Science AF

Dr Ciaccio returns with a look at the news, including the Moon Hut, Ingenuity Helicopter grounded and a Goldfish-Driven Car. Short looks into the James Webb Space Telescope, possible evidence of Life On Mars, the probable cause of Multiple Sclerosis, and the Dolphin Clitorus. A Deep Dive into a way to reduce cow burps, and which animals fart. And finally in Common Nonsense, why the Tomato really is a Vegetable. No, really! Yes, it is! No, you shut up!

Fake Dr Ciaccio looks into the new classification of human species known as the Dragon Man, a new age study is bad news for the prehistoric Coelacanth fish, and in common nonsense: does Vitamin C do anything for us? Plus are those mushrooms on Mars?

Dr Ciaccio (not a doctor) talks about new info on the social lives of Tyrannosaurus Rexes, they might have had more friends than we thought, plus reportedly they were slow AF. Also, alarmist headlines aside, robots that custom make smaller robots are all the rage. In Color news there's a new whitest white and it's not a GOP fundraiser, it's a paint that reflects some huge percentage of light. In Muon news two particle accelerators, CERN in Switzerland and Fermilab in Illinois, are racing to confirm new data that might upend particle physics as we know it, or never quite understood in the first place. Finally, there's a remote control helicopter on Mars and I still don't have one.

Dr Ciaccio (not a doctor) looks into new evidence from New Zealand about the last time the Earth's magnetic poles flipped around 42,000 years ago. Also a promising new technology can etch holograms onto foods, Slugs shed their heads (rather bodies) to get a fresh start and how diamonds made from the carbon in the atmosphere could be a climate boon. Finally we take a look and listen at the new data coming back from Mars.

Dr Ciaccio (not a doctor) looks into a US military test of a pizza-box sized solar panel designed to beam microwave energy back to Earth. Plus scientists built a Black Hole in a lab (kinda) to test if Hawking Radiation is real. An AI built by Uber aced Pitfall and other 80s Arcade Games. And in Common Nonsense we take a look at why "the chicken and egg" paradox has not been a paradox or a problem for a very long time.

Dr Ciaccio (not a doctor) looks into new science breakthroughs including the discovery of a newly discovered recombinant coronavirus strain that has pieces of two different strains. Plus the unearthing of a 5000 year old Egyptian Brewery that could get feed 9000 people a day. A new study in which researchers have communicated with lucid dreamers in real time, and another unexpected discovery of life in an extremely uncomfortable place (Antarctica).

Dr Ciaccio (not a doctor) looks at a new form of levitation that uses carbon nanotubes to harness light energy to float on a little puff of excited air. Also, what's causing cacao trees to produce fewer seeds, threatening our supplies of delicious chocolate and cocoa? In some good environmental news, The Great Green Wall of Africa just got a big boost. And in Space Madness, NASA's Perseverance Rover is mere days from a dramatic and dangerous unassisted landing on Mars.

Dr Ciaccio (not a doctor) looks into the newest vaccine news, how the phases of the moon affect our sleep, the bee extinction and what we can do about it, windows made of wood, and why A.I. Art is only getting better.

Host Dr Dave Ciaccio (not a doctor) looks into the current Covid numbers, including the apparent end of the upward surge! Plus in BiOMG we look at Gynandromorphs, the first preserved dinosaur butthole (cloaca, to be precise) and ancient terrifying Sand Worms. Plus in Climate Countdown, we look at Mushrooms that scrub the air and eat plastic. And Eye On Science takes a look at Loneliness and Boredom. Finally, in Common Nonsense, Dave takes aim at the fallacy that "Screen Time" is bad for you.

Dr Dave Ciaccio (not a doctor) talks about the new Biden Covid plan, advances in quantum teleportation and how innumeracy is driving misguided wars against the helpers.

Dr Ciaccio (not a doctor) takes a look at the new coronavirus vaccine, a supposed age-reversing drug, a Japanese mining mission to an asteroid, a Chinese mining mission to the moon and the sudden collapse of the iconic Space Telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, featured in movies such as Goldeneye and Contact.

Comedy writer Jerry Hernandez (@jerryismeh, The Happy Sappy Grown-Up Hour, LatinX Comedy Pachanga) joins host @daveciaccio to chat about science, including a Coronavirus update, helicopters on Mars, GMO Mosquitoes, Jurassic Park and the promising science of microdosing Ketamine, LSD, Magic Mushrooms (psilocybin), Peyote, Ayahuasca and more.

Host Dave Ciaccio (@daveciaccio) reports from isolation on all the science he could learn about viruses after weeks of isolation. Including pandemics from history, comparisons with other viruses, cleaning tips, symptoms to watch for and all the we know so far about the novel Coronavirus, SARS-Cov-2, and the disease, Covid-19, plus predictions about how long we're going to be doing this and what might be the new normal.

Comedian Winston Carter (@winstonious, Drac and The Swamp Rats, The Winston Carter Murder Follies) joins host @daveciaccio to discuss everything that flies.... Jet Engines, Rockets, Flying Cars, Experimental Aircraft and lots of stories of air travel. Listen at scienceafpod.com, follow @scienceafpod on Twitter and Subscribe on iTunes and Stitcher.

Stand-up Gary Petersen (@comedygaryp) joins host @daveciaccio to talk about pig hearts in baboons, lab-grown lungs in pigs, a frog that can regrow limbs and the Italian scientist who is planning to do a head (ok, body) transplant in China. Listen at scienceafpod.com, follow @scienceafpod on Twitter and Subscribe on iTunes and Stitcher.

Comedian Katie Dahlson (@dahlsonator) joins host @daveciaccio to talk about political activism, socialism, democracy, liberalism, conservatism, communism, and all the other isms. Why is economics so hard to quantify? Why do people believe in weird things like the laffer curve and trickle-down economics? And why FDR-style liberalism is more centrist than the right-leaning media would leave you to believe. We also just go on a lot of sparsely-researched, random political tangents.

The Comedy Bureau's (thecomedybureau.com) Jake Kroeger (@mfjakekroeger, @notthesupermarket) joins host @daveciaccio to talk about mining asteroids, Armageddon situations, Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), interstellar travel, the multi-verse, Quantum Mechanics and the theory of everything!

Mike Upchurch (Mr. Show, The Chris Rock Show) returns to chat with @daveciaccio about types of comedy, the targets of satire, the changing tastes of society and the science of comedy writing.

Journalist and comedy writer Mike Roe (@mikeroe, @LAist, KPCC) comes in to chat about the future of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. We talk about robots that can swim like jellyfish and fly like pigeons, and AIs that excel at poker, tactical MMORPG video games and even visual art. Will androids be commonplace? Will AIs pass the Turing Test? Will we ever get flying cars? Listen for the definitive answers! Follow @daveciaccio and @scienceafpod, visit us at scienceafpod.com, and please like, subscribe and comment!

Climate Scientist Josh Willis joins Ciaccio to talk about his work on the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) project for NASA out of JPL. We talk about the climate prognosis plus active solutions to clean the air and the oceans and how to better educate people about science. Plus science news including the wuhan coronavirus, robots made out of frog cells, the mathematical best way to grind espresso, and what a mummy sounds like. Follow @daveciaccio and @scienceafpod, visit us at scienceafpod.com, and please like, subscribe and comment!

Comedian Marcelina Chavira (@thedeathofmarat) talks to @daveciaccio about animals, art, politics, war, toxic masculinity, and just about everything else! Follow @scienceafpod and visit scienceafpod.com!

Comedian Ethan Stanislawski (@EthanStanComedy) talks to @daveciaccio about Japan's plan to create human-animal hybrids, the existence of free will, the cloud, calendars, the State of Israel and much more! Follow us @scienceafpod!

Bryn Woznicki (@brynwoz) chats with @daveciaccio about the recent rash of 3000 Earthquakes that hit Southern California in 4 days, then they get into Earthquake Facts & Fictions. They talk about the plants, animals and microbes that have been frozen in glaciers and lived to tell the tale, and then try talk about which actual humans have been cryogenically frozen. Plus a lot of tangents about dating, aging, sex and everything else! Watch Bryn's feature "Her Side of the Bed" on Amazon right now! Follow Science AF @scienceafpod and scienceafpod.com!

Comedy writer/performer and show producer Cat Durickas joins Ciaccio to talk about the Butterfly Effect a.k.a. Chaos, and how does it affect the weather and our lives. And the dubious report about cell phone use causing young people to grow horns. Plus we check out the discovery of the hybrid whale, the Narluga, and look into some other hybrids of note. Wait, are we hybrids? Check out Cat Durickas (@catdurickas) on her sketch comedy team Rat Queen (@RatQueenComedy). Follow Ciaccio @daveciaccio and Science AF podcast @scienceafpod.

We're back, the royal 'we' that is, with Science AF Before Dark. Science-as-fuck Dave Ciaccio (@daveciaccio) hosts a one-on-one conversation with writer/producer Gil Baron (@GJBaron) on how the much-hyped EM Drive works, if it actually does, and what is going on with radio waves anyway. Like what are photons anyway? What does it mean that they have no mass and no time? Also, Star Trek expert Gil takes us through the best of the long running series of serieses. Check out Gil and Dave's 3-day comedy music festival Packchella, live in LA the last week of June, all the comedy will be musical and all the music will be funny! Guaranteed! For detail follow @packchella and visit packtheater.com. Find Science AF at @scienceafpod and scienceafpod.com.

In a mini-episode science news recap Dave talks about the newest farthest object in the solar system, a chip off Neptune's moon Proteus, some bad climate news and a new carbon-capture device that might save us, a tiny predecessor of the t-rex, a rare case of semi-identical twins, and some more bad news for DNA evidence. Follow @daveciaccio and @scienceafpod, email dave@scienceafpod.com and visit scienceafpod.com. Subscribe, rate, rinse, repeat!

Dave (@daveciaccio) and Jesse (@jessklein1) welcome comedian and host of the "Mom, Get Your SHIT Together" podcast, Amy Albert Cobb (@amyalbertcobb) to talk about the importance of vaccinations and the serious threat to humanity that is the anti-vaxx movement. We talk about how bad science spreads and how thinking with your gut instead of your head can kill. Vaccinate your kids and subscribe, like and rate our podcast! Follow us @scienceafpod and visit scienceafpod.com.

This is another mini-episode about the week in science! A team of Israeli scientists is calling their shot, claiming they will cure cancer in the next year. Well, I guess we'll see about that. Hubble discovers a new Dwarf Galaxy, a Russian cave yields new evidence of the ancient Denisovan people, China's Moon lander sprouts some seeds that then immediately die, researchers attempt to teach Satire to AI and a new breakthrough in Alzheimer’s Disease teases a new possible treatment. Hosted by @daveciaccio. Follow us @scienceafpod!

Ciaccio presents the first Oner! A solo mission to talk about the week's science news. We will still be doing guest episodes, but we're adding these shorter eps to fill in the gaps. In this week's episode we talk about Saturn's rings, they're younger than we thought and they're disappearing! Also a discovery of a frog species that was thought to be extinct, the discovery of dead Tardigrades in an isolated lake deep under Antarctica, and just in time for Halloween in January, a terrifying robot made out of an Ancient Alligator Skeleton!

Comedy writer and documentary researcher Victoria Harley joins Dave to talk about the history of the US and Russian Space Programs including the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. We talk about past and future moon missions, space elevators, artificial stars, moon litter and a visit from the Christmas comet. Science AF (@scienceafpod) is hosted by @daveciaccio and @jessklein1. Find us at scienceafpod.com, or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher!

Dave and Jesse are joined by comedy writer, singer and musicologist Elizabeth Hayhurst (@fordprefictskid) to talk about how different musicians have different brains, the music of the cosmos, how some people can see music, how music can help those with dementia, and the mathematics of music! Science AF (@scienceafpod) is hosted by @daveciaccio and @jessklein1. Find us at scienceafpod.com, or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher!

Dave and Jesse hit the Pack Theater (packtheater.com) for a mini-episode as part of the Podcast Party live show. They are joined by writer for CBS's The Detour and one-time Forensic Psychology major, Stephanie Streisand (@StephStreisand), to talk about the fallibility of eye-witness testimony and how an inadvertent hand gesture can subliminally influence memory, plus DNA evidence and how your "Microbial Cloud" can be used to determine where you've been! Science AF (@scienceafpod) is hosted by @daveciaccio and @jessklein1. Find us at scienceafpod.com!

Nuclear Physicist Dr Kevin Peter Hickerson (@kphickerson) from Surely You're Joking Podcast joins Dave to discuss tiny atoms known as positronium, fields of energy known as ghost black holes, the theory of a cyclical universe, determinism, an infinite universe and new AI that has detected dozens of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)! Is it aliens? Of course! Isn't it always?

Jesse and Dave welcome comedian Jason Kaye (insta: @jasonkayecomedy, @hellkrossband) and his father Dr. Steven Kaye MD, to discuss newly discovered human brain cells, genes that correlate to bravery, how memories can be tricked and growing back limbs with electricity, as well as long tangents about metal band therapy, memory palaces and Ted Williams' frozen head! Hosted by Dave Ciaccio (@daveciaccio) and Jesse Klein (@jessklein1). You can find us at scienceafpod.com, email us at info@scienceafpod.com and follow us @scienceafpod everywhere.

Comedian and food blogger Katie Molinaro (insta: @eatitkatie) joins us on the patio lab to talk about the frontiers of food science and research while discussing the oldest cheese ever found, the weirdest foods we've eaten, laboratory-grown food and what we would order for our last meal. Hosted by Dave Ciaccio (@daveciaccio) and Jesse Klein (@jessklein1). Follow us @scienceafpod and visit scienceafpod.com for more links and info!

Comedian and active Democratic Socialists of America member Kelsey Goldberg (@kelseyfgold) talks to us about the current state of politics and what we can do to make the world a better place. We talk about a study showing that the disgust response might contribute to political beliefs, another study that shows how people can become entrenched in their ideologies, how to talk to people who support bad things, and we boldly come out strongly against fascism, sexual oppression and AIDS (the syndrome not the people affected by it).

Dave and Jesse pitch movie ideas based on current science stories. Dave reports on the newly launched NASA probe to touch the Sun, and a Pixar movie to go along with it. Jesse pitches an anthology of three great stories of Anthropology, The Laetoli Footprints, Lucy and Piltdown Man. Who wants to Executive Produce? Visit ScienceAFPod.com or Contact us at info@scienceafpod.com!

Spoiler Episode! We get deep into the 2018 sci-fi movie Annihilation, directed by Alex Garland and starring Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, et al. We talk about how much of it is somewhat plausible science and how much pure fiction, including the entire plot from beginning to end, so if you don't want to know about the movie before you see the movie, go see the movie!

NASA Scientist John Willis (fb: @climateelvis, tw, insta: @omgnasa) tells us about his research for Ocean's Melting Greenland (OMG), and his work spreading climate knowledge as Climate Elvis (https://youtu.be/WGfKRfyhvd0). We talk about the health, economic, migratory and other impacts of Global Climate Change. Plus, how to talk to uniformed skeptics. And some optimistic news about making a change!

Dave visited the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Open House in Pasadena with our guests Leo Shvedsky (tw: @loggface, insta: @spacepocalypse) and Heidi Lux (tw: @Heidi_Lux, insta: @fabulux) to perform some espionage in the name of Science AF! We fill in Jesse about everything we saw, including the next generation Mars Rover, which comes complete with a hovering platform, helicopter drone and rocket to send back samples. Plus moon missions, exo-planets, and the recent discovery of building blocks of life on Mars, and a planet-wide dust storm that's annoying amateur astronomers. Meanwhile Jesse went camping in Yosemite and tells us what he learned drinking beers by the campfire!

The conclusion of our talk with Reed Brice (@thatdangdingus), a very funny comedian and actor, who is also a non-binary person in the midst of their gender expression journey. We get into the politics and red tape of transitioning. The evolution of the language of inclusion. The meaning of freedom, the absurdity of obstinance and a bunch of other stuff!

We talk to Reed Brice (@thatdangdingus), a very funny comedian and actor, who is also a non-binary person in the midst of their gender expression journey. We talk about gender confirmation and expression, and the complex spectrum of gender that is well documented in both science and religious history. We talk about exciting new breakthroughs in hormonal treatments, including a trans woman who was able to breastfeed her child; The first ever successful penis and scrotum transplant onto a cis-gender U.S. soldier; New studies about the complex relationship of nature vs nurture leading to one's sexual preferences. We get into some bathroom politics, and even onto dog head transplants and werewolves! This is part 1 of 2 of one of the most interesting episodes we've ever done. We hope you'll enjoy the discussion as much as we did!

Dave and Jesse welcome Bart Bidlingmeyer (@bidsbarto), host of the youtube show Science Garage to talk about the future of transportation technology! We look into the triumphs and homicidal failures of current driverless technologies; a military request to let autonomous drone A.I. decide to kill people; a plan to release autonomous flying cars in Dubai and NASA's proposal to send a helicopter to Mars.

Dave and Jesse welcome comedy writer Diana Wright (@thatswright) to talk about stinky new info on the atmosphere of Uranus, why one astronaut is genetically different than his twin, a theoretical new form of ice, and our scientific and ethical issues with sci-fi films Passengers and Enders Game.

Dave and Jesse welcome comedian and biochemistry major Tiffany Aleman, as well as correspondent Bryan Musil to discuss recent advancements in genetic engineering, including CRISPR gene-editing tests on humans and whether or not we should look forward to immortality.

Comedian and former Engineering Student Richee Aaron joins Dave and Jesse to discuss the present and future of Artificial Intelligence, now that Google's Deep Mind AlphaGo has beaten the top human Go Player years ahead of predictions. Plus game-playing algorithms that have learned to cheat, pause the game or commit suicide for strategic reasons, and a computer with the cognitive abilities to lie and cheat as well as a four-year old human, how long until it learns the ethics and social values of an adult? We don't know, do you?

Jesse and Dave are joined by Science Jerk Robert Chan and Biomedical Engineer/Comedy Writer Anne Yatco, as they discuss whether Boston Dynamics animal robots will remember how we treated them, if CRISPR will create Cloverfield humans, a squirmingly gross case of eye worms in Portland and a population of crayfish who don't need a partner to reproduce!

Jesse and Dave talk about the Falcon Heavy Rocket, The Space Tesla, The David Bowie of Mars, Raptors, Cloacal Kisses, Eagle Chickens, Polyamorous Duck Cocaine Parties, and Eagle Sex Death Dives! Also Molly Wixson (@mollywixson) joins us to talk about Falcon facts!