In the light of events at the Fukushima nuclear plant following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, we discuss nuclear power and the implications of the unfolding situation.
Category Archives: episode guide
Fukushima meltdown
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, earthquake, Ed Gerstner, Fukushima, Japan, nuclear power, physics, plutonium, Resonance FM, science, Tanguy Chouard, tsunami, uranium, waste
What does life know?
This week we start with the question, what does DNA know about the Universe? But, as usual, we don’t stay on topic for long, instead segueing into a much more interesting discussion of Sarah Palin, fruit flies and cancer.
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, cancer, DNA, drosophila, Ed Gerstner, evolution, genes, genetics, life, proteins, Resonance FM, Sarah Palin, science, Tanguy Chouard
Proteins, the building blocks of life, part two
There’s more to life than DNA… much more. This week we continue our exploration of proteins, the true building blocks of life. How are they made? And what exactly do they do?
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, DNA, Ed Gerstner, evolution, genes, genetics, life, proteins, Resonance FM, science, Tanguy Chouard
Proteins, the building blocks of life, part one
This week we go beyond DNA to the real workhorses of life, proteins. How are they made? What do they do? And how do they interact to build a hedgehog?
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, DNA, Ed Gerstner, evolution, genes, genetics, life, proteins, Resonance FM, science, Tanguy Chouard
DNA, blueprint of life? Part Two
This week we continue to ask whether it’s meaningful to describe DNA as the blueprint of life. And if the blueprint isn’t in DNA where the hell is it?
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, DNA, Ed Gerstner, genes, genetics, life, Resonance FM, science, Tanguy Chouard
DNA, blueprint of life? Part One
This week we talk DNA, with Nature’s biological sciences editor, Tanguy Chouard. Is it really a blueprint? If not, why not?
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, DNA, Ed Gerstner, genes, genetics, life, Resonance FM, science, Tanguy Chouard
Plasma – the fourth state
Everyone knows about the three states of matter, solids, liquids and gases. But few know about the fourth, plasmas. They’re all around us, from neon signs to TVs. And they could provide us with an unlimited source of energy. Eventually.
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, Ed Gerstner, fusion, ITER, NIF, physics, plasma, Resonance FM, science
Antimatter – Fantasy to Reality
By the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, physicists increasingly realized that quantum mechanics provided a powerful means of describing the behaviour of subatomic particles. But until that point it only described slow moving particles. When Paul Dirac combined special relativity with quantum mechanics, he found something even stranger, antimatter!
Filed under episode guide
Tagged antimatter, Big Science, Chris Weaver, Dirac equation, Ed Gerstner, Paul Dirac, physics, positrons, quantum mechanics, Resonance FM, science, special relativity
What IS a Higgs boson, anyway?
So what the hell is a hadron, and why are they colliding large ones to find a Higgs botswain?
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, CERN, Ed Gerstner, Higgs boson, Large Hadron Collider, LHC, particle physics, physics, Resonance FM, science, Standard Model
Everything is Waves, Part Two
Quantum mechanics is by far and away the most accurate and successful theory that has ever been devised. It’s also the most bizarre. This week, Big Science continues to explore how the particle theory of light built to describe the light emitted by hot things leads to the weird world of quantum.
Filed under episode guide
Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, Bohr, Ed Gerstner, Einstein, Heisenberg, physics, Planck, quantum mechanics, Resonance FM, Schroedinger, science
