The post Summer Hiatus appeared first on SparkDialog.

Today Anja joins us on the podcast to talk about her discovery.  Anja is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta.  She uses geophysical measurements to study  glaciers and ice caps in the Canadian Arctic.

You can follow Anja @anja_ruti.

The post Ep 44: Subglacial Lakes and Life on Frozen Moons – with guest Anja Rutishauser appeared first on SparkDialog.

Just because machine algorithms are “math” does not make them immune to incomplete data sets, incorrect assumptions, and the possibility to make false inferences. So where does bias in machine learning algorithms come from? What can we do about it? And can they be improved? From the frequent buying card at your local grocery store to the Trump Administration’s Extreme Vetting Initiative, we discuss bias in machine learning algorithms and if we should trust these algorithms.

Joining us on the podcast is Dr. Joshua Kroll. Joshua is a computer scientist and Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. He studies automated decision making algorithms, such as machine learning, focusing on fairness, accountability, and transparency.

The post Ep 43: Is there Bias in Machine Learning Algorithms? – with guest Dr. Joshua Kroll appeared first on SparkDialog.

There is no trash collection in space. What happens, then, to all this junk? Some of it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, and you may see it one cold, crisp night, burning up as a bright shooting star in the sky. Sometimes, it can be quite large, like China’s Tiangong 1, which since the recording of this podcast crashed back down to Earth somewhere near Tahiti.  But some of this space junk remains in space for decades, and perhaps will for millennia.

Today on the podcast we are joined by Dr. Lisa Ruth Rand.  Lisa is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She is currently writing a book on the history of space junk.  We talk about trash left on the moon, and how Neil Armstrong’s poop will probably outlast us all.  Also on the podcast, we find out that the Earth has a “copper ring”.  We also discuss what would happen if all of the satellites around the Earth crash into into one another in one extended chain reaction (like in the movie Gravity).  We also find out that space junk not only is a danger to astronauts in space, but to people on the ground!

So how can we clean up space junk?  And what kind of weird things are orbiting the Earth as we speak?  Find out in the podcast!

You can follow Lisa on Twitter at @orbital_decay.

The post Ep 42: Space Junk, Trash on the Moon, and the Earth’s Copper Ring – with guest Dr. Lisa Ruth Rand appeared first on SparkDialog.

The Vatican Observatory has a vast collection of meteorites, which is perfect for survey work and for collecting clues to how the solar system formed.  We talk about these meteorites, as well as other work the Vatican Observatory does.  Then Brother Guy and I discuss science and religion.  It’s often a controversial topic, but one that, as you can imagine, Brother Guy deals with on a daily basis.  Is there a conflict between science and religion?  Where did the perceived debate between science and religion originate from?  But even further, we discuss why we are compelled to do science in the first place, why the pursuit of pure science is so important, and the surprising commonalities between science and religion. 

Brother Guy also cowrote a book: “Would you Baptize an Extraterrestrial?:… and other Questions from the Astronomers’ Inbox at the Vatican Observatory”.  So I ask him – would you baptize an extraterrestrial?  Where did the universe come from?  What about the multiverse?  And other questions of deep scientific and theological interest.

If you ever wondered how a scientist can be religious, this podcast with the Pope’s Astronomer is for you!

You can follow Br. Guy at @specolations and read the Vatican Observatory Foundation blog.

The post Ep 41: The Pope’s Astronomer – with guest Brother Guy Consolmagno appeared first on SparkDialog.

When we see color, the cones within our eyes interpret the wavelength of the light they receive.  But what we see is not always physical reality.  Take, for example, distant mountains.  They are not actually blue, rather, what we see as blue sends a signal to our minds to alert us that the mountains are far away.  With everything we see, there is a psychological component to color which helps us to interpret the world around us.  What’s more, it can be affected by things like language, culture, artistic ability, background, and gender.

Today, our guest is Dr. Mazviita Chirimuuta. Mazviita is an associate professor in history and philosophy of science at the University of Pittsburgh.  She received her PhD in vision science from the University of Cambridge.  With her current research in mind and brain science, she aims to figure out the philosophical implications of what we perceive.  We discuss perception, art, and find out there is more to color than meets the eye.

The post Ep 40: There’s More to Color than Meets the Eye – with guest Dr. Mazviita Chirimuuta appeared first on SparkDialog.

Some consider creativity solely a human endeavor.  However, today we are looking at the possibility that AI can be creative – namely, AI creativity in songwriting.

I introduce you to ALYSIA, a songwriting AI that creates catchy and innovative melodies for lyrics that human collaborators provides.  Using deep learning, ALYSIA comes up with melodies that don’t follow the rules of traditional music, producing results that are sometimes astounding, sometimes catchy, but always unique.

Dr. Maya Ackerman joins us on the podcast to discuss her “daughter” ALYSIA.  Maya is a Computer Engineering Professor at Santa Clara University and founder and CEO of WaveAI Inc.  We discuss what ALYSIA does, how it can help songwriters and students of music, and even how its introduction will change how we define creativity.

To listen to an entire song that was created with AI, check out “Believe in Us“, created by ALYSIA with help from human producer Dusti Miraglia and sung by Maya Ackerman and Sara Miraglia.

Want to try to compose a song with the help of ALYSIA?  Enter the ALYSIA songwriting contest!  You’ll get a chance to see how AI creativity in songwriting works, as well as a chance to win $300 and a spot on ALYSIA’s upcoming album.  The deadline is March 17th.

The post Ep 39: Can AI be Creative? – with guest Dr. Maya Ackerman appeared first on SparkDialog.

But with natural language processing, we may be able to develop a way to identify all sorts of “fake news”, ranging from falsified news to omissions to satire to click-bait.  On today’s podcast, we talk to Dr. Victoria Rubin.  Victoria is an Associate Professor at Western University at the Faculty of Information & Media Studies, and specializes in using natural language processing techniques to identify patterns in text.  She is joined by her four doctoral students.  Yimin Chen studies internet trolls and trolling, and finds ways to identify satire, clickbait, and other misleading content on the web.  Sarah Cornwell works on native ads, satire, and click-bait.  Toluwase Asubiaro specializes in informetrics, natural language processing, information retrieval, and automatic language identification.  Finally, Chris Brogly is developing a news verification browser.

You can find out more about Victoria, her group, and their work on Twitter @VictoriaRubin.

The post Ep 38: What Happens Next Will Blow Your Mind! Using Natural Language Processing to Find Fake News, Satire, and Clickbait – with guests Dr. Victoria Rubin and her Group appeared first on SparkDialog.

Today, our guest is Dr. Evan Thompson.  Evan is a professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia.  He is the author of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy, which explores the philosophy of the self.  We discuss how Eastern traditions and modern day neuroscience interpret the idea of the self.  Is the self an entity or a process?  Is it part of the brain, or does the brain play a role in constructing the self?  How does the self evolve with time?  Does our sense of self change when we are meditating, sleeping, dreaming, or deeply engaged in a task?  We also explore what happens within the brains of meditators or those skilled in lucid dreaming.  From mindfulness to brain waves to quantized thought, we delve deep into our own minds to understand how both science and spirituality grapple with the idea behind the philosophy of the self.

You can follow Evan on Twitter at @evantthompson.

The post Ep. 37: The Philosophy of the Self: From Spirituality to Neuroscience – with guest Dr. Evan Thompson appeared first on SparkDialog.

Today, our guest is Dr. Tony Milligan, a teaching fellow in the Theology and Religious Studies Department at Kings College, London. Tony is an expert of space ethics and wrote a book Nobody Owns the Moon – the Ethics of Space Exploitation. He wonders about how we can go about exploring space while preserving its integrity. From mining to colonization, Tony and I discuss how we can preserve the environment in space. How can we successfully, economically, and ethically mine an asteroid? Who owns the rights to mine Helium-3 from the moon?  How can we protect any alien life we encounter on other planets?  Can (and should) we try to transform the surface of a planet for our own benefit through terraforming?

The post Ep. 36: Getting a Second Chance: Space Ethics, Mining, and Colonization – with guest Dr. Tony Milligan appeared first on SparkDialog.

Not too long ago, Edie Steinhoff of New Mexico Tech had such a day.  But what happened next was quite amazing.  She had the small community of her tiny university in New Mexico rally around her.  Someone anonymously donated funds to build her a prosthetic hand.  Soon, a group was assembled under Dr. David Grow, an associate professor at New Mexico Tech and director of the Robotic Interfaces Lab, and, working with Edie, they are now developing a prosthetic hand that will meet her needs.

Today we talk to Edie, Dr. Grow, and also two of his students, Becca Sappington and Chris Schmittle.

This is a story of how a prosthetic hand works.  We discuss how to use 3D printing to create an inexpensive hand, and how machine learning can translate signals from the brain to movements of the prosthesis.  We discuss function and form and the challenges of developing a piece of complex machinery.

But what makes this story stand apart is not the hand… it’s the heart.  It’s not often in research and development that you can interact with who you’re helping directly – to hear their feedback, to understand what they need, and to see the look in their eyes when finally, the project you’ve been working on makes a difference in their lives.

The post Ep. 35: Lending a Hand – a Prosthetic Hand – with guests Dr. David Grow and His Group appeared first on SparkDialog.

No, not zombies.  No brains were eaten, or undead reanimated.  We’re talking about zombees.  This is an affliction currently affecting honeybees in North America.  These bees have their bodies hijacked by a parasite that slowly eats them from the inside out.  As these bees die, their behavior gets more erratic as they leave the hive, searching for light.  Once the bees die, the parasites, known as the Zombie Fly (or Apocephalus borealis), break out of the bee as a maggot.  They develop into an adult fly, and the cycle begins once again.

It’s a terrible way to die, but what’s worse, this is just one added threat that honeybees in North America face today.  This threatens not only honeybee hive health, but humans as well.  Currently, we depend on honeybees to pollinate a huge amount of our agricultural food sources, especially fruit and nuts.

Today on the podcast, we talk to Dr. John Hafernik, a Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University.  As an entomologist, John spends most of his time “looking down”.  He discovered zombees one early fall morning on the San Francisco State University campus.  We discuss zombees and the threat of the Zombie Fly to the honeybee population.  We also discuss the citizen science project ZomBee Watch, which allows citizens all over the country to help scientists out by tracking the spread of this epidemic while watching for infected honeybees.  This project allows the general public to get involved in the study, science, and protection of honeybees.  Citizen science projects like these help scientists increase their reach, and hopefully will help the bees as we understand the progression of this threat.

You can also find ZomBee Watch on Facebook.

The post Ep. 34: Zombees! A Halloween Episode – with guest Dr. John Hafernik appeared first on SparkDialog.

So what will we eat in the future? Will we be able to keep our steaks, or will we all have to start eating insects? What are the most sustainable sources of protein that are also sustainable for the world’s growing population?

Today’s podcast guest is Max Elder, who is a Research Manager in the Food Futures Lab at the Institute for the Future.  We talk about what we can expect to see in the future of food.  While we may eat less meat, we might not all have to give up steak completely.  We discuss creative ways to incorporate more plants into our diet and to get protein from different sources.  And yes, we discuss  insect based protein bars.  But we also discuss how technology will affect what we eat, from GMOs to steak grown in the lab.

Hungry yet?

The post Ep. 33: From Steak to Insects – The Future of Food – with guest Max Elder appeared first on SparkDialog.

You may think you understand what private data these companies know about you.   But as machine learning becomes more and more powerful, these scraps of information can come together to make inferences about you, your life, your habits, and even things that you may or may not do in the future. Sometimes, it’s surprising how detailed this picture can be. These companies can use this information from anything from sending you a targeted ad to inferring your political ideology.  This is causing some to have privacy concerns with how deep big data can probe into our lives.

Today our guest is Dr. Rumman Chowdhury.  Rumman worked with multiple AI startups and is a thought leader of the Silicon Valley Big Data scene.  But she also is outspoken in discussing the social and humanitarian concerns that arise with the use artificial intelligence and machine learning.    Rumman and I discuss how companies use the analysis of big data to learn about you through snippets of information.  We discuss the resulting privacy concerns and how the general public can take back control of their personal lives.

The post Ep. 32: Humanitarian and Privacy Concerns with AI – with guest Dr. Rumman Chowdhury appeared first on SparkDialog.

The post Ep. 31: Women in Science – Ruby Payne-Scott – with guest Dr. Miller Goss appeared first on SparkDialog.

In today’s podcast, we talk about the awe, the wonder, and the science behind the eclipse.  What was it like to stand in the moon’s shadow and experience night during the day?  First, I talk to Dr. Jonathan Fram, an assistant professor within the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University and a systems engineer at the Ocean Observatories Initiative.  The Ocean Observatories Initiative has hundreds of sensors within the ocean, some of which were in the path of the solar eclipse.  We talk about how the eclipse affects the ocean and which types of sea life noticed the sun blinking out.

Then I talk to Dr. Holli Riebeek Kohl, the lead for the Globe Observer Project.  The Globe Observer Project is a citizen science project where anyone can team up with NASA to take measurements of anything from the climate to clouds to mosquito habitats using an app on their phone.  These measurements are valuable to NASA, since NASA satellites can only see so much.  During the eclipse, these citizen scientists helped to take measurements to find out “cool the eclipse” was.  How cold did the moon’s shadow make the Earth?  And what places got the coldest?

Finally, I bring you along on my own eclipse observing adventure.  I watched the total solar eclipse in Corvallis, Oregon.  No picture can illustrate, nor words describe, how amazingly awe-inspiring standing in totality can be.  But I hope that hearing the pure cheers of joy from the crowd can give you a little sampling of what a total solar eclipse is like, and inspire you to book your trip now for the next eclipse!

Post photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash

The post Ep. 30: The Solar Eclipse – Awe, Wonder, and Science appeared first on SparkDialog.

Minu also brings her passion for teaching science into her travels as well.  She points out that whenever we travel, there are many ways to learn more about science from the world around us.

Minu is a science communicator, and today, I interview her about the methods she uses in teaching science in her own science articles, found at Backpack Full of Questions.  This interview is part of a joint effort.  Minu also interviews me about my work on this podcast series.  Both of these interviews are appearing in a section called “Across the Bench” within Signal to Noise Magazine.  So after you listen to the podcast, head over to read her interview of me as well.
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The post Ep. 29: Teaching Science with Animals and Travel – with guest Dr. Meenakshi Prabhune appeared first on SparkDialog.

The post Ep. 28: Autism Therapy and Zen – with guest Anlor Davin appeared first on SparkDialog.

Let’s take bread for example.  Bread creates crumbs, and in zero-G, this could be a real problem.  Floating crumbs could get in an astronaut’s eye or float into machinery and start a fire.

But food in space is constantly evolving.  Today, we talk to Sebastian Marcu, CEO, and Neil Jaschinski, engineer, of a company called Bake In Space.  Their company is seeking ways not only to bring bread into space, but to bake it in space as well.  This will give astronauts a more balanced diet, a taste of home, and the wonderful smell of baked bread.  They argue that, especially for long duration space flight, the psychological well-being a taste of home can provide is just as important as the nutritional content.

What kinds of bread are best for space flight?  How challenging is it to make an oven that can be used on the space station?  And what other kinds of food have been brought to space?  Find out in the podcast!
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The post Ep. 27: A Slice of Life – with guests Sebastian Marcu and Neil Jaschinski appeared first on SparkDialog.

Aside from privacy, there are other things to consider.  Augmented Reality has the ability to transform how we interact as a society.  How will we use it, and how far are we willing to go?

Today we talk with Liv Erickson, a software engineer at High Fidelity, who works on Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems.  We discuss the ethics of Augmented Reality and some of the most exciting applications that are heading our way.  So strap on your headsets and enjoy the podcast!
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The post Ep. 26: The Ethics of Augmented Reality and Our Future – with guest Liv Erickson appeared first on SparkDialog.

Today in the podcast, we are joined by Dr. Oliver Putz.  Oliver is a theologian and a biologist that works at a sustainability think tank in Germany, the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies.  Oliver’s unique background gives him a slightly different perspective, which focuses on a comprehensive view of the planet.  He shows us that climate change and the growing ecological crisis are affecting plants, animals, and people half a world away, and why should we be concerned for their own sake.  We are in a global community, and in order to manage climate change and the ecological crisis, we will have to start thinking beyond our own communities.
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The post Ep. 25: Sustainability – The Bigger Picture – with guest Dr. Oliver Putz appeared first on SparkDialog.

This inspired the young entrepreneur Jaidev Shah to come up with a solution.  In his home country of India, there is little recycling infrastructure.  People comb the landfill, searching for pieces of trash, old electronics and cell phones, or recyclables.  They sell anything of value to the recycling companies for meager wages.  Often, these people live in the landfill and suffer from a host of health conditions.  Landfill fires are also common.  Piles of trash several stories tall often burn, polluting the surrounding neighborhoods.

This inspired Jaidev to come up with a solution.  He designed and built a prototype robot that can go into the landfills, identifying and collecting recyclables and finding landfill fires.  After showcasing his design at Maker Fest, he was named as a RajeevCircle Fellow, and traveled to Silicon Valley to showcase his project.  Now, Jaidev serves as an inspiration that we can all solve engineering and humanitarian problems in our own neighborhoods, one step at a time.
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The post Ep. 24: Robots That Eat Trash and the Entrepreneurs Who Build Them – with guest Jaidev Shah appeared first on SparkDialog.

The idea behind CRISPR originated from how bacteria defend themselves against viruses. Whenever a virus attacks, these bacteria take a piece of the DNA of the invading virus and incorporate it into its own DNA sequence. Then, whenever that virus tries to attack again, the bacteria can look at the snippet of DNA that it saved and “remember” how to defend itself.

Scientists use the technology in CRIPSR-Cas9 in the same way, cutting parts of the genome away and inserting other snippets. Imagine being able to pinpoint the gene sequence that causes sickle-cell disease. Or the gene in crops that allow them to be more disease-resistant. Or even create a gene sequence that would make mosquitos resistant to malaria. Scientists can use the same technique that bacteria use to edit the gene, making snips and cuts, to cure diseases, help our crops, or even make a malaria-proof mosquito. This is the promise of CRISPR.

But, as they say in Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. What happens if the snip occurs in the wrong place? What happens if an edit in the DNA code results in an unintended consequence? And what happens if these detrimental changes are passed to future generations?

Here to talk to us today is Dr. Leila Jamal. Leila is genetic counselor, a bioethicist, and is involved in health policy. She reported on the ethics of using CRISPR to the National Society of Genetic Counselors. She joins us today to talk about the promise, but also about the ethical concerns, that result from the use of CRISPR.
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The post Ep. 23: CRISPR – With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility – with guest Dr. Leila Jamal appeared first on SparkDialog.

The challenges that the body in space faces are many. Normally, the Earth protects us from radiation, provides us with a temperate climate, and has a gravity field that we have evolved to thrive in. In space, all of these are stripped away. But there is hope. Today we talk to Dr. Ronke Olabisi, a biomedical engineer who has studied everything from bone to the eye. She discusses clever ways to overcome problems that astronauts will face in space. In addition, we can utilize some of these techniques here on Earth.

Ronke is also a part of the team of 100 Year Starship.  100YSS seeks to send humans to the stars within the next 100 years.  It may seem ambitious, but the journey is more important.  Huge accomplishments have come whenever we choose to explore – accomplishments that vastly improve our lives.

Once again, it is proof that great technological strides come whenever we explore the stars.
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The post Ep. 22: Your Body in Space – with guest Dr. Ronke Olabisi appeared first on SparkDialog.

Today, we talk to Dr. David Babson, a technology manager who works within the US Department of Energy.  David not only looks at renewable resources, but also new technologies that will help clean carbon dioxide out of the air while providing energy.  This carbon-negative technology, called BECCS (bio-energy with carbon capture and storage), use plants that, while they are living, capture carbon out of the atmosphere.  These plants are then used to provide energy or product at the end of their lives.

It’s the carbon cycle reimagined.  From energy production to deriving products from plants to mining the atmosphere directly, these new technologies hold great promise of not only removing carbon from the atmosphere, but for providing us with new exciting technologies and helping the economy.
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The post Ep. 21: The Energy Future of America – from Renewable Energy to Carbon-Negative Technology – with guest Dr. David Babson appeared first on SparkDialog.

Today, we are joined by Dr. Laura Hosman from Arizona State University. Laura has traveled around the world, from Senegal to Tonga, bringing children in developing countries educational materials. Her latest project is a small computer called SolarSPELL. SolarSPELLs are rugged computers, impervious to wind and rain, that run off a solar charge. Loaded with educational material, they serve as an educational hotspot, so that children can use their own tablets or smartphones to connect to them.

Laura’s stories paint a picture of what life is like for children on these islands. And with these new computers, the schoolchildren are able to learn about their own culture, neighboring islands, along with math, science, and history, in ways they never have before.
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Image credit Laura Hosman. Used with permission.

The post Ep. 20: Educational Hotspots for Children of the Developing World – with guest Dr. Laura Hosman appeared first on SparkDialog.

The post Ep. 19: The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Monks, and Science – with guest Dr. Chris Impey appeared first on SparkDialog.

But is distance to the star the only variable that makes a planet habitable? Today we talk to Dr. Ramses Ramirez, a planetary scientist at the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell. Ramses takes a look how characteristics of a planet itself – namely, volcanism and tectonics – will affect a planet’s habitability.

Why is having a geologically active planet so important for life? Oddly enough, it has to do with the planet’s atmosphere. Greenhouse gases will escape from a planet’s atmosphere over time, lost to space. These gases would disappear over time if they are not continually replenished.

This is where volcanoes and tectonics come in. Volcanoes can replenish an atmosphere, giving the planet a chance to sustain these gases on timescales of billions of years – long enough to allow life to develop and thrive.

What does this mean for extrasolar planets? Recently, seven Earth-like planets were discovered around a star called Trappist-1. Three of these planets are in the star’s habitable zone. But what if one of these planets had volcanism? Perhaps the habitable zone would be much larger than we previously thought!
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The post Ep. 18: Volcanoes – Making Your Planet Habitable for 4.6 Billion Years with guest Dr. Ramses Ramirez appeared first on SparkDialog.

But is our Universe all that there is? Perhaps, once more, we are at the cusp of radically altering our idea of the cosmos. What if our Universe is only one of many? Such a hierarchy of universes, also known as the multiverse, is an idea that explains many of the physical traits of our Universe, and is supported by string theory and inflation.

If there are many universes, does this radically change, once more, how we understand our position within the cosmos? What does it mean philosophically, ethically, and spiritually, and could it even affect how we live our lives? Today we talk to Dr. Jerry Cleaver of Baylor University. Jerry studies string theory and the multiverse, but also loves tackling the philosophical conundrums that come along with it.
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The post Ep. 17: World Upon World, Universe Upon Universe – The Multiverse and its Meaning with guest Dr. Jerry Cleaver appeared first on SparkDialog.

How are engineers and programers approaching this problem? One way is to program in a set of ethical rules which tells the robot what do to in certain situations. This type of “top-down” approach is easier to implement, but is limited as there is no way to fully take into account every ethical dilemma a robot may encounter. On the other hand, engineers could employ a “bottom-up” approach, where the robot learns what is moral on its own – similar to how a child would learn as he or she grows. This is very powerful, but is unpredictable.

We can then take it a step further. Who determines what is moral? How would we deal with immoral robots? Do robots have the potential to be more moral than humans? Today, we talk to Dr. Don Howard, a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame and a fellow and former director of the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values. Don has spent a lot of time thinking about ethics in robots, and has some good examples on how robots will be learning the new robotic moral code.
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The post Ep. 16: The Robotic Moral Code – Programming Ethics into Machines with guest Dr. Don Howard appeared first on SparkDialog.

Or instead, do we have control over what our brains excel at? Can we choose our skills and decide how our brains develop, determining which areas of our brains to expand and which to let fade?

It turns out we have remarkable control over our brains. Our brains continue to develop life-long, cementing new connections continually. Even in old age, things like learning a new language or learning a musical instrument can have remarkable effects on our brain.

Understanding the brain also leads to insights in addiction. Why are some habits so hard to break? Why does the average addict need to enter rehab several times before being successful?

Today we talk to Dr. Alan Weissenbacher. Alan has worked with people suffering from addiction, helping them to recover, one person at a time. While working with these addicts, he wondered why some people were successful at quitting, while others were prone to relapse. This inspired his studies in neuroscience.

But his research go beyond addiction, and he provides insights that all of us can use. By knowing how certain habits develop, why certain emotions are tied to particular people or events, and by understanding how pathways are created in our brains, Alan points to ways that we can take control over our brains, from improving brain function in old age to finally kicking that bad habit.

You can find out more about Alan’s work at https://alanweissenbacher.com/.
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The post Ep. 15: Create Your Own Brain – Neuroscience, Addiction, and Designer Brains with Dr. Alan Weissenbacher appeared first on SparkDialog.

How are religious communities responding?  Today we are talking to three people involved in various religious environmental organizations, each representing a different faith community – Soltan Bryce from the Green Muslims, Cassandra Carmichael from the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, and Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb from the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life.

In responding to the climate crisis, the commonalities between these three religious traditions are clear. Each mandates care for the Earth and care for the poor, who will be affected first and hardest. The Earth is not a merely a gift to be used as we will – rather, it comes with great responsibility. We are stewards of this Earth.

In the Qur’an it’s clear the dictate that we have as Muslims to care for our environment and the word that is used is Khalifa – that literally translates into Steward. So we feel that in the heart of Islam there’s a dictate for us to care for the earth.
– Soltan Bryce

Each part of our world, of our ecosystem, from the smallest mosquito to the largest elephant, are interconnected. In the end, the entire globe is affected.  Changes to one of them will affect everything.

It hits you – as we say in the Yiddish – in the kishkas. In the guts. It’s much more personal when you can begin to realize that we are part of an interdependent web of creation and not simply in the environment or part of an ecosystem.
– Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb

The members of these religious environmental organizations are encouraging us not to delay in our response to climate change. Our actions have a direct effect on the environment.

But beyond this, these religious traditions offer something else – hope. Dealing with climate change may seem unsurmountable. It is a problem that no one person can solve, that no one treaty can cure. Instead, we have to come together, nation standing with nation, people joining forces regardless of creed, background, or economic standing. Working together, we begin to see past the differences that divide us. Oddly, perhaps it is overcoming the issue of climate change that will, in the end, bring us together.

In some ways climate change is asking us, calling on us to be in community in a way that we haven’t been before because only at that point will we really be able to “solve the issue of climate change”.
– Casandra Carmichael

The post Ep. 14: Climate Change, Religion, and Ethics – A Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspective appeared first on SparkDialog.

It’s a question that has been around for quite some time.  Was the star of Bethlehem a comet?  A supernova?  An alignment of planets?  Was it real at all?  Thanks to modern astronomy, along with an understanding of the motions of the stars and planets that has been around for thousands of years, we can actually reconstruct what the sky looked like around the time Jesus was born to attempt to answer this question.  

In today’s podcast, we talk to Dr. Peter Barthel.  Peter is a professor in astrophysics at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute at the University of Groningen.  For his University’s 400th anniversary, Peter helped to host a conference on the Star of Bethlehem, bringing together scholars in astronomy, history, and religion.  Was the star real?  What did the Magi understand it to be?  Did they really travel to Bethlehem?  And why did Matthew include this story in his Gospel?  

So grab a cup of cocoa and join us for a discussion where we explore some of the latest understanding and analysis  surrounding the star of Bethlehem.   

The post Ep. 13: The Star of Bethlehem – A Real Event? – An Analysis with Dr. Peter Barthel appeared first on SparkDialog.

Susmita herself has lived around the world and started businesses on three different continents.  The first was a consulting company, Moonfront,  which she started in San Francisco at the age of 29.  After that, she began Liquefier Systems Group in Vienna, which dealt with space exploration components including rovers, habitats, and various other space systems.  Most recently, she has founded Earth2Orbit, India’s first private space startup.

Her entrepreneurial spirit is evident.  She told me when she was a student, she hoped to attend the International Space University in Strasbourg, but did not have the money to do so.  Rather than accepting defeat, she reached out.  She wrote to over 70 foundations in India, the United Nations, and to people such as Bill Gates, Carl Sagan, and Arthur C. Clarke, asking for support.  This was before the age of the internet, and she wasn’t always able to find an address, so she would simply address her envelopes with the name of the person, city, and country.  To her utter amazement, one early morning Arthur C. Clarke called her, offering to pay her tuition.

By living in various countries and continents and being involved with their space programs, Susmita has an intimate understanding of India’s space program and the philosophies and mentalities that underlie space programs of other countries.  While, in the West, space exploration reflects its “frontier mentality”, the view in Asia is quite different.  In Asia, the moon, the stars, and all of space is seen as a larger part of existence, and its exploration naturally stems from that.

“Space is not so much a frontier.  It’s a natural extension of our cosmic everyday reality.”

– Dr. Susmita Mohanty

From their space programs to technology, from startups to cultural mentalities, Susmita and I discuss the differing point of views in the West and the East, what we can learn from one another, and how we’re better together.
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This podcast is also associated with the debut of SparkDialog Video!  Check it out here.
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The post Ep. 10: Made In Space appeared first on SparkDialog.

This podcast is also associated with the debut of SparkDialog Video!  Check it out the video below.  Then, check out the podcast!

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Special thanks to NASA/JPL, Michelle Thaller, Heidi Becker, Gary Napier, Scott Bolton, Rick Nybakken, Steve Levin, Randii Wessen, Jim Green,  AdamSak.com, along with Stephanie Smith and the rest of the NASA Social Team.

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