Science
Bionic Hearing
Michael Chorost was born with a severe hearing impairment, the result of a rubella epidemic in the 1960s. He used hearing aids, learned to speak, went to regular schools and got his Ph.D. in English. Then, a few years ago, Michael’s residual hearing abruptly gave out. His world went silent. Jocelyn Gonzales has the story […]
You say you want an Evolution?
It’s almost exactly 150 years since On the Origin of Species was published, so for this week’s show we decided to put evolution to the test. We learned a lot of cool facts in producing this hour: did you know the human species was nearly extinct — dwindling to just 2,000 people — 70,000 years […]
Bomb Scare
Twenty years ago today, at a press conference aboard the Russian cruise ship Maxim Gorky, the end of the Cold War was officially declared. And yet the fear accompanying nuclear weaponry remains, as evidenced byPresident Obama’s explanationof the stakes in Afghanistan on Tuesday night: “We know that al Qaeda and other extremists seek nuclear weapons, […]
Birdman
Paul Bartlett was slogging through a PhD in animal behavior when he decided he would rather be painting. Bartlett finished his studies, left behind the zebra finches in his research lab, and now depicts razorbills, puffins, and other shore life in his native Scotland. Produced by Ari Daniel Shapiro.
Offset carbon…and cheating
We’ve about reached the halfway point in Copenhagen’s two-week long negotiating bonanza known as the UN Conference of the Parties. One hot topic (no pun intended) is the practice of carbon offsetting. Yes, offsetting is an economically efficient solution, but does it ultimately fail us? And as long as we’re offsetting carbon emissions, why not […]