Building big dream machines, and self-organizing landscapes

Builders of the largest scientific instruments, and how cracks can add resilience to an ecosystem   First up this week, a story on a builder of the biggest machines. Producer Kevin McLean talks with Staff Writer Adrian Cho about Adrian’s dad and his other baby: an x-ray synchrotron.   Next up on this episode, a look at self-organizing landscapes. Host Sarah Crespi and Chi Xu, a professor of ecology at Nanjing University, talk about a Science Advances paper on how resilience in an ecosystem can come from the interaction of a plant and cracks in the soil.   Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Jackie Oberst, assistant editor for custom publishing, discusses challenges early-career researchers face and how targeted funding for this group can enable their future success. She talks with Gary Michelson, founder and co-chair of Michelson Philanthropies and Aleksandar Obradovic, this year’s grand prize winner of the annual Michelson Philanthropies and Science Prize for Immunology.   This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   [Image: Hong’an Ding/Yellow River Estuary Association of Photographers; Music: Jeffrey Cook]   [alt: red beach from above with podcast overlay]   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kevin McLean; Adrian Cho   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/science.adi5718  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices