WBEZ's Clever Apes

Clever Apes #31: ¿Habla usted simio?

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 06:15:00 -0500

Exact statistics are hard to come by, but it is generally accepted that a majority of the world’s population speaks more than one language. So if we want to better understand how the brain works, how it processes sound and language, it might be a good idea to study the brains of bilingual people.

Clever Apes #30: Walk like an ape

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:20:00 -0500

Today, motion capture is used in movies and video games to create realistic movement in animated characters. In the Motion Analysis Lab at Rush University Medical Center, Dr. Kharma Foucher uses motion capture to study hip osteoarthritis.

Clever Apes: Mind bender

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:27:00 -0500

Clever Apes is dead. Long live Clever Apes.It's a sad day here at WBEZ. Our clever host, Gabriel Spitzer, has left the station and is heading to Seattle.

Clever Apes #29: Nature and human nature

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:16:50 -0500

As kids, we usually learn about nature from a decidedly human point of view: The world exists in relation to us. But an eclectic group of researchers are challenging that. They've started looking at the way Native and non-Native children come to learn about nature, and they've found some distinctive differences.

Clever Apes: Flavor tripping

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:25:00 -0500

We’ve seen and heard some pretty sweet stuff while producing Clever Apes, but in our latest excursion, we got to taste something very sweet.

Clever Apes #28: The critter economy

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:25:00 -0500

It seems like economics is a purely human invention, far removed from the jungle. But scientists say our ancestors were spending and investing for millions of years.

Clever Apes: Chicago's nuclear legacy

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:02:00 -0500

As we mark the one-year anniversary this week of the natural and nuclear disasters in Japan, it seems like a good time to reflect on Chicago’s deep and complicated nuclear history.

Clever Apes #27: Breaking the fossil record

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:30:00 -0600

Dinosaurs loom large in our imaginations not just because they were in fact enormous, but also they are so ridiculously old. There has always been a big, impenetrable curtain separating us from prehistoric life. Sure, we have some ancient bones, but those had long since turned to stone.

Clever Apes: What the flu?

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:15:00 -0600

Just the other day, I was feeling lucky because I haven't gotten a cold or flu this winter. Maybe all that hand washing and hand sanitizing was paying off. Maybe, maybe not? It turns out that this year's flu season is just off to a late start.

Clever Apes: A world of bugs

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:09:00 -0600

Microbes are by far the most abundant life form on the planet. The numbers are so big, they’re almost comical: maybe five million trillion trillion bacteria on earth, and that’s conservative. And yet we know shockingly little about who’s living where, and what they do.So, big deal, right?

Clever Apes #26: The happiness machine

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:05:00 -0600

The human brain is full of wonder, mystery, perhaps even spirit. But it’s also a machine.

Clever Apes #25: Curveballs from space

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:42:00 -0600

Often in science, a new insight doesn’t fit in with the old patterns. That means something, of course, is wrong – either the fresh idea, or everything we thought we knew leading up to it. In the latest installment of Clever Apes, we consider two of these curveballs.

Clever Apes: Another gut check

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:17:00 -0600

So we just finished explaining how the gut is our second brain. How to top that? How about this: Your gut is its own planet.The human intestine hosts an entire civilization of microorganisms – about 100 trillion by most estimates. That’s many times more than there are cells in your body.

Clever Apes #24: Gut feelings

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:41:00 -0600

In researching the human gut over the last few weeks, I’ve learned at least 10 things that have blown my mind. Here is one: Your intestines are your second brain.The gut has its own nervous system – called the enteric nervous system – that is highly sophisticated and can basically think for itself.

Clever Apes: Skipping down memory lane

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Memory can be a tricky thing. As we learned in yesterday's episode of Clever Apes, our earliest recollections are re-written in our brains every time we think of them.

Clever Apes #23: First memories

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:11:00 -0600

I’m sitting at a picnic table in our screened-in porch. It’s my third birthday party, and I’m opening presents. I unwrap a Tonka truck, and drop to the floor to start playing with it.That’s been my earliest memory ever since I can, well, remember.

Clever Apes #22: Paper covers rock

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:19:00 -0600

Charles Darwin ushered in modern biology with his explanation of how different species evolve. But his work leaves us with a paradox: Why should dozens or even thousands of species coexist in a single habitat? The theory suggests they ought to duke it out until just a few winners dominate.

Clever Apes #21: Secret lives of nuclear scientists

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:18:00 -0600

In pop culture, we tend to pigeonhole scientists into a few stereotypes: out-of-touch nerds (Jerry Lewis’ Nutty Professor), bumbling head-in-the-clouds types (Doc Brown) or obsessed madmen (Dr. Frankenstein/Moreau/Jekyll/Strangelove).

Clever Apes #20: Reimagining Robots

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:09:00 -0500

From industry to pop culture to the military, we’ve long been captivated by robots. We tend to imagine them as our mechanical mirror images – reflections of our most efficient, coldest selves.

Clever Apes #19: Godspeed, Tevatron

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:02:00 -0500

The Tevatron particle collider shut down in September of 2011. Once the highest-energy collide in the world, it is survived by its descendants, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven, and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Clever Apes #18: Biological weapons

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:04:00 -0500

Just a week after the September 11th attacks, nerves still raw, America was hit with its worst-ever biological attack. The anthrax letters set off a new wave of panic, and reminded scientists how little we understand some of the world’s most dangerous germs.

Clever Apes #17: Deep listening

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:48:00 -0500

We may not think of it this way, but we hear in 3-D. Good thing, too. It’s how we know what direction to turn when we hear footsteps or where to look for our kid in a crowded playground. But this depth of field is almost impossible to capture on tape.

Clever Apes #16: New dimensions

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 21:52:00 -0500

Do you ever get the feeling we’re all living in an illusion, man? And, like, what we see is really just a movie, you know, projected from the edge of the universe? And stuff?

Clever Apes #15: Trick of the light

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:51:00 -0500

Photosynthesis is one of the oldest biological processes on earth. Microorganisms figured it out more than two billion years ago, and completely transformed the planet.

Clever Apes: Toolmakers

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:19:00 -0500

As we human beings have come up against our limits throughout history, we’ve managed to invent tools that can overcome them. Using tools we can fly, restart a human heart, photograph galaxies and amoebae.

Clever Apes #13: Origin stories

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 25 May 2011 04:28:00 -0500

Say the original Declaration of Independence burned up. No problem, you might think – we have pictures of it. But then say someone discovered that a word had been scratched out and replaced.

Clever Apes #12: Seeking the grail

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 11 May 2011 04:40:00 -0500

Scientists love a quest, and so does the media. Just about every field has some “holy grail” or other. A database search for just the last six months shows about a thousand instances of this phrase popping up in relation to science.

Clever Apes #11: Deconstructing disgust

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:51:00 -0500

Last time around on Clever Apes we dipped into realms of science that some might consider disgusting. Now we turn to the science of disgust itself. What is disgust, and where does it come from? There are a few places where scientists can look for clues, starting with what disgusts people.

Clever Apes #10: Yuck

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:25:00 -0500

Let’s consider the beauty of a seething swarm of carrion beetles picking clean the carcass of a dead rat.Sorry – were you eating breakfast?To a scientist, that grisly scene might evoke the cycles of ecosystems, the connectedness of life and death, and the elegant efficiency of a life form sculpted b

Clever Apes #9: Demystifying dinosaurs

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:57:00 -0500

Brontosaurus? A sham. Triceratops? Awkward adolescent. Tyrannosaurus Rex? A total wuss. OK, maybe T-Rex was no wuss, but it definitely lacked dignity. It walked all bent over, may have been an opportunistic scavenger and possibly even had feathers.

Clever Apes: Testosterone drives a hard bargain

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:59:00 -0500

Let’s talk a little bit about testosterone, shall we?Sure, it’s a loaded topic, tied up with what behaviors are supposedly “male.” But of course both men and women have it, and it seems to play a big role in the kind of people we wind up becoming.

Clever Apes: Brain in a dish

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:11:00 -0500

Embryonic stem cells are certainly a loaded subject. They come with built-in controversy over how they are obtained – a human embryo is destroyed in the process.

Clever Apes #8: Sense abilities

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Our senses tell us about the world, but they also reveal a lot about ourselves. On the latest installment of Clever Apes, we find that research into cochlear implants helps us understand how all hearing is really both mechanical and subjective, machine and mind.

Clever Apes: Studying UFO's

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Clever Apes #7: Apes in space

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Clever Apes: Special Broadcast

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:57:00 -0600

Hey Clever Apes fans! We've selected a few highlights from our first six months and wrapped 'em all up in an hour long broadcast special. Why do kids play with fire? What happens when robots and theater mix? And why do some people age so well?

Clever Apes #6: Show me where it hurts

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:21:00 -0600

Pain may be the most immediate and undeniable of human experiences. And yet it’s not obvious what it is, or where it comes from. Aristotle thought pain was basically an emotion, located in the heart.

Clever Apes: "No really...Your spouse IS a pain"

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:42:00 -0600

When we heard there was a study about the connection between marital relations and chronic pain, we couldn't help but think of classic TV shows where marriages are stressed by back pain.

Clever Apes #5: Decoding science

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:00:00 -0500

Gordon's pez: Tensor glyphs baffle a spouse, who calls Clever Apes for help. (Image courtesy of Gordon Kindlmann)"I heard about your show and thought immediately of my husband, Gordon Kindlmann, who is a professor at University of Chicago.

Clever Apes: Light sabers and a fish choir

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:29:00 -0500

Malcolm MacIver with one of his weakly electric fish. He's colaborating on an art installation with Marlena Novak and Jay Alan Yim, called "Scale," opening in Europe.

Clever Apes #4: The March of Time

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 07:30:00 -0500

We've always assumed that cognitive decline was just the cost of a long life. But some people manage to sail into old age without ever paying a price in mental sharpness.

Clever Apes: A new tangle in our thinking about memory

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:30:00 -0500

The ol' memory banks tend to slip a little as we get older. No surprise there.

Clever Apes #3: Playing with Fire

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:00:00 -0500

It may be the ultimate symbol of human mastery over nature's power: fire. On this edition of Clever Apes, we consider why flames fascinate us. Eons of evolution have written fire into our DNA -- no wonder kids like to mess with matches. AUDIODownload this episode, or subscribe to the podcast.

Clever Apes: A mechanical fable of truth-to-power

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:32:00 -0500

Science doesn't always tell us what we want to hear, and our record of accepting unwelcome findings is less than stellar. We have been known to shoot the messenger; or at least lock him up until he concedes that the universe revolves around the earth.

Clever Apes #2: The Shakedown

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:30:00 -0500

So much of science is about finding patterns -- repetitions that let us predict outcomes for given circumstances. The universe is full of these rhythms -- from the vibrating loops of string theory to the orbits of stars and planets to the pulsing of our heart.

Clever Apes: Invisible Gorillas

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:00:00 -0500

What if during the World Cup finals, a unicorn pranced out onto the field. Or a woman on stilts appeared. Or, say, Wilford Brimley. You'd probably notice, right? Not necessarily, as psychologist Daniel Simons has shown.

Clever Apes #1: Seeing in the Dark

podcasts@chicagopublicmedia.org (Chicago Public Media) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:00:00 -0500

The apes are us -- the latest version of a critter that has evolved to be curious. This thirst of ours seems to be hard-wired -- to know ourselves, to find truth and to seek beauty in the universe.