by Dylan Evans

Personally I have very little interest in the paranormal or parapsychology, but I have to commend Alex Tsakiris of the Skeptiko podcast for presenting interviews from both sides of the debate. Alex clearly does believe that parapsychology is a valid science, but his podcast is surprisingly balanced. I think it is very valuable to listen to what those with different viewpoints have to say, and there are a surprising number of scientists devoted to trying to find replicable data in the field.

In this week's episode we explore the recent research that has established, contrary to long-standing dogma, that our brains our able to change throughout our lives, based on our experience.

Futures in Biotech

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Quantum mechanics can't explain consciousness and I am going to explore why.

The reason I bring this up is that many people seem to be worried that the mounting evidence that the brain generates the mind implies that free will can not exist. Of course, most of us feel strongly that we do have free will. Various arguments are put forth to "save" free will. (I am not going to tackle the claim that it needs saving in this post.) One recent approach has been to use the uncertainty inherent in quantum mechanics as a potential location for free will. John Searle has observed that this only gives us randomness, not free will, but that doesn't seem to reduce the appeal of such an approach.

On the latest episode of my podcast, Books and Ideas , I talk with Lee M Silver about his recent book,Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life. We discuss the confrontation of Faith and Biotechnology. His book is an in depth anaylsis of some of the key issues such as embryonic stem cell research and genetic engineering (including the genetic modification of crops). He also observes that faith in "Mother Earth" underlies those who tout organic farming and "natural" medicine over the use of biotechnology.

I recently posted a list of some of my favorite science podcasts. Today I want to mention a few recent episodes that I think are worth listening to.

Ever since the logical positivists in the early 20th century, there has been a debate over whether science has made metaphysics obsolete. Is science all we need to describe and understand the ultimate meaning of reality? Even those who consider themselves philosophers of science can't agree on the answer to this question.

Based on the comments to me first post I realized that many of you may be unfamilar with podcasting. First of all, you don't need an iPod™ or even an mp3 player. Podcasts are basically audio or video recordings that are placed on the internet so that others can listen to them later. Most podcasters try to put out their shows on a regular basis and their listeners can subscribe via RSS feeds, so that they get each episode when it is available. So podcasting is based on the same RSS feed system that makes monitoring multiple blogs easy. In fact, if you are using a RSS aggregator to read this blog, you can also use it to get most podcasts.

I discovered the Scientific Blogging site while preparing the next episode of my Books and Ideas Podcast , which is going to be a discussion of Dr. Lee M. Silver 's excellent book Challenging Nature . Therefore, I must admit that I am more of a podcaster than blogger. However, my primary goal is similar to most science bloggers in that I want to promote an understanding of science and the scientific method among general audiences.