AMSEcast

• (2:24) What A Theory of Everyone entails
• (12:14) The fundamental "law" of energy
• (20:31) The "law" of innovation
• (22:47) COMPASS - the seven secrets of innovation
• (26:22) The paradox of diversity
• (30:20) How humans' big heads have affected our evolution
• (38:11) The next level of human cultural evolution
• (46:25) The necessary steps to the next stage of tying societies back together
• (52:10) How to protect the engine of growth amidst negative circumstances
• (54:23) What's next for Michael Muthukrisha

• A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We're Going: https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Everyone-Science-where-Going/dp/026204837X

A few thoughts on the 24 hour, madcap & meteoric flight across the planet

• (2:12) How many species of ants there are
• (3:46) The role of ant queens and how they're made
• (5:55) The different functions ants take on in the colony
• (9:01) How nests are created
• (11:02) How ants communicate and navigate
• (16:01) How certain ants have developed the ability to maintain livestock and how they do it
• (19:01) Ants' more aggressive behaviors
• (22:34) What turns ants into "zombies"
• (25:34) The social immune system of ants
• (28:42) Invasive species of ants
• (32:39) Understanding ant-tink
• (34:31) What Susanne is working on now

• Empire of Ants: The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors: https://www.amazon.com/Superpowers-Six-Legs-Hidden-Lives/dp/1615197125

Following the horrific devastation wreaked by Hurricane Helene, I was so heartened to see many in our community and around the nation come together to help those who had lost everything.

I had spoken a while back on our podcast, AMSEcast, with Eric Jay Dolin about his book, A Furious Sky: The 500 Year History of America's Hurricanes. We talked about some of those storms, including the Galveston, Texas, Hurricane of 1900. The people there had been encouraged to think a hurricane could not do any serious damage to their island home due to a deeply flawed understanding of how those storms work. The results were horrendous. Eric and I also spoke about how modern technologies help us predict and track these monster storms.

A few thoughts about the technological development and advancement over the past 25 years.

Rita Colwell is a Distinguished University Professor with an appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies.

Colwell is one of the world's leading researchers of cholera—a waterborne disease estimated by the World Health Organization to strike three to five million people annually, many of them young children. Her efforts to track and predict cholera outbreaks are multi-faceted, combining bioinformatics with the pioneering use of satellite imaging. She was one of the first scientists to employ remote sensing for disease prediction, as well as recognize the impact of climate change on the waterborne microbial world.

Show Notes

• (0:35) About Dr. Rita Colwell
• (1:52) Dr. Colwell's irritation at people saying we need to interest more women in science
• (2:49) How Rita dealt with overt sexism and still found the determination to keep moving forward
• (3:56) What lead Dr. Colwell to marine biology and focus on Vibrio
• (6:20) How she ended up at the University of Maryland
• (9:31) Rita's groundbreaking work on cholera and obstacles in getting her findings accepted
• (15:03) How long it took the professional world for her findings to be accepted
• (18:49) Dr. Colwell's work as the director of the National Science Foundation
• (21:39) The role she played in the response to the 2001 anthrax attacks
• (26:03) The prospects for women in the business world
• (28:58) The cost of persistent sexism
• (30:41) Rita's thoughts on how to advance women in the science and business worlds
• (33:40) What's next for Dr. Colwell

• A Lab of One's Own: One Woman's Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science: https://www.amazon.com/Lab-Ones-Own-Personal-Journey/dp/1501181270

Whether you like to have an occasional drink or are a teetotaler, you will enjoy a conversation I had on our podcast, AMSEcast, with Camper English about his book Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails. Camper's book is a fascinating look at how, over the centuries, many alcohols and various things we add today to cocktails originally had medicinal purposes.

For example, monks in the Middle Ages were at the center of research on agriculture and the distillation of alcohol. One thing they produced for medicinal uses can be found today in many bars.

• The Infinite Tortoise: The Curious Thought Experiments of History's Great Thinkers: https://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Tortoise-Experiments-Historys-Thinkers-ebook/dp/B01J3RCYCW
• Scientific Feuds: From Galileo to the Human Genome Project: https://www.amazon.com/Scientific-Feuds-Galileo-Genome-Project/dp/1847735142/
• Meltdown: Stories of nuclear disaster and the human cost of going critical: https://www.amazon.com/Meltdown-Stories-nuclear-disaster-critical-ebook/dp/B0CTQBQPJP/
• Freudian Slips: https://www.amazon.com/Freudian-Slips-Psychology-Need-Know-ebook/dp/B00DSPK2AWPsychology in a Nutshell: https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Do-Things-Psychology/dp/1782437851

Ridge, Tennessee. Our home of Oak Ridge got its start as a major part of the monumental Manhattan Project, the nation's successful effort to build the first atomic bomb and end World War II. We talk a lot at AMSE and the K-25 Atomic History Center about the history of the Project, the science and engineering behind it, and the role of Oak Ridge and other locations in its successful outcome. But what is hard to teach is the atmosphere that surrounded that work. Our nation was at war, our soldiers and marines, our sailors and airmen, fighting and dying on the battlefields of Europe and Africa, on the islands of the Pacific, on the vast oceans, in the skies. Every family in America was touched by this war, a war against powers of fascism and militarism, of genocide and oppression.

And we were quite concerned that Nazi Germany was far ahead of us in the effort to build the atomic bomb. It became our focus to beat them in that race, and concurrently to do what we could to sabotage their efforts. I spoke on our podcast, AMSEcast, with award-winning author, Sam Kean, about his terrific book on this topic titled The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb. Here is Sam.

I have a fundamental question for you – what is life? For something seemingly so basic, it is quite hard to define. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Carl Zimmer, took on that topic in his book Life's Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive. I spoke with Carl on our podcast, AMSEcast, and, among other indicators of life, he raised one that was a bit surprising – life is defined, in part, by decision making, and not just for us creatures who have brains.