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.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Thug Kitchen is a wildly popular, foul-mouthed vegan food blog. The formerly anonymous writers have just come out with a cookbook and revealed their identities. Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway are a white couple from L.A. Now they're fielding questions about the racial politics of the way they write about food.
"There is nothing romantic about death," Christian Wiman says.
The poet and editor of Poetry Magazine has been battling blood cancer for years. In his most recent book of poems he breathes life into writing about mortality.
Walter Isaacson tells Steve Paulson that Einstein had a rebellious nature and that he didn't impress his teachers.
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.
Acclaimed fiction writer - and guest producer of this hour - Nathan Englander talks about creative problem solving. He invited musicologist and composer Freddy Knop to create a soundscape of how it feels when the muse descends.
Temple Grandin has autism and designs livestock-handling facilities. She talks with Jim Fleming about how her autism helps her in her career.
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