Dec 21: Our annual holiday book show
Treasures in the ice, the science of suggestibility, what alien life will look like, and more
It's our Holiday book show! With host Bob McDonald:
As Earth's glaciers and ice sheets melt due to global warming, they are revealing rare archaeological treasures released from a frozen time capsule. These objects are often made of organic material – human and animal remains and wooden tools that only survive in ice. In her book, The Age of Melt: What Glaciers, Ice Mummies, and Ancient Artifacts Teach Us about Climate, Culture, and a Future without Ice, science communicator Lisa Baril tells the story of the archaeologists searching for these valuable artifacts, and what they're finding. Baril is an ecologist based out of Yellowstone National Park.
Read more: The planet's melting glaciers are releasing a treasure trove of ancient artifacts
As a teenager, Amir Raz began to perform as an amateur magician and mentalist, and learned the power of stage hypnosis. It ultimately led him to a career as a neuroscientist studying the science of psychological suggestibility, and how powerful the power of suggestion can be. He explores this science in his new book The Suggestible Brain: The Science and Magic of How We Make Up Our Minds. Raz taught and practiced for many years at McGill University and is the Founding Director of the Brain Institute at Chapman University in Orange, California.
If we want to detect biosignatures of life elsewhere in the universe, a new theory suggests we can distinguish between living and non-living sources by analyzing its chemical complexity. Arizona State University physicist, astrobiologist, and new author, Sara Walker, argues that "Assembly Theory" can not only help us recognize alien life — even if the chemistry on that world is very different — but it may also help us better understand how life emerged on this planet. Her new book about this is Life As No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence.
Dan Falk, science writer and co-host of the Booklab podcast reviews:
The Language Puzzle: How We Talked Our Way Out of the Stone Age by Steven Mithen
Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death by Susana Monsó
The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser and Evan Thompson