Happy New Year! No interview this week, but that just means there’s more time for science stories. Graycen and Alison just talk about some science stories they found interesting, including stories about space babies, fire ants, cheating robots, and James Watson, sigh. Listen here or subscribe on iTunes!
Have you ever thought about whether you could parent an extra-terrestrial? If you think you’ll be emotionally and financially ready to have a baby by 2024, you could totally engage in an ethically-iffy experiment where you get launched into space to give birth! Best-case scenario is that you get a lil Superman-style bb, who lives in this world but is separate from it and is therefore in a good position to fight evil, but only in a way that feels condescending and frankly unearned. The guaranteed scenario is that you and your poor little bean ricochet traumatically back to Earth after a pretty stressful experience for both of you, and then you have to give a lot of interviews while you’re tired from baby stuff. We recommend you avoid it.
Unless you’re really scared of fire ants, because you might be about to see way more of them. Alison read about how global warming is making things a lot more ant-tastic.
We’re honestly pretty enamored of this plucky artificial intelligence agent called CycleGAN that made itself a covert cheat sheet in order to succeed at its job.
James Watson is a racist, sexist menace who DIDN’T EVEN TAKE THE PICTURE.
Buffs Talk Science 