Radical Science

We chat to Adam Hart Professor of Science Communication at the University of Gloucestershire and author of Unfit For Purpose: When Human Evolution Collides with the Modern World.

We spoke to materials scientist and author Ainissa Ramirez about her brilliant new book The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another, all about the 8 inventions that shaped our society and the materials behind them.

Relevant links:

• The Alchemy of Us
• @ainissaramirez

In this episode we chat to historian Rutger Bregman author of Humankind: A Hopeful History (2020) and the bestseller Utopia For Realists (2014).

We talk about the shaky social studies and historical perspectives that have driven a wedge between communities, kindness as a fundamental trait of humanity, and the people who are baking cooperation and decency into their institutional structures.

Relevant Links

1. Humankind: A Hopeful History
2. Utopia for Realists
3. Rutger's Twitter

We chat to Mark O'Connell author of To Be A Machine (2017) and Notes From An Apocalypse (2020).

We talk about finding lessons about humanity in the strangest of places, being an awarded science writer while not considering himself a science writer, and privilege, decency and purpose.

Relevant Links

1. Notes From An Apocalypse (2020)
2. To Be a Machine (2017)
3. Mark’s Twitter

In this episode we chat to Sabine Hossenfelder, a physicist and author of Lost in Math. In the book Sabine makes the case that physicists have committed themselves to ideas of beauty rooted in maths that are unsupported by the data. She calls for a radical re-evaluation of how physics is done. Relevant Links

1. Lost in Math (2018)
2. Sabine's Twitter

In this episode, we’re chatting about Science Disrupt 2.0 - what we mean when we talk about ‘disruption’, what deeper conversations we now need to have about science, and how and why our own ideas have evolved over the last 4 years.

We talk about what’s changed in science since 2016, including the more open nature of critical conversation in academia; how the cult of personality (of consultants, startups and VCs) can make a mockery of science and tech, and what deeper questions aren’t being asked while many still problematic practices continue in research and tech transfer.

In this episode we chat to Wendy Liu author of the brilliant book, Abolish Silicon Valley!

We talk about the myth of the meritocracy, reclaiming entrepreneurship, and what innovation looks like beyond capitalism.

Relevant Links

1. Abolish Silicon Valley (2020)
2. Wendy's Twitter

Our quick review From inspiring early experiences in open-source software development, to crushing disappointment in the search for startup funding, Wendy Liu writes a refreshingly candid account of how she fell in, and then out, of love with the tech industry. Liu shows how the inhabitants of Silicon Valley - from the funders, to the founders - have abdicated their responsibility to society; that beneath the veneer of global connectivity and community-building, they have driven immense socio-economic inequality. But all is not lost as Liu argues: inequities borne from tech can be resolved if we're willing to hold up a mirror and address their causes, regardless of how close to home these may be.

In this one we talk about people talking about science, and scicomm, and journalism, and open science.

Some things we mentioned in the episode:

• Why the coronavirus is so confusing - Ed Yong
• Covid projections dashboard - David Yu
• Covering science at dangerous speeds - Ivan Oransky
• How to boost the spread of coronavirus science on social media - Samantha Yammine

Twitter:

• @lawrenceyolland
• @gemmamilne
• @sciencedisrupt

Gemma's book Smoke and Mirrors launched last week and we talk about it.

You can pick up a copy here.

After a long summer we're back, and we're here to talk spaaaace! Specifically the issue of satellite sustainability and the startup leading the charge.

In this episode of the Science: Disrupt podcast we chat to Harriet Brettle, Business Analyst at the startup Astroscale and co-founder of the London Space Network.

Astroscale is a space startup that is developing a solution to the environmental concerns over space debris and all of the challenges that that can bring.

We also discuss Harriet's path to Astroscale and her drive to establish the London Space Network and the benefits of community organisation.