Astronomy Cast
Ever since I was young my mind reeled when I tried to comprehend the vastness of our universe and all that is in it. I’ve since realised that it is impossible to truly comprehend these things and that this is a limitation of the bodies and minds we find ourselves in.
However if you, like me, are fascinated by the night sky and you want to get a better understanding of “not only what we know but how we know what we know” then you won’t find a better podcast than the Astronomy Cast.
If I were an alien I’d give it three thumbs up. Check it out.
Tags: Astronomy Cast, podcast
March 16th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
From the first cell to the universe - big jumps in scale going on on this blog Damian ; ). I find astronomy fascinating too, the concept of infinity especially so. I find it odd that I believe in ‘infinity’ and yet my mind is unable to understand/grasp it fully. Some of the kids I teach say they don’t believe that space can go on forever, but then when you ask how they suppose it ends and whether there is some sort of wall and how you could have a wall without having two sides …well their minds spin out too.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Excellent. It must be encouraging and simultaneously disappointing teaching kids science. The latest Astronomy Cast podcast (which I haven’t listened to yet) is entitled “How big is the universe?“. I wonder if it is in fact infinite — or, if it is, whether our concept of infinity might be flawed in some way.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Man, what a great piece on ideas about the size of the universe.
My grandfather would have been enthralled. He used to make his own telescopes back in the 1950’s. This included learning the math (age in his 70’s) to manufacture his own mirrors, all hand-ground. The structure of the telescopes were concrete for counter-weight, ply for the housing, hand lathed tubing for constructing lens groups etc. One of which I used as a teenager back in the ’70s in our backyard to see the rings of Saturn.
I’m with the guest speaker when she suggests the universe is not infinite. Infinity seems completely unreal, symbolic only, rather than supporting a cosmology of a universe with a beginning.
And, if I heard right, we can only observe 4% of 1/10,000th of the universe, yikes!
As Schultzie would say, ‘I know not’ing! I know not’ing!
Damian, by the way, the other day, I saw one of those cute little fellas, Poecilopachys australasiae, on a Pohutukawa tree at Keropiro Bay, between Stillwater and Okura.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Just noticed that Blog time is different to real time!
March 17th, 2008 at 8:52 am
I listened to the “how big is the universe” podcast last night and, yes, that’s pretty freakin mid-boggling. ‘Yikes’ indeed. (Did you notice the error where she said that 10^6 was ‘ten thousand’?)
Wow, that must have been pretty cool to have a grandfather who was into that kind of stuff.
Crazy-looking eh?
Thanks. I hadn’t noticed. I wonder how long that was wrong for? Now I have to remember to fix it again in three weeks.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Thanks for the recommendation, Damian. I’ll certainly start downloading and listening to these. I got a cheap mp3 player (just 1 GB) recently and really enjoy listening to podcasts while I am our walking
You seem to have accumulated a few good sources for podcasts - what about a post where you list all your recommendations?
March 17th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Hi Ken, on the homepage of this blog there is a list of the podcasts I regularly listen to. I really enjoy listening to them while out walking too (and driving and when doing mindless programming).
Here they go:
March 17th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Many thanks for these, Damian.
I had picked up on a few of them but this will be useful.
Here are some others I have come across - you may find some of them of interest:
Free Thought Radio (http://ffrf.org/radio/podcast/)
Humanist Network News (http://ihs.libsyn.com/)
Pat Condell (http://patcondell.libsyn.com/)
Are We Alone - SETI (http://radio.seti.org/)
Science Cafe (http://www.ucsf.edu/sciencecafe/)
The Sounds of science (http://media.nap.edu/podcasts/)
Science Update (http://www.scienceupdate.com/index.php)
The science Podcast (Sciencemag) (http://www.sciencemag.org/multimedia/)
Science @ NASA (http://science.nasa.gov/)
Science & the City (http://www.nyas.org/snc/podcasts.asp)
NOVA/PBS (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/rss/podcasting.html)
Blogging Heads (video but also mp3) (http://www.brainwaveweb.com/diavlogs/)
March 18th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Thanks for those links Ken and sorry for the delay - they ended up being caught as spam. I’ll have to check those out. I’ve found that I’m at my limit as to how many podcasts I can listen to in a week and if I’m taken by any of your recommendations I’ll have to ditch some to make time/room.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:04 am
I know what you mean, Damian, as I have the same problem with this and reading. At least now that I’m retired I can make more room for the really interesting stuff.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Ken, I’ve been listening to many of the podcasts you listed and have been quite taken by the Science and the City one - in particular the recent episode entitled “The Neuroscience of Fair Play” by Donald Pfaff.
If you missed this one (and if you are someone else reading this who might be interested in neuroscience) then I definitely recommend it.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:20 am
As an update, I’ve recently discovered and have been enjoying the Philosophy Bites podcast. (RSS feed)