The Origin of Monogamy
Where does the idea of marriage — monogamous marriage specifically — come from? Anthropologist Laura Fortunato has some answers.
From Siberia to the Tropics with a Thermometer
Marine biologist Steve Katz has tapped a Russian family's multigenerational measurements of the temperature of a Siberian lake to explain how climate there is part of climate everywhere.
The Next Epidemic — How Society Aids Disease
Are we at greater risk now from massive disease outbreaks? It's a vital question after a wave of deadly E. coli infections in Germany has put hundreds in the hospital and killed more than 20. Disease ecologist Sadie Ryan explains how societal changes are aiding the bugs.
Can Threatened Species Evolve Their Way Out of Trouble?
Ecologist Andrew Gonzalez explains that experiments on yeast suggest that threatened species may be able to evolve fast enough — under the right conditions — to survive.
Climate Change, Agricultural Production and Africa’s Poor
With climate change set to wreck agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, what will happen to the world's poorest people?
Doggy DNA: Few Genes Separate Chihuahua from Great Dane
Geneticist Adam Boyko walks us through the DNA maze that produces dogs of all shapes and sizes from a very few genes.
Year After BP Oil Spill: Where Are We?
Biogeochemist Molly Redmond discusses the state of the Gulf of Mexico a year after the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil spill, looking at what's still unknown and how some lucky breaks kept damage from being even worse.
Nuclear Power’s History in the US: Miracle to Demon
Over its short lifetime, nuclear power has migrated from being the miracle of America's energy future to an at times unruly nuclear demon, says historian Patrick McCray.
The Dilemma and Future of Nuclear Power
In this last of a three-part podcast, Dr. Theo Theofanous talks about the health impacts of radiation leaking from the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant and about the future of nuclear power.
Japanese Nuclear Crisis: How Does This End?
In the second of three parts, engineering professor and nuclear risk expert Theo Theofanous discusses the options Japan has to avert even greater catastrophe at the badly damaged Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant.