Point of Discovery

We’re celebrating the launch of “AI for the Rest of Us”, a podcast to help get you up to speed on the essentials of artificial intelligence. Every two weeks, we’ll sit down with UT faculty experts and get them talking, in simple terms, about how AI might transform healthcare, work, the ways we learn and how we make big decisions. Co-hosts are Marc Airhart, science writer and podcaster in the College of Natural Sciences and Casey Boyle, associate professor of rhetoric and director of UT’s Digital Writing & Research Lab. Listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, RSS, or anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also listen on the web at aifortherest.net. About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, Amazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

For a deeper dive into some of the issues raised in this episode, head over to this recently released video from the American Museum of Natural History’s Isaac Asimov Panel Debate, titled: “JWST’s Cosmic Revolution.” It features Mike Boylan-Kolchin, UT alum Neil DeGrasse Tyson and others. Research related to today’s debate: James Webb Space Telescope Images Challenge Theories of How Universe Evolved Cosmic Dawn: The JWST is Changing our Calculus of the Cosmos Hobby-Eberly Telescope Reveals Galaxy Gold Mine in First Large Survey Did the James Webb telescope ‘break the universe’? Maybe not Episode credits Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear Cover image: JWST’s image of spiral galaxy NGC 628, which is 32 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. The spiraling filamentary structure looks somewhat like a cross section of a nautilus shell. Read more. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team. About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, Amazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

Resources for watching the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse April 8 Total Solar Eclipse (McDonald Observatory) Interactive Solar Eclipse Map for April 8 Total Eclipse of the Horns (UT Austin) Totality (free, interactive phone app that tells you what the eclipse will be like for any location, which locations will experience totality and for exactly how long) How to View a Solar Eclipse Safely (American Astronomical Society) Solar Eclipse Across America (American Astronomical Society) Dig deeper into eclipse science Lunar and solar eclipses make animals do strange things Episode credits Select bird sounds from: Yasuni Soundscapes – Ecuador 2018, by Lang Elliott Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear Cover image: The Sun’s corona shining brightly during a total solar eclipse in 2009. This media was created by the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab). Credit: Miloslav Druckmüller, Peter Aniol, Vojtech Rušin, Ľubomír Klocok, Karel Martišek, Martin Dietzel. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, Amazon Podcasts, and more. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

Read a Q&A with Philip Souza See a map of the Mission-Aransas Estuary Learn more about the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

If you liked this episode, check out our earlier episode featuring Alex Huth talking about an earlier iteration of this research. Through the Good Systems initiative, The University of Texas at Austin is bringing together researchers from a broad range of disciplines to explore ways to ensure that artificial intelligence develops in a way that is beneficial, not detrimental, to humanity. Learn more about Good Systems here. Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

First images from the JWST: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages Caitlin Casey’s full interview with KUT’s Texas Standard: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/a-ut-researcher-is-behind-the-james-webb-telescopes-biggest-project-of-2022/ Read more about COSMOS-Web: https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.07865 Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

LeBrun studies invasive species at the University of Texas at Austin’s Brackenridge Field Laboratory. Watch a related video from UT News: Defending Texas from the Next Invasion Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear

In addition to original interviews, today’s episode features excerpts from three interviews: On the Shoulders of Giants: Steven Weinberg and the Quest to Explain the World (2021), World Science Festival Physicist Steven Weinberg on His Search for a "Final Theory" (1993), Fresh Air The Bill Moyers Interview: Steven Weinberg (1990), Bill Moyers Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear On Monday, March 21, UT Austin is hosting a memorial lecture in honor of Steven Weinberg, featuring his fellow Nobel Laureate, MIT’s Frank Wilczek. This event is free and open to the public, both in-person and virtually via Zoom. Find out more and register here. Donate to the Physics Theory Group, in memory of Steven Weinberg About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, Stitcher, Amazon Podcasts, or Google Podcasts. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

Donate to the Physics Theory Group, in memory of Steven Weinberg In addition to original interviews, today’s episode features excerpts from two videos: On the Shoulders of Giants: Steven Weinberg and the Quest to Explain the World (2021), World Science Festival Interview with Professor Steven Weinberg (2001), Nobel Prize Committee Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, Stitcher, Amazon Podcasts, or Google Podcasts. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

Donate to the Physics Theory Group, in memory of Steven Weinberg In addition to original interviews, today’s episode features excerpts from two videos: On the Shoulders of Giants: Steven Weinberg and the Quest to Explain the World (2021), World Science Festival Interview with Professor Steven Weinberg (2001), Nobel Prize Committee Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, Stitcher, Amazon Podcasts, or Google Podcasts. Questions or comments about this episode or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart.

Until COVID-19, few people alive today had experienced the chaos and destruction of a really bad pandemic, one that has at times ground businesses, schools and social lives to a near standstill and killed millions globally. But did you know that we aren’t alone in being battered by a global infectious disease? Frogs are also struggling through their own pandemic that, according to biologist Kelly Zamudio, has several eerie parallels with COVID-19. Perhaps our own encounters with a pandemic will give us new sympathy for our slimy, bug-eyed friends. A 2019 study in Science found that a chytrid fungus has contributed to declines in about 500 frog species around the world. Read more: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aav0379 Our theme music was composed by Charlie Harper - https://www.charlieharpermusic.com/ Other music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/ About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen to all our episodes at: https://point-of-discovery.simplecast.com/ Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

To hear the full TX512 show, go to the episode from July 21, 2021 titled “The Texas Podcast Network”     Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2LENTUXmG4TTNhbc5mSNu2     Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-texas-podcast-network/id1541588194?i=1000529545464     Google: https://txsci.net/tx512   Texas Podcast Network: https://www.utexas.edu/texas-podcast-network   Music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear -  https://www.podingtonbear.com/   About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen to all our episodes at: https://point-of-discovery.simplecast.com/ Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

Physical punishment, or spanking, is widely practiced in the U.S. and around the world, although it appears to be decreasing. Parents, caregivers and school administrators who use it say the goal is to prevent unwanted behaviors and teach children to make better choices. But does it actually work? And what long term effects does it have on the physical and mental health of people who are punished this way? In today’s special episode, we’re teaming up with Ike Evans, producer of the Into the Fold podcast, to jointly interview one of the world’s experts on physical punishment, Liz Gershoff. She’s a professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences and the director of the Population Research Center. She’s been studying the effects of physical discipline on children for two decades and advocating for an end to the practice. If you’re interested in digging deeper, check out Into the Fold Episode 22: Restorative Discipline in Schools: https://hogg.utexas.edu/into-the-fold-episode-22-restorative-discipline-in-schools Listen to other great episodes of Into the Fold here: https://soundcloud.com/hoggfoundation Music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/ About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

Physical punishment, or spanking, is widely practiced in the U.S. and around the world, although it appears to be decreasing. Parents, caregivers and school administrators who use it say the goal is to prevent unwanted behaviors and teach children to make better choices. But does it actually work? And what long term effects does it have on the physical and mental health of people who are punished this way? In today’s special episode, we’re teaming up with Ike Evans, producer of the Into the Fold podcast, to jointly interview one of the world’s experts on physical punishment, Liz Gershoff. She’s a professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences and the director of the Population Research Center. She’s been studying the effects of physical discipline on children for two decades and advocating for an end to the practice. If you’re interested in digging deeper, check out Into the Fold Episode 22: Restorative Discipline in Schools: https://hogg.utexas.edu/into-the-fold-episode-22-restorative-discipline-in-schools Listen to other great episodes of Into the Fold here: https://soundcloud.com/hoggfoundation Music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/ About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences and is a part of the Texas Podcast Network. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

When we get sick, we change our social interactions—we keep away from others and we don’t share food. It turns out, humans aren’t the only species to do it. According to a new review in the journal Science, when highly social animals — such as ants, mice and bats — get sick, their social interactions change, too. For example, sick vampire bats groom each other less, move less and call out less, and this may help reduce the spread of disease. It’s not active social distancing, but rather more like the way we humans are less active when we’re feeling lousy. Ants on the other hand are more proactive: when sick, they will actively self-isolate in a way that helps protect the rest of the colony. By studying how social behavior changes in various animals, scientists are hoping to better understand the effectiveness of different strategies humans use, like social distancing, to combat the spread of diseases like COVID-19. Today on the show we’ll meet Sebastian Stockmaier, a recently minted PhD scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, who has spent seven years studying vampire bats and how their social behaviors change when they feel sick. Watch a video of a vampire bat tricked into feeling sick: https://youtu.be/lCr52sn76Wg Watch a video of vampire bats “contact calling”: https://youtu.be/p9NcOGy8kJY A collection of vampire bat videos: https://socialbat.org/videos/ Read the new review paper in the journal Science, “Infectious diseases and social distancing in nature”: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6533/eabc8881 Music for today’s show was produced by: • Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/ Photo credit: Josh Moore, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

When we get sick, we change our social interactions—we keep away from others and we don’t share food. It turns out, humans aren’t the only species to do it. According to a new review in the journal Science, when highly social animals — such as ants, mice and bats — get sick, their social interactions change, too. For example, sick vampire bats groom each other less, move less and call out less, and this may help reduce the spread of disease. It’s not active social distancing, but rather more like the way we humans are less active when we’re feeling lousy. Ants on the other hand are more proactive: when sick, they will actively self-isolate in a way that helps protect the rest of the colony. By studying how social behavior changes in various animals, scientists are hoping to better understand the effectiveness of different strategies humans use, like social distancing, to combat the spread of diseases like COVID-19. Today on the show we’ll meet Sebastian Stockmaier, a recently minted PhD scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, who has spent seven years studying vampire bats and how their social behaviors change when they feel sick. Watch a video of a vampire bat tricked into feeling sick: https://youtu.be/lCr52sn76Wg Watch a video of vampire bats “contact calling”: https://youtu.be/p9NcOGy8kJY A collection of vampire bat videos: https://socialbat.org/videos/ Read the new review paper in the journal Science, “Infectious diseases and social distancing in nature”: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6533/eabc8881 Music for today’s show was produced by: • Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/ Photo credit: Josh Moore, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Evolutionary biologists never have enough time. Some of the most mysterious behaviors in the animal kingdom—like parenting—evolved over thousands of years, if not longer. Human lifespans are just too short to sit and observe such complex behaviors evolve. But computer scientists are beginning to offer clues by using artificial intelligence to simulate the life and death of thousands of generations of animals in a matter of hours or days. It’s called computational evolution. One behavior that’s long baffled biologists is called mobbing, in which a gang of hyenas team up to steal prey from much more powerful lions. When UT Austin computer scientists Risto Miikkulainen and Padmini Rajagopalan simulated hyenas and lions on a virtual African savannah, they found something surprising. Watch a video of real-life hyenas mobbing (courtesy of Michigan State U.): https://youtu.be/Rs7AXFa4sN0 Read more: Evolution of Complex Coordinated Behavior (July 2020) https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/ai-lab/downloadPublication.php?filename=http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/downloads/papers/rajagopalan.cec2020.pdf&pubid=127822 Music for today’s show was produced by: • Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/ • Pogmothoin (a.k.a. Tom Griffin) - https://freesound.org/people/pogmothoin/ About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

Evolutionary biologists never have enough time. Some of the most mysterious behaviors in the animal kingdom—like parenting—evolved over thousands of years, if not longer. Human lifespans are just too short to sit and observe such complex behaviors evolve. But computer scientists are beginning to offer clues by using artificial intelligence to simulate the life and death of thousands of generations of animals in a matter of hours or days. It’s called computational evolution. One behavior that’s long baffled biologists is called mobbing, in which a gang of hyenas team up to steal prey from much more powerful lions. When UT Austin computer scientists Risto Miikkulainen and Padmini Rajagopalan simulated hyenas and lions on a virtual African savannah, they found something surprising. Watch a video of real-life hyenas mobbing (courtesy of Michigan State U.): https://youtu.be/Rs7AXFa4sN0 Read more: Evolution of Complex Coordinated Behavior (July 2020) https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/ai-lab/downloadPublication.php?filename=http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/downloads/papers/rajagopalan.cec2020.pdf&pubid=127822 Music for today’s show was produced by: • Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/ • Pogmothoin (a.k.a. Tom Griffin) - https://freesound.org/people/pogmothoin/ Photo credit: Stephanie Dloniak. About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

We asked you, dear listeners, to send us your most burning questions about COVID-19. And you didn’t disappoint. You asked: When will it be safe for my 12-week-old baby to meet her grandparents? Can you catch it twice? Is the virus mutating and will that make it harder to develop vaccines? In today’s episode, our three experts get to the bottom of these questions, and more. Meet our experts: Professor Lauren Ancel Meyers is an epidemiologist and leader of the UT COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. Her team recently found that the virus was circulating in China and in Seattle, Washington weeks earlier than previously thought. (Read more: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/early-spread-of-covid-19-appears-far-greater-than-initially-reported ) Greg Ippolito is a research assistant professor of molecular biosciences and an expert on how our immune systems respond to pathogens. He is working with doctors at Houston Methodist Hospital to test the efficacy of a potential COVID-19 treatment called convalescent plasma therapy. (Read more: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/covid-19-convalescent-plasma-therapy-is-safe-with-76-of-patients-improving ) Jason McLellan is an associate professor of molecular biosciences whose team created a critical component in several COVID-19 vaccines currently in clinical trials. (Read more: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/covid-19-vaccine-with-ut-ties-arrived-quickly-after-years-in-the-making ) He and his team is also developing a therapy for COVID-19 based on special antibodies from llamas. (Read more: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/antibodies-from-llamas-could-help-in-fight-against-covid-19 ) Music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/ About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu

We asked you, dear listeners, to send us your most burning questions about COVID-19. And you didn’t disappoint. You asked: When will it be safe for my 12-week-old baby to meet her grandparents? Can you catch it twice? Is the virus mutating and will that make it harder to develop vaccines? In today’s episode, our three experts get to the bottom of these questions, and more. Meet our experts: Professor Lauren Ancel Meyers is an epidemiologist and leader of the UT COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. Her team recently found that the virus was circulating in China and in Seattle, Washington weeks earlier than previously thought. (Read more: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/early-spread-of-covid-19-appears-far-greater-than-initially-reported ) Greg Ippolito is a research assistant professor of molecular biosciences and an expert on how our immune systems respond to pathogens. He is working with doctors at Houston Methodist Hospital to test the efficacy of a potential COVID-19 treatment called convalescent plasma therapy. (Read more: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/covid-19-convalescent-plasma-therapy-is-safe-with-76-of-patients-improving ) Jason McLellan is an associate professor of molecular biosciences whose team created a critical component in several COVID-19 vaccines currently in clinical trials. (Read more: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/covid-19-vaccine-with-ut-ties-arrived-quickly-after-years-in-the-making ) He and his team is also developing a therapy for COVID-19 based on special antibodies from llamas. (Read more: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/antibodies-from-llamas-could-help-in-fight-against-covid-19 ) Music for today’s show was produced by: Podington Bear - https://www.podingtonbear.com/ About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu