• All in the Mind iTunes Feed Web Site
  • An Aus­tralian pod­cast that explores the men­tal uni­verse — neu­ro­science real­ly — and takes a clear look at every­thing from addic­tion to arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence
• Astron­o­my Cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Take a week­ly facts-based jour­ney through the cos­mos with Astron­o­my Cast.
• Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty Sci­ence Fes­ti­val (Video) iTunes Web Site
  
• CBC Quirks & Quarks Feed Web Site
  • Cov­ers every aspect of sci­ence, from the quirks of the expand­ing uni­verse to the quarks with­in a sin­gle atom…and every­thing in between.
• Dis­cov­ery Chan­nel Space Pod­cast iTunes Web Site
  • Video pod­casts that take you inside the world of NASA and deep space.
• Dis­cov­ery Chan­nel Video Pod­casts iTunes Web Site
  • A trove of video pod­casts from Dis­cov­ery.
• Earth & Sky Clear Voic­es Feed Web Site
  • Earth & Sky reporters inter­view sci­en­tists from around the world. Inter­views are gen­er­al­ly 7 to 15 min­utes in length.
• Ein­stein and the Mind of God
  • Part 1: Ein­stein’s God Feed MP3 Web Site
  • Part 2: Ein­stein’s Ethics Feed MP3 Web Site
• Explor­ing Envi­ron­men­tal His­to­ry Feed Web Site
  • A pod­cast about human soci­eties and the envi­ron­ment in the past. The peri­od­ic pro­grammes fea­ture inter­views with peo­ple work­ing in the field, reports on con­fer­ences and dis­cus­sions about the use and meth­ods of envi­ron­men­tal his­to­ry.
• Groks Sci­ence Radio Show and Pod­cast - iTunes — Feed — Web Site
  • Dr. Charles Lee and Dr. Frank Ling take an in-depth look at recent events in the world of sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy, and exam­ine the effects of recent dis­cov­er­ies on our dai­ly lives.

• Guardian Unlim­it­ed - Sci­ence iTunes Feed

• Hmmm.… Krul­wich on Sci­ence iTunes Feed Web Site
  • NPR Sci­ence Cor­re­spon­dent Robert Krul­wich demys­ti­fies what’s dense and dif­fi­cult — even if you feel lost when it comes to sci­ence. Cov­er­age that can be delight­ful, mov­ing, fun­ny, per­haps even upset­ting.

• Jet Stream­ing iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Every week Jet Stream­ing brings an insid­er’s look at the weath­er and cli­ma­tol­ogy. It’s every­thing you want­ed to know about the weath­er, but were afraid to ask.
• Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Mag­a­zine (The Best of) iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Nation­al Geo­graph­ic needs no par­tic­u­lar intro­duc­tion.
• Nation­al Geo­graph­ic’s Wild Chron­i­cles iTunes Feed Web Site
  • “See the nat­ur­al world like nev­er before through the eyes of Nation­al Geo­graph­ic adven­tur­ers, sci­en­tists, researchers, and the extra­or­di­nary Crit­ter­cam.”
• NASAcast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A series of videos from NASA.
• Nature Pod­cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Nature, a high­ly respect­ed peer-reviewed sci­ence jour­nal, offers well pro­duced pod­casts that fea­ture sci­en­tists talk­ing about their cut­ting-edge research.
• New Sci­en­tist Pod­cast Feed Web Site
  • New Sci­en­tist’s week­ly pod­cast on all the lat­est sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy news and fea­tures, includ­ing guests from the world of sci­ence.
• NOVA iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A series of short videos (“vod­casts”) from the world of sci­ence.
• NOVA Sci­ence Now iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Irrev­er­ent sto­ries and intrigu­ing per­son­al­i­ties from the world of sci­ence.

• NOVA e = mc2 iTunes Web Site
  • Hear how 10 top physi­cists describe Ein­stein’s equa­tion in a few min­utes or less.

• Radi­o­Lab Site, iTunes, Web­site
  • An hour-long sci­ence show from WNYC — each episode tack­les a par­tic­u­lar issue through sev­er­al sto­ries.
• Sci­ence and Soci­ety iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A host of dis­tin­guished thinkers speak about inno­va­tions in sci­ence — nan­otech­nol­o­gy, space explo­rations, life sci­ences and more.
• Sci­ence Fri­day Pod­cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • From the well known NPR pro­gram host­ed by Ira Fla­tow.
• Sci­ence Fri­day Video iTunes Web Site
  • From the well known NPR pro­gram host­ed by Ira Fla­tow.
• Sci­ence Mag­a­zine Pod­cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Audio­casts from Sci­ence Mag­a­zine.
• Sci­ence Talk: The Pod­cast of Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can iTunes Feed Web Site
  • The host, Steve Mirsky, explores the lat­est devel­op­ments in sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy through inter­views with lead­ing sci­en­tists and jour­nal­ists.
• Sci­ence Times iTunes — RSS
  • Want to know more about black holes? Or progress in the cure for can­cer? Learn about the lat­est news and trends in sci­ence, med­i­cine and the envi­ron­ment from the reporters and edi­tors of the pop­u­lar Sci­ence Times sec­tion of The New York Times. David Cor­co­ran is your host.
• Slack­er Astron­o­my:iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Lots of slack­ing and astron­o­my.
• The Engines of Our Inge­nu­ity: iTunes Feed Web Site
  • The sto­ry of tech­no­log­i­cal progress is one of dra­ma and intrigue, sud­den insight and plain hard work. Explore tech­nol­o­gy’s spec­tac­u­lar fail­ures and many mag­nif­i­cent suc­cess sto­ries.
• The Miss­ing Link Pod­cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A pod­cast on the His­to­ry of Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy, and Med­i­cine put out by Prof. Eliz­a­beth Green Mus­sel­man.
• The Naked Sci­en­tists iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Dr. Chris Smith, of Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty, takes an inter­ac­tive look at dif­fer­ent aspects of sci­ence, medecine and tech­nol­o­gy.
• The Sci­ence Show iTunes Feed Web Site
  • One of the longest run­ning and well-regard­ed sci­ence shows on Aus­tralian radio.
• The Skep­tics’ Guide to the Uni­verse iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A week­ly pod­cast that explores the world of the para­nor­mal and fringe sci­ence. It’s host­ed by Dr. Steven Novel­la is an aca­d­e­m­ic neu­rol­o­gist on full-time fac­ul­ty at Yale Uni­ver­si­ty School of Med­i­cine.
• This Week in Sci­ence Feed Web Site
  • Self describes as: “A week­ly sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy radio show pre­sent­ing a humor­ous and irrev­er­ent look at the week in sci­ence and tech. Each week TWIS dis­cuss­es the lat­est in cut­ting edge sci­ence news on top­ics such as genet­ic engi­neer­ing, cyber­net­ics, space explo­ration, neu­ro sci­ence, and a show favorite Count­down to World Robot Dom­i­na­tion.”
• This Week in Virol­o­gy iTunes Feed Web Site
  • A week­ly pod­cast host­ed by two Pro­fes­sors from Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty. “We talk about virus­es — the kind that make you sick. The pod­cast cov­ers how virus­es work, how they make you sick, and the lat­est in news about virus­es.” You can find it at
• USGS Core­Cast iTunes Feed Web Site
  • From the US Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey, Core­Cast brings you straight sci­ence insight on nat­ur­al haz­ards; cli­mate change; satel­lite imagery and mon­i­tor­ing; water qual­i­ty; human health and wildlife dis­ease; and much more. Tune into Core­Cast. It’s nat­ur­al sci­ence from the inside out.
• 60 Sec­ond Sci­ence iTunes Feed Web Site
  • From Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can, lead­ing sci­ence jour­nal­ists offer a brief com­men­tary on the lat­est devel­op­ments in the world of sci­ence. Pre­sent­ed by Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can.
• 60 Sec­ond Psych iTunes Feed Web Site
  • Lead­ing sci­ence jour­nal­ists pro­vide a week­ly one-minute com­men­tary on the lat­est devel­op­ments in the sci­ence of brain and behav­ior. Pre­sent­ed by Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can.

Not too long ago, we men­tioned the Edge.org, the web site run by John Brock­man, the lit­er­ary agent of some very impor­tant sci­en­tif­ic minds. Now it’s worth men­tion­ing it again. With the start of the new year, the web site asked 160 influ­en­tial thinkers “what are you opti­mistic about?” And, as you’d expect from some pret­ty smart peo­ple, you get some pret­ty intrigu­ing respons­es. Below, we’ve includ­ed five exam­ples, but you can and should access the full list of replies here:

Richard Dawkins — The Final Sci­en­tif­ic Enlight­en­ment
“I am opti­mistic that the physi­cists of our species will com­plete Ein­stein’s dream and dis­cov­er the final the­o­ry of every­thing before supe­ri­or crea­tures, evolved on anoth­er world, make con­tact and tell us the answer. I am opti­mistic that, although the the­o­ry of every­thing will bring fun­da­men­tal physics to a con­vinc­ing clo­sure, the enter­prise of physics itself will con­tin­ue to flour­ish, just as biol­o­gy went on grow­ing after Dar­win solved its deep prob­lem. I am opti­mistic that the two the­o­ries togeth­er will fur­nish a total­ly sat­is­fy­ing nat­u­ral­is­tic expla­na­tion for the exis­tence of the uni­verse and every­thing that’s in it includ­ing our­selves. And I am opti­mistic that this final sci­en­tif­ic enlight­en­ment will deal an over­due death­blow to reli­gion and oth­er juve­nile super­sti­tions.“

Matt Rid­ley — The Future
“The future. That’s what I’m opti­mistic about. The his­to­ri­an Macaulay said, in 1830: ‘We can­not absolute­ly prove that those are in error who tell us that soci­ety has reached a turn­ing point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much appar­ent rea­son.’ The eter­nal, endur­ing pes­simism of human beings about the future does real harm by per­suad­ing peo­ple, espe­cial­ly the young, to retreat from adven­ture and enter­prise into anomie. Sure, the world has prob­lems: AIDS, Islam­o­fas­cism, car­bon diox­ide. But I bet we can solve them as we have solved oth­ers, such as small­pox, the pop­u­la­tion explo­sion and the high price of whale oil.”

Jared Dia­mond — Good Choic­es Some­times Pre­vail
“I am cau­tious­ly opti­mistic about the state of the world, because: 1. Big busi­ness­es some­times con­clude that what is good for the long-term future of human­i­ty is also good for their bot­tom line (cf. Wal-Mart’s recent deci­sion to shift their seafood pur­chas­es entire­ly to cer­ti­fied sus­tain­able fish­eries with­in the next three to five years). 2. Vot­ers in democ­ra­cy some­times make good choic­es and avoid bad choic­es (cf. some recent elec­tions in a major First World coun­try).”

Leonard Susskind — Going Beyond Our Dar­win­ian Roots
I am opti­mistic about the adapt­abil­i­ty of the human brain to answer ques­tions that evo­lu­tion could not have designed it for. A brain that can rewire itself to visu­al­ize 4 dimen­sions, or the Heisen­berg uncer­tain­ty prin­ci­ple, is clear­ly going way beyond the things that nat­ur­al selec­tion could have wired it for. It makes me opti­mistic that we may be able to go beyond our Dar­win­ian roots in oth­er ways.

Stew­art Brand - Cities — Glob­al Pop­u­la­tion Shrink­age And Eco­nom­ic Growth
”…Cities have always been wealth cre­ators. Cities have always been pop­u­la­tion sinks. This year, 2007, is the crossover point from a world pre­dom­i­nant­ly rur­al to a world pre­dom­i­nant­ly urban.

The rate of urban­iza­tion is cur­rent­ly about 1.3 mil­lion new city dwellers a week, 70 mil­lion a year, still appar­ent­ly accel­er­at­ing. The world was 3% urban in 1800, 14% urban in 1900, 50% urban this year, and prob­a­bly head­ed in the next few decades to around 80% urban, which has been the sta­bi­liza­tion point for devel­oped coun­tries since the mid-20th-cen­tu­ry.

Almost all the rush to the cities is occur­ring in the devel­op­ing world (though the coun­try­side con­tin­ues to emp­ty out in devel­oped nations). The devel­op­ing world is where the great­est pover­ty is, and where the high­est birthrates have dri­ven world pop­u­la­tion past 6.5 bil­lion.

Hence my opti­mism. Cities cure pover­ty. Cities also dri­ve birthrates down almost the instant peo­ple move to town. Women lib­er­at­ed by the move to a city drop their birthrate right on through the replace­ment rate of 2.1 children/woman. No one expect­ed this, but that’s how it worked out. As a result, there will be anoth­er bil­lion or two peo­ple in the world total by mid­cen­tu­ry, but then the total will head down— per­haps rapid­ly enough to be a prob­lem, as it already is in Rus­sia and Japan.

Pover­ty in the megac­i­ties (over 10 mil­lion) and hyper­ci­ties (over 20 mil­lion) of the devel­op­ing world will be high­ly vis­i­ble as the dis­as­ter it is. (It was worse out in the bush, only not as vis­i­ble there. That’s why peo­ple leave.) But the poor who were trapped in rur­al pover­ty cre­ate their own oppor­tu­ni­ty once they’re in town by cre­at­ing their own cities— the “squat­ter cities” where one bil­lion peo­ple now live. They reca­pit­u­late the cre­ation of cities past by gen­er­at­ing a seething infor­mal econ­o­my in which every­one works. The dense slums, if they don’t get bull­dozed, even­tu­al­ly become part of the city prop­er and part of the for­mal econ­o­my. It takes decades.…”

Again, the com­plete list of 160 respons­es can be found here.

Nope, we’re not talk­ing about U2. We’re talk­ing about
John Brockman.
And just who is he? He’s the lit­er­ary agent of the
intel­lec­tu­al stars. He is to the think­ing world what Scott Boras is to base­ball.
If you’re a major sci­en­tif­ic thinker, and if you can write for the
gen­er­al pub­lic, you’ll like­ly find your­self in the Brock­man sta­ble, and
he’ll land you a major book deal. And you’ll be in good com­pa­ny.
Brock­man rep­re­sents Richard Dawkins (the author of the cur­rent
best­seller, The God Delu­sion), Jared Dia­mond (Guns, Germs & Steel), and Daniel Gole­man (Emo­tion­al Intel­li­gence), just to name a
few.

His web­site, Edge.org, fea­tures a good amount of con­tent by — or
about — the vision­ary thinkers that he rep­re­sents. You can find lots
of good read­ing here (the BBC calls it “Fan­tas­ti­cal­ly
stimulating…It’s like the crack cocaine of the think­ing world…”)
and also a great video trove fea­tur­ing many promi­nent sci­en­tif­ic
thinkers talk­ing about what they know best. Take a look around and
you’ll like­ly get the intel­lec­tu­al fix that you’re look­ing for.