University of Michigan Museum of Natural History Podcast

What is machine learning? Is it the same as artificial intelligence? Please join Raed Al Kontar of the U-M Department of Industrial & Operations Engineering to discuss how machine learning algorit...

Coffee production has a history as a colonial crop, destructive to the environment. Can coffee support biodiversity and local farms? What if we teach farmers how to grow coffee sustainably? What if do...

High-resolution 3D scans, prints, and renderings are changing the way scientists work! Please join Adam Rountrey of the U-M Museum of Paleontology and Nic Terrenato of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology...

Pollinators play a vital role in our food systems and are crucial to preserving the areas across the world being threatened by climate change and industrialization, but it takes more than just plantin...

How does ocean biodiversity change over deep time? Join Matt Friedman, director of the U-M Museum of Paleontology, and Hernán López-Fernández, chair for collections and curator of fishes in the U-M Mu...

Great Lakes fisheries are managed intensively to reduce nutrients from fertilizer runoff and to increase game fish populations such as trout and salmon. When you add invasive species such as non-nativ...

If you stretched the DNA in one human cell all the way out, it would be about two meters long. How does all that DNA fit into one tiny cell? How does the way it is packaged matter for human health? Jo...

Hidden in the feathers of museum specimens of birds is information on the air quality of past decades - very detailed information. These specimens also contain evidence of the impacts of recent climat...

Microbes in the water take carbon from the atmosphere, break down plastics, and even cause and prevent toxic algae blooms. Join Dr. Melissa Duhaime of the U-M's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary ...

A discussion of the history and social psychology of nationalist and fascist politics and what light this scholarship may or may not shed on current events.  Joshua Rabinowitz, lecturer, U-M Psycholog...

New technology makes gene editing easier. Its use is being explored to correct diseases caused by genetic mutations, to fight cancer, and even to learn about human evolutionary adaptations, and its po...

Human beings have changed Earth so extensively that geologists now propose renaming our current epoch as the Anthropocene—the era defined by people. Human influences are apparent in the shape of lands...

What are the stories of contemporary Latin American migration, and how do we uncover them? What can these stories tell us about borders, their impact, and the struggles of many families to find a new ...

Basic science research seeks to improve our understanding of the world, without any direct, obvious application. Much of it is funded by government grants, including those from the National Science Fo...

A discussion on the biological effects of past nutrition, stress, and toxicant exposures on our health and well-being. Are these changes heritable? Can diet and exercise protect our DNA? Kelly Bakulsk...

A discussion on how the Earth's climate has changed many times, and the mechanisms of these changes may shed light on what we can expect in the future.   Chris Poulsen, Professor and Chair of Earth an...

In 2012, physicists at large particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) found evidence of the Higgs boson, long predicted by the Standard Model in physics. But since then, they have...

You've probably heard of the harmful "algal" blooms in Lake Erie. These are caused by cyanobacteria (the organisms formerly known as blue-green algae), which grow in nutrient-rich water, often overpop...