About the Show
Perpetual Notion Machine is a look at contemporary scientific issues and discoveries in a way that is accessible, understandable and entertaining to the non-scientists of the listening community.
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In Wisconsin’s earliest days as a state, a vision to awaken a scientific spirit and foster creative activity was formalized in the year 1870 when The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters was chartered by the state legislature. Over a century and a half later, the Wisconsin Academy continues to bring art and science […] […]
On tonight’s episode of Perpetual Notion Machine host Emily Morris speaks with Antarctic explorer and creative director Ariel Waldman (arielwaldman.com). She is a National Geographic Explorer who created the project Life Under the Ice (lifeundertheice.org), an interactive online portal where you can zoom in on the extremophiles that live under the ice in Antarctica; author […] […]
Pleasant to nose and soothing to the mind, some scents evoke calmness and peace. Others remind us of the holidays – the smell of pumpkin pie in the fall, sticky cinnamion in the summer. Or, the smell of your favorite perfume/cologne. Yet, these scents aren’t just for us; specific scents evoke defense mechanisms for plants/trees. […] […]
It is 8am,on a wintry Monday. You have your coffee cup in hand as you rush towards the bus stop. It is the middle of winter, so the buses are taking longer than usual. Checking your phone, you learn that the blizzard has caused an accident on the main highway. Alternate routes on your map […] […]
The lifecycle of monarch butterflies is one of the most remarkable of any migrating species. As familiar as these beautiful insects are, last month monarchs were listed as endangered species. In this edition of the Perpetual Notion Machine, host Patrick Sajbel welcomes Dr. Karen Oberhauser to explain what is happening in the monarch population and what […] […]
This week on PNM, Emily and Serena embark on an experimental episode of PNM science news chat, where we round up some intriguing science news from around the world and in our neighborhood, offer up some PSAs and other announcements, and send you off to some area events. On bees and other fish: Classification for […] […]
India, the world’s largest democracy, will begin a ban on single-use plastics next week on July 1, 2022. What drove this change? How will people change their behaviors and how will suppliers adjust to the needs of 1.4 billion Indians? And what can we Americans as the world’s second largest democracy learn from India’s journey? […] […]
Hello Wisconsin it is 7:01pm you are listening to the Perpetual Notion Machine on WORT 89.9 FM Madison. I’m your host Emily Morris. On tonight’s episode of PNM I’m taking a little science host liberty and declaring that we have a math show. This is because I was recently reading a novel set in Madison […] […]
“What is morality?” might be the biggest unanswered question facing humanity, other than what caused the Big Bang to form the universe. You might think the answer is simple: what is right versus what is wrong. But morality is more than that. It varies significantly across generations, societies, cultures, and individuals. Could a moral or […] […]
The bride walks down the aisle with the Canon in D, softly echoing her steps. The almost crescendo as Queen sings “Galileo” in Bohemian Rhapsody. The animated crescondos and vistas of Fantasia. What do Canon in D, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Fantasia have in common? Classical music – musicians and composers! Today, we explore classical music, […] […]
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