Podcasts about chemical heritage foundation

Tucked away in the Big Sandy Heritage Center in Pikeville, Kentucky is a cotton-stuffed doll tied to a horrific incident that defies belief. On display at The Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia is a vibrant silk swatch that forever changed the world of fashion. And The Katy Depot Museum in West, Texas is home to an artifact linked to one of the most spectacular publicity stunts of all time.For even more Mysteries at the Museum, head to discovery+. Go to discoveryplus.com/mystery to start your 7-day free trial today. Terms apply. 

Ronald Brashear from Chemical Heritage Foundation delivers a talk titled “The Observatory as Laboratory: Spectral Analysis at Mount Wilson Observatory.” This talk was included in the session titled “It’s Elemental.” Part of “First Light: The Astronomy Century in California, 1917–2017,” a conference held at The Huntington Nov. 17–18, 2017.

In today’s podcast, I’d like to introduce a new segement called Speakable. Think of speakable as Audiobook for content be it articles or blog posts that relate to the Art, Science, or History of Neon and Plasma. This was largely inspired by my love for audio books, and the podcast Optimal Living Daily Podcast that is centered around narration of articles and blog posts, with given permissions. So I thought I’d give it a shot to help fill in the gaps when interviews and discussions are being scheduled. To be able to give life to content that I can bring to you. Let me know in the comments or by email your thoughts on continuing this, suggested material are welcome. In our first Speakable I’ll be reading “A Blaze of Crimson Light: The Story of Neon” by Jane E. Boyd and Joseph Rucker. An article relating to a brief history and science of neon in terms of it’s discovery, uses, and it’s associations with Sign making and advertising.  Before I begin I want to talk about the organization behind the source material, The Chemical Heritage Foundation, which is a library, a center for scholars, a museum, and archive. They focus on matter and materials and their effects on our modern world. They collect, preserve, and exhibit historical artifacts; engage communities of scientists and engineers; and tell the stories of the people behind breakthroughs and innovations. Distillations is a blog, podcast, and magazine, centered around Science, Culture, and History, where you’ll find a diverse range of subjects such as science, Business, Technology, and Pop Culture.  Please check it out  at chemheritage.org in the link listed in the blog post.   Intro Music: Boost by Joakim Karud www.joakimkarud.com https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud   Outro Music: Re-Entry by Lapse https://soundcloud.com/lapse   Check www.taminglightning.net for the full post! Thank You for listening to the Taming Lightning Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the first segment of Speakable. If you find something interesting that you would like to have narrated, please send me an email or fb message at Taming Lightning. I’d like to thank Michal Meyer, the Editor in Chief of Distillations at Chemical Heritage Foundation  for permission to narrate their article from their Magazine. Also I’d like to thank Pittsburgh Glass Center for supporting me as well as encouraging me to pursue this project, as well as the Plasma Art Alliance where I have access to the well of knowledge, and connects to some amazing people. Keep an eye out for next summer’s classes at Pittsburgh Glass Center as we work to provide a space for learning neon and plasma. If you like to support this, simply go to percyechols.com and look for the tab “Taming Lighting” or by typing in taminglightning.net, and click subscribe, later there will probably be other options in the future, but for now like, share, comment, and subscribe. See you next time  

The digital revolution is transforming innovation, providing access to information in ways unheard of even a generation ago. Putting this knowledge to purpose is changing how we live, communicate, and govern—and raising new issues about equality and fairness. This new age of invention was the subject of the latest edition of Trend, The Pew Charitable Trusts’ journal of ideas. And this episode is a rebroadcast of a conversation on the topic held not long ago in Philadelphia by several contributors to Trend. With questions from moderator Frazierita Klasen, Pew’s vice president for Philadelphia programs, Susan Urahn, Pew’s executive vice president and chief program officer; Lee Rainie, director of internet and technology research at the Pew Research Center; and Jody Roberts, director of the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Research and managing director of CHF West, discussed the possibilities and the dilemmas of technical change and the opportunities for invention today. To learn more, visit >>> pewtrusts.org/afterthefact. If you appreciate the nonpartisan data and stories our podcast provides, please write a review >>> http://pew.org/pdcstrvw.

This week, Beth is back with the team from Chemical Heritage Foundation. This time, she talks with Shelley Wilks Geehr, director of the Roy Eddleman Institute, about the roles of social media and digital content for the museum. Shelley explores the various media assets of the organization, from its quarterly print (yes, print!) magazine to a podcast to weekly Twitter takeovers. She also explains the role of Wikipedia in their organization and how it has helped attract attention to the museum. They talk about the museum decides what content they create, the benefits of social media, and more.

When you start a new project—like a new exhibit at a museum—you might look at what other organizations are doing, and that can be a good thing. This session is all about collaboration—both internally and externally—as Elisabeth Berry Drago and Rebecca Ortenberg from the Chemical Heritage Foundation join in to talk about how the museum worked with other organizations as it developed its newest exhibit. They discuss how they worked to personalize the exhibit for museum-goers and how they looked to other organizations for help in creating that experience.

Learn how a Polish monk created the first bulletproof vest and, in doing so, changed the world. In 1897, at a public demonstration in Chicago, a man accomplished the unprecedented and seemingly physics-defying feat of stopping a bullet. After being shot with a revolver at close-range, and temporarily falling to the ground, the man was completely unscathed. That man, Kazimierz Żegleń, had succeeded in creating a vest that made him bulletproof. In this episode, our hosts John and Lea discuss the man behind the vest, Kazimierz Żegleń, and the story of its creation. Who was Żegleń in the first place? How was he inspired to create a potentially life-saving vest and how did he manage to invent it? What was the immediate impact of this supposedly bulletproof vest? Did it save any lives? And finally, how has Żegleń’s invention influenced modern-day bulletproof vests? Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter! Time stamps [02:10] Introduction to Kazimierz Żegleń, creator of the bulletproof vest [03:33] Why would a monk become interested in durable materials? [05:00] How did Żegleń create his bulletproof vest? [08:10] How Żegleń’s daring public demonstration of vest his vest came to fruition? [10:45] How is silk even capable of stopping bullets? [12:45] Why Żegleń went to Europe and met the ‘Polish Edison’ [16:00] Did Żegleń manage to turn his invention into a commercial success? [18:25] Why was 1901 such an important year for bulletproof vests? [20:20] The legacy of Żegleń’s invention Further reading The Monk Who Stopped Bullets with Silk: Inventing the Bulletproof Vest / on Culture.pl Kazimierz Żegleń / on Wikipedia.org Jan Szczepanik / on Wikipedia.org Tailored to the Times – The Story of Kazimierz Żegleń Silk Bulletproof Vest / on Academia.edu Bulletproof vest / on Wikipedia.org Thanks Sławomir Łotysz / professor at the Institute of the History of Science at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. Professor Łotysz kindly agreed to tell us the story of Kazimierz Żegleń, as well as provide us with lots of materials on Żegleń's inventions and biography. Professor Łotysz's research was made possible largely thanks to the generous support of the Chemical Heritage Foundation of Philadelphia. Lisa Treynor / curator of Firearms at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, who kindly agreed to explain to us how on earth silk is capable of stopping bullets.    SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, Lea Berriault, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner, Michael Keller & Barbara Rogala

Listen to my conversation with Glenn Holsten here! HOLLYWOOD BEAUTY SALON Directed by: Glenn Holsten (The barefoot artist, oc87) Opens IN NEW YORK on Friday, July 29 at the Village East Cinema WINNER! 2016 SAMSHA Voice Award (Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) ABOUT THE FILM Hollywood Beauty Salon portrays life at an intimate beauty parlor inside of the NHS Germantown Recovery Community, a non-profit mental health program in Philadelphia, where staff and clients alike are in the process of recovery. By gathering together to get their hair done, share stories, and support one another, they find a way to rebuild their lives. The documentary — which was work-shopped at the Salon over the course of four years — is also part of the recovery process, and the subjects of the film played an active part in shaping their own narratives and determining their unique individual styles. ABOUT GLENN HOLSTEN Glenn is an award-winning director of documentary films. The Barefoot Artist, about global artist Lily Yeh, was filmed on four continents and had its theatrical premiere in New York and Los Angeles in December, 2014 and is currently available on Netflix. His most recent national broadcast on PBS, The Barnes Collection, follows Dr. Albert Barnes’ remarkable rise from Philadelphia’s working-class neighborhood to the top of the modern art world. SEE, a film that he created in collaboration with painters Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby premiered at the Camden Film Festival in 2013. He directed an eight-part series titled Women In Chemistry, about pioneering women chemists for the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Women In Chemistry appeared on public television as a one-hour television special, as will Scientists You Must Know, a documentary about the people behind the discoveries that changed our world. Other long-form documentary directing credits include OC87: The Obsessive-Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger’s Movie, (theatrical release, 2012, Netflix); Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968, (OVATION, 2010); Saint of 9/11, about Father Mychal Judge, the beloved chaplain to the NYC Fire Dept. (Tribeca Film Festival, IFC theatrical release, 2006, Netflix); Gay Pioneers (PBS, 2005); JIM IN BOLD, which harnesses the power of young voices to reveal the challenges and triumphs of being young and gay in America; Thomas Eakins: Scenes from Modern Life (PBS, 2001), a lyrical examination of America through the eyes of the 19th century painter; and HOUSE, a 30-minute film about The Korman Residence in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania that was famed Philadelphia architect Louis I. Kahn’s final residential commission. He was commissioned by both The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and the Pew Charitable Trusts to create a series of moving portraits about artists and their work processes. Glenn is a recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, and a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship. He has been awarded silver and gold awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for innovative television production. He has been honored with sixteen Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards. A collection of his work was exhibited in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s 20th Century Video Gallery. Glenn has directed films in China, Portugal, Kenya, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, Poland, Bosnia and the Republic of Georgia. In 2000, he traveled to Mongolia, where he conducted a workshop for television professionals that explored creative methods for storytelling on television. Glenn graduated from The University of Pennsylvania in 1984 with a B.A. in English. GLENN'S APPROACH Director Glenn Holsten conducted a 16-week workshop series at the Hollywood Beauty Salon, which created the foundation for the documentary script. Holsten and a film crew collaborated with the women and men who patronize and/or volunteer at the salon to develop individual stories centered around their special Hollywood Beauty experience. Participants discussed the depths of their illnesses and their paths to recovery. They tapped into joyful and painful memories alike — and explored their hopes and dreams for the future. The final script that emerged from this workshop process is a new kind of documentary — a hybrid that artfully combines real life “vérité” (fly on the wall) sequences of everyday life activity in the beauty parlor with highly crafted filmic sequences employing animation, fantasy, and dramatic reenactment. The film’s subjects decided how their personal histories should be documented and shared; each designed the storytelling approach of his/her section of the film. The "Hollywood Beauty Salon" is an intimate beauty parlor that happens to be part of the NHS Germantown Recovery Community, a non-profit mental health program in Philadelphia that is administered by NHS Human Services. Rachel "Hollywood" Carr Timms runs the beauty parlor, where staff and clients alike are all in the process of recovery from some form of mental health issue. By gathering together to get their hair done, share stories, and support one another, they find a way to rebuild their lives. The film is built around preparations for their annual "Hair Recovery Show"--their version of a beauty pageant--and it is this exciting undertaking that allows us to meet the characters and hear their stories. The documentary itself—which was workshopped at the Salon over the course of four years—actually ends up being part of the recovery process itself, and the subjects of the film played an active part in shaping their own narratives and determining the unique, individual style of their respective story arcs. Deeply emotional and highly imaginative, (using animation and other expressionistic effects to convey the interior lives of its subjects), the film was directed by Glenn Holsten, an award-winning Philadelphia-based documentarian whose previous films include OC87: The Obsessive-Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger’s Movie, a feature-length documentary about recovery from the depths of mental illness through filmmaking, Saint of 9/11, a biography of Father Mychal Judge, the Chaplain to the New York City Fire Department who died on 9/11 which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and most recently, The Barefoot Artist, a portrait of artist Lily Yeh which was released last year. Not rated, Runtime 88 minutes (In English/ Documentary/ USA) TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/150349684 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meM7-w-Xf-U http://hollywoodbeautysalonmovie.com/

In the spring of 1667 Samuel Pepys queued repeatedly with crowds of Londoners and waited for hours just to catch a glimpse of aristocrat writer and thinker Margaret Cavendish. Twice he was frustrated and could not spot her, but eventually she made a grand visit to meet the Fellows of the newly formed Royal Society. She was the first woman ever to visit. Pepys watched as they received her with gritted teeth and fake smiles. They politely showed her air pumps, magnets and microscopes, and she politely professed her amazement, then left in her grand carriage. Naomi Alderman asks what it was it about this celebrity poet, playwright, author, and thinker that so fascinated and yet also infuriated these men of the Restoration elite? Part of the answer strikes right at the core of what we now call the scientific method. (Photo: Book cover of Grounds of Natural Philosophy, courtesy of Chemical Heritage Foundation)

If you want perfect stickiness, look to gecko feet - not a crayfish straightjacket. The Facts Surprisingly Awesome’s theme music is “How We Do” by Nicholas Britell. Our ad music is by Build Buildings. This episode was edited by Alex Blumberg and Caitlin Kenney, and produced by Rachel Ward and Kalila Holt, with help from Emma Jacobs, Jacob Cruz, Laura Sims, and was mixed by Andrew Dunn. Special thanks to Jody Roberts at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Sponsors Mack Weldon Squarespace NatureBox

Nicholas McConnell, PhD candidate in Astrophysics at UCB summer 2012, and Jeff Silverman, PhD of Astrophysics from UCB in 2011, part one of three, talk about exoplanets and the search for water in the universe. To help analyze data www.galaxyzoo.org or www.planethunters.orgTranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next [inaudible]. Welcome to spectrum science and technology show on k a l x Berkeley, [00:00:30] a biweekly 30 minute program bringing you interviews featuring bay area scientists and technologists as well as a calendar of local events and news. Speaker 2: Good afternoon. My name is Brad Swift. I'm joined today by spectrum contributors, Rick Karnofsky and Lisa Katovich. Our interview is with Jeff Silverman, a recent phd in astrophysics from UC Berkeley and Nicholas McConnell, a phd candidate unscheduled to be awarded his phd in astrophysics by UC Berkeley this summer. [00:01:00] Jeff and Nicholas have generously agreed to help spectrum present three shows on astronomy, explaining the big ideas, recent experiments, international collaborations and improvements and observations on technology that are transforming astronomy. In part one we discuss extra solar planets known as exoplanets and the search for liquid water in the universe. Nicholas McConnell and Jeff Silverman. Welcome to spectrum. Thanks for having us do. You're both astronomers. Yup. And today you're going to talk with us about [00:01:30] what's been happening in astronomy in say, the past five years that really stands out for you. That's very salient that you think's important. Nicholas, why don't you bring up the first topic that we're going to discuss here? Speaker 2: Sure. Well, there are many things to choose from, but for me, one of the most exciting things that I think has been happening is that over the last two or three years, thanks mostly to a NASA satellite called the Kepler mission. Astronomers have been discovering literally thousands of new planets orbiting other stars, uh, in our own galaxy every year. [00:02:00] And one particularly exciting discovery that happened in December, 2011 was we found a planet around another star that appeared to be in the so called habitable zone of that planet. The zone where the distance from the star was appropriate that the temperature on the planet could possibly be not too cold and not too hot to have liquid water. And how much of that exoplanet research is done here in the bay area? Quite a large amount. There's a large healthy exoplanet team in the UC Berkeley Astronomy Department, [00:02:30] and many scientists here are heavily involved in the Kepler mission besides this planet in the habitable zone. Speaker 2: Like Nicholas mentioned, thousands of planets have been discovered by this Kepler mission of all shapes and sizes from nearly earth size to Uranus and Neptune size. Did you put her in a little bit bigger orbiting their stars that are sun-like sometimes a little bit smaller, sometimes a little bit bigger than the sun at various distances. There's maybe a couple of examples where we've seen a system of a few planets that sort [00:03:00] of mimic the sizes of planets in our solar system at some of the distances, but most of these planets are found very close to their host star. Nothing like what we see in our own solar system, things that are the size of Jupiter and Saturn that are orbiting even closer than mercury. And so this is a huge weird question that's outstanding. People are trying to figure out how do you make these systems, how do you make these planetary systems and why are they so prevalent and so different from what we know in our own solar system. Speaker 2: And are there some sort of limitations to the [00:03:30] finding techniques to, to locate these planets that might sort of bias you towards finding these large close planets spoken like a true scientist? Yes, we are absolutely biased to find big planets that are very close to their stars. So the first handful of planets that were found were very big. These so-called hot Jupiters, very big Jupiter sized planets near their stars. We are definitely biased by the techniques to find these kinds of planets. Capillary is doing a bit of a better job finding smaller planets, finding them further out. And so we're getting into a point [00:04:00] in time where we're close to being able to find similar looking systems to the solar system, bigger planets further out earth planets around the distance of earth from the sun and we're not really finding them as often as you might expect. Speaker 2: And so it does seem still that even taking into account some of this bias that our solar system is a bit of an oddball now that's certainly may change in the next few years. This is a huge fast moving field, but right now we're still an odd ball. Yeah. I have to say that the, the Kepler mission was designed [00:04:30] so that over the course of the missions lifetime, which was roughly a three year time period, starting maybe 2010 and going through 2013 or so, it was designed so that over that period it could detect a planet, maybe twice the size of our earth but orbiting at star at the same distance that the earth orbits the sun. So capillary is definitely doing a better job than previous missions, finding planets that aren't quite as small as earth but are getting down in that region where we can say this plant is actually fairly similar to the planet earth. Speaker 2: And because we're now simply becoming [00:05:00] able to start to find planets like this, we can begin to say things about how common are earth like planets relative to these hot Jupiters that Jeff was talking about before when we had only detected the hot Jupiters, there was nothing we could say about their relative abundance in the universe compared to planets like the earth was their technology. And Kepler that made this possible. Was there a breakthrough somehow in the, the instrument? The thing Kepler does is it measures the brightness coming from a star [00:05:30] over and over and over again. Uh, and what happens is that if a planet passes in front of the star along the line of sight to Earth, it blocks a little bit of the disk of the star. And so the star gets very slightly fatter. But these differences in the stars brightness are smaller than a percent. Speaker 2: And so in order to pick out that signal that you need to have an instrument that can measure the brightness of a star very, very accurately, repeatedly over and over again and simply by having it outside ears, atmosphere, having it in space and all of the different instrumental [00:06:00] things they did inside that satellite enables Kepler to measure stellar brightnesses with more precision than any instrument that we'd done this for previously. Another interesting piece of technology that was something that they had to tackle. And it's still sort of one of the limitations actually of Kepler, is because you're measuring the brightness of thousands of stars many, many times over and over and over again. That's a huge amount of data, just pure raw pictures that you have floating on a spacecraft and you need to beam those down to earth, to big computers to hold those. Speaker 2: And so [00:06:30] one of the biggest limitations from my understanding is just the bandwidth. It is hard to move that ms send that many, you know, picture files basically from space down, you know, different satellites to big data centers on earth. And so they kind of do it in big bursts and in chunks and they only take certain subsets of the pictures of different stars. Very, very close, a little snapshot, postage stamps right around each of the stars that they're monitoring. And it's still huge amounts of data. Uh, and so this has been a big breakthrough for a number of different [00:07:00] astronomy discoveries, is the large amount of data being able to move it through the Internet, through fiber optics and storing it and going through it in a fast, efficient way. Do you know if there's any kind of preliminary data analysis actually on the coupler? Speaker 2: I'm not completely sure, but there is some, as far as I know, a basic calibrations and, and basic work that it does before it sends down some of the products. But looking, as Nicholas said, for these very slight amounts of dimming in the stars takes a lot of computing power [00:07:30] and fancy algorithms that are run on big machines back on earth. And one of the really interesting things that's actually been done with the Keppra or data is after this processing, after you have, um, sort of your reduced scientific measurements. Um, recently these data have been put on the Internet so that by crowdsourcing people can go, ah, I think the website is called Kepler Zoo. And look at the period, the, the patterns of brightness versus time for all of these different stars. Um, and humans can try to find patterns that the best computer algorithms have failed to find. Um, and [00:08:00] I think there is a space of patterns that computers don't do very well at, but humans are better at. Um, so we're using the public to try to get more planets, uh, than when we, we'd be able to do just the astronomy community by itself. Speaker 1: [inaudible] this is spectrum on k l x Berkeley. We are talking about exoplanets with Jeff Silverman and Nicholas McConnell [00:08:30] reflecting on coupler. How do you, Speaker 2: I think it's changed your worldview. The entire subfield and astronomy have of exoplanets. Planets around other stars effectively didn't exist until the mid to late nineties. So when I was in elementary school, it was nice to think about planets on around other stars and see it in the movies. But it was very scifi. Speaker 3: Fast forward to to mean in college, in the early two thousands [00:09:00] taking astronomy classes, astronomers had discovered a handful of these exoplanets. And I distinctly remember one of my professors saying, you know, we found a few, we're going to find some more in the future. One day you'll pick up the newspaper and the front page will be a picture of an exoplanet. And sure enough, a few years ago, Berkeley astronomers took a picture of an exoplanet and it made the front page newspaper. Uh, and I'll never forget seeing that picture on the front page of the newspaper, just like my professor in college predicted. This is a very fast moving field. We're going to find even more planets earth-like [00:09:30] around sunlight stars that could very well have liquid water. It'll possibly be not that rare to have an earth-like planet in the very near future. Personally, to me, I think it's great. It makes me hope that perhaps we can find an exact earth analog around a sun analog and perhaps there is intelligent life or some kind of life that we can find. And I think an amazing thing that astronomers can do for the world. Speaker 4: I think with the discovery of planets that are similar [00:10:00] to Earth or at least about the same sizes, or we're beginning to go from detecting one, then a couple to actually doing decent statistics where we can project how many have planets about the same size of earth exist, say in our galaxy. I tried to do a very, very rough calculation this morning. If you ask how many earth sized planets are there in the Milky Way, I think the answer is there's probably about a billion or a couple billion. And so I think that's just another interesting way of looking at how [00:10:30] earth is not necessarily unique environment in the universe, but just as we have so much diversity here on earth than in our galaxy. We have evidence now that there is space and room to have as much diversity possibly throughout our galaxy. So I think we really are getting a profound sense of just what kind of environment we have for possibly life and for different conditions, not only in our own solar system, but in this much larger piece of the universe that we're [00:11:00] only beginning to explore. Speaker 5: [inaudible]Speaker 6: you're listening to spectrum on k a l x, Berkeley. We are talking about astrophysics with Nicholas McConnell and Jeff Silverman. Speaker 5: [inaudible]Speaker 3: let's talk about water in the universe. So we've found quite a bit of water [00:11:30] in the universe, oddly enough, sort of starting on the biggest scales. There's, there's some nebulae, some clusters of gas and particles out in the universe that are huge reservoirs of water and sort of related huge reservoirs of alcohols, ethanol's, things like that. Coming a little bit closer to home and looking a little bit more recently. In the past maybe five or 10 years, there's been quite a few new detections, new possible detections, new lines of evidence of liquid water, ice water in our solar system in very interesting [00:12:00] places. One, the moon of Saturn known as, and Solidus is a very shiny, very bright object. It's very, very white, snowy, clean looking objects. A handful of craters have much less cratered than our own moon, a little smaller than our moon as well. Speaker 3: But it had some weird features to it. It looks kind of neat. And so the the Cassini spacecraft, which has been around exploring Saturn and its moon systems and its ring system for the past decade or so, did a few very close flybys of this very interesting moon in solidus [00:12:30] figured out that most of the surface is solid ice water, ice, ammonia, hydrocarbons, stuff as well. Also notice that there were geysers coming off of the surface, which we've seen geysers on a couple of other moons of Jupiter and Saturn, but these were kind of interesting and Cassini was there and we lucked out and Cassini actually flew through one of these geysers and got to detect the particles from the geyser itself, right? They're very direct institute measurements of what's in the guys there and it was mostly water and some ammonia, which was [00:13:00] interesting. And then there's evidence that there was actually more organic compounds in there and so possibly there, this could lead to life. Speaker 3: There could be some kind of bacteria down in the innards of in solidus. That's sort of pushing a a little bit, sort of the next step beyond what the evidence is actually telling us. But it's very, very tantalizing. Just about four or five years ago, a NASA panel on moons and moon explorations in the solar system said that in Solidus is probably the best possibility [00:13:30] for current life outside of earth in our own solar system. And the idea is that underneath this sort of very smooth, icy surface, there's probably a liquid ocean, mostly water, maybe a little bit of salt water, like I said, a little ammonia, some organic compounds, perhaps probably not gray whales and great white sharks. Probably not even little fish and shrimp, but it seems reasonable that there could be microscopic organisms, some kind of life, you know, to be determined. Speaker 3: But it's possible. [00:14:00] There's liquid water, there's reasonable conditions. It's not too salty, it's not too acidic, it's not too hot. And there does seem to be at least the building blocks, some of these organic compounds, perhaps one outstanding issue is how thick is this outer ice layer. So there's been some ideas of what we should send another mission that's just going to drill in there and it had the little submarine and go look around for fish and organisms, but we don't actually have a great handle on how thick that ice layer is. Uh, so Cassini is continuing to study this moon along with the [00:14:30] rest of the stuff in the Saturn system. Other moons, the planet itself, the Rings, uh, and we'll hopefully learn a little bit more about it, but they're already in the works, uh, both NASA, Japanese and European missions to go explore in salad. It's even more now if you want to go a little bit closer than Enceladus, one of the most promising planets areas in our solar system where Speaker 4: people have thought about the possibility of liquid water, where we certainly know that frozen water exists and where we have a headstart on [00:15:00] objects actually on the surface exploring is the planet Mars. And there've been some recent discoveries about both water in the past history of Mars and possibly salty liquid water, actually existing present day on Mars that are fueling a lot of excitement in the scientific community. Right now we have two different kinds of instruments that are doing fantastic observations of Mars. One of them is called the Mars or condescends orbiter. It is a satellite in orbit around Mars that can take fantastically detailed [00:15:30] photographs of the Martian surface. You can see features about a few feet across on the Martian surface with the satellite and then the other are the famous Mars Rovers. Spirit and opportunity spirit recently shut down, met its demise even though these two rovers outlasted their nominal mission timeline by a factor of 10 or so, Opportunity is still exploring the Martian surface and in both cases, instruments have found evidence for water on Mars. Speaker 4: In the case of opportunity. The rover fairly recently [00:16:00] discovered this mineral vein in a rock in a crater on Mars that scientists are pretty certain, could only have been created by liquid water flowing through a crack in the rocket, some ancient time and marches history and creating this particular mineral known as gypsum in certain variances what we use to make plaster of Paris here on Earth. So there is evidence that in particular Martian environments, there was almost certainly liquid water on Mars in the past. Combine that with theoretical models of how the planet and its atmosphere would have evolved over time. [00:16:30] And there are some pictures of ancient Mars being this sort of lush liquid water, much warmer environment than it is today. And so possibly Mars in its past was a hospitable environment for life. Although I'll emphasize we've, we have not yet detected any evidence of present day or fossilized life on Mars, but frankly, we haven't explored a very large fraction of that planet yet. Speaker 4: So I wouldn't be entirely surprised if some discovery came along in the future. Another very, very interesting observation on Mars coming [00:17:00] from the Mars reconnaissance orbiter is that looking over time at the edges of some of the craters on Mars in the warm seasons, they actually found stream like features that looked like dark streams were appearing on the edges of craters and over the course of the warm season as these craters were being more exposed to the sun and warming up a little bit, the streams lengthen as you might expect, little trickles of liquid water to flow downhill and based on mineral analysis which you can do using spectroscopy [00:17:30] from the orbiter and just generally the overall pattern of how these streams change with the seasons. We think that's good evidence that some sort of salty water was creating the streams. Unfortunately we were not able to directly detect water. What we see, it looks more to be like residue from a salt water stream where the water evaporated or where the water is just below the surface. But it seems that in certain seasons and certain places of the planet, there could actually be water and liquid form just at the surface or just below the surface [00:18:00] of Mars today. I mean if you have salt water on Mars, then I think there's at least some chance that you could have some kind of primitive life forum thriving in it. [inaudible] Speaker 3: it's been amazing in the last few years using the orbiter and the rovers on Mars, the different lines of evidence that we have for this ice, either on the surface or just below the surface centimeters below the surface, inches below the surface. And so NASA just recently launched a mission to head to Mars and even bigger rover, something like the size of a small car [00:18:30] that's going to go around and specifically look for water, look for organic molecules, building blocks of life in different parts than where we've already explored on Mars. Speaker 4: And that rover is called curiosity and it's supposed to land on the Martian surface this summer. Is there water on the moon? Our Moon, there is water on the moon in the form of hydrous molecules, so where water is directly incorporated into a solid rock, but I don't think there's any evidence for frozen or liquid water on the moon, [00:19:00] certainly not liquid water. Speaker 5: [inaudible]Speaker 4: can you reflect on the importance of water being discovered in our solar system or in some other solar system or galaxy? Speaker 2: Clearly on earth, water is essential [00:19:30] for all life forms and so whereas there are ideas about exotic kinds of life that could exist without our requirement of having water. It certainly seems like the most natural place to start looking for life outside of our own planet. So knowing that it exists in liquid form in different places in the universe and knowing Lisa in our own solar system where it exists is I think a really good start toward actually doing an Ernest search for life outside earth, maybe in our own solar system. [00:20:00] And I think just knowing how much water there actually is in our universe makes it seem like the universe is maybe a friendlier place than we thought it was. Okay. Speaker 3: One of the basic questions in astronomy of humanity, one of the things that got me interested in astronomy originally was are we alone in the universe? Is there life out there in the solar system, in our galaxy, and looking for water is probably the best way, the most direct way to find where that life could be. Being able to go visit Mars, the Moon, various [00:20:30] moons in our own solar system. Looking for that life in the water or around the water, I think is is something that's a fundamental question for all humankind, not just scientists and astronomers. Speaker 7: That ends one, Jeff Silverman and Nicholas McConnell. We'll be back with part two on our next show. We'll talk about Super Novi and black holes. Rick Karnofsky and Lisa Catholic joined me [00:21:00] for the calendar and the new black hole, Speaker 8: the harmonic oscillators of the 21st century presented by Andrew Strom and dear professor of physics, Harvard University, Monday, March 12th at four 15 to 5:30 PM La Conte Hall Room Number One in the 20th century. Many problems across all of physics were solved by perturb native methods which reduce them to harmonic oscillators. Black holes are poised to play a similar role for the problems of 21st century physics. They are at once [00:21:30] the simplest and most complex objects in the physical universe. Professors durometer will give an introduction to the subject intended for a general audience Speaker 9: daily and Nardo art science evening rendezvous or laser is a monthly series of lectures, presentations, and networking between artists and scientists. This month, laser is on Monday, March 12th at the [inaudible] room of the front building at the University of San Francisco to one 30 zero Fulton Street. It is free, but [00:22:00] please RSVP to p at [inaudible] dot com the event starts at seven with a talk by [inaudible] Viskontas on the art and neuroscience of effective music performance. What is it about this art form that draws people in? What distinguishes a performance that is technically accurate but unmusical from one that elicits the chills. We will explore how music engages the brain and why it continues to be a worldwide addiction. This will be followed by Rebecca Cayman's talk, making the invisible visible [00:22:30] discoveries between art and science, the history of artists as scientists and scientists as artists will be shared drying from the collections of the American philosophical society and the Chemical Heritage Foundation. The development of new art science collaborations will also be discussed. Shawmut caught true of the Stanford Physics Department. We'll speak on are there more dimensions of space which we'll discuss how the extra dimensions proposed by some models such as string theory may explain and unify puzzles [00:23:00] of modern physics. The night we'll conclude with Scott killed doll and Nathaniel stern who will discuss beaming Twitter messages to glaze five eight one D and exoplanet 20 light years away that can support extra terrestrial life using DIY technology. The website for laser is www.leonardo.info Speaker 8: the creative destruction of medicine Wednesday, March 14th at 6:00 PM at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on the second [00:23:30] floor of five 95 market street, Eric Topol, MD, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, Co founder and vice chairman of the West Wireless Health Institute and author of the creative destruction of medicine. Dr Topol says that is poised to go through its biggest shakeup in history and unprecedented convergence of technologies such as the ability to digitize human genomes and the invention of wireless tools is gaining momentum, thrusting the medical field into the digital era. Tickets are $20 [00:24:00] for general public, $8 for members and $7 for students. Speaker 9: Ask a scientist is hosting a puzzle party on Pi Day Wednesday, March 14th at 7:00 PM this is a math and logic puzzle competition for teams of up to six people. It is free, but you're encouraged to support the venue by purchasing foods and or drinks. The winning team will get a round of drinks and an overwhelming sense of pride. Bring a jacket in case there is overflow onto the sidewalk of the bizarre [00:24:30] cafe. Five nine two seven California at 21st in San Francisco visit. Ask a scientist sf.com for more info. Speaker 7: Yeah, Speaker 6: the March Science at cal lecture will be given at 11:00 AM on Saturday, March 17th in the genetics and plant biology building room 100 the talk will be given by Dr Hazel Bane and is entitled The Sun a star in our own backyard. Dr Bain is a post doc with the Ruben Rahmati high energy spectroscopic [00:25:00] solar imager solar physics group at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley. Her main area of research involves studying solar eruptive events such as flares, jets, and coronal mass ejections using both space and ground-based instruments. In describing her talk, Dr Bane said the stars in the night sky have always been a source of intrigue and wonder with our very own star at the center of our solar system, the sun offers us a unique [00:25:30] opportunity to study the inner workings of these giant balls of plasma. Starting at the core, I will discuss the processes occurring at the different layers of the sun onto news. Speaker 9: The four mile long t veteran particle accelerator at Chicago's Fermi lab was closed in September, 2011 after being one of the most powerful accelerators for 20 years, but in analyzing 500 trillion subatomic particles, Asians from the CDF and DCO, the team says that they may [00:26:00] have generated about a thousand Higgs Bosons the particle that is responsible for mass in the standard model of physics in a previous episode of spectrum that you can download from iTunes you, we interviewed Dr Simoni Pig Ingreso about the hunt for the Higgs. The probability of these measurements being due to a statistical fluke instead of the measurements of the Higgs is about one in 30 or about 2.2 sigma. This is well below the one chance in 3.5 million or five sigma that will be used to claim the actual discovery of the Higgs. [00:26:30] The energy of the detected events is between 115 billion and 135 billion electron volts, which is in good agreement with the range of 124 billion electron volts to 126 billion electron volts that turns large. Hadron collider established with 3.6 sigma certainty. The large Hadron collider is on winter break, but we'll be fixed up again in April to continue trying to find the Higgs with five sigma certainty. Speaker 8: The Cal Energy Corp is offering internships [00:27:00] around the world from Brazil to Germany to Ghana, to China, as well as in the bay area. During the summer of 2012 internships will offer UC Berkeley undergraduates the opportunity to pursue challenging hands on projects and energy and climate research. According to the office of the vice chancellor for research among the projects, cal energy core interns will be involved in our efforts to create green coal as industrial fuel, helping to produce biofuels, working on improving photovoltaics for integration into the [00:27:30] electricity grid, building models to better understand climate change and designing and testing. Cookstoves. The internship program provides a $600 weekly stipend for all interns as well as funding to cover transportation and housing. All placements are full time, more information and application forms are available at the cow energy core website. Speaker 9: Yeah, Speaker 6: explaining science to an 11 year old. The flame challenge sponsored by the Center for communicating science is an attempt to reach the very core of [00:28:00] science communication. The contest asks scientists and generally clever people to submit their own explanations of what a flame is, explanations that would captivate an 11 year old. The flame challenge contest is open for entries between March 2nd and April 2nd with the winners to be announced in June. Entries can be in writing, video or graphics and they can be playful or serious as long as they are accurate and connect with the young judges. For more information and entry [00:28:30] forms, visit the challenge website. Flame challenge.org Speaker 7: [inaudible] music curse during the show goes by on Donna David [inaudible] on for his album title folk and acoustic [00:29:00] just made available by creative Commons license 3.0 contribution. [inaudible]. Thank you for listening to spectrum. If you have comments about the show [inaudible] [00:29:30] to our email address is [inaudible] means in two weeks. It's Speaker 6: the same Speaker 5: [inaudible]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nicholas McConnell, PhD candidate in Astrophysics at UCB summer 2012, and Jeff Silverman, PhD of Astrophysics from UCB in 2011, part one of three, talk about exoplanets and the search for water in the universe. To help analyze data www.galaxyzoo.org or www.planethunters.orgTranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next [inaudible]. Welcome to spectrum science and technology show on k a l x Berkeley, [00:00:30] a biweekly 30 minute program bringing you interviews featuring bay area scientists and technologists as well as a calendar of local events and news. Speaker 2: Good afternoon. My name is Brad Swift. I'm joined today by spectrum contributors, Rick Karnofsky and Lisa Katovich. Our interview is with Jeff Silverman, a recent phd in astrophysics from UC Berkeley and Nicholas McConnell, a phd candidate unscheduled to be awarded his phd in astrophysics by UC Berkeley this summer. [00:01:00] Jeff and Nicholas have generously agreed to help spectrum present three shows on astronomy, explaining the big ideas, recent experiments, international collaborations and improvements and observations on technology that are transforming astronomy. In part one we discuss extra solar planets known as exoplanets and the search for liquid water in the universe. Nicholas McConnell and Jeff Silverman. Welcome to spectrum. Thanks for having us do. You're both astronomers. Yup. And today you're going to talk with us about [00:01:30] what's been happening in astronomy in say, the past five years that really stands out for you. That's very salient that you think's important. Nicholas, why don't you bring up the first topic that we're going to discuss here? Speaker 2: Sure. Well, there are many things to choose from, but for me, one of the most exciting things that I think has been happening is that over the last two or three years, thanks mostly to a NASA satellite called the Kepler mission. Astronomers have been discovering literally thousands of new planets orbiting other stars, uh, in our own galaxy every year. [00:02:00] And one particularly exciting discovery that happened in December, 2011 was we found a planet around another star that appeared to be in the so called habitable zone of that planet. The zone where the distance from the star was appropriate that the temperature on the planet could possibly be not too cold and not too hot to have liquid water. And how much of that exoplanet research is done here in the bay area? Quite a large amount. There's a large healthy exoplanet team in the UC Berkeley Astronomy Department, [00:02:30] and many scientists here are heavily involved in the Kepler mission besides this planet in the habitable zone. Speaker 2: Like Nicholas mentioned, thousands of planets have been discovered by this Kepler mission of all shapes and sizes from nearly earth size to Uranus and Neptune size. Did you put her in a little bit bigger orbiting their stars that are sun-like sometimes a little bit smaller, sometimes a little bit bigger than the sun at various distances. There's maybe a couple of examples where we've seen a system of a few planets that sort [00:03:00] of mimic the sizes of planets in our solar system at some of the distances, but most of these planets are found very close to their host star. Nothing like what we see in our own solar system, things that are the size of Jupiter and Saturn that are orbiting even closer than mercury. And so this is a huge weird question that's outstanding. People are trying to figure out how do you make these systems, how do you make these planetary systems and why are they so prevalent and so different from what we know in our own solar system. Speaker 2: And are there some sort of limitations to the [00:03:30] finding techniques to, to locate these planets that might sort of bias you towards finding these large close planets spoken like a true scientist? Yes, we are absolutely biased to find big planets that are very close to their stars. So the first handful of planets that were found were very big. These so-called hot Jupiters, very big Jupiter sized planets near their stars. We are definitely biased by the techniques to find these kinds of planets. Capillary is doing a bit of a better job finding smaller planets, finding them further out. And so we're getting into a point [00:04:00] in time where we're close to being able to find similar looking systems to the solar system, bigger planets further out earth planets around the distance of earth from the sun and we're not really finding them as often as you might expect. Speaker 2: And so it does seem still that even taking into account some of this bias that our solar system is a bit of an oddball now that's certainly may change in the next few years. This is a huge fast moving field, but right now we're still an odd ball. Yeah. I have to say that the, the Kepler mission was designed [00:04:30] so that over the course of the missions lifetime, which was roughly a three year time period, starting maybe 2010 and going through 2013 or so, it was designed so that over that period it could detect a planet, maybe twice the size of our earth but orbiting at star at the same distance that the earth orbits the sun. So capillary is definitely doing a better job than previous missions, finding planets that aren't quite as small as earth but are getting down in that region where we can say this plant is actually fairly similar to the planet earth. Speaker 2: And because we're now simply becoming [00:05:00] able to start to find planets like this, we can begin to say things about how common are earth like planets relative to these hot Jupiters that Jeff was talking about before when we had only detected the hot Jupiters, there was nothing we could say about their relative abundance in the universe compared to planets like the earth was their technology. And Kepler that made this possible. Was there a breakthrough somehow in the, the instrument? The thing Kepler does is it measures the brightness coming from a star [00:05:30] over and over and over again. Uh, and what happens is that if a planet passes in front of the star along the line of sight to Earth, it blocks a little bit of the disk of the star. And so the star gets very slightly fatter. But these differences in the stars brightness are smaller than a percent. Speaker 2: And so in order to pick out that signal that you need to have an instrument that can measure the brightness of a star very, very accurately, repeatedly over and over again and simply by having it outside ears, atmosphere, having it in space and all of the different instrumental [00:06:00] things they did inside that satellite enables Kepler to measure stellar brightnesses with more precision than any instrument that we'd done this for previously. Another interesting piece of technology that was something that they had to tackle. And it's still sort of one of the limitations actually of Kepler, is because you're measuring the brightness of thousands of stars many, many times over and over and over again. That's a huge amount of data, just pure raw pictures that you have floating on a spacecraft and you need to beam those down to earth, to big computers to hold those. Speaker 2: And so [00:06:30] one of the biggest limitations from my understanding is just the bandwidth. It is hard to move that ms send that many, you know, picture files basically from space down, you know, different satellites to big data centers on earth. And so they kind of do it in big bursts and in chunks and they only take certain subsets of the pictures of different stars. Very, very close, a little snapshot, postage stamps right around each of the stars that they're monitoring. And it's still huge amounts of data. Uh, and so this has been a big breakthrough for a number of different [00:07:00] astronomy discoveries, is the large amount of data being able to move it through the Internet, through fiber optics and storing it and going through it in a fast, efficient way. Do you know if there's any kind of preliminary data analysis actually on the coupler? Speaker 2: I'm not completely sure, but there is some, as far as I know, a basic calibrations and, and basic work that it does before it sends down some of the products. But looking, as Nicholas said, for these very slight amounts of dimming in the stars takes a lot of computing power [00:07:30] and fancy algorithms that are run on big machines back on earth. And one of the really interesting things that's actually been done with the Keppra or data is after this processing, after you have, um, sort of your reduced scientific measurements. Um, recently these data have been put on the Internet so that by crowdsourcing people can go, ah, I think the website is called Kepler Zoo. And look at the period, the, the patterns of brightness versus time for all of these different stars. Um, and humans can try to find patterns that the best computer algorithms have failed to find. Um, and [00:08:00] I think there is a space of patterns that computers don't do very well at, but humans are better at. Um, so we're using the public to try to get more planets, uh, than when we, we'd be able to do just the astronomy community by itself. Speaker 1: [inaudible] this is spectrum on k l x Berkeley. We are talking about exoplanets with Jeff Silverman and Nicholas McConnell [00:08:30] reflecting on coupler. How do you, Speaker 2: I think it's changed your worldview. The entire subfield and astronomy have of exoplanets. Planets around other stars effectively didn't exist until the mid to late nineties. So when I was in elementary school, it was nice to think about planets on around other stars and see it in the movies. But it was very scifi. Speaker 3: Fast forward to to mean in college, in the early two thousands [00:09:00] taking astronomy classes, astronomers had discovered a handful of these exoplanets. And I distinctly remember one of my professors saying, you know, we found a few, we're going to find some more in the future. One day you'll pick up the newspaper and the front page will be a picture of an exoplanet. And sure enough, a few years ago, Berkeley astronomers took a picture of an exoplanet and it made the front page newspaper. Uh, and I'll never forget seeing that picture on the front page of the newspaper, just like my professor in college predicted. This is a very fast moving field. We're going to find even more planets earth-like [00:09:30] around sunlight stars that could very well have liquid water. It'll possibly be not that rare to have an earth-like planet in the very near future. Personally, to me, I think it's great. It makes me hope that perhaps we can find an exact earth analog around a sun analog and perhaps there is intelligent life or some kind of life that we can find. And I think an amazing thing that astronomers can do for the world. Speaker 4: I think with the discovery of planets that are similar [00:10:00] to Earth or at least about the same sizes, or we're beginning to go from detecting one, then a couple to actually doing decent statistics where we can project how many have planets about the same size of earth exist, say in our galaxy. I tried to do a very, very rough calculation this morning. If you ask how many earth sized planets are there in the Milky Way, I think the answer is there's probably about a billion or a couple billion. And so I think that's just another interesting way of looking at how [00:10:30] earth is not necessarily unique environment in the universe, but just as we have so much diversity here on earth than in our galaxy. We have evidence now that there is space and room to have as much diversity possibly throughout our galaxy. So I think we really are getting a profound sense of just what kind of environment we have for possibly life and for different conditions, not only in our own solar system, but in this much larger piece of the universe that we're [00:11:00] only beginning to explore. Speaker 5: [inaudible]Speaker 6: you're listening to spectrum on k a l x, Berkeley. We are talking about astrophysics with Nicholas McConnell and Jeff Silverman. Speaker 5: [inaudible]Speaker 3: let's talk about water in the universe. So we've found quite a bit of water [00:11:30] in the universe, oddly enough, sort of starting on the biggest scales. There's, there's some nebulae, some clusters of gas and particles out in the universe that are huge reservoirs of water and sort of related huge reservoirs of alcohols, ethanol's, things like that. Coming a little bit closer to home and looking a little bit more recently. In the past maybe five or 10 years, there's been quite a few new detections, new possible detections, new lines of evidence of liquid water, ice water in our solar system in very interesting [00:12:00] places. One, the moon of Saturn known as, and Solidus is a very shiny, very bright object. It's very, very white, snowy, clean looking objects. A handful of craters have much less cratered than our own moon, a little smaller than our moon as well. Speaker 3: But it had some weird features to it. It looks kind of neat. And so the the Cassini spacecraft, which has been around exploring Saturn and its moon systems and its ring system for the past decade or so, did a few very close flybys of this very interesting moon in solidus [00:12:30] figured out that most of the surface is solid ice water, ice, ammonia, hydrocarbons, stuff as well. Also notice that there were geysers coming off of the surface, which we've seen geysers on a couple of other moons of Jupiter and Saturn, but these were kind of interesting and Cassini was there and we lucked out and Cassini actually flew through one of these geysers and got to detect the particles from the geyser itself, right? They're very direct institute measurements of what's in the guys there and it was mostly water and some ammonia, which was [00:13:00] interesting. And then there's evidence that there was actually more organic compounds in there and so possibly there, this could lead to life. Speaker 3: There could be some kind of bacteria down in the innards of in solidus. That's sort of pushing a a little bit, sort of the next step beyond what the evidence is actually telling us. But it's very, very tantalizing. Just about four or five years ago, a NASA panel on moons and moon explorations in the solar system said that in Solidus is probably the best possibility [00:13:30] for current life outside of earth in our own solar system. And the idea is that underneath this sort of very smooth, icy surface, there's probably a liquid ocean, mostly water, maybe a little bit of salt water, like I said, a little ammonia, some organic compounds, perhaps probably not gray whales and great white sharks. Probably not even little fish and shrimp, but it seems reasonable that there could be microscopic organisms, some kind of life, you know, to be determined. Speaker 3: But it's possible. [00:14:00] There's liquid water, there's reasonable conditions. It's not too salty, it's not too acidic, it's not too hot. And there does seem to be at least the building blocks, some of these organic compounds, perhaps one outstanding issue is how thick is this outer ice layer. So there's been some ideas of what we should send another mission that's just going to drill in there and it had the little submarine and go look around for fish and organisms, but we don't actually have a great handle on how thick that ice layer is. Uh, so Cassini is continuing to study this moon along with the [00:14:30] rest of the stuff in the Saturn system. Other moons, the planet itself, the Rings, uh, and we'll hopefully learn a little bit more about it, but they're already in the works, uh, both NASA, Japanese and European missions to go explore in salad. It's even more now if you want to go a little bit closer than Enceladus, one of the most promising planets areas in our solar system where Speaker 4: people have thought about the possibility of liquid water, where we certainly know that frozen water exists and where we have a headstart on [00:15:00] objects actually on the surface exploring is the planet Mars. And there've been some recent discoveries about both water in the past history of Mars and possibly salty liquid water, actually existing present day on Mars that are fueling a lot of excitement in the scientific community. Right now we have two different kinds of instruments that are doing fantastic observations of Mars. One of them is called the Mars or condescends orbiter. It is a satellite in orbit around Mars that can take fantastically detailed [00:15:30] photographs of the Martian surface. You can see features about a few feet across on the Martian surface with the satellite and then the other are the famous Mars Rovers. Spirit and opportunity spirit recently shut down, met its demise even though these two rovers outlasted their nominal mission timeline by a factor of 10 or so, Opportunity is still exploring the Martian surface and in both cases, instruments have found evidence for water on Mars. Speaker 4: In the case of opportunity. The rover fairly recently [00:16:00] discovered this mineral vein in a rock in a crater on Mars that scientists are pretty certain, could only have been created by liquid water flowing through a crack in the rocket, some ancient time and marches history and creating this particular mineral known as gypsum in certain variances what we use to make plaster of Paris here on Earth. So there is evidence that in particular Martian environments, there was almost certainly liquid water on Mars in the past. Combine that with theoretical models of how the planet and its atmosphere would have evolved over time. [00:16:30] And there are some pictures of ancient Mars being this sort of lush liquid water, much warmer environment than it is today. And so possibly Mars in its past was a hospitable environment for life. Although I'll emphasize we've, we have not yet detected any evidence of present day or fossilized life on Mars, but frankly, we haven't explored a very large fraction of that planet yet. Speaker 4: So I wouldn't be entirely surprised if some discovery came along in the future. Another very, very interesting observation on Mars coming [00:17:00] from the Mars reconnaissance orbiter is that looking over time at the edges of some of the craters on Mars in the warm seasons, they actually found stream like features that looked like dark streams were appearing on the edges of craters and over the course of the warm season as these craters were being more exposed to the sun and warming up a little bit, the streams lengthen as you might expect, little trickles of liquid water to flow downhill and based on mineral analysis which you can do using spectroscopy [00:17:30] from the orbiter and just generally the overall pattern of how these streams change with the seasons. We think that's good evidence that some sort of salty water was creating the streams. Unfortunately we were not able to directly detect water. What we see, it looks more to be like residue from a salt water stream where the water evaporated or where the water is just below the surface. But it seems that in certain seasons and certain places of the planet, there could actually be water and liquid form just at the surface or just below the surface [00:18:00] of Mars today. I mean if you have salt water on Mars, then I think there's at least some chance that you could have some kind of primitive life forum thriving in it. [inaudible] Speaker 3: it's been amazing in the last few years using the orbiter and the rovers on Mars, the different lines of evidence that we have for this ice, either on the surface or just below the surface centimeters below the surface, inches below the surface. And so NASA just recently launched a mission to head to Mars and even bigger rover, something like the size of a small car [00:18:30] that's going to go around and specifically look for water, look for organic molecules, building blocks of life in different parts than where we've already explored on Mars. Speaker 4: And that rover is called curiosity and it's supposed to land on the Martian surface this summer. Is there water on the moon? Our Moon, there is water on the moon in the form of hydrous molecules, so where water is directly incorporated into a solid rock, but I don't think there's any evidence for frozen or liquid water on the moon, [00:19:00] certainly not liquid water. Speaker 5: [inaudible]Speaker 4: can you reflect on the importance of water being discovered in our solar system or in some other solar system or galaxy? Speaker 2: Clearly on earth, water is essential [00:19:30] for all life forms and so whereas there are ideas about exotic kinds of life that could exist without our requirement of having water. It certainly seems like the most natural place to start looking for life outside of our own planet. So knowing that it exists in liquid form in different places in the universe and knowing Lisa in our own solar system where it exists is I think a really good start toward actually doing an Ernest search for life outside earth, maybe in our own solar system. [00:20:00] And I think just knowing how much water there actually is in our universe makes it seem like the universe is maybe a friendlier place than we thought it was. Okay. Speaker 3: One of the basic questions in astronomy of humanity, one of the things that got me interested in astronomy originally was are we alone in the universe? Is there life out there in the solar system, in our galaxy, and looking for water is probably the best way, the most direct way to find where that life could be. Being able to go visit Mars, the Moon, various [00:20:30] moons in our own solar system. Looking for that life in the water or around the water, I think is is something that's a fundamental question for all humankind, not just scientists and astronomers. Speaker 7: That ends one, Jeff Silverman and Nicholas McConnell. We'll be back with part two on our next show. We'll talk about Super Novi and black holes. Rick Karnofsky and Lisa Catholic joined me [00:21:00] for the calendar and the new black hole, Speaker 8: the harmonic oscillators of the 21st century presented by Andrew Strom and dear professor of physics, Harvard University, Monday, March 12th at four 15 to 5:30 PM La Conte Hall Room Number One in the 20th century. Many problems across all of physics were solved by perturb native methods which reduce them to harmonic oscillators. Black holes are poised to play a similar role for the problems of 21st century physics. They are at once [00:21:30] the simplest and most complex objects in the physical universe. Professors durometer will give an introduction to the subject intended for a general audience Speaker 9: daily and Nardo art science evening rendezvous or laser is a monthly series of lectures, presentations, and networking between artists and scientists. This month, laser is on Monday, March 12th at the [inaudible] room of the front building at the University of San Francisco to one 30 zero Fulton Street. It is free, but [00:22:00] please RSVP to p at [inaudible] dot com the event starts at seven with a talk by [inaudible] Viskontas on the art and neuroscience of effective music performance. What is it about this art form that draws people in? What distinguishes a performance that is technically accurate but unmusical from one that elicits the chills. We will explore how music engages the brain and why it continues to be a worldwide addiction. This will be followed by Rebecca Cayman's talk, making the invisible visible [00:22:30] discoveries between art and science, the history of artists as scientists and scientists as artists will be shared drying from the collections of the American philosophical society and the Chemical Heritage Foundation. The development of new art science collaborations will also be discussed. Shawmut caught true of the Stanford Physics Department. We'll speak on are there more dimensions of space which we'll discuss how the extra dimensions proposed by some models such as string theory may explain and unify puzzles [00:23:00] of modern physics. The night we'll conclude with Scott killed doll and Nathaniel stern who will discuss beaming Twitter messages to glaze five eight one D and exoplanet 20 light years away that can support extra terrestrial life using DIY technology. The website for laser is www.leonardo.info Speaker 8: the creative destruction of medicine Wednesday, March 14th at 6:00 PM at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on the second [00:23:30] floor of five 95 market street, Eric Topol, MD, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, Co founder and vice chairman of the West Wireless Health Institute and author of the creative destruction of medicine. Dr Topol says that is poised to go through its biggest shakeup in history and unprecedented convergence of technologies such as the ability to digitize human genomes and the invention of wireless tools is gaining momentum, thrusting the medical field into the digital era. Tickets are $20 [00:24:00] for general public, $8 for members and $7 for students. Speaker 9: Ask a scientist is hosting a puzzle party on Pi Day Wednesday, March 14th at 7:00 PM this is a math and logic puzzle competition for teams of up to six people. It is free, but you're encouraged to support the venue by purchasing foods and or drinks. The winning team will get a round of drinks and an overwhelming sense of pride. Bring a jacket in case there is overflow onto the sidewalk of the bizarre [00:24:30] cafe. Five nine two seven California at 21st in San Francisco visit. Ask a scientist sf.com for more info. Speaker 7: Yeah, Speaker 6: the March Science at cal lecture will be given at 11:00 AM on Saturday, March 17th in the genetics and plant biology building room 100 the talk will be given by Dr Hazel Bane and is entitled The Sun a star in our own backyard. Dr Bain is a post doc with the Ruben Rahmati high energy spectroscopic [00:25:00] solar imager solar physics group at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley. Her main area of research involves studying solar eruptive events such as flares, jets, and coronal mass ejections using both space and ground-based instruments. In describing her talk, Dr Bane said the stars in the night sky have always been a source of intrigue and wonder with our very own star at the center of our solar system, the sun offers us a unique [00:25:30] opportunity to study the inner workings of these giant balls of plasma. Starting at the core, I will discuss the processes occurring at the different layers of the sun onto news. Speaker 9: The four mile long t veteran particle accelerator at Chicago's Fermi lab was closed in September, 2011 after being one of the most powerful accelerators for 20 years, but in analyzing 500 trillion subatomic particles, Asians from the CDF and DCO, the team says that they may [00:26:00] have generated about a thousand Higgs Bosons the particle that is responsible for mass in the standard model of physics in a previous episode of spectrum that you can download from iTunes you, we interviewed Dr Simoni Pig Ingreso about the hunt for the Higgs. The probability of these measurements being due to a statistical fluke instead of the measurements of the Higgs is about one in 30 or about 2.2 sigma. This is well below the one chance in 3.5 million or five sigma that will be used to claim the actual discovery of the Higgs. [00:26:30] The energy of the detected events is between 115 billion and 135 billion electron volts, which is in good agreement with the range of 124 billion electron volts to 126 billion electron volts that turns large. Hadron collider established with 3.6 sigma certainty. The large Hadron collider is on winter break, but we'll be fixed up again in April to continue trying to find the Higgs with five sigma certainty. Speaker 8: The Cal Energy Corp is offering internships [00:27:00] around the world from Brazil to Germany to Ghana, to China, as well as in the bay area. During the summer of 2012 internships will offer UC Berkeley undergraduates the opportunity to pursue challenging hands on projects and energy and climate research. According to the office of the vice chancellor for research among the projects, cal energy core interns will be involved in our efforts to create green coal as industrial fuel, helping to produce biofuels, working on improving photovoltaics for integration into the [00:27:30] electricity grid, building models to better understand climate change and designing and testing. Cookstoves. The internship program provides a $600 weekly stipend for all interns as well as funding to cover transportation and housing. All placements are full time, more information and application forms are available at the cow energy core website. Speaker 9: Yeah, Speaker 6: explaining science to an 11 year old. The flame challenge sponsored by the Center for communicating science is an attempt to reach the very core of [00:28:00] science communication. The contest asks scientists and generally clever people to submit their own explanations of what a flame is, explanations that would captivate an 11 year old. The flame challenge contest is open for entries between March 2nd and April 2nd with the winners to be announced in June. Entries can be in writing, video or graphics and they can be playful or serious as long as they are accurate and connect with the young judges. For more information and entry [00:28:30] forms, visit the challenge website. Flame challenge.org Speaker 7: [inaudible] music curse during the show goes by on Donna David [inaudible] on for his album title folk and acoustic [00:29:00] just made available by creative Commons license 3.0 contribution. [inaudible]. Thank you for listening to spectrum. If you have comments about the show [inaudible] [00:29:30] to our email address is [inaudible] means in two weeks. It's Speaker 6: the same Speaker 5: [inaudible]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When a mysterious threat is delivered to the director of the Historical Heritage Museum, Boson Higgs is surprised to find himself mentioned by name. Can Higgs and his partner Brianna Green put the clues together to solve the crime? "Chemistry...Noir!" was written and directed by Nick Martorelli. Boson Higgs was played by Lucas Nguyen, and Brianna Green by Jensen Bucher. Andrea Pinyan plays Mrs. Thackeray, and Matt Dell'Olio plays Mr. Tritton and Mr. Reynolds. Live sound mixing by Sarah J Gafgen, who also stage managed. Live sound effects performed by members of the cast.  This episode was recorded live on November 5, 2010, as part of First Friday programming at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. If you like what you hear, you can reach us directly at RadioHoundProductions@gmail.com.  And if you want to learn more about us, visit www.radiohoundproductions.org. Another episode of Boson Higgs, Science Detective will be released in two weeks. In the meantime, stay tuned for another episode of "The Stray Dogs Project."  

In the chilly month of October, join our tour guide as she leads you down the halls of horror. Radio Hound Productions presents... Scream Til You Die Shocktober! Terrible Tales of Terrific Terror Story #5 - "Under the Lamplight" Written by Justin Muschong, directed by Nick Martorelli, and starring Drew Petersen and Aaron DiPiazza, with Lindsay Tanner. Also starring Karina Croskrey as the Tour Guide.  If you like what you hear, you can reach us directly at RadioHoundProductions@gmail.com.  And if you want to learn more about us, visit www.radiohoundproductions.org. This is the final episode our "Scream Til You Die Shocktober" miniseries, and Radio Hound will return in two weeks with an episode of the adventures of Boson Higgs, Science Detective.  And speaking of Boson Higgs, he will be appearing live in "Chemistry... Noir!" which will be performed live at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia on November 5th as a part of their First Friday event. For more information, you can visit their site at http://www.chemheritage.org/visit/events/public-events/2010-11-05-ff-chemistry-noir.aspx Hope to see you there, and hope to see you back here in two weeks.  

In the chilly month of October, join our tour guide as she leads you down the halls of horror. Radio Hound Productions presents... Scream Til You Die Shocktober! Terrible Tales of Terrific Terror Story #4 - "Recruitment Drive" Written by Nick Martorelli, directed by Andrea Pinyan, and starring Katie Romano, Rob Coccagna, and Michael Holmes. Also starring Karina Croskrey as the Tour Guide. Original music by Drew Petersen.  If you like what you hear, you can reach us directly at RadioHoundProductions@gmail.com.  And if you want to learn more about us, visit www.radiohoundproductions.org. Join us next Saturday for the final episode of "Scream Til You Die Shocktober."  We will also be performing live at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia on November 5th as a part of their First Friday event. For more information, you can visit their site at http://www.chemheritage.org/visit/events/public-events/2010-11-05-ff-chemistry-noir.aspx  

In the chilly month of October, join our tour guide as she leads you down the halls of horror. Radio Hound Productions presents... Scream Til You Die Shocktober! Terrible Tales of Terrific Terror Story #3 - "The Sleepover" Written by Lena Cigleris, directed by Nick Martorelli, and starring Amanda Kay Schill, Dondrie Burnham, and Lindsay Tanner. Also starring Karina Croskrey as the Tour Guide.   If you like what you hear, you can reach us directly at RadioHoundProductions@gmail.com.  And if you want to learn more about us, visit www.radiohoundproductions.org. Join us next Saturday for the next episode of "Scream Til You Die Shocktober."  We will also be performing live at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia on November 5th as a part of their First Friday event. For more information, you can visit their site at http://www.chemheritage.org/visit/events/public-events/2010-11-05-ff-chemistry-noir.aspx  

In early March 2010 the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s museum opened its newest temporary exhibit, Marvels and Ciphers: A Look Inside the Flask. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:40 Introduction 01:05 Chemical Agent: Viagra 04:30 Secrets of the Alchemical Tree 08:43 19th-Century Political Cartoons 09:47 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Hilary Domush and James Voelkel for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

What do Isaac Newton, yeast, and Harold Urey have in common? They all come under the research microscope of Chemical Heritage Foundation fellows. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:10 Chemical Agent: Yeast 03:28 Tools of the Trade: Backyard Acids from Early Chemistry 07:18 A Conversation with Matthew Shindell on Harold C. Urey 11:51 Closing Credits CREDITS Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Every year the Chemical Heritage Foundation holds Innovation Day—an event for people to get together to discuss and learn about science’s exciting new technologies. In this episode we take a look at innovations—the natural kind and the man-made kind. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:32 Introduction 01:13 Chemical Agent: Thermoregulation 03:34 Tools of the Trade: GoreTex Stents 06:25 A Conversation with Richard Silverman 11:22 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Chi Chan for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Plants are not the silent, stationary creatures we imagine them to be. They drift, stretch, and dance in search of nutrients, water, and sunlight. Inspired by sLowlife, a dynamic multimedia exhibit now on display in the Clifford C. Hach Gallery at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, today’s show looks at the chemistry behind plant growth and movement. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:00 Chemical Agent: Photosynthesis 03:02 A conversation with Amy Stewart 08:19 Mystery Solved! Tropisms 11:10 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Audra Wolfe for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

This week we celebrate the opening of the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s new museum! SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:04 Element of the Week: The Periodic Table 03:06 Tools of the Trade: Technicon Autoanalyzer 06:13 Tour of new Making Modernity exhibit 11:18 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Erin McLeary for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

What do Isaac Newton, yeast, and Harold Urey have in common? They all come under the research microscope of Chemical Heritage Foundation fellows. SHOW CLOCK 00:00 Opening Credits 00:31 Introduction 01:04 Element of the Week: Calcium 02:57 Chemistry in Your Cupboard: Hops 05:44 A Visit to Dogfish Head Brewery 09:57 Quote: Ben Franklin 10:10 Closing Credits CREDITS Special thanks to Hilary Domush and Joel Rose for researching this show. Additional credits available at chemheritage.org/distillations.

Moore's Law, semiconductors, microchips, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Intel. David C. Brock specializes in oral history, the history of instrumentation, and the history of semiconductor science, technology, and industry. His most recent book is 'Understanding Moore's Law: Four Decades of Innovation', published by Chemical Heritage Press in 2006.

Moore's Law, semiconductors, microchips, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Intel. David C. Brock specializes in oral history, the history of instrumentation, and the history of semiconductor science, technology, and industry. His most recent book is 'Understanding Moore's Law: Four Decades of Innovation', published by Chemical Heritage Press in 2006.

Percy Julian, Chemical Heritage Foundation, NOVA, science education. Dr. John Theibault oversees the Chemical Heritage Foundation's portfolio of online resources for students and teachers, including 'Science Alive', 'Women in Chemistry', 'Chemical Achievers', and 'Explore Chemical History', workshops and conferences for stakeholders in science education - 'Leadership Initiative in Science Education', and collaborative projects with other content developers and educators.

Percy Julian, Chemical Heritage Foundation, NOVA, science education. Dr. John Theibault oversees the Chemical Heritage Foundation's portfolio of online resources for students and teachers, including 'Science Alive', 'Women in Chemistry', 'Chemical Achievers', and 'Explore Chemical History', workshops and conferences for stakeholders in science education - 'Leadership Initiative in Science Education', and collaborative projects with other content developers and educators.

Science and Art Project, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Societie de Chimie Industrielle Fellowship. Ms. Jo Ann Caplin has had a distinguished career in television. As a producer for ABC News and CBS News she won two Emmys and two Peabody Awards for her work. Her areas of research are science education, and the relationships between science and art. She has lectured on 'Science and Art' all over the U.S. and in England. In the summer of 2006, she was invited to lecture at the Oxford Round Table.

Science and Art Project, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Societie de Chimie Industrielle Fellowship. Ms. Jo Ann Caplin has had a distinguished career in television. As a producer for ABC News and CBS News she won two Emmys and two Peabody Awards for her work. Her areas of research are science education, and the relationships between science and art. She has lectured on 'Science and Art' all over the U.S. and in England. In the summer of 2006, she was invited to lecture at the Oxford Round Table.

Environmental policy, drug regulation, FDA, clinical trials. Dr. Arthur Daemmrich is the author of Pharmacopolitics, which compares drug regulation in the U.S. and Europe. We discuss clinical trial design and policies, and drug and chemical regulation.

Environmental policy, drug regulation, FDA, clinical trials. Dr. Arthur Daemmrich is the author of Pharmacopolitics, which compares drug regulation in the U.S. and Europe. We discuss clinical trial design and policies, and drug and chemical regulation.