Down To Earth: A podcast for Geoscientists by Geoscientist
Welcome to “Down to Earth”, a 30-minute podcast about innovative geoscience and the incredible people behind it. Each week, we host a different guest to talk about science, careers, and passions. From stories about meeting their idols, to investigating their science superpowers, and all the fascinating research and engineering projects in between, Down to Earth is sure to become your quick and compelling catch-up on the people and the work in geoscience. This podcast is presented by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society.
Episodes
Part of the thinking behind the open science movement is that, if science is open, more people will trust the scientific process. But, as previous guests have pointed out, opening up science requires more than just the act of making it open. It also requires letting people know the science is out there, and ensuring it is findable, accessible, and reproducible! In today's episode, we speak with Professor Christopher Jackson, Direct...
There’s a technological revolution happening right now that is having a massive impact on our interactions with each other, and the world around us. That revolution? Artificial Intelligence. Touted as a tool that will enable the average individual to generate groundbreaking developments for the betterment of humanity, AI is being seen as a panacea for many of our challenges in healthcare, education, agriculture, and transport. But ...
It’s all well and good to have open source software, but if end-users have no clue how to operate it, open data becomes useless. That’s why Open Education is another important component of open science. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Leah Wasser, Executive Director of pyOpenSci, who developed a publicly accessible curriculum to teach python and R to anyone who wants to learn!
How can we ensure open source is open to everyone? In this episode we speak to Demetris Cheatham, Senior Director of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at GitHub, about how she’s building “open opportunities” and equity into a diversity, inclusion, and belonging strategy to ensure GitHub’s infrastructure is just.
Open science and open data easily go hand-in-hand, but one area of open science that’s often forgotten is open source. What is open source and how does it allow us to actually use open data? In this episode, we speak to Yuvi Panda, Co-Founder of 2i2C – a nonprofit devoted to developing, operating, and supporting infrastructure for interactive computing – about how we can make tools work for the open science movement.
Every day 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is being created. This is an unfathomable number, but the reality is, we are constantly generating data with every app we use on or phone, every purchase we make, even every time we see a doctor. As the creators of data, what rights do we have to governing it? And with the push to make data more open, how we can ensure our science continues to uphold the values of ethics, justice, and equity?...
Data is EVERYWHERE. In fact, there’s so much of it, we now have the term “Big Data” to describe the increased volume and velocity at which we’re accruing data. With such a large quantity and assortment of data available, it begs the question: How the heck are we going to organize it and make it open? In this episode, we bring this question to two open data experts: Dr. Monica Granados, Open Climate Campaign Manager at Creative Comm...
Climate change. Poverty. Inequality. Violence. These days, we are facing an unprecedented number of global challenges that require collaboration across countries to resolve. That’s why some scientists in particular are pushing for a move towards open science – namely, science that is more transparent, accessible and inclusive. But what exactly is open science, and what does it entail? In this episode, we speak with Yo Yehudi, Execu...
Open science! It's a thing!
Welcome back to “Down to Earth”, a 30-minute podcast about innovative geoscience and the incredible people behind it.
For season 4, we’re collaborating with NASA and the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society to dig deep into this fascinating frontier.
Whether you're an active researcher or you just love science, join me, Stephanie Tumampos, and our guests as we explor...
As we continue to face unprecedented climate challenges that disrupt our ways of living, organizations like Space4Innovation and GEO Indigenous Alliance are turning to citizen science to design innovative climate change solutions that are culturally relevant. In this episode, we speak to Diana Mastracci Sanchez, founder of Space4Innovation and International Strategic Liaison of the GEO Indigenous Alliance, about her...
While scientists are building new remote sensing networks in Costa Rica, others are merging networks to build capacity across Africa. Through her work as the Co-Founder of African Women in GIS, Geospatial Analyst Chidimma Umeogu Maduka is supporting other women in pursuing geoscience. At the same time, she’s also applying her geospatial knowledge to tackle the socio-economic barriers Nigerians are facing on the clim...
With fires raging, permafrost thawing, urbanization increasing air pollution, and more, staying positive about the future of our planet can be challenging. But as the scientists in our previous episodes have demonstrated, there’s still hope yet. And in Costa Rica, a small country with a big dream of becoming the first carbon neutral country in the world, two researchers are pooling their collective knowledge and exp...
Similar to Arizona, Australia is no stranger to a hot, dry climate–one that sets a yearly stage for bushfire season. In 2019, Australia experienced one of its worst bushfire seasons to date, with fires consuming swaths of land, causing significant wildlife death, and even burning some of Australia’s remaining rainforest. That same year, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the Amazon rainforest experienced a long...
While arctic thaw is leading to soggier conditions up north, places like Arizona, USA are experiencing higher rates of drought. Due to a combination of human extractive activities alongside climate change, the Navajo Nation in particular has faced an increasing shortage of freshwater. In this episode, we speak with Ph.D student Nikki Tulley, also a member of the Navajo Nation, about her work using satellite data to ...
While human-produced emissions may have decreased during COVID, the levels of methane and carbon dioxide released by permafrost thaw in the Arctic continues unabated. But thawing permafrost doesn’t just impact our atmosphere. It also destabilizes the ground, causing real problems for the 30million+ people living in the permafrost zone. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Annett Bartsch, Founder and Managing Director ...
A major contributor to climate change that often increases with urbanization is air pollution. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution kills around seven million people every year. For us humans, it presents one of the most pressing public health problems in the world, and yet is one of the most neglected. Thankfully, the COVID-19 lockdowns helped spotlight this growing challenge by giving scientis...
By 2050, approximately 3 billion of the world’s population will live in cities, making urbanization – the population shift from rural to urban areas – the second-largest megatrend impacting life on our planet. What role does urbanization play in advancing climate change, and how does understanding urbanization trends help us mitigate climate change? In this episode, we speak to Dr. Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen, Postdoctoral ...
Welcome back to “Down to Earth”, a 30-minute podcast about innovative geoscience and the incredible people behind it. In Season 3, we take a deep dive into the ways in which scientists across the globe are helping us understand and address climate change. In the process, we dig into inspirations that sparked their novel scientific approaches, and the ways in which their personal experiences led them to their current...
A key component of the scientific method is replicability. But how do scientists replicate research findings unless they have access to the data, methods, and systems used to generate the initial results? Enter, the Open Science Movement -- a push to make science more accessible, not just to other researchers, but to the general public as well. In this Episode, we speak to Dr. Kevin Murphy, Chief Science Data Officer of NASA's Scie...
NewSpace is a term that has received a lot of attention recently, particularly with the launch of missions such as SpaceX. However, the term actually represents a movement that is less about billionaires and more about innovations to make space a more accessible frontier. In this episode, we speak with Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and Co-Founder of the microsatellite company, ICEYE, to demystify NewSpace and learn how companies like his a...
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