Science at AMNH

The Expeditions Report podcast series offers an insider’s look at what it’s like to live and work in the field. In this episode, herpetologists Christopher Raxworthy, associate curator in the Museum’s Division of Vertebrate Zoology, and Sara Ruane talk about their searches in Madagascar for the most elusive of rarely-seen snakes.

Learn more about their research here: http://bit.ly/1s8ZgJT

Music by Podington Bear from the FreeMusicArchive.org

The Expeditions Report podcast series offers an insider’s look at what it’s like to live and work in the field. In this episode, Associate Curator and microbiologist Susan Perkins describes her long-term study of malarial parasites and their host lizard, work that draws her back again and again to Saba Island—a relatively unspoiled paradise in the Caribbean.

Learn more about Dr. Perkins' work here: bit.ly/1C3ffev

Music by Thiaz Itch from FreeMusicArchive.org.

The Expeditions Report podcast series offers an insider’s look at what it’s like to live and work in the field. In this episode, Assistant Curator Estefanía Rodríguez travels to Antarctica to study sea anemones on a ship that serves as a floating field station – and, on which, sometimes getting there is half the adventure.

Read more about Dr. Rodríguez’s work here: bit.ly/1s7ClZF

Music by krackatoa from FreeMusicArchive.org.

Photo ©NERC CHESSO Project

The Expedition Report podcast series offers an insider’s look at what it’s like to live and work in the field. In this episode, curator emeritus Norman Platnick discusses his trek through the highly diverse habitats of Chile in search of spider species found nowhere else in the world.

To learn more about spiders, visit the American Museum of Natural History's Spiders Alive! exhibit, open through November 2, 2014.

Watch videos about Dr. Platnick's research here: http://bit.ly/1o9coWH

Music by Podington Bear from FreeMusicArchive.org.

Sound effects from SoundBible and FreeSound.org.

Recent developments in cosmology suggest that the Big Bang was not a unique event in the cosmic history, and that other Big Bangs constantly erupt in remote parts of the universe, producing new worlds with a great variety of physical properties. Cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin discusses the origin of this new worldview, how we can test its possibility, and its implications for the beginning and the end of the universe.

This lecture took place in the Hayden Planetarium on June 9, 2014.

In 1913, Roy Chapman Andrews set off for Alaska on board the Adventuress in search of a bowhead whale. In this podcast, Tom Baione, Boeschenstein Director of the Museum’s Library, recounts the tale of this adventure and the virgin voyage of the ship, which repeatedly averted disaster and inadvertently contributed to bowhead whale conservation.

This lecture took place at the Museum on May 4, 2014.

When Sally Ride left Earth’s atmosphere on the space shuttle Challenger in 1983, she built her legacy as the youngest astronaut and the first woman to enter space, and yet she was famously private. In this podcast, join award-winning author and journalist Lynn Sherr for a lecture bringing detail and color to the life of Sally Ride. Drawing on her thirty year friendship with Ride and exclusive access to Ride’s papers and closest confidants, Sherr brings to vivid life this extraordinarily gifted, daring, and complex woman.

This lecture took place at the Museum on June 14, 2014.

Autism is a widely-discussed topic in today's media, with sources positing different causes for the disorder. In this SciCafe, neuroscientist and molecular biologist Samuel Wang of Princeton University, discusses how to decipher the risks associated with causing autism, as well as it's neurology and genetics.

This lecture took place at the Museum on June 4, 2014. To watch a video version of this SciCafe, visit the AMNH live section of AMNH.tv.

An ant colony is a classic example of a colony where many individuals work together for the good of their nest. However, it is also an example of a group that operates without a single designated controller. How can that work?

In this SciCafe, Deborah Gordon, biologist at Stanford University, illuminates the workings of collective behavior and collaborative systems, based on her research with ant colonies.

This SciCafe took place at the Museum on May 7, 2014. A video version of this event will be posted tothe AMNH Live section of AMNH.tv next week.

What is the universe made of? The longest outstanding problem in all of modern physics, this question is the most important research topic in cosmology and particle physics today, especially as new research shows that most of the universe consists of what is known as dark matter.

In this podcast, theoretical astrophysicist Katherine Freese discusses dark matter and the ongoing research being done to learn about the nature of this mysterious particle.

This lecture took place at the Hayden Planetarium on May 12, 2014. The talk was hosted by Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium Neil deGrasse Tyson.