BirdCast/YouTube Souls Tumbling In The Light by Robert Krulwich September 10, 2014 Every fall, birds head south and, around Sept. 11, New York sends two beams into the sky. When birds and lights collide, that could mean trouble — but New York is surprisingly gentle.
Nature Video/YouTube Weekend Special Mapping What You Cannot See, Cannot Know, Cannot Visit by Robert Krulwich September 7, 2014 We live on a planet, next to a star that's part of a galaxy that's part of ... ah, here comes the new discovery. We are at the very tip of a giant galactic "supercluster." Take a look.
NIH Human Connectome Project/Science Photo Library/Corbis Building Me: A Puzzlement by Robert Krulwich September 5, 2014 I am made of atoms — 7,000 trillion trillion of them. How did I teach them to tie my shoes? Or did they teach me?
Gordon Parks/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Glenn Gould In Rapture by Robert Krulwich September 4, 2014 You don't get to see this too often: a man (in this case, a very talented man) totally possessed by his muse. Watch pianist Glenn Gould deep in what psychologists call "a flow state."
Courtesy of Marco Cianfanelli A Giant Appears At The Edge Of An African Roadway by Robert Krulwich September 3, 2014 If the task is to think backward, to an important moment in history, here's a stunning way to do it: It's a jewel of a monument alongside a road in South Africa.
Courtesy of Erik Johansson Weekend Special Roadways You Can Install Like Throw Rugs by Robert Krulwich August 24, 2014 You look. You gape. You can't believe your eyes. Well, take a peek at this image and ask yourself, 'How did they do this?'
Robert Krulwich/NPR When Venus Was Filled With Venusians — 50 Billion Of Them by Robert Krulwich August 21, 2014 Look up at the night sky and ask, "Anybody there?" Then consider this answer (from the 1830s): There are 22 trillion individuals in our solar system.
Robert Krulwich/NPR If You're Born In The Sky, What's Your Nationality? An Airplane Puzzler by Robert Krulwich August 20, 2014 Suppose two Chinese parents get on an Australian airplane and, while flying over U.S. territory, they have a baby on the plane. Can that baby be an American citizen?
Vi Hart/YouTube When Snails Lose Their Way by Robert Krulwich August 15, 2014 There are happy snails. There are lonely snails. And there are lost snails. This one is lost. Totally. But it sings.
Focus Features/YouTube Stephen Hawking's Dazzling Life Becomes A Movie, But What Sort Of Movie? by Robert Krulwich August 14, 2014 A new movie turns the physicist into a romantic lead. But how will it handle the not-so-wonderful parts of his marriage? Truthaholics want to know.
Courtesy of Thomas Doyle Elemental Storytelling by Robert Krulwich August 12, 2014 Thomas Doyle tells stories with teeny frozen people. They aren't cold. They are frozen in time, but he freezes them with exquisitely suspenseful, Sherlock Holmes-like care.
SmarterEveryDay/YouTube What A Balloon Shouldn't Do, But For Some Reason Does by Robert Krulwich August 7, 2014 Tether a balloon to the floor of a car, step on the gas, and watch the balloon do something it shouldn't. Ask why. Then discover the answer. Then feel smart.
Robert Krulwich/NPR How To Cross 5 International Borders In 1 Minute Without Sweating by Robert Krulwich August 5, 2014 Nations need borders for security, for revenue, for defense, for identity. But for fun? Introducing borders that giggle.
Tanaka/Flickr Weekend Special Guess Who's Been Waiting In The Lobby For A Hundred Million Years? by Robert Krulwich August 2, 2014 The M-Thing. It's patient. It's modest. It's relentless. It stays.
Robert Krulwich/NPR Where The Birds Are Is Not Where You'd Think by Robert Krulwich July 28, 2014 Birds are everywhere, but the greatest concentration of different birds — the "bird mecca" of America — is not in our great parks, not in our forests, not where you'd suppose. Not at all.
Courtesy of I.M. Chait An Animal Makes A $10,000 Deposit, But Not At The Bank by Robert Krulwich July 23, 2014 A Beverly Hills auction house has an unusual fossil for sale. It's not an ancient animal. It's something an ancient animal left behind — and it's very, very long.
NASA/JPL-Caltech What's Better Than A Total Eclipse Of The Sun? Check This by Robert Krulwich July 22, 2014 This may be the most heart-rending, most beautiful eclipse in our solar system. But you can't travel to see it. Not yet.
Robert Krulwich/NPR Neil Whosis? What You Don't Know About The 1969 Moon Landing by Robert Krulwich July 16, 2014 The year he landed on the moon, astronaut Neil Armstrong was famous, iconic, an American hero. One year later he wasn't. In 1970, how many people remembered his name? This will surprise you.
Claude Monet /The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Most Astonishing Wave-Tracking Experiment Ever by Robert Krulwich July 13, 2014 What if I told you that an ordinary-looking wave hitting your beach had traveled, intact, halfway across the planet? Would you believe me? Well, believe this.
Zach Heller/Flickr A Tough Little Droplet Fights To Stick Around by Robert Krulwich July 9, 2014 It's just a drop of water. It's about to fall. And when it does, a story begins. What happens next may feel oddly familiar. Maybe it's telling you — about you.
Robert Krulwich/NPR Weekend Special Tell Me, Wave, Where Did You Come From? Who Made You? by Robert Krulwich July 6, 2014 Richard Feynman, one of the greatest science teachers ever, asks a wave to tell him a story.
deniscimafinc/YouTube Watch It Swallow An Entire Tree In Seconds by Robert Krulwich July 2, 2014 It's got big iron teeth and a powerful jaw. When it finds a 30-foot tree it goes to the top, opens its mouth and — watch this.
Courtesy of Lauren R. Weinstein/Nautilus Weekend Special Her Baby Is At Risk: Lauren's Story by Robert Krulwich June 29, 2014 They were having a baby. Both she and her husband carry a gene that might cause problems, "might" being a 25 percent chance. Is that high? Low? What to do? Here's the story, nicely drawn, deeply felt.
Robert Krulwich/NPR What Not To Serve Buzzards For Lunch, A Glorious Science Experiment by Robert Krulwich June 26, 2014 This bird likes livers, kidneys, entrails — anything it can pluck that's freshly dead. But what if you served it ... a painting?