The Mr Science Show is your weekly perscription of popular science. Recorded in Sydney Australia and broadcast across China and the world over China Radio International and through the podcast, we discuss popular science topics, road test scientific ideas and have a good time. Check out www.misterscience.blogspot.com for more stories, ask any questions on the site or email [email protected], and feel free to broadcast this show wherever you like!
In the second of a two part series on zombies, this week we go deeper in the dark world of the undead. In part one we managed, through a combination of drugs, to create zombie-like creatures who were sluggish and largely brain-dead. This week we have a shot at recreating the zombies of films such as I am Legend - creatures created through the transmission of a virus, who are filled with rage and enjoy the taste of brains. Topics covered include:
Mad cow disease and the use of prions to transmit disease,
Chimpanzees who eat brains,
Methamphetamines for the creation of rage,
Mathematical modelling a zombie pandemic and how the zombies could do this sustainably.
Somehow we ended up proposing a "Planet of the zombie apes" movie idea, and a methamphetamine-infused biodome. It might not pass an ethics committee. Tune in to this episode here.
In the podcast we use a few songs, all licensed under a Attribution Noncommercial (3.0)
I As We by Speck
Big John by copperhead
What It All Boils Down To by texasradiofish
Above image from ABC Open Wide Bay
Zombies have been fodder for science fiction books and movies for years, but could we actually create one in the lab? And why indeed would you want to do this? Surely the whole "eating brains" concept would mean that making one is probably not in your best interests.
This week on the podcast, Dr Boob takes us on a journey through zombie science fiction, Haitian zombies and zombie-style animals in nature, including a fascinating scenario where ants are hijacked by a fungus. This episode is part 1 - next time we will tackle, among other things, brain parasites, eating brains (cultural, cooking and animals that do
it), mad cow disease, the 'zombie' bath salts attacks (face eating), and
a mathematical model of a zombie pandemic.
We have looked at zombies in the past. In the post Correlation of the Week: Zombies, Vampires, Democrats and Republicans we looked at how the political party of the US presidency seems to influence the style of science fiction movie made during their presidency. A recent upsurge in zombie films could augur well for the Republicans next time round, although there are still plenty of vampire films and TV shows around.
The song at the end of the podcast is by copperhead / CC BY-NC 3.0
Tune in to this episode here.
Time travel is one of the more interesting plot devices in scifi movies. In this episode and the second in the series, Dr Boob takes us on a journey through parallel universes, causal loops and the nature of time-lines. We look at Back to the Future, the Terminator series, Futurama, Looper, Red Dwarf and Twelve Monkeys. By the end, it got a bit deep and my brain hurt! There are a few spoilers in this episode, if somehow you haven't seen these classic time travel movies. And please excuse my cold!
A good reference for attempting to explain the logic of time travel in the movies is Temporal Anomalies in Time Travel Movies.
Tune in to this episode here.
We still exist!
This week we're inhabiting the nexus of science, pop culture and science fiction. The topic of discussion is Time Travel and how it is portrayed in the movies. There's a little bit of philosophy, a little bit of physics, a dash of the paranormal, and a lot of Dr Boob, who is once again the driving force of this podcast!
If you are interested in Andrew Basiago and Project Pegasus, which is mentioned in this show, you can find more here. If you want to organise your own time traveller convention, or if you can think of a good experiment that BOOB could stand for, let us know.
This is part one of a two part series on time travel and the movies - part two will be out shortly.
Tune in to this episode here.
Is teleportation possible in the real world, or only in the world of science fiction?
In this very special episode, Dr Boob takes the reigns and leads
us on a journey through teleportation, whether or not
physics allows it and even if it does, can we technologically achieve
it? What are the implications if we recreate someone in another spot -
what about their soul? Does such a thing exist? And even if you can
technologically achieve this, is it possible to reanimate a copy of
someone? What do you do with their original version, if you have
simply copied them? This could be considered cloning, which brings in ethical
questions.
Perhaps wormholes could be a solution to this
problem, but we haven't found any yet - however they are, as physicists
like to say, theoretically possible.
Tune in to this very entertaining episode (and I can say this without any false modesty as Dr Boob did it all himself) here.
If you'd like to hear more of Dr Boob on this podcast, check out our past joint episodes, mostly on the science of superheroes. He's also on twitter, so come and follow him, he needs friends!
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