Tag: technology

Transcript:TWIS.ORG Nov 18, 2008


Synopsis: Climate Change Denial, Microbes in the Sea fixing nitrogen, Microbes in your Gut need pro biotics to replenish, The Weird From Washington, TV Sadness, Bleach Works, Wide-Hipped Women, Anti-Matter Xplosion, and Rocky CO2.

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

What can be said that has not been said before? Quite a bit, actually. From dark matter, global warming, microbiology to neurons, nanotech and sociological peculiarities – a newly learned landscape adds a new lingo to the literate lexicon that has yet to be made fully lucid by poet pens or baby naming trends. The list of things to say that have not been said before is growing at a pace only comparable to the expansion of time and space itself.

And while this conversation condenses briefly into the following hour of our programming, it does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors. Rather, it represent in some small way how little we have known in the past, how much we know at present and hints to us through many tantalizing examples the vast buried treasure of what still remains unknown.

So, what can be said that has not been said before? Just about everything you’re about to hear on This Week in Science, coming up next.

Good morning, Kirsten!
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG Jan 6, 2009


Synopsis: Tiny Eyes, Roving Mars, Feeling Secure, Vitamin Hopes, Alcoholic Assays, and an Interview w/ Scott Sigler re: Contagious.

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

The following hour of programming does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors. This is lucky because if it did, it would be very boring, all about when you can take a class, what after school or things you can be doing, all kinds of boring UCD stuff.

Instead, we bring you the cutting edge in science-y news. Stay tuned, This Week in Science is coming up next.
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG July 14, 2009


Synopsis: Skinny Monkey with less calorie intake live longer? Bacterial Bloat, Flower Power burst confounds Darwin, When Good Words Go Bad, World Robot Domination–crickets, bats, Bad Words Done Good, and Interview w/ Chris Mooney, author of Unscientific America

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

Science! The act of learning by a careful observation that often starts fast in a question, a “how”, a “what”, a “why”, sort of a thing is followed up then by experiment, observation. This is the basis of the whole scientific set up, observing, testing, observing some more and then learning from it.

We have taken the simple act of looking at things to a wide-range of amazing places in recent years. Making observations of everything from spinning electrons to orbiting planets and distant stars, from the double Helix to galaxy clusters, billions of light years away from our Earthly observatory.

And between the gathering of the stars, we humans plot these points of interests, seek out more and even create new ones ourselves. The picture that is forming is actually quite stunning, both in what it reveals and in our ability to reveal it.

If the human may be allowed a narcissistic moment to lavish phrase upon humanity itself, I think we’re doing a really good job. And while spinning clusters of observant narcissistic humans, 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.

We can all take pride knowing that, of all the life forms on planet Earth, it is we humans who have contributed the most to scientific knowledge. We are so well adapted to learning new things that at times it seems, we just can’t get enough. Even now, even this very moment, we are eager to perform the act of observing as we turn our attentions to another episode of, This Week In Science, coming up next.
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG Dec 16, 2008


Synopsis: Science in the White House!, Jellyfish Rule, Brain Reading, This Week in the End of the World, Penile Precautions, and This Week in World Robot Domination Interview with David Calkins

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

As many of the season are watching movie about the “Earth standing still”, the real world continues on its breakneck pace down an uncertain path. While science is working hard to make this short sidedness of human consumption a sustainable path, there is a price for if we do not choose to change, we must choose to fund.

From elementary to the cutting edge, science must be funded as if our very lives depended on it because in fact, they may and those sustaining short-sighted humans much like the following hour of our program does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors.

We can not continue to simply duck the issues of climate crisis being thrown at us by our past irresponsible actions. We must recognize before it’s too late that the heat is on.

For history records us as having put our ill-annoyed climate heats up for (unintelligible), we may find our globanatorial position on Earth getting beseeched by even greater consequences. ]

We don’t need a hospital alien invasion that tells our days are ruefully numbered, as cool as that might be, all we really need is This Week in Science, coming up next.
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG Dec 23, 2008

Synopsis: The Top 11 Science Stories of 2008… Merry TWIS-mas!!!

Justin/Kirsten: We wish you a Merry TWIS-mas. We wish you a Merry TWIS-mas. We wish you a Merry TWIS-mas and a Happy New Year.

Bring us some sciencey stories. Oh, bring us some sciencey stories. Oh, bring us some sciencey stories.

Justin: We want them right now.

Kirsten: Right now.

Justin/Kirsten: We won’t go until we get some. We won’t go until we get some. We won’t go until we get some. So bring them right now.

Kirsten: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

You are listening to This Week in Science. And…
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG Jan 13, 2009

Synopsis: Kirsten was late here!Transmission Dismission, Chemical Replication, Defrosting Beef, Little Girl is Back!, My How the Fruit Flies, Mossie Love Songs, This Week in Science History, and Headline Round-up.

Kirsten: Today’s show is brought to you by Audible. Please visit www.audiblepodcast.com/twis for your free Audio Book download.

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

There are more dinosaurs that have been discovered that you have never heard of than there are ones that you know about. For that matter, there are more creatures living on the planet today that you don’t know about than there are creatures living on the planet that you do know about.

There are more colors in the garden than your eye can see. There are more stars in unknown universe than our grains of sand and all the beaches of planet Earth.

There are more ways to the human heart than soft words or surgery, while a little knowledge is dangerous. More knowledge will make you down right lethal.

There are more reasons for the things you are thinking than the fact that they were thought by your brain. There are more discoveries in Science taking place now than any other time in the history of scientific pursuit. And the number of findings will continue to grow as technology becomes more and more efficient over time.

And while this pursuit of Moore’s Law like the following hour of our programming does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California Davis, KDVS or its sponsors.

And while the pursuit cannot be grammatically stated that one thing is more truer than another it is true that there is more going on between the gutter and the stars than what is happening in the day you are now having. Still, we understand how busy your brain must be keeping up with the push and pull of being a human.

So, we offer you an easy way to keep the universe under your skullcap without having to wonder what more you should be knowing about. We accomplish this by offering you more This Week in Science, coming up next.
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG Dec 30, 2008


Synopsis: Science and Celebrities pronuncements, Predictions for 2009, Mars Alive with carbon deposits, Bacteria Support Groups that form biofilms, Bird Songsters sing out competition for breeding, Favoring Orangutans due to token trading, and TWIS Question of the Month about geological activity that releases sequestered carbon!

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

This TWIS-mas, I was visited by three ghosts! Whisking me through time and space the ghost of TWIS-mas past, showed me beyond any doubt what humble beginnings science began with. What great heights it has soared to since and how heavily our modern civilization rests on the shoulder of giants, giants not only of intellectual prowess but giants of dedication, courage and sacrifice as well.

What we enjoy today are not the fruits of the modern era at all but the combined harvest of all of human history. The bounty of culture and intellectual pursuit that has been going on since the first great conversation took place outside of some cave and some now long forgotten language lost to time.

I was then visited by a second ghost who wanted to remind me that while all of human history had a hand in our high tech harvest it, like the following hour of our programming at present does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors.

I then found the third ghost haunt my TWIS-mas eve. A dark and looming specter this was, I felt the chill run down my spine, unsure for a moment of the phantom’s intention until at least at last the phantom spoke. “Hey, big fan of the show, just want to stop by”, the dark minion said. We high-fived and popped the rock.

“These are the things I’ve seen.” The minion hinted. “Are you ready for the future?” “Ready”, I said. It’s already in the show notes for, This Week in Science coming up next.
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG June 30, 2009


Synopsis: Digg’n Physics via Twitter, Dino Skinny, Bird Brain Insights, Fish Freakouts!, Tunguska Shuttle Hugs, Building Better Melons, Minion Mailbag, and The Question of the Month!

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

What is right is right. And what is wrong is wrong. What is true is true. And what is untrue is untrue. What is science is science. And what is not science is not science. Such absolutes are hard to find in the push-pull of human nature driven world.

For what is right, like a free election can be untrue in it’s result. What is most easily condemned as wrong, like the murder of innocents can be true as we have seen too often in the past than most recently in Iran.

What is not science can be disguised as science in order to gain our trust. And fake science journals rigged industry research and false claims by hired assassins of truth — tobacco isn’t addictive, global warming isn’t happening, drugs will never kill you.

As the fabrication of false denials are found out, defrocked, defiled and filed under fraudulent, they 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.

As living in a world without absolutes can make for a foggy notions sense of being, let us create a few absolutes upon which to stand. What is science is absolutely right and never wrong. For it is a continuing process, the self-correction, that is willing to change when it isn’t correct.

What is science is absolutely true and never untrue. For this ever moving towards truth, regardless of where it started and what we want truth to be has no relation to what truths we find.

And science is a process of getting it right. That is willing to get it wrong until we are getting at what is true more often than we are settling for what is untrue. And so, science therefore rejects all absolutes. All absolutes that is a long the way to becoming, This Week in Science, coming up next.
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Transcript-TWIS.org June 16, 2009


Synopsis: Bisphenol A and estrogen, Toxoplasma Gondii causing car crashes?, Beware of Robo-Ferret used to sniff out hidden things, RoboGames Redux, Adventures in Popularity, Move Over Silicon!, Go Fly A Kite, TWIS Bits, and Interview w/ Dr. Greg Gibson re: Genes and Illness.

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

It’s no secret, no one gets out of here alive. The question then, if anyone asks, is what if anything we do with the time we have in the great go around. Suggestions are plenty and opinions abound or regardless of intentions of what we do or who we are and why we are doing these things, our opinions, like the following hour of our programming, do not necessarily represent those of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors. Still, regardless of self-opinion, this is the moment in which we can do.

In a sense, what we can do is who we are, we are all about to be, This Week in Science, coming up next.
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG May 5, 2009

Synopsis: Remote Control Brains, Making Blood Crawl, Birdsong Basics, This Week in Science History, Drink To Your Sanity, and an Interview with Dr. Leonard Mlodinow re: The Drunkard’s Walk.

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

In the wake of the H1N1 worry, the world has a new wave of statistical woe on the way. As the number of confirmed deaths continued to drop, from hundreds, to dozens down to only ten within a single week.

The latest statistical projections of the un-die-ing situation now suggest that we are trending towards a potential population explosion!

If people continue to un-die at this rate, we may soon be looking at a human transmittable in fallopian pregno-demic that could grow exponentially over the next nine months.

And while this exponential growth oddly mirrors the rate of natural human reproduction it, much like the following hour of programming, does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its Sponsors.

Listeners should be wary, as face masks will not be enough to protect you from the probability of procreation. Staying indoors with loved ones might actually contribute to the further spread of parental syndromes.

While the CDC sits idly by and does nothing to slow the rapid rate of confirmed un-deadenings, you can be comforted to know that we will be dedicating the next hour to keeping you reasonably safe by offering you something else to do, here on This Week In Science coming up next.
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