Big Picture Science for Mar. 16, 2026: Skeptic Check: Project Hail Mary

As protagonist Ryland Grace fights to save Earth - and possibly the universe - in Project Hail Mary, author Andy Weir discusses the science behind his sci-fi story and what it’s like to see it adapted for the big screen. From a diversity of aliens thriving in extreme environments, to our sun’s shortening lifespan, to the conundrum of keeping astronauts alive during intergalactic missions, we consider the possibility of science fiction becoming future reality. A NASA astrobiologist who consulted on the book weighs in on how Earthly creatures have inspired some of our favorite science fiction aliens. Plus, science fiction author Becky Chambers discusses how she balances science fact with fiction in her work.

Guests:

* Andy Weir – science fiction writer, author of Project Hail Mary, The Martian, and Artemis
* Andy Fraknoi – professor of astronomy at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco
* Becky Chambers – science fiction writer, author of To Be Taught if Fortunate, the Wayfinders series, and the Monk and Robot novellas
* Shawn Domagal-Goldman – NASA acting director, astrophysics division

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Big Picture Science for Mar. 09, 2026: Skeptic Check: Moon Conspiracy

As NASA’s Artemis program promises to take us back to the moon for the first time in fifty years, we consider what it means that as many as 10% of Americans don’t believe we went there in the first place. Why, despite all the evidence, has the faked moon landing conspiracy persisted? We explore why this falsehood has such staying power and what it reveals about our relationship with science and its findings.

Meanwhile, lunar science continues unabated. Scientists open a lunar soil sample that’s been vacuumed sealed for a half-century and receive a blast of four and a half billion-year-old solar wind.

Guests:

* Peter Knight – professor of American Studies, English and American Studies and conspiracy expert at the University of Manchester, U.K.
* Ryan Zeigler – planetary scientist and NASA’s Lunar Sample Curator at Johnson Space Center

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Big Picture Science for Mar. 02, 2026: Chasing an Asteroid

REPEAT
Everyone knows that a big rock wiped out the dinosaurs. But the danger from an asteroid hitting Earth is not limited to ancient history. To deal with this threat, scientists recently ran an experiment to deflect a potential “city killer.” We’ll hear the results of that experiment, and about a visit to another asteroid. In the dusty material NASA brought back from the asteroid Bennu, scientists found the chemical building blocks of life, including many of the amino acids that are found in our cells. Could an asteroid have brought the ingredients for life to ancient Earth? In this episode, we look at our paradoxical relationship with the space rocks that taketh way – and may help giveth - life.

Guests:

* Scott Sandford - Astrophysicist and Research Scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center
* Robin George Andrews - Science journalist, volcanologist, and author of "How to Kill an Asteroid: The Real Science of Planetary Defense"

Originally aired February 10, 2025

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Big Picture Science for Feb. 23, 2026: Birds of a Feather

With only a microscope and a collection of birds, taxidermist Roxie Laybourne became the world’s first forensic ornithologist. The “feather detective” was on the case, examining pieces of plumage to solve mysteries. From bird strikes that caused plane accidents to homicide investigations, no case was too big. In the process, Roxie changed the world of aviation safety and crime investigation forever. Even now, feathers are unraveling a new type of mystery, as scientists from the Bird Genoscape Project use them to map the migratory routes of birds.

Guests:

* Chris Sweeney – Journalist and author of “The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne”
* Kristen Ruegg – Co-Director of the Bird Genoscape Project and Associate Professor of Biology at Colorado State University

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Big Picture Science for Feb. 16, 2026: Celestial Shake-Up

We’re going back to the Moon. The planned March 2026 launch of Artemis II is the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972. Historic as it is, it isn’t the only lunar event creating a stir at NASA. Two seismometers are to be delivered to Schrödinger’s Crater in a mission called The Farside Seismic Suite, in which the instruments will measure moonquakes and record the possible impact of asteroid 2024 YR4 on lunar surface. Meanwhile, studies of the sun are heating up. The so-called PUNCH mission, a four-satellite constellation that will create an image of the sun’s corona and solar winds, may help us better understand what drives solar storms and how we can protect Earth from their energetic blasts.

Guests:

* Eugene Cernan – Apollo 17 astronaut
* Harrison "Jack" Schmitt – Geologist and Apollo 17 astronaut
* Andrew Rivkin – Planetary astronomer at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University
* Ceri Nunn – Lunar seismologist and planetary scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
* Ryan French – solar physicist, at the Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics, Boulder, Colorado, and author of “Space Hazards: Asteroids, Solar Flares and Cosmic Threats”
* Craig DeForest – Heliophysicist, Southwest Research Institute, principal investigator on NASA’s PUNCH mission

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Big Picture Science for Feb. 09, 2026: Hot to Cold

There are benefits to chilling out. When we cool superconductors to 460℉ degrees below zero, they acquire extraordinary properties that help run quantum computers. Can artificially cooling human bodies also provide profound benefit? Some cryonics startup companies say yes, promising “life after death” through cryogenic freezing. While it’s one thing to freeze all the cells in a body, it is another to revive them. What happens, for instance, to memories when brains thaw? While we gauge how low human body temperatures can go, new research suggests another form of life could find home in the cooler temperatures of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Find out how NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will investigate whether that moon could support alien microbes.

Guests:

* Steve Austad – Distinguished Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Scientific Director of the American Federation for Aging Research
* Olivia Lanes – Global Lead for Quantum Content and Education at IBM Quantum
* Austin Green – Planetary Scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Big Picture Science for Feb. 02, 2026: Like Lightning

REPEAT
Every second, lightning strikes 50 to 100 times somewhere. It can wreak havoc by starting wildfires and sometimes killing people. But lightning also produces a form of nitrogen that’s essential to vegetation. In this episode, we talk about the nature of these dramatic sparks. Ben Franklin established their electric origin, so what do we still not know? Also, why the frequency of lightning strikes is increasing in some parts of the world. And, what to do if you find someone hit by lightning.

Guests:

* Thomas Yeadaker – Resident of Oakland, California
* Chris Davis – Medical doctor and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Wake Forest University and Medical Director for the National Center for Outdoor Adventure Education
* Jonathan Martin – Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison
* Steve Ackerman – Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison
* Peter Bieniek – Professor of Atmospheric and Space Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Originally aired September 12, 2022

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Big Picture Science for Jan. 26, 2026: Cold to Hot

The icy-white crust of Arctic permafrost is melting, and increased plant growth is turning the glacial north green. Metals like iron, once locked inside the ice, are leaching into hundreds of Arctic rivers, giving them an orange hue. Vivid changes may catch our eye, yet invisible shifts are also afoot. Microbes locked in the frozen ground since the age of the mammoths can now be revived when they thaw. We’re exploring the consequences of changes in permafrost, how AI may help us better understand Greenland ice loss, and get reactions from scientists about the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), one of the premier climate and weather researcher centers in the world.

Guests:

* Tristan Caro – Postdoctoral Fellow, Geological and Planetary Sciences Division, California Institute of Technology
* Twila Moon – Glaciologist and deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, within the cooperative Institute for Research and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder
* Abagael Pruitt – Biochemist and ecosystem ecologist, postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Davis
* Karina Zikan – Glaciologist and snow hydrologist, PhD candidate at Boise State University
* Roland Pease – Science writer and broadcaster often heard on the BBC World Service, and former presenter and host of its program Science in Action
* Alan Sealls – Retired broadcast meteorologist, adjust professor at the University of South Alabama and president of the American Meteorological Society

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Big Picture Science for Jan. 19, 2026: Where the Wind Blows

It’s omnipresent on Earth and absent on the Moon. When it’s blowing sand in our eyes or frigid air down our necks, we may curse the wind, but living on a planet without it would be stultifying. Join us as we sail through a discussion with journalist and author Simon Winchester about the many practical and playful uses of wind – from boats to turbines to kites – and how it has shaped history, including the growth of civilization itself.

Guest:
Simon Winchester – Journalist and author of “The Breath Of The Gods: The History and Future of the Wind”

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ig Picture Science for Jan. 12, 2026: Life in the Solar System

REPEAT
Spewing lava and belching noxious fumes, volcanoes seem hostile to biology. But the search for life off-Earth includes the hunt for these hotheads on other moons and planets, and we tour some of the most imposing volcanoes in the Solar System.

Plus, a look at how tectonic forces reshape bodies from the moon to Venus to Earth. And a journey to the center of our planet reveals a surprising layer of material at the core-mantle boundary. Find out where this layer was at the time of the dinosaurs and what powerful forces drove it deep below.

Guests:

* Samantha Hansen – Geologist at the University of Alabama
* Paul Byrne – Associate professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
* Robin George Andrews – Science journalist and author of “Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond”

Originally aired May 29, 2023

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