Engines of Our Ingenuity

Episode: 3383 Mr. Herschel's Milky Way “millstone”.  Today, an early Milky Way model.

Episode: 3382 Thoughts about coping with the disorder in our lives and the disorder in our world.  Today, disorder.

Episode: 3381 The last ride of NASA's Shuttle carrier, N905NA.  Today, the last Shuttle-carrier.

Episode: 1592 In which we use fancy words instead of simple ones.  Today, the quotidian denominator.

Episode: 1591 Baroque violins and the notion of a completed technology.  Today, let's talk about complete technologies.

Episode: 1590 The Great Wall of China -- a long and checquered history.  Today, a 2300-year-old wall.

Episode: 2606 More Beautiful Books: revisiting books by the foot.  Today, the measure of a book.

Episode: 2901 Norbert Wiener and Cybernetics.  Today, let's talk about Norbert Wiener and cybernetics.

Episode: 2888 The Strength Through Joy Car: Hitler's Volkswagen and American Consumer Culture.  Today, the "strength through joy" car.

Episode: 1589 Pluto: We finally reach the outer fringe of the Solar System.  Today, we discover Pluto.

Episode: 1588 The Nieuport 17, early harbinger of the finished WW-I fighter.  Today, a case history of technological change.

Episode: 1587 In which airplanes gradually learn to wage war.  Today, we turn plowshares into swords.

Episode: 1586 Topsell's history of four-footed beasts and serpents.  Today, a zoology book.

Episode: 2603 Correlation and Risk: When more egg baskets don't help.  Today, eggs and baskets.

Episode: 2893 How the batteries work; The electrodes and electrolytes; The Wonders of Electrochemistry.  Today, the magic of batteries.

Episode: 3380 What underlies a term from physics: Ergodic (or Ergodicity).  Today, let us steal a word from physics.

Episode: 3379 A look at the overarching meaning of the word “Gestalt.”  Today, a curious word: Gestalt.

Episode: 1585 In which the elephant Prathida teaches me about dissonance and Christmas.  Today, dissonance, elephants, and the holiday season.

Episode: 1584 Hugo Distler: Beleaguered pioneer of twentieth century music.  Today, the brief moment of a musical genius.

Episode: 1583 Glide Bombs and the unrevealed Rohna disaster.  Today, the weapon we didn't know about.

Episode: 2599 The Art of Attraction: Imagery from Strange Attractors.  Today, the art of attraction.

Episode: 2670 The Expanded Human Habitat: Our Solar System as a Defining Environment.  Today, we expand the notion of environment.

Episode: 3378 Tenth century author, Hrotsvitha, brought back to life in the sixteenth century.  Today, meet Hrotsvitha.

Episode: 1582 L. M. K. Boelter and engineering education at its best.  Today, a great teacher.

Episode: 1581 The screwdriver: Thoughts on greatness and invisibility.  Today, the screwdriver.

Episode: 1580 Su-Sung's wonderful eleventh-century water clock.  Today, Su-Sung's wonderful clock.

Episode: 1579 Five years before we found out about the Wright Brothers!  Today, we gradually learn about the Wright Brothers' flight.

Episode: 2598 Henri Poincaré, the three body problem, and chaos.  Today, three bodies.

Episode: 3377 An 1880 article seeks to anticipate the creation of electric power, beginning with Zinc.  Today, we burn Zinc.

Episode: 3376 In which our common desk stapler earns its name.  Today, Let's talk about staples.

Episode: 3298 Gender, Color, and Dichotomy in Tennis.  Today, we take sides in tennis.

Episode: 1578 The brief day of the great flying boats.  Today, we ask what ever became of flying boats.

Episode: 1577 The Monty Hall Problem and the unexpected value of information.  Today, we learn not to turn our back on information.

Episode: 1576 The wind and its technologies in the ancient mind.  Today, wind and the medieval mind.

Episode: 2596 Golf Club Grooves: How small changes in technology can cause controversy.  Today's episode is brought to you by the letters U and V.

Episode: 3375 The complex relationship among language, speech, music, and poetry.  Today, what is Poetry?

Episode 3374:  Monte Carlo simulations and board game design.  Today, Monte Carlo simulations and board games.

Episode: 1575 Fields and continua: A secret art of engineering.  Today, a look at a secret abstraction.

Episode: 1573 Donatello: Of his age or for all time?  Today, we ask: Of an age, or of all time?

Episode: 1572 High-pressure steam engines and transportation. Today, the first locomotive.

Episode: 1571 In which the author of Oz contemplates electricity.  Today, Dorothy, Kansas, and the new forces of electricity.

Episode: 2594 Mapping the World: Ptolemy's Geographia.  Today, a man and a map.