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Asimov Press

Asimov Press

Audio recordings of Asimov Press essays and science fiction, focused on the science and technologies that promote a flourishing future.

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  • 20 episodes
  • Avg 23 min
  • English
  • March 23 · 26 min

    Designing AI for Disruptive Science

    Why scaling AI won’t automatically lead to paradigm shifts. By Alvin Djajadikerta. Read all our work at press.asimov.com.

  • March 20 · 22 min

    Culture Shift

    We tend to think of fermented foods as something humans invented and then chose to eat. But the evidence shows the opposite: fermented foods shaped human biology. By Rachel Dutton. Read all our work at press.asimov.com.

  • March 18 · 19 min

    Why Lab Coats are White

    How a blood-stained surgeon's frock evolved into a pristine symbol of modern science. By Donna Vatnick Read all our work at press.asimov.com.

  • March 16 · 22 min

    The Quest for Oral GLP-1s

    In a recent survey, three-in-four respondents said they would prefer a once‑daily oral pill over a weekly injection of GLP-1s. So why aren't there more oral options? By David S. Kim Read all our work, for free, at press.asimov.com.

  • March 13 · 27 min

    How Φ80 Infiltrates Research Labs

    While some bacteriophages play vital roles in laboratory research, others are bent on sabotage. By Antoine Vigouroux. Read all our work, for free, at press.asimov.com.

  • March 9 · 27 min

    Why Are Viral Capsids Icosahedral?

    Viral capsid structure is a geometric packing problem under genetic constraints. By Ulkar Aghayeva Read all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

  • March 6 · 38 min

    Dead Reckoning

    Bioarchaeologists recently identified a murdered medieval royal. Now, they are trying to shed light on other ancient deaths. By David Brzostowicki Read all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

  • March 4 · 20 min

    Working in Glass

    How a twisted triangle of glass tubing helped democratize chemistry and build the modern laboratory. By Spencer Wright. Read all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

  • March 2 · 13 min

    The Legibility Problem

    What happens in a world where AIs make scientific discoveries that humans cannot understand? By Matthew Carter Read all our work at press.asimov.com.

  • February 22 · 20 min

    The Origins of Agar

    First introduced into laboratories in 1881, agar remains indispensable as a culture medium. By Corrado Nai. Read all our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

  • February 19 · 10 min

    Baseline Drift

    [Fiction] A eulogy to the reference human. By Eliomer H. Kaas. Read all our work, for free, at press.asimov.com.

  • February 16 · 33 min

    Scent, In Silico

    Once a primal instinct, olfaction is now being mapped, measured, and modeled by machines. By Taylor Rayne. Read all our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

  • February 12 · 9 min

    Making the Vortex Mixer

    The forgotten story of an invention found in every biology lab. By Ella Watkins-Dulaney. Read all our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

  • February 8 · 20 min

    A Brief History of Xenopus

    From early experiments on fertility and embryonic development to becoming the first cloned eukaryote from an adult cell, Xenopus frogs have had an outsized influence on the life sciences. By Matt Lubin. Read all articles, for free, by visiting press.asimov.com.

  • February 1 · 39 min

    What It's Like To Be A Worm

    Finding evidence of “sentience” is fraught, whether in a comatose patient, an animal, or a neural net. By Ralph Stefan Weir. Read all our articles for free at press.asimov.com.

  • January 26 · 33 min

    Building Brains on a Computer

    A roadmap for brain emulation models at the human scale. By Max Schons. Read all our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

  • January 18 · 36 min

    Mystery of the Head Activator

    A biological puzzle that made one researcher and ruined another might never be solved. By Brady Huggett. Read all of our articles, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

  • January 15 · 16 min

    Solving the Electroporation Bottleneck

    Cultivarium, a focused research organization, has built a custom electroporator to engineer non-model organisms at scale. By Niko McCarty. Read all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

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