Day: July 19, 2009

Transcript-TWIS.ORG Feb 17, 2009


Synopsis: Searching Synthetically, Teach the Children, Neander Clear-Up, Weakest Winners, Oceanic Melting Pot, The End of the World, Tattoos and Health Tips, Space Age Break-Up, and the Question of the Month.

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

From the first moment life stirred into being on the Earth to the latest discovery in genetic engineering, life on Earth has not been boring. It may have looked a little slow in the beginning not much in the way of what we are used to thinking as exciting stuff going on at first, although I think we can all agree it was time well spent, there has been a lot of action in between — with fascinating creatures coming in and going like members in some sort of Evolutionary time share.

And for all we know, we are the first and only species ever to look at things with any sentient level of esthetic, artistic, or scientific appreciation, well, us and the Neanderthals anyway. And while appreciating the esthetic of Neanderthals, like the following hour of our programming does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors.

And while it may have taken nearly 4 billion years for television, radio, Internet, let alone books to come along, it is all here now. Now is by far the most excitable, accessible incomprehensively, understandable era that the planet has ever known. Now is by far the best time to be alive as long as we’re looking backwards in the time line anyway.

I have no doubt that the people of tomorrow will look back at our primitive time and be glad they were not forced to trudge through such ho hum times. But until that day comes and even when it does, now will remain the best time ever to be alive on planet Earth. This now, especially if for no other reason then this now includes, This Week in Science, coming up next.
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG July 7, 2009


Synopsis: Special Evolutionary Episode! The Debate Rages Between Justin and Kirsten (Or, Was It Lamarck and Darwin?), Refereed By Dr. Tim Coulson and His Shrinking Sheep

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

What we hold in our minds to be the world is an illusion, constructed out of observation and often crafted by our parents, teachers, friends, and in the current age by media full of messages. Our personal illusion of the world is always filtered through some combination of these influences.

One of the wonderful things about science is that it is the only motive thinking that seeks to ignore that personal world to reject our illusions and force the mind to look at information each time as if the real world were brand new and in need of introduction.

This way of saying without assumption of knowing can make visible in a glance that which would have remained invisible to the filtered eye — a glance of Hubble’s data plot revealing an expanding universe; a glance like Fleming’s bacterial dish ushering in the age of antibiotics, a glance that patterns across a flickering screen signaling that a cosmic discovery; a genetic breakthrough or needed cure is on the way, one step closer or at least within our reach.

And while the world without science remains illusionary at best, it like the following hour of our programming still does not represent the views or opinions of the University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors.

Yet, we will continue with wide-eyed introductions to reality, continue glancing over steady strings of data that flows past our radio vision seeking that data plot that oddly dotted dish, that flickering signal from an illusion free world of This Week in Science, coming up next.
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Transcript-TWIS.ORG March 17, 2009


Synopsis: Potential Purposes of Prions as inter cell glue, No Snakes In Greenland due to lack of land bridge and cold spell, Insect Memory in Caterpillars, Science Pop-Quiz, Catching The Higgs, Geo-centrism and Global Warming, Japanese Robots on the Catwalk, Dark Matters protecting some galaxies, and the Sand Worms.

Justin: Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

Depending on your point of view in the life you happen to be living at the moment, the world is either a boring or interesting place. Your day is routine or full of stress. The week ahead planned out are left to chaos, the past year of joyful celebrations or mindless regret.

You have every right to be happily complacent — cannot be faulted if you are restlessly unsatisfied and may even find yourself happily unsatisfied with restless joy amidst the complacent chaos of an interesting routine. With so many ways of being in the world, it seems strange at times that the world we live in is the same one that is lived in by everybody else.

And while your life, your point of view and this moment in time, much like the following hour of our programming does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of University of California at Davis, KDVS or its sponsors.

If we pause here, take the snapshot of the world around us and just this moment and consider the billions of other mental still shot picture frames out there, each with their own unique view of the same universe, we may wonder if there is an actual reality beyond the subjective, a truth that is unfiltered by the perspective itself. Don’t be silly. Of course there is and we’ll share it with you here next on This Week in Science, coming up next.
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