Mike Brown’s research was instrumental in the 2006 decision to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet. As the New Horizons probe flies by Pluto this week, we’ll check in with him.
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How North Texas Is Banking On Health Tech
A panel of health tech advocates explains different ways the genre is making us rich.
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How A Bionic Suit Helped Amanda Walk Again
Amanda Boxtel was paralyzed, and a bionic exoskeleton helped her walk again.
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Social Action, Offscreen
This hour, we’ll talk about why personal connections are the key to helping the less fortunate with computer scientist Kentaro Toyama, author of ‘Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change From the Cult of Technology.’
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BlackBerry’s Backstory
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/dovetail.prxu.org/140/01d33fe4-821b-4667-aa47-8ca96f79eae0/KERA_Think_06-04-15_HR_2.mp3 Just six years ago, half of all smartphones sold were made by BlackBerry. Today, it’s hard to find anyone who still uses one. This hour, we’ll find out what happened with Globe and Mail business writer Sean Silcoff, co-author of Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry.
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How NASA Helped End Segregation
While NASA’s primary mission in the 1960s was to go to the moon, it also wanted to improve the economy and use its program for social change.
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How Black Holes Entered The Mainstream
One hundred years ago this year, Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity. But it wasn’t until physicists gained a better understanding of black holes 50 years later that the theory was widely taken seriously.
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Alexander Graham Bell On Tape
Anytime you check your voicemail or call Grandma, thank c. This hour, from NPR headquarters in Washington, we’ll talk about the father of the telephone — and his other pioneering works — with Carlene Stephens, curator of the National Museum of American History exhibition “Hear My Voice: Alexander Graham Bell and the Origins of Recorded Sound.”
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From Oops To Outer Space
Scientists have found the birthplace of stars and planets, begun to understand dark energy and found black holes — all using information from the Hubble Telescope. However, it almost didn’t make it off the ground due to an engineering error. This hour, we’ll talk about how five astronauts risked their lives to repair the telescope.
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Getting To Know Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs is remembered as a visionary innovator whose relentless drive once alienated him from the Apple family. This hour, we’ll talk about how the arrogant genius ultimately changed the lives of billions across the world with Rick Tetzeli, co-author of “Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader.”
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What Would Darwin Say?
Modern medicine and biotechnology reduce the force of natural selection, and conditions that used to kill us are now being passed on to new generations. This hour, we’ll talk about how we can alter humanity’s future with Juan Enriquez, co-author of “Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth.”
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