Robert Krulwich

Why Men Die Younger Than Women: The 'Guys Are Fragile' Thesis

Robert Krulwich — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:39:00 +0000

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

MIT's Magic Bag Of Sand

Robert Krulwich — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:10:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMis7LPZE9M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okciiW26A6c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wShKl0Hbw0

Not Winging It, But Ringing It

Robert Krulwich — Tue, 28 May 2013 16:04:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHyTOcfF99o

What Is It About Bees And Hexagons?

Robert Krulwich — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:19:01 +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.

Our Very Normal Solar System Isn't Normal Anymore

Robert Krulwich — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:25:02 +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

A Wet Towel In Space Is Not Like A Wet Towel On Earth

Robert Krulwich — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:39:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM

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.

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 15:48:50 +0000

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