Focus
Interviews on global affairs and daily life
Monday thru Friday, 10 am to noon on WILL-AM 580
Interview Archives: Science
Tuesday May 08, 2012, 11:06 AM
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think
Steven Kotler, Award-Winning Science Writer
Host: David Inge
On a regular basis, we bring you stories about how bad things are. This time, we talk with the co-author of a new book that argues that the world is getting better at a rapid rate. Our guest will be science writer Steven Kotler. His book, "Abundance" argues that over the past 50 years, global standards of living have tripled, the food supply has increased, and rates of literacy and life expectancy have grown. Overall, he says, we are living in a better world, and the book looks at the forces responsible.
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Categories: Science
Tuesday May 01, 2012, 10:06 AM
Individual and Collective Memory Consolidation: Analogous Processes on Different Levels
Thomas J. Anastasio, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology; Associate Professor of Biophysics; Associate Professor of Neuroscience; Member of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois
Wenyi Zhang, Ph.D. Candidate in Antropology, University of Illinois
Host: David Inge
Knowing where you’ve been is essential to knowing who you are and where you are going. To that end, our brains take fleeting bits of information and put them together to construct a version of our past. We’ll learn more about the formation of memories, on the personal and societal levels, as we talk with Thomas Anastasio, associate professor of neuroscience, and Wenyi Zhang, a doctoral candidate, both from the University of Illinois. They say that groups of people remember and forget the same way individuals do.
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Categories: Science • Neuroscience
Monday April 30, 2012, 11:06 AM
The Social Conquest of Earth
Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D,, Emeritus Pellegrino University Research Professor, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Host: David Inge
How do we explain the willingness of one person to sacrifice for another? People will put the interests of family ahead of their own. But biologist Edward O. Wilson says more important in human development has been the advancement of the group, even those members who don’t share our genes. E. O. Wilson talks about his new book "The Social Conquest of Earth." The book explores the biological roots of human culture.
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Categories: Science
Monday April 23, 2012, 10:06 AM
The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
Amy Stewart, Writer, Speaker, and Artist
Host: David Inge
Charles Darwin was fascinated by earthworms. He wrote that few animals had played such an important part in the history of the world. Before Darwin few scientists thought the earthworm worthy of study. But author Amy Stewart says Darwin knew that worms were capable of much more than most scientists gave them credit for. We will explore the contributions of this humble creature, the subject of Amy Stewart’s book The Earth Moved.
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Categories: Animals • Behavior • Science
Monday April 09, 2012, 10:06 AM
The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East
Timur Kuran, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Political Science & Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University
Host: David Inge
During the Middle Ages, the economy of the Middle East was at least as well developed as that of Europe. But by the 19th century, the Middle East had fallen dramatically behind. Why did the region fail to modernize economically as the West surged ahead? Duke Univesity economist Timur Kuran talks about his book "The Long Divergence." He argues that it was not colonialism or geography that made the difference, but two aspects of Islamic law dealing with inheritance and partnerships.
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Categories: History • Science • Middle East
Tuesday February 07, 2012, 11:06 AM
Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminiate the Universe and the Modern World
Lisa Randall, Ph.D., the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science, Harvard University
Host: David Inge
Our guest is physicist Lisa Randall. She says experiments going on today could well provide clues that will ultimately change our view of the makeup of matter, and just might provide a more complete picture of the nature of reality. That’s the territory she explores in her recent book "Knocking on Heaven’s Door." The book looks at what science can tell us about who we are and where we came from, but it also explains how scientists decide on what questions to pursue, and how correct ideas eventually win out.
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Categories: Science
Monday January 09, 2012, 10:06 AM
How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
David Kaiser, Ph.D., the Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science; Department Head, Program in Science, Technology, and Society; and Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics, MIT
Host: David Inge
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Categories: Biography • Cultural Studies • Innovation • Science
Thursday October 27, 2011, 10:06 AM
"The Coming Tipping Point in Robotics"
Mark W. Spong, D.Sc., Dean of Engineering and Computer Science; the Lars Magnus Ericsson Chair in Electrical Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas
Host: David Inge
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Categories: Science
Thursday October 13, 2011, 10:06 AM
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos
Dava Sobel, Writer
Host: David Inge
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Categories: Biography • History • Science • Astronomy
Friday October 07, 2011, 10:06 AM
The Future of the U.S. Space Program
Louis Friedman, Ph.D., Aeronautics Engineer; Executive Director Emeritus, The Planetary Society
Host: David Inge
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Categories: History • United States history • Science
