Science Night
A place for scientists to tell their story.
Displaying all 6 Episode of Science Night with the tag “science fiction”.
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The Science of Science Fiction 2023: Presented by Indiana Sciences
September 6th, 2023 | Season 3 | 50 mins 57 secs
bethesda, fallout, gen con, portal, scicomm, science, science fiction, scifi, valve, video games
This week, we have the recording of our annual presentation of the science behind our favorite sci-fi franchises. This year we talked about two video games, Portal and Fallout. We got moon dust, super mutants, and of course a big helping of plasma. Be sure to check out our friends at Indiana Sciences (indianasciences.org) for more fun scicomm.
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It's High Time We Talked About Cannabis
November 5th, 2021 | Season 3 | 55 mins 55 secs
cannabis, coronavirus, covid 19, fear, horror, immunology, marijuana, pot, scicomm, science, science fiction, toxicology
Cannabis continues to spark conversations as popular opinion shifts and its future legal status is debated. However, a long history of stigmatization that led to current federal regulations makes it difficult to study. This week, we're talking to Dr. Barb Kaplan, an Associate Professor for Mississippi State University, whose research looks at how cannabis alters the immune response. In the news segment, we talk about the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) scheduling process that limits cannabis access to researchers, as well as the science of fear, and the FDA's recent approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for use in ages 5 and older.
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The 2021 Science Night Halloween Spectacular!
October 29th, 2021 | Season 3 | 48 mins 27 secs
bill sullivan, disease, fiction, halloween, horror, monsters, non-fiction, porphyria, rabies, scary, scicomm, science, science fiction, scifi, spooky, toxoplasma gondii, toxplasmosis, vampires, werewolves, zombie, zombie apocalypse, zombies
Beware, dear listener, this episode of the Science Night podcast is much spookier than our typical offering. We begin our descent into the strange by talking about the scientific origins of the lore of our favorite monsters with special guest, Bill Sullivan. Later, the bravest among you can stay tuned for a dramatic reading of "Bit" from the twisted mind of Cody Sullivan, host of fellow Riverpower Podcast Mill show, Pulp: From Beyond the Veil.
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Funding Science: It's Good Policy
October 22nd, 2021 | Season 3 | 1 hr 10 mins
air travel, anatomy, aviation, biology, chemistry, climate change, democrat, design, energy, engineering, environment, faseb, fossil fuel, fusion energy, green energy, lobbying, nih, nsf, photosynthesis, policy, politics, renewable, republican, scicomm, science, science fiction, sustainable fuel, travel, weird science
Science isn't political. But that doesn’t mean that scientists don’t have influence in politics. Join us for our conversation with Dr. Naomi Charalambakis, Associate Director of Science Policy at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, to learn about how animal research informs human health and why it’s important for scientists to advocate for increased federal funding for science. Plus, is greener air travel on the horizon? And can photosynthesis be harnessed to restore nerve function? - these topics are covered in our news segment.
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The Science of SciFi from Gen Con '21
September 18th, 2021 | Season 3 | 25 mins 10 secs
anthropology, big foot, biology, cryptid, cryptids, cryptozoology, geek, gen con, gencon, gritty, indianapolis, jersey devil, monster, nerd, science, science fiction, scifi, yeti, zoology
Here's a quick bonus episode brought to you by our friends at Indiana Sciences! James talked about cryptids for the 2021 Science of Science Fiction panel from Gen Con. If you want to hear more (and you definitely do) check out https://indianasciences.org/ to hear the rest.
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The 2020 Science Night Halloween Spectacular
October 29th, 2020 | Season 1 | 53 mins 13 secs
body snatching, buried alive, death, edgar allan poe, grave robbing, halloween, horror, scicomm, science, science fiction, scifi, victorian
For the spookiest of seasons, we put together a special episode talking about death, body snatching, and being buried alive. Listen to the end for a dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "Premature Burial"