Podcast Transcript Johannes Vermeer was one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Unlike many of his contemporary painters, however, he didn’t leave a large body of work behind. The paintings he did create have left experts in both art and technology wondering if he didn’t have a secret that helped him with …
Podcast Transcript It is an instrument that we are all familiar with, even if we don’t know how to play it. It is one of the most commonly played instruments in the world, yet its origins are rather recent. Its direct ancestor an instrument that most people don’t realize and it has significant differences from …
Transcript How small can a country be and still be a country? In theory, there is no lower limit on the number of people to be a sovereign state. However, in reality, there are costs associated with being an independent country. The fewer the number of people, the higher the cost for everyone in the …
Transcript In the middle of World War II, a small island in Scotland’s Hebrides Islands was suffering through war shortages like most of the country. However, on February 5, 1941, a very fortunate disaster struck the island, and the island’s residents couldn’t have been happier. The reverberations from this lucky calamity are still being felt …
Transcript Every day we are constantly using measurements. We have ways of measuring distance, temperature, time, light, pressure, energy….everything. Yet, why do we measure everything the way we do? Why is a second, a second, and why is a meter, a meter? Learn more about why our units of measurement are the way they are …
Transcript Early 19th century London was a dangerous, dirty, dingy place with tons of poverty and a lot of drinking. Alcoholism was common and excessive drinking, especially amongst lower-income people in London, was the norm, not the exception. All of that alcohol had to be produced, which meant lots of breweries and lots of beer. …
Transcript Imagine taking all of the trees, grass, animals, insects, fish, coral, and bacteria on the surface of the Earth and in the sea. Basically, every living thing on the planet. If you were to add it all up, all of the biomass, it would be quite a bit. Yet according to some scientists, that …
Transcript From December 1831, to October 1836, the HMS Beagle set out on a scientific expedition in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. On the ship was a young man named Charles Darwin. That expedition exposed him to ideas that would develop his theory of natural selection which would revolutionize the world of biology. This episode …
Transcript The country of San Marino is one of the smallest countries in the world. It is completely surrounded by Italy, is about 24 square miles in area, and has a population of about 33,000 people. The most interesting thing about San Marino is the fact that it exists. Why didn’t San Marino get sucked …