Been quite taken by the last episode of Les années lumière, Radio-Canada’s scientific radio show. Made me think about scientists as human beings. Of course, there are several anthropologists working with scientists as groups, including Cultural Critique Michael M.J. Fischer and Maggie Paxson. My goal here is quite limited.

It’s fascinating to hear Ethiopian-born paleoanthropologist and MPI Professor Zeresenay (Zeray) Alemseged discuss his discovery of Selam, in French, for a Canadian national radio, directly from Ethiopia. People like him show the importance of the global network of scientists.

Hervé Fischer’s section on Internet penetration in Chile made clear the association between increased communication, computer literacy, knowledge management, and local empowerment. What MIT Media Lab director Nicolas Negroponte and numerous others have called the “leapfrog effect.” More than mere techno-enthusiasm, it’s a testament to knowledge’s power to cross all borders.

The feature interview of this episode was with Camille Limoges, a major figure in Quebec’s science politics. During that interview, Limoges stressed the importance of training creative people to process the growing wealth of knowledge representative of today’s world.

Altogether, a fascinating show, as is often the case.