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Glenn Zorpette, executive editor of IEEE Spectrum magazine, and journalist John Horgan discuss various ideas related to what some call "the coming singularity," a point where computers will allegedly attain consciousness and superintelligence. Or not. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites mentioned on this episode include www.spectrum.ieee.org/singularity<

M. Night Shyamalan's new film, The Happening, involves an environmental backlash, the limits of reason and the beauty of math. SciAm editor George Musser discusses the film with the director. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites mentioned on this episode include www.sciam.com/daily<

James Randi, famous debunker of frauds, talks about the "Amaz!ng Meeting" coming up in Las Vegas, and SciAm editor Mark Alpert discusses his new physics novel, Final Theory. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites mentioned on this episode include www.sciam.com/daily, , www.badscience.net, , www.randi.org, , www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4vgsZmleoE<

The Wildlife Conservation Society's George Schaller talks about his new book, "A Naturalist and Other Beasts," which covers his 50 years of documenting important large animal species in the field. And Scientific American editor in chief, John Rennie, offers a look at some articles in the June issue. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites mentioned on this episode include www.SciAm.com/daily, , www.wcs.org<

Kate Wong brings us up to date on the ongoing research into fossils of the tiny human, called the hobbit, found on the island of Flores. And Ivan Oransky reports from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Plus Nobel Laureate Gerald Edelman illustrates problems with reductionism and refrigerators. And we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.sciam.com/daily, , www.nybg.org/darwin/symposium.php, , www.intel.com/education/ISEF<

David Biello reports from China on the aftermath of the major earthquake that struck this week. Mark Alpert talks about the portrayal of scientists in fiction. And new online managing editor Ivan Oransky discusses what's up on the Web site. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites mentioned on this episode include www.sciam.com/daily, , www.snipurl.com/madsci, , www.snipurl.com/hotpepper<

David Kohn, curator of the Darwin's Garden exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden, discusses Darwin's botanical studies. And Harvard Medical School's Jack Szostak talks about research into the origins of life. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.nybg.org/darwin; ; www.hhmi.org; ; www.sciam.com/daily<

Plasma plays a big role from the ionosphere to black holes. Stanford physicist Roger Blandford explains plasma and its connection to black holes in a conversation with Scientific American's JR Minkel. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites mentioned on this episode include www.snipurl.com/26dun-sciam1; ; www.snipurl.com/26dv2-sciam2; ; www.nybg.org/darwin<

The banana is the world's most important fruit. But it's under threat from a disease spreading around the world. We'll hear from Dan Koeppel, author of the book Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. And we'll visit a Guatemala banana plantation with guide Julio Cordova. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.bananabook.org<

Physicist John Wheeler and geneticist Salome Waelsch both had incredibly long and fruitful careers, providing numerous fundamental insights in their respective fields. We'll hear from Kenneth Ford, former director of the American Institute of Physics, about Wheeler, who died April 13th at 96. And Princeton's Lee Silver talks about Waelsch, who died last fall at 100 and who was memorialized on April 14th at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.ianford.com/kenford<

A new movie, Expelled, claims that intelligent design is good science that is being censored by adherents to evolution, which is nothing but Darwinian dogma. Scientific American's editor-in-chief, John Rennie, and podcast host Steve Mirsky discuss the movie. And Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, talks about being interviewed for the film as well as her organization's efforts to provide correct information about the claims in Expelled. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. For more of SciAm's coverage of Expelled visit www.sciam.co<

Francesca Grifo from the Union of Concerned Scientists talks about the need for legislation to protect federal scientists. We'll also hear from the UCS's Kurt Gottfried and Anthony Robbins, who spoke at a press conference in Boston in February. And Scientific American's editor-in-chief, John Rennie, previews the April issue of the magazine. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.ucsusa.org<

Dan Gordon, editor of the new book "Your Brain On Cubs" from the Dana Foundation, talks about the neuroscience of baseball players and their fans. And statistician Shane Jensen of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School discusses attempts to get a statistical handle on defense in baseball. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.dana.org, , www.snakejazz.com<

Ornithologist and conservation biologist Jeffrey Wells talks about birds and their roles as markers for environmental health. He also discusses the Boreal Forest, the Boreal Birdsong Initiative, the eBird research project (that you can assist) and his new book, The Birder's Conservation Handbook. We also have a brief tribute to the late Arthur C. Clarke. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.ebird.org; ; www.borealbirds.org<

Argonne National Laboratory director Robert Rosner talks about the role of science in keeping America an economic leader. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.anl.gov<

We look at the state of the rovers currently on Mars, the big accidental discovery by the Spirit rover, and the next-generation device slated to join them in 2010, the Mars Science Laboratory Rover. Interviews with Cornell's Melissa Rice, the payload downlink lead for the rover cameras, and the Jet Propulsion Lab's Michelle Viotti, about the Mars Science Laboratory Rover. Also press conference clips featuring Cornell's Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the science instruments on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, and Harvard's Andrew Knoll, a biologist with the Mars missions. Plus we'

Spider expert Greta Binford, from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and her student MG Weber talk about the fascinating world of spiders. And economist Samuel Bowles, from the Santa Fe Institute, discusses the co-evolution of war and altruism. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites mentioned on this episode include www.santafe.edu/~ ~bowles

In this episode, we'll hear about the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which took place last week in Boston. Nobel Laureate and AAAS President David Baltimore talks about the ongoing challenges of HIV vaccine research; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Charles Elachi discusses the lab's next batch of missions; and Scientific American editor Mark Fischetti summarizes a few sessions he went to covering the environment. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include www.jpl.nasa<

In this episode, Albert Einstein College of Medicine public health researcher Paul Marantz questions whether dietary guidelines are counterproductive and talks about the philosophy of recommendations based on population studies. We'll hear a Valentine's Day poem. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include sciammind.com, sciamdigital.com, snipurl.com/sing-sciam, snipurl.com/paul-sciam, snipurl.com/paul2-sciam, snipurl.com/paul3-sciam.

In this episode, University of California, Berkeley, linguist Alice Gaby talks about the relationships among language, culture, cognition and perception. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include geekcruises.com

In this episode, University of Cincinnati researchers Lawrence Mazlack and Julia Taylor discuss their efforts to improve human-computer communications by teaching computers about contextual humor. And Carl Raggio, formerly of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, talks about the efforts to launch Explorer 1, the first US satellite, which went into orbit on January 31st, 1958, exactly 50 years ago this week. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news.

In this episode, Scientific American editor George Musser talks with Caltech Astronomer Josh Simon about dark matter, and about the efforts to try to locate the so-called missing satellites of the Milky Way--small galaxies that have yet to be found in the numbers that the cold dark matter theory predicts. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include: tinyurl.com/27g9op; www.astro.caltech.edu/~ ~jsimon

In this episode, Scientific American editor Christine Soares talks with Duke University neuroengineer Miguel Nicolelis about his groundbreaking work in controlling robot movement using only thoughts, as well as efforts to create science cities in Brazil and national development through education, especially in science and technology. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include: www.weforum.org<

In this episode, journalist and author Seth Shulman talks about his new book, The Telephone Gambit, in which he produces compelling evidence that Alexander Graham Bell plagiarized a key element of the telephone. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned on this episode include: sethshulman.com