Dr. Kiki: This is Twis. This Week in Science episode number 653 recorded on Wednesday, January 10th, 2018. The 2018 prediction show.
Hey, everyone, I’m Dr. Kiki and tonight, on This Week in Science, we are going to fill your heads with predictions from last year, predictions for this year and yeah, actually, some science news. But first, TWIS is supported by listeners like you. We thank you for your support. We really couldn’t do it without you.
Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!
Those who can not remember the past, it has been said, are condemned to repeat it. As if the past were only a thing to avoid. Many good things have come from the past. Every good thing, in fact, has its origins in the past. Much of it worth repeating. So, it’s just as well to point out, those who don’t remember the past will have a hard time replicating the positive results that they’ve received at some point before.
How do we judge the quality of life? Some would say it is by whether or not that life is a life lived well. But what is a life lived well? Is it an accomplishment or an affect, a way of being in the world?
This is to say that a life lived well could simply be a life lived in accordance with an individual’s ideals. The life lived well of a painter being very different perhaps in the life lived well of a pro football player or microbiologist.
And there could, by this measure, be as many ways of living the life well-lived as there are people living lives, leaving it up to each of us to decide if the life we’re living is living up to our own standard of wellness.
While equality of life issues, much like the following hour of our programming, do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors.
The question being interjected into your brain frames at this moment in time is, “Are you living your life the way you, yourself, would judge a life to be well-lived?” Forget about champagne wishes and caviar dreams. I’m talking about you, being the best you. Are you?
If your answer is anything other than, “Hells yeah,” make time this week to invite your ideal you over for a coffee and ask yourself, “What you might do to be more you like?” Just like you, we want to be the best we as we can be, which we couldn’t do without you turning into This Week in Science, coming up next. Continue reading “Transcript:TWIS.ORG Jan 26, 2010”
Here we are, ten years into the 21st century and a few things are absolutely abundantly clear, problems of mankind continue to be the problems of mankind. Generally speaking, things aren’t getting any easier and life on Earth is not getting any simpler. Still, as we have zoomed ahead another decade in time, much has changed and most of it for the better.
We are a smarter planet for one thing, having added to our mental databases of knowledge, tremendous petaflops of information about the complexities of the universe. We have answered some age-old questions and have posed new questions to be worked on in the decades to come.
Science, we seek to unravel the mysteries, overcome the obstacles and create a better future for us all. While science is a major focus of the University of California at Davis, it does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the next hour of our programming, KDVS or its sponsors.
And while science continues to pursue a more perfect future, we’ll take a few moments now to look back at the year of new findings, here on This Week in Science, coming up next. Continue reading “Transcript:TWIS.ORG Dec 29, 2009”
Justin: This show is brought to you by listeners like you and the contributions that people like you are giving. People who aren’t you, who are actually giving. We couldn’t do it without them. So please, be one of them or unless that’s one of you in which, thank you.
Kirsten: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!
As we passed from one holiday to the next, Valentine’s Day to President’s Day, the reasons for celebration change. We celebrate love and we celebrate those who work to make our nation great. Yet the underlying reason for celebration does not change.
We are humans who struggle through life who need a psychological break from the monotony of our existence. Celebrations remind us that we are alive and share this world with so many others who, like us, need to be reminded that each day is an amazing achievement.
And while the following hour of programming does not represent the views of KDVS, KDVS’ sponsors or the University of California, you are not alone in your love of science. And others are here to celebrate the wonders of science with you. Take the next hour as your holiday in the name of science and be reminded just how cool life really is on This Week in Science, coming up next.
Synopsis: Women have more Cooties, City Ants Avoid Traffic, Bacterial Brilliance, Memory Storage, Half A Bird Brain, Diamonds From tequila, Robot Domination of Sorts, and Dark Matters the muon anomaly.
Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!
It’s a new day in America. A new day with new hope! A revived spirit! Mounting expectations! Change has come at last and while long overdue it could not have come at any other time.
Common sense is being left behind on this new journey into the future of human potential. And uncommon ability to reason thoroughly will now guide our course.
The final preparations for the climactic transition to the coming age of the big “O” still on the way. The pursuit of knowledge awaits its new hero, who it is expected will throw open the cell doors of stem research. And give light to a thousand underfunded scientific programs.
Scientific programs that seek to ignite our future with new energy. It will power the economy of change with real dollars. Dollars born of invention, industry and technological insight as opposed to the coin of fossilize fright consolidated bright and physical slight of hand.
And while anticipation of the big “O” much like the anticipation of the following hour programming does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of University of California, at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors. The world of science seems soothed by the promise of a better tomorrow.
Synopsis: Miracles fruit from Japan makes bitter tastes seem sweet, Flies Gone Wild delivering larva instead of eggs, Mammoth Operations, To the Birds, Sweet Space, Planetary Discovery, Madness, Genetic Explanations, and Learning to Speak.
Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!
The following hour of our programming deals with subject matter too interesting from most audiences. The show’s content does not represent the views or opinions of University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors as there is no way to tell what the host will say or do while under the influence of breaking science news stories.
The subjects covered here can at times be controversial, often debatable and endlessly offensive even to those who hold world’s views founded without scientific facts.
And while this host may perhaps arrogantly at times, hold scientific fact to be a greater truth in other beliefs or reasonings, it should be noted that the universe is much stranger than any of us realize. It is just now beginning to hint to us the bizarre nature of its quantum mechanical and biological inter-workings.
Such strangeness awaits us in this next hour. Such strangeness that has the power to change what you know about the universe you live in. So, get ready to have your reality altered with This Week in Science, coming up next. Continue reading “Transcript-TWIS.ORG Nov 25, 2008”
Synopsis: Searching Synthetically, Teach the Children, Neander Clear-Up, Weakest Winners, Oceanic Melting Pot, The End of the World, Tattoos and Health Tips, Space Age Break-Up, and the Question of the Month.
Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!
From the first moment life stirred into being on the Earth to the latest discovery in genetic engineering, life on Earth has not been boring. It may have looked a little slow in the beginning not much in the way of what we are used to thinking as exciting stuff going on at first, although I think we can all agree it was time well spent, there has been a lot of action in between — with fascinating creatures coming in and going like members in some sort of Evolutionary time share.
And for all we know, we are the first and only species ever to look at things with any sentient level of esthetic, artistic, or scientific appreciation, well, us and the Neanderthals anyway. And while appreciating the esthetic of Neanderthals, like the following hour of our programming does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors.
And while it may have taken nearly 4 billion years for television, radio, Internet, let alone books to come along, it is all here now. Now is by far the most excitable, accessible incomprehensively, understandable era that the planet has ever known. Now is by far the best time to be alive as long as we’re looking backwards in the time line anyway.
I have no doubt that the people of tomorrow will look back at our primitive time and be glad they were not forced to trudge through such ho hum times. But until that day comes and even when it does, now will remain the best time ever to be alive on planet Earth. This now, especially if for no other reason then this now includes, This Week in Science, coming up next. Continue reading “Transcript-TWIS.ORG Feb 17, 2009”
I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. The mortal words of the anthropomorphic little engine that did while face the seemingly undoable task of scaling a steep mountain grade. Much like the little engine, bound to travel the rails laid before it, science too has little choice but to take head on the obstacles and its path.
There are less treacherous tasks to tackle in life than those of astrophysics quantum unification and autoimmune disease. There are much smaller mountains to master than those of global climate, cancer or the multitude of mental afflictions that assault the human line.
And just like the moralistic little engine tail, it is the belief that anything can be accomplished through persistent thinking and doing that science ultimately makes a grade.
And while making the moralistic mental grade, much like the following hour of our programming, does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors, the plain old fashion pluckiness of science continues to push us to new heights chugging away with pistons of persistent PhDs patiently plodding out data proofs like pops of smoke from the stack of a story book steam engine.
“I think I can” unify all forces under one theory. I think I can cure cancer. I think I can put a man on Mars. And while the plucky mountain climb continues, other trains are just now returning to the station here on This Week in Science, coming up next. Continue reading “Transcript: TWIS.ORG April 14, 2009”
Kirsten: Hey there minions, this is Kirsten. Before we start the show I just want to let people know that this week’s show occurred during our home radio station’s fundraising drive.
KDVS is fabulous example of how great freeform community non-commercial radio can be. But it does have to pay bills just like any business and fundraising has become a major part of the station’s income.
KDVS has been home to TWIS for ten years. And both TWIS and KDVS have matured quite a bit in that time. I hope that you will consider donating to the place that has supported and continues to support a unique brand of science reporting.
And even if you don’t care for supporting a radio station you barely know, consider supporting the show. Regardless, thank you for being a part of our exploration of science and journey of discovery. With that note, on with the show! Continue reading “Transcript:TWIS.ORG April 21, 2009”
Being brilliant is easier than you think. All it requires from you is that you learn, teach or otherwise share information. Sparking of new neurons ever small or seemingly uneventful is the very thing that all human knowledge is based on.
From a student perceiving the previously unknown, the furrowed brow of confusion that follows and following that in illuminating detailed explanation leading to a nodding head of newly acquired knowledge.
As though defying the thermo dynamic laws of conservation, new knowledge has been created and nothing has been lost. This ability, incredible ability to learn, to create something out of nothing is in the hands of both teacher and student. The patience to teach, the desire to know and the willingness to be mindful for a few moments in time that such thing is giving and getting information can be productive for the greater and personal good of all mankind.
While the nodding heads of mindful, thermodynamics much like the following hour of our programming, do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors.
Every discovery that brought about the enlightenment of the modern age from fire to the Phoenix Lander, from the first water wells to the latest in stem cells could not have come about if not for the simple acts of people talking, thinking and sharing.
If we all take advantage of our ability to spark new information, the future will not only be bright, it will be down right brilliant. Speaking of simple acts of information sharing, get ready for This Week in Science, coming up next. Continue reading “Transcript: TWIS.ORG May 26. 2009”