This episode is presented by eBay.

Rob, everyone loves a deal and a bargain from time to time, don't they? Absolutely, mate. And you know where you can grab a great deal? Talk to me. Where? The eBay app. Yes, you are correct. You didn't need to talk to me. I already knew it. I love eBay. When you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. there's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else.

Then when you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. There's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else. Then when you're selling, it's so simple and most

importantly, free. It's free, Rob. When it's this easy to sell for free and there's great deals

on things you love. You can't help but say when it's eBay. It excludes vehicles and business

sellers.

Welcome to Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American. For the seven days starting November 29th, I'm Steve Merski. This week on the podcast, we'll talk about the future of newspapers

with MIT Professor David Thorburn, and we'll discuss the future of automobiles with

Scientific American Technology editor Steve Ashley.

Plus, we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news.

First up, ink-stained wretchdom.

Back in September, I attended a talk at the MIT Communications Forum about Citizens Media News

and the future of newspapers.

Professor David Thurburn is the director of the MIT Communications

Forum, and I caught up with him after one of the talks. Professor Thorburn, great to talk to you

today. Tell me about this series, will newspapers survive? We were approached a few years ago about

considering the question of what was happening to newspapers,

the topic of journalism broadly and especially of the quality of American journalism and the way it's been changing has been a recurring theme for the MIT Communications Forum for a number of years.

So we decided to pursue a more systematic version of this general concern, and we focused on essentially trying to create a conversation amongst working journalists,

what I'll call utopians or media visionaries who have a very acute sense of how the Internet and digital technologies are transforming society

and newspaper users and readers.

And what we're hoping is that we've organized it into three separate units.

...