In this episode, journalist Philip Ross discusses his article in the October Scientific American, called "Viral Nanoelectronics," about wires, batteries and microchips constructed out of viruses. New Jersey Institute of Technology mathematics professor Bruce Bukiet talks about his probability estimates for the first round of major league baseball's playoffs and how he managed to miss all four series winners while still being correct in his calculations. Scientific American magazine news editor Philip Yam recounts how he boldly went to the Star Trek memorabilia auction last week in New York City. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.sciam.com/news; blog.sciam.com; www.egrandslam.com; http://m.njit.edu/~bukiet/playoffs.htm

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices