As a Black female professor, Chanda Prescod Weinstein is a rarity in her field. And she relishes the fact that everything that we see and experience in our lives – including the stars in the sky – are themselves rarities in the cosmos. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Husband and wife Eiman Azim and Sharona Ben-Haim believe we should be very proud of ourselves for doing things like buttoning a button or typing on a keyboard – because they require astonishingly complex fine motor control. Eiman is studying the neural control of those skills, while Sharona is in the operating room trying to restore them in conditions like Parkinson’s disease. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Right before Alan got his second shot of the Moderna vaccine, he talked with Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, who led the science team at the NIH that helped developed it. Their version of the notorious spike protein gives us, as Dr. Corbett puts it, “the best immunity you can have.” Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Omar Abudayyeh and Jonathan Gootenberg are young researchers who were smart enough, persistent enough and lucky enough to find themselves – while still in their early 20s – in the lab of one of the pioneers of CRISPR. They are now pioneers of their own, inventing SHERLOCK, a simple, rapid and accurate test for the coronavirus. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A look ahead at the people we have in the new seasons of both C+V and SC+V, starting next week. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Drake, newly installed as the president of the University of California, talks about the challenges in the age of Covid of running an institution of 10 campuses and some half-million students and staff. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, now an MIT professor, Simon Johnson urges increased investment in basic research as a way “to convert knowledge into jobs into a way to share prosperity.” And he argues that this increased investment should be focused on the middle of the country, “in places where it makes sense to build a lab and build a cluster of expertise.” Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rebecca Blank argues that public universities like hers not only produce over two-thirds of the PhDs that come out of the top schools, but crucially include students from more diverse backgrounds. In her state, “great kids growing up on dairy farms and the inner city,” so creating scientists aware of real-world problems needing solutions. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Conn, the president of the Kavli Foundation, argues that philanthropies play a vital role in funding scientific research because they can take more chances. Unlike the federal government, they’re better able to fund research that may very well fail – but if it succeeds, can change the world for the better. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President of the University of Maryland Baltimore County for almost 30 years, Freeman Hrabowski has transformed a sleepy, mainly white, commuter school into a launching pad for thousands of African American scientists and engineers. “And that helps obviously the people we call disadvantaged. But also the ones in power who don't have access to the so-called disadvantaged, don't have access to their genius.” Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When she was head of the US Geological Survey, Marcia McNutt led the federal response to the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Now the first female director of the National Academy of Sciences, she draws on that experience to ensure the Academy provides the government with what she calls “actionable science,” when, in a crisis, the stakes are high and time is short. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Dr. Panch,” as he’s known, is the new Director of the National Science Foundation. He supervises over $8 billion of federal investment in research. To make that investment count, among his goals is inspiring the “spirit of science” in the young and under-represented—and encouraging the curiosity that can lead to the unexpected. Or, as he says. “looking for coal and finding a diamond.” Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shirley Tilghman finds inspiration in the report delivered to President Roosevelt 75 years ago. It was called Science: The Endless Frontier, and it spurred the curiosity driven research that fueled America’s leadership in science and technology. We need to follow that advice again, she argues. Tilghman, the first woman president of Princeton University from 2001 to 2013, tells Alan that the importance of basic research is something, “we forget at our peril.” Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vaccines that could save us from Covid19 are being developed with unprecedented speed. Harvey Fineberg argues this would have been impossible without decades of basic research. Research that, at the time, seemed to have little or no practical purpose. Fineberg, president of the Moore Foundation, tells Alan: “Our ability to live healthy, prosperous, and satisfying lives has been served and advanced by basic science. The chains of linkage of causation are obvious to anyone who just takes a look.” Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Einstein spent his last years at the famed Institute for Advanced Study. Robbert Dijkgraaf, who heads the Institute now, marvels at how work like Einstein’s allowed us to see so deeply into nature. That work came from the same human brain that once evolved to hunt and gather, and now takes us into worlds we never imagined. All driven by curiosity. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With support from The Kavli Foundation, Clear+Vivid presents this special series on the power of basic scientific research – from the pure to the practical. What is curiosity-driven research? Why does it matter? How does it play a role in transforming our lives? Where does basic research take place and by whom? Why is investing in basic research essential to society? Host Alan Alda leads conversations with 10 guests discussing these topics and more, each sharing their point of view and experience about basic science and their personal stories – what got them interested in or involved in science. Science Clear+Vivid runs concurrent with Clear+Vivid Season 10 (October - November) and will be released each Thursday. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/clearandvivid See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.