A couple of days ago the Human Spark team was in Oregon, peering with both an MRI and a brain wave monitor into Alan Alda’s brain to find out how he employs it for two of the most distinctively human traits, language and tool use. Read more…
It’s been 125 years since the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history–the explosion, earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused by Krakatoa, an island in Indonesia. Krakatoa is still a benchmark for extreme seismic activity, as it’s explosion was 13,000 times more powerful than one of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima.
Ninety years after the 1918 flu pandemic claimed the last of its approximately 50 million victims, antibodies to the virus live on in people exposed to it as children — and the pandemic itself is still inspiring research and debate among scientists. Read more…
Some 300 miles off Costa Rica is Cocos Island, a tiny Pacific outpost that was once a favorite haunt of pirates. Cocos is beset by powerful ocean currents that churning the waters nearby into an undersea storm. Welcome to Shark Mountain. Watch the episode now. Originally aired 11/14/04.
Asteroid: the doomsday rock
The quest for element 114
Obesity: the compulsion to eat
Profile: Karl Iagnemma - robiticist & writer
The Human Spark team just shot a tricky scene in an MRI room. Because the MRI is a huge magnet, it sucks metallic objects into the donut of the MRI …
As oil prices have shot to historic levels, sales of GM’s once-popular line of SUVs and pickup trucks have sunk. The company is now trying to lure drivers back by making smaller and more fuel-efficient cars, like the Chevy Volt, an electric vehicle GM calls “a game changer.” Watch an interview about the new car…
Last Friday, a notice was posted online in the Federal Register: If the Bush Administration gets its way, parts of the Endangered Species Act will be removed from …
Wind energy is the world’s fastest-growing energy source, but the rush to build windmill farms breeds corruption. At least, that’s what residents of small towns in upstate New York claim in a new report by The New York Times.
From the ancient world to the modern, human lives have been influenced by animals in matters that reach far beyond the food chain. On Sunday, NATURE’s Wisdom of the Wild illustrates some of the surprising ways in which animals help people in body, mind, and spirit. Watch a preview…
