Tag: science communication

Into The Unknown (Part 2)

Into The Unknown (starts at 9:05) What do we know about the universe, and how do we know we know it? Conversely, what do we know we don’t know, what don’t we know that we don’t know, and why not?

To help us unravel these age-old philosophical questions in the context of current science, our guest is Dr. Kelsey Johnson, who received her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado.  Dr. Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, and the former president of the American Astronomical Society. She is the founder of the Dark Skies, Bright Kids program, and wrote the children’s book Constellations for Kids. Her most recent book is Into The Unknown: The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos. In this episode, Dr. Johnson takes us into that unknown, and talks about what we know, what we might know, and what we might never know.

Part 1 of this interview is available here.

We begin this show with some pre-Halloween spooky science news.

Host: Joel Parker
Show Producer/Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Additional contributions:Benita Lee, Jack Armstrong, Shelley Schlender

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:45 — 36.7MB)

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Into The Unknown (Part 1)

Into The Unknown (starts at 7:57) What do we know about the universe, and how do we know we know it? Conversely, what do we know we don’t know, what don’t we know that we don’t know, and why not?

To help us unravel these age-old philosophical questions in the context of current science, our guest is Dr. Kelsey Johnson, who received her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado.  Dr. Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, and the former president of the American Astronomical Society. She is the founder of the Dark Skies, Bright Kids program, and wrote the children’s book Constellations for Kids. Her most recent book is Into The Unknown: The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos. In this episode, Dr. Johnson takes us into that unknown, and talks about what we know, what we might know, and what we might never know.

Part 2 of this interview is available here.

Host: Joel Parker
Show Producer/Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Additional contributions: Shelley Schlender, Mac Hebebrand, Lorraine Healy

Listen to the show:

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:53 — 36.9MB)

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Science On Stage

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Sometimes it seems that science and art are completely different worlds but that has not always been the case. There is a long history of artistic scientists and scientific artists.  In this edition of How on Earth, we talk about the alchemy of transmogrifying science into theatre.

Our guests include two scientists and two playwrights who collaborated to create plays inspired by scientific research as part of a theatre project produced by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company.  The production is called “Science Shorts“, which will be streaming the performances online Thursday through Sunday this week, January 21-24.  The production will feature readings of four short plays by Colorado playwrights, and four short talks by the local scientists who inspired their work.

Our science guests are geophysicist Dr. Neesha Schnepf and biologist Ashley Whipple, and our playwrights are Nigel Knutzen and Ellen K. Graham.  Neesha and Nigel collaborated on creating the play Trinal, which takes three different perspectives on tsunamis and their impact.   Ashley’s and Ellen’s play, On The Rocks, follows American pikas and what they have to teach us about resilience in the face of environmental and other stress.

Host & Producer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:54 — 37.0MB)

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