On Demand
Genetics
Orchid Hypothesis
The Brian Lehrer Show
November 23, 2009
People get passionate about their handheld devices. WNYC staffers
The Art Instinct
Studio 360
November 20, 2009
Denis Dutton is a professor of the philosophy of art interested in evolutionary biology. In his controversial book The Art Instinct, he argues that certain tastes in art are genetic. Dutton believes that if we examine art from around the world, we can see the marks of evolution.
Spencer Wells
Studio 360
November 20, 2009
Where did we come from? Evolutionary biologist Spencer Wells is pretty close to the answer. He's the National Geographic "Explorer-in-Residence" and heads an initiative called the Genographic Project. By collecting DNA samples from people around the world, he's tracing the paths of human migration, and he's uncovered some startling facts about homo sapiens' early history: we almost didn't make it.
Groups Call for Making Attacks on Home a Hate Crime
August 12, 2009
Lawmakers and homeless advocates are pushing for legislation that would make attacks against the homeless, a hate crime. The recommendation for the bill comes on the heels of a recent study from the ....
Study: Air Pollution May Lower IQ
July 20, 2009
A study measuring the effects of air pollution on pregnant mothers suggests their children might have slightly lower IQ’s. Researchers placed air monitors on the mothers during pregnancy, tracked t....
Natural History Museum Stores Endangered Species Tissues
July 07, 2009
Tissue samples from endangered species will now be stored at the Museum of Natural History, under a new agreement with the U.S. Parks Service. The museum already freezes its own samples taken from wh....
I Am, Therefore I Think
The Leonard Lopate Show
March 25, 2009
U.C. Berkeley philosopher
Between Your Ears
The Brian Lehrer Show
February 24, 2009
Please Explain: Metabolism
The Leonard Lopate Show
December 12, 2008
Some diets and supplements claim to work by speeding up metabolism. Find out how metabolism works, why it’s essential to life, and whether food, exercise, and supplements really can accelerate it...or slow it down.
Intersexuality
The Leonard Lopate Show
December 05, 2008
About 1% of babies are born with some degree of sexual ambiguity. We look into how people who are have ambiguous genitalia or a combination of male and female body parts cope in a gender-based society.
Advocates Push Stem Cell Research Funding
November 11, 2008
With New York state leaders slashing the budget to shrink the deficit, many programs are in jeopardy. Here’s what it could mean for the $600 million fund for stem cell research. REPORTER: Preside....
How To Cure What Ails You
Radiolab
December 05, 2008
Now that we have the ability to see inside the brain without opening anyone's skull, we'll be able to map and define brain activity and peg it to behavior and feelings. Right? Well, maybe not, or maybe not just yet. It seems the workings of our brains are rather too complex and diverse across individuals to really say for certain what a brain scan says about a person. But Nobel prize winner Eric Kandel and researcher Cynthia Fu tell us about groundbreaking work in the field of depression that just may help us toward better diagnosis and treatment.
Anything that helps us treat a disease better is welcome. Doctors have been led astray before by misunderstanding a disease and what makes it better. Neurologist Robert Sapolsky tells us about the turn of the last century, when doctors discovered that babies who died inexplicably in their sleep had thymus glands that seemed far too large. Blasting them with radiation shrank them effectively, and so was administered to perfectly healthy children to prevent this sudden infant death syndrome...
The Frowners
Radiolab
December 05, 2008
Meet
Putting Together the Puzzle
Radiolab
December 05, 2008
A young woman's apartment goes up in flames and a dashing young man saves the day! But to firefighter
Family X has suffered for generations from a deadly "curse." Most of the men in the family died, some at very young ages, from a particularly lethal form of pancreatic cancer. Seeking to break the pattern, a father comes to
Please Explain: Alzheimer’s
The Leonard Lopate Show
October 03, 2008
An estimated 27 million people worldwide are afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. Find out what Alzheimer’s is all about, and whether there are ways to prevent it or slow its progress.
North American Woolly Mammoths
The Leonard Lopate Show
September 11, 2008
New DNA analysis shows that the last of the woolly mammoths, even those who lived in Asia, were all genetically North American. This suggests that woolly mammoths actually migrated in both directions over the Bering Strait land bridge, and that not all important developments in the evolution of woolly mammoths happened in Siberia.
Pigeon, a.k.a. Superdove
The Leonard Lopate Show
August 18, 2008
Pigeons’ ancestral homes are on the cliffs of sea coasts. How did they become so suited to city life?
Event:
Courtney Humphries will be giving a reading
Monday, August 18th at 7:00pm
McNally Jackson Books
52 Prince Street
212.274.1160
Weigh in: Do you think pigeons deserve their reputation as urban pests and "rats with wings"?
