October 28, 2013

Shutting Down Science

54 minutes

“Sorry, closed for business.” That sign hung on doors of national laboratories when the US government shut down. What that meant for one Antarctic researcher: her critically important work was left out in the cold.

So just what do we lose when public funds for science fade? The tools for answering big questions about our universe for one, says a NASA scientist … while one of this year’s Nobel Prize winners fears that it is driving our young researchers to pursue their work overseas.

Yet one scientist says public funding isn’t even necessary; privatizing science would be more productive.

Plus, an award-winning public-private research project changes the way we use GPS … and a BBC reporter on the fate of international projects when Americans hang up their lab coats.

Guests:

Jill Mikucki – WISSARD principal investigator and a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee

Max Bernstein – Lead for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate

James Rothman – Professor and chairman of the department of cell biology at Yale University, recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Medicine

Alexandre Bayen – Civil engineer and computer scientist, University of California, Berkeley

Pat Michaels – Director for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute

Roland Pease – BBC science reporter

Descripción en español

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By Big Picture Science

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