Upper Atmosphere Roundup
A new technology could tap the jet stream for energy.
Podcast
The Darfur region has an ancient underground lake, animals navigate with internal compasses, what plants would look like on other planets, why offering too many choices is bad marketing, and why kids have temper tantrums.
Extraterrestrial Plants
Lawns on other worlds might not be green, but black, red, or orange.
Darfur Lake
Satellite imagery may have opened a window of hope for the war-torn Darfur region.
Podcast
How supernovas make heavy elements, why teenagers have angst, some fierce arachnids get cuddly, why tanning is addictive, and the thinnest material ever made.
Podcast
The call of a rare bird, marijuana-like brain chemicals, the Earth without a tilt, using measles to fight cancer, and making public aquariums accessible to the blind.
Podcast
A recipe for life on Mars, how Alzheimer's and herpes are related, amnesia obscures the future as well as the past, a zoo exhibit features humans, and what the appendix is for.
Mars Life
An astrobiologist posits that we haven't found life on Mars because we haven't been looking for the right thing.
Solar Roundup
Despite not having been washed for billions of years, nature stays relatively clean. How?
Podcast
Exploring the origins of life, a laser-enhanced satellite for monitoring ozone, why cannibalism is in everyone's blood, a spit-test for sleepiness, and whether identical triplets are possible.
Atmospheric Laser
A new technique will help scientists keep tabs on the recovering ozone.
Antique Roundup
Both a sky calculator from ancient Greece and steel from the ancient Middle East used some pretty advanced technologies.
Podcast
Headbanging termites, why we eat salmon before--and not after--they spawn, a "smart bomb" for dental plaque, an ancient Greek sky calculator, and how your first language affects your sense of rhythm.
Podcast
The secret of a Stradivarius violin, how giraffes block a head rush, using bees for homeland security, saving seagrass, and a strange new ingredient in the interstellar soup.
Space Molecules
Space is not empty. In fact, there are some pretty surprising molecules floating around up there.
Podcast
Something unexpected at the North Pole, World Toilet Day and other toilet news, why golf balls have dimples but racecars don't, how a father's pheromones may control his daughter's growth, and using satellites for archaeology in Egypt.
Podcast
Our special birthday show! A louse killer that's evolution-proof, what comes after Hubble, the universality of color, listening to icebergs, and how physics was different in the early universe.
Changing Physics
A listener asks: Was physics different when the universe was young?
Next Space Telescope
Hubble's here for another seven years, but what comes after that?
Podcast
How wool is made washable, the earliest horse corral, a parasite that prefers baby boys, a medical robot snail, and how solar flares can affect GPS.
Solar Flares and GPS
Strong solar flares could render some GPS receivers temporarily useless.