This week we talk to Terry Devitt from WhyFiles.org.

Preview from the Show:
Our primary mission is to look at what is going on in the world every week and find some corner of the scientific enterprise that lends itself to a public conversation about science, and then we drill down into that, to contact the best experts that we can find to try to shed light on those dark corners of science – the places and things that people don’t know about, and to provide more than what you’re going to get in a straight-up treatment of science than one routinely encounters in popular media. I think it’s safe to say that after we complete our formal educations, most people only encounter science through popular media, and so a big part of the Why Files mission is to help people come to grips with science – what it is, why it’s important, why it makes a difference in our lives on a daily basis.

It’s really essential that people in a democracy have some understanding of how we generate knowledge, because it impacts our lives in important ways every day.

Links:
Why Files Educator Page
Why Files Classroom Materials
The Why Files Archives
Baseball Spring Training
The Science of Polling
CSI’s: Cool Science Images

Subscribe to The Why Files with their RSS Feed

Direct download: nstalol13.mp3

Nature Magazine

On this week’s episode, we talk with Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov. Dr. Mitalipov is an Assistant Scientist and a Co-Director of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Embryonic Stem Cell Core Laboratory at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University. We talk with Dr. Mitalipov about his recent breakthrough in cloning monkey embryos and the scientific methods that got him there.

• Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007 (see #9)
• Producing primate embryonic stem cells by somatic cell nuclear transfer (Nature)
• Scientists Use Monkey Clones to Extract Stem Cells (NY Times)
• Researchers Clone Monkeys for Stem Cells (Reuters)
• Stem-Cell Researchers Clone Monkey Embryo (NPR)
• Scientists claim to clone monkey embryos (MSNBC)
• Scientists Claim to Clone Monkey Embryos (ABC News)
• Scientists Claim to Clone Monkey Embryos (CBC)
• Oregon Scientists Say They’ve Cloned First Primate and Generated Stem Cells (Wired Blog Network)
• If Cloning Humans is Wrong, So Is Cloning Monkeys (Wired Blog Network)

Direct download: nsta_lol7.mp3

Wired Science

Adam Rogers discusses the new PBS show titled WIRED Science.

Links

• WIRED Science
• WIRED Magazine
• Twitter
  • Dale’s account
  • Brian’s account
  • Dale’s Twitter project
  • Other educators on Twitter

Direct download: nstalol6.mp3