space travel

Diginauts 0015 — How Space Affects Your Body, Fukushima Radiation, Net Neutrality in Danger Again

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:37 — 89.2MB) | Embed

  • segment 1, Top of Mind — Twins! In! Spaaaaaaace! (0:00):  NASA sent one twin into space, and kept the other on Earth.  We’ll talk about what they learned from the brothers’ DNA.
  • segment 2, If You Had To Choose — Recent Governmental Maneuvers (8:00): Trump’s FCC chair signals lack of interest in net neutrality.  A federal magistrate rules that Google must turn over foreign emails to the FBI.  And Congress rolls back environmental protection laws
  • segment 3, Hope For Humanity — Swearing & Honesty (32:39):A University of Cambridge suggests those who use curse words tend to be more honest.
  • segment 4,  Let’s Dig Some More (36:52):  Fukushima radiation has spiked dangerously, an alleged arsonist was trapped by his pacemaker data, and a Chinese factory has successfully replaced 90% of its human workers with robots.

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Diginauts 0004 — How Long Would You Like To Live, Copyright for Non-humans, New Words for Tech Concepts

Diginauts episode 4
Diginauts episode 4

Podcast: Download (Duration: 58:20 — 80.6MB) | Embed

  • segment 1, Top of Mind–Obama points us to Mars (0:00): This week saw some developments in subjects we’ve discussed in each of our earlier episodes.
    • from episode 3: global climate change — Cornell scientists predict a significant increase in the odds of a megadrought in the southwest US, and meanwhile 150 countries are gathering to discuss lowering HFCs.
    • from episode 2: U.S. Mission to Mars — President Obama announced his administration’s collaboration with six private companies to get humans to Mars by 2030, but a study from UC Irvine shows that astronauts still have a long way to go in overcoming radiation.
    • from episode 1: self-driving cars –In the same week that photos have shown up of Google’s self-driving minivans, another accident involving a driverless car has led the German government to label autopilot a ‘Traffic Hazard.’
  • segment 2, Juris Prudent–Monkey Selfie (29:01): Photographer David Slater claimed rights to an image taken by a macaque, but some outlets say the image is public domain because the photographer didn’t take it, and a judge dismissed the case.  PETA is revisiting the case, arguing that in fact the monkey should own the rights.
  • segment 3, Semantically Incorrect–Audio Books (36:48):  Deron hates claiming he ‘read’ an audiobook, and wants to suggest a new word.  Do you agree with his selection?
  • segment 4, What’s Your Take?–Human Longevity (46:26): Researchers theorize there might be a natural maximum to human lifespans… and we’ve reached it.  But tech billionaires are driving to “cure” death.  Should humans push to live longer and longer?

Tweet @DigitalDeron or @efader with your opinions, or give us a call and leave a voice message.

 

Diginauts 0002 — Songs from Machines, False Memories, & Mechanical Emotion Detection

Diginauts 0002
Diginauts 0002

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:35 — 86.4MB) | Embed

  • segment 1, Top of Mind–False Memories (0:00): A researcher has demonstrated that she can elicit from people memories of things that never happened.  She has managed to convince everyday people that they committed a petty crime in their childhood.  What are the implications for our criminal law system?
  • segment 2, Future File–Music Composed by AI (11:47): Researches at a Sony laboratory in Paris have used software to analyze the style of musicians and use this knowledge to compose original pieces of music.  We react live to these machine-created songs…  Maybe don’t expect robots to headline Coachella any time soon.
  • segment 3, Most Disruptive–Tardigrade Proteins or Transiting the Solar System (24:45): Each of us selected a story from this month that he thought would have the greatest long-term impact on humanity.  One of us picked Elon Musk’s release of plans to travel to Mars and beyond.  The other said that research identifying the  “damage suppressing” protein in tardigrades could change medicine.
  • segment 4, Mailbag (39:21): Time to share some of what you said about the previous episode.
  • segment 5, What’s Your Take?–WiFi That Detects Your Emotions (52:24):  MIT researchers have developed a technology called EQ-Radio, which uses standard wi-fi to monitor heart and breathing rate in humans, and from that gauge their emotional state with 87% accuracy.  Do you see this as a boon to industries like entertainment and medicine? Or is it another example of machine invasiveness into human life?

Tweet us!  Deron is @DigitalDeron and Eric is @efader.

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