Science & the City delivers a podcast featuring interviews, conversations, and lectures by noted scientists and authors including:
Biodiversity and the Evolutionary Roots of Beauty
Gordon Orians
Ecologist Gordon Orians discusses how our aesthetic responses to our environment are rooted in evolutionary history, and considers why cultures have been so captivated by the unusual and rare in nature, in his talk at the American Museum of Natural History.
Where Ecology Meets Art AMNH’s Art/Science Collision
Environmental artist Brandon Ballengée spoke at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City about the historical relationship between art and science, and discussed his projects including one that documents aquatic organisms found at local seafood markets and a webcast of a laboratory experiment. This is an enhanced podcast.
How to Be Happy A geneticist-turned-monk takes a scientific approach to a spiritual life
Matthieu Ricard was a geneticist at Institut Pasteur before becoming a Buddhist monk. He spoke at the New York State Psychiatric Institute about his new book, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, and about research published in PNAS in 2004 suggesting that meditation can induce long-term neural changes.
