Robert Krulwich

The Little Metronome That Wouldn't

Robert Krulwich — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:49:18 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1TMZASCR-I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWToUATLGzs

What Did I Do Last Summer? Oh, I Discovered How To Make Babies Without Sex. And You?

Robert Krulwich — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:15:32 +0000

Ah, if only all summers could be like June, July and August 1740 — when three young guys (and a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old) did a science experiment that startled the world. In those days, you could do biology without a fancy diploma. More people could play.

That spring, the hot book — the one everyone was reading — was a gorgeously illustrated volume about insects by the French naturalist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur.

What Is It About Bees And Hexagons?

Robert Krulwich — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:18:31 +0000

Solved! A bee-buzzing, honey-licking 2,000-year-old mystery that begins here, with this beehive. Look at the honeycomb in the photo and ask yourself: (I know you've been wondering this all your life, but have been too shy to ask out loud ... ) Why is every cell in this honeycomb a hexagon?

Bees, after all, could build honeycombs from rectangles or squares or triangles ...

But for some reason, bees choose hexagons. Always hexagons.

And not just your basic six-sided hexagon.

Moths That Drive Cars (Really)

Robert Krulwich — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:54:54 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2k1T2X7_Aw

Our Very Normal Solar System Isn't Normal Anymore

Robert Krulwich — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:46:30 +0000

Some things you just count on. Like if we ever meet a space alien, it should have eyes (and maybe a head). Like somewhere out there, there are planets like ours. Like we have an ordinary solar system — "ordinary" because you know what it looks like ...

It's got a sun in the middle, little planets on the inside, bigger ones farther out. That's what most of them should look like, no?

We thought they should.

The Boomerang Rocket Ship: Shoot It Up, Back It Comes

Robert Krulwich — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:45:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoxiK7K28PU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orUjSkc2pG0

Nobody Throws Balls Like Yu

Robert Krulwich — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:09:46 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFm98S5IAFU

A 'Who Do You Hang With?' Map of America

Robert Krulwich — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:55:00 +0000

Look at the center of this map, at the little red dot that marks Kansas City. Technically, Kansas City is at the edge of Missouri, but here on this map it's in the upper middle section of a bigger space with strong blue borders. We don't have a name for this bigger space yet, but soon we will.

I would call it, for the moment, "The Part Of America Kansas City Hangs With" because that's what this map is saying. It's a new, intriguing way to see our country. This one was built by tracking dollar bill circulation. There've been similar maps built from phone call data.

Who Stands Where In A Crowded Elevator And Why?

Robert Krulwich — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:27:30 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZfnPLbt96o

The Big Squeeze: Can Cities Save The Earth?

Robert Krulwich — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:18:00 +0000

Let's get dense. If we take all the atoms inside you, all roughly 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them, and squeeze away all the space inside, then, says physicist Brian Greene:

That's a very tight fit. So tight that in real life, it couldn't happen. It's not physically possible. Atoms won't crunch that close. But people, it seems, are willing to try.

Monty Python's John Cleese Almost Explains Our Brains

Robert Krulwich — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:03:50 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQjgsQ5G8ug

The Naming Of The Shrew

Robert Krulwich — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:56:25 +0000

It looks kinda like a squirrel, except its ears are too small, its tail is ratty, then bushy, and its mouth? Definitely un-squirrel. More like a shrew, a fox, or a dog. And the teeth? Strange. What is it?

It's an act of edited, elegant imagination.

Drawn by science illustrator Carl Buell, working with 23 very learned, picky, choosy scientists, it's the American Museum of Natural History Team's best guess of what the Mother Of All Modern Mammals looked like.

Pacific Island, Bigger Than Manhattan, Vanishes

Robert Krulwich — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:53:43 +0000

You can see it on this Google Map — a little spit of land, sitting between Australia (on the left) and French-governed New Caledonia (on the right).

It's called "Sandy Island." In the Times Atlas of the World it's called "Sable Island." On both maps it's a conspicuous land mass, roughly 15 miles long from north to south, three miles across.

What Happened When Humans Met An Alien Intelligence? Sex Happened

Robert Krulwich — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:16:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i_oJn-9d_0

MIT Invents A Machine That Can Look At Batman's Face And See His Heart Beating

Robert Krulwich — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:30:56 +0000

My pal Erik Olsen at The New York Times has just described an extraordinary new way to look at people.

The Filibuster Solution, Or 'What If Honeybees Ran The U.S. Senate?'

Robert Krulwich — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:42:50 +0000

Bees are democrats. They vote. When a community of bees has to make a choice, like where to build a new hive, they meet, debate and decide. But here's what they don't do: they don't filibuster. No single bee (or small band of bees) will stand against the majority, insisting and insisting for hours. They can't.

Bee biology prevents it.

U.S. Senators, listen up here. According to Professor Tom Seeley, an entomologist at Cornell University, a hive will send a few hundred "scouts" into a back yard, or into the woods, to find a good nest site.

Guy Pumps Out A Valentine — Literally

Robert Krulwich — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:18:23 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG2DRiQt1b0

What Is It About Emily?

Robert Krulwich — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:37:52 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ8ztH6qzKM

Dinosaurs With Attitude

Robert Krulwich — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:15:18 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFcePQ6_uDk

Pale Blue Blobs Invade, Freeze, Then Vanish

Robert Krulwich — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:02:36 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YegdEOSQotE