Science Talk

In this episode, we’ll talk with two researchers whose work probes the uncertainty surrounding how we perceive the world around us. 

It turns out that what we see may not always be a perfect reflection of reality. 

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The feeling of a total solar eclipse is intense, and the sights, sensations and emotions can overwhelm you even if you think you know what's coming. And we sat down with Kate Russo, a psychologist, author and Eclipse Chaser, who's seen 13 total solar eclipses over the last 25 years, to talk about what to expect.

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From the discovery of new elements to the testing of novel theories of gravity, solar eclipses have helped spark scientific progress for centuries.

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Welcome to Uncertain, a five-part podcast miniseries from Scientific American. Here we will dive head first into the possibilities of the unknowing.

Over the next five episodes, I’ll be talking with people like her: explorers who work in the realm of uncertainty. Through them, we’ll discover the ways that uncertainty can spark curiosity and scientific breakthroughs. But we’ll also find out how uncertainty can bite us in the butt and make science really hard.

We’ll see how neglecting uncertainty can lead to overconfidence and how embracing uncertainty can allow for a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the world.

We’ll finish by examining how it’s possible to have confidence in scientific findings, even with their uncertainties.

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Eclipses can affect animals, and biologists are preparing to see what happens during totality on April 8.

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AI-generated art is creating new ethical issues—and competition—for digital artists. Nightshade and Glaze are two tools helping creators fight back.

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Mucus is a miracle of evolution, and some researchers are trying to re-create what nature makes naturally.

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Does the word "uncertainty" make you nervous? Does it rule your life? Would you say it kinda describes the state of the world these days? 

Enter Uncertain, a new limited podcast series from Scientific American.

In this series, host Christie Aschwanden will help to demystify uncertainty. She's going to take away its scariness–or, rather, a cast of scientific dreamers that she talked to, will. 

As you’ll see, uncertainty drives scientific discovery. Throughout scientific history, uncertainty has spurred our collective imagination and our need to know the things we don’t. 

To be clear, uncertainty makes science very difficult. So in this mini-series we’ll both learn how scientists push through those difficulties; and how they also avoid the bias, logical fallacies, and blindspots that can lurk behind uncertainty.

She'll get them to share their own habits of mind and techniques for facing, and embracing, the unknown. 

And even if you’re not a scientist, UNCERTAIN provides a practical way to think through what we don’t know in our lives—to face that uncertainty, and, hopefully, live better, more informed lives because of it.

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The slimy substance is so powerful that doctors once made hog stomach mucus milkshakes to treat ulcers.

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If you take a journey into the depths of the slime all around us, you find yourself starting to understand that mucus is a miracle.

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