The Half-Life of Facts #224

August 02, 2013

This episode was recorded when Science for the People was called Skeptically Speaking.

This week, guest host Marie-Claire Shanahan spends an hour exploring knowledge and certainty, and how they change over time. She’ll speak to Samuel Arbesman, applied mathematician and fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, about his book The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Khow Has an Expiration Date. And we’re joined by computer science and biology professor Mark Daley, to discuss the value of using computational thinking to better understand everything from biology to music.

Guests:

  • Mark Daley
  • Samuel Arbesman
Listen Now

Featured Book

The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date

Written by Samuel Arbesman

Book Blurb Find On Amazon

Other Episodes About Science & Culture

Losing Our Minds

Mental illness is being discussed openly and publicly more than it ever has been, but our understanding of what it is and its impacts are still a work-in-progress. What is mental illness... Read More

March 29, 2022

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains

We all know what a "pest" is. We can all point to creatures that are pests in our neighborhoods, those invasive hard-to-get-rid-of, disruptive animals that civilization seems to be in constant battle... Read More

November 10, 2022

This is your brain on music

Humans are musical. Really, really musical. But why? What is it for, how did it come about, and what do we get from it? Let's get between the science and the hype... Read More

January 30, 2023

Other Episodes About Science History

Spark: The Life of Electricity and the Electricity of Life

Usually when we talk about electricity we're talking about the technology that runs the modern world, but electricity is a lot more integral to our existance than making our tech work. Without... Read More

October 17, 2022

Breathless

In January 2020 a race began to identify, control, and understand a novel coronavirus that quickly spread around the world creating a global pandemic. In his most recent book "Breathless: The Scientific... Read More

February 16, 2023

Peopling the Americas

Thousands of years ago, people crossed a land bridge from Siberia to Western Alaska and dispersed southward into what we now call the Americas. The story of exactly when that was, how... Read More

April 11, 2023

Other Episodes About Math

Weapons of Math Destruction

This week on Science for the People we look at the modern, inventive ways we try to use math and algorithms to make better decisions, and what happens when those solutions cause... Read More

March 31, 2017

Is Our Children Learning

This week on science for the people, we're taking on the educational system. We'll be talking with Ulrich Boser about what people think they know about education. It turns out that education... Read More

May 19, 2017

Knitting in PEARL

This week we're discussing math and things made from yarn. We welcome mathematician Daina Taimina to the show to discuss her book "Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes: Tactile Mathematics, Art and Craft... Read More

August 17, 2018

Other Episodes About Science Literacy

What Doesn't Kill You...

This week we're discussing public perception of entomologists and their study organisms of choice: insects. We speak with Justin Schmidt, author of the new book "The Sting of the Wild", and an... Read More

December 16, 2016

Is Our Children Learning

This week on science for the people, we're taking on the educational system. We'll be talking with Ulrich Boser about what people think they know about education. It turns out that education... Read More

May 19, 2017

The State of Science Journalism

This week we step into the world of science journalism from the perspectives of two unique and reputable popular science publications. Guest host Anika Hazra speaks with Katie Palmer, senior editor of... Read More

August 04, 2017