Podcast
Science Magazine Podcast
Hosted by Science Magazine · EN
Weekly podcasts from Science Magazine, the world's leading journal of original scientific research, global news, and commentary.
42episodes
Episodes
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Why chatbots lie, and can synthetic organs and AI replace animal testing?
Aug 14, 202500:31:53Tap to summarizeFirst up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell and Contributing Correspondent Sara Reardon discuss alternative approaches to animal testing, from a heart on a chip to a miniorgan in a dish. Next on the show, Expert Voices columnist Melanie Mitchell and host Sarah Crespi dig into AI lies. Why do chatbots fabricate answers and pretend to do math? Mitchell describes the stress tests large language models undergo—called red teaming—and the steps needed to better understand how they “think.” Melanie Mitchell is a professor at the Santa Fe Institute. You can read all her Expert Voices columns here. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; Meagan Cantwell; Melanie Mitchell; Sara Reardon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Why anteaters keep evolving, and how giant whales get enough food to live
Aug 7, 202500:28:08Tap to summarizeFirst up on the podcast, Online News Editor David Grimm brings stories on peacock feathers’ ability to emit laser light, how anteaters have evolved at least 12 times, and why we should be thanking ketchup for our French fries. Next on the show, rorqual whales, such as the massive blue whale, use a lunging strategy to fill their monster maws with seawater and prey, then filter out the tasty parts with baleen sieves. Lunging for food when you weigh 100 tons seems like it would be an energetically expensive way to meet your dietary needs. But as Ashley Blawas, a postdoctoral researcher at the Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University, describes in Science Advances this week, lunge-feeding whales have a few tricks up their sieves and use much less energy than predicted. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; David Grimm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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