable information pre-pregnancy genome sequencing can actually give you; the benefits and consequences of mass mass prescribing antibiotics; and a new study looking at the trolley problem and how peoples’ hypothetical judgment compares to their real-life behavior.Links mentioned:https://www.wired.com/story/the-catch-22-of-mass-prescribing-antibiotics/https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(18)30136-8http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797617752640Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to science writer and neurobiologist Lone Frank about her latest book The Pleasure Shock: The Rise of Deep Brain Stimulation and Its Forgotten Inventor.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

University of Copenhagen scientists managed to genetically delete an enzyme in mice that made it impossible for them to get fat, even on a very fatty diet; Alan Turing wrote a paper in 1952 that is still having impacts on science today in ways you may not expect; and NASA sends the InSight Lander to Mars.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to astrophysicist Brian Keating about new his book Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week: Scott Pruitt’s fight against anonymous study subjects, a debate on should be regulating genetically engineered livestock, and new research that shows asteroids could have delivered water to the early Earth.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to biologist Kenneth R. Miller about his new book The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

This week: new research shows being a night owl might mean you’re at a greater risk of dying early, multiple interesting space launches are happening, and there’s new research into using phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors like Viagra and Cialis to help other drugs do their job better.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

We talk to the founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Jeremy Bailenson. Bailenson’s lab studies how virtual reality can affect empathy—how it makes you feel to virtually embody someone else. VR offers the ability to be in someone else’s shoes in a way that you can’t recreate in real life—and those immersive experiences, whether it be facing a day in the life of a person experiencing homelessness, or diving to the corals that are right now being bleached by climate change, have lingering effects on all of us.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

Kishore talks to Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti, authors of Does It Fart?: The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds