The most popular baby names in the US last year were Noah and Emma. We know that because 20 years ago, Michael Shackleford wrote a computer program to track the annual popularity of baby names. Expectant parents everywhere should thank him.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
William Gibson talks about his first collection of nonfiction, "Distrust That Particular Flavor."
Many of history's greatest scientists, from Newton to Maxwell to Einstein, have devoted significant study to the behavior of light, and, as a result, most physicists thought there was little left to say on the subject. But in April 2016, Paul Eastham, a physicist at Trinity College in Dublin, published a new paper proving that a fundamental assumption scientists had made about light was wrong.
Tony Rothman talks with Jim Fleming about Sangaku - the ancient tradition of Japanese temple geometry, which flourished during Japan’s period of isolation from the West.
Rupert Sheldrake may be the most famous scientific heretic in the modern world. On the 50th anniversary of Thomas Kuhn’s landmark book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” Sheldrake does his own paradigm busting. In this UNCUT interview, he tells Steve why he believes scientific dogmas are preventing real intellectual inquiry.
When blogger Jenny Lawson recently tweeted about an awkward exchange she had with a cashier at an airport, she couldn't have imagined the flood of responses she'd get from fans recounting their own mortifying moments. The tweet went viral and within a few days she'd received thousands of messages from fans recounting their own awkward stories. The whole affair was proof of something Jenny had long suspected -- that awkwardness can help bring people together.
Temple Grandin has autism and designs livestock-handling facilities. She talks with Jim Fleming about how her autism helps her in her career.
Scientists are combing the universe for signs of exoplanets -- planets that orbit a star other than our sun. They're finding them in record numbers. Most believe it's only a matter of time before they find an exoplanet that can -- and perhaps does -- suppport life. Sara Seager is a planetary scientist at M.I.T. and one of the pioneers of the field.
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