Life of Brain

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ENCORE We should award frequent travel miles to your brain. After all, it’s evolved a long way from the days of guiding brachiation from tree-to-tree to become the three pounds of web-surfing, Sudoku-playing powerhouse it is today. But a suite of technologies may expand human brains further still.
From smart pills to nano-wires: discover the potential – and peril – of neuro-engineering to repair and enhance our cognitive function.
Also, how our brains got so big in the first place: a defense of the modern diet.
Guests

Bill Leonard – department chairman and professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University
Michael Gazzaniga – neuroscientist and director of the University of California – Santa Barbara’s SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. Author of
Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique
Ian Pearson – futurologist at Futurizon
Steven Rose – biologist and director of the Brain and Behavior Research Group at the Open University in London. Author of The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow’s Neuroscience
Ed Boyden – neuroscientist at MIT’s Media Lab and Department of Biological Engineering

Descripción en español

We place sharks in aquariums and elephants in zoos – to observe and conserve. But what if aliens have done the same to us? We’ll hear from Stephen King on a doomed result of a domed experiment – hatched by off-Earth beings, and why captivity may actually save some species on this planet.
Plus, you’re entering the Habitable Zone: which is the best bet for life elsewhere in the Solar System – Europa, Enceladus or Mars?
Guests:

Stephen King – Novelist, author of Under the Dome: A Novel
Jim Kasting – Geoscientist, Penn State University and author of How to Find a Habitable Planet (Science Essentials)
Oliver Morton – Journalist, author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet
John Fraser – Director for the Institute for Learning Innovations and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Hunter College CUNY
Amanda Hendrix – Planetary Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Bob Pappalardo – Planetary Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Descripción en español