We’ll look at a nation moving from instant gratification to an age of thrift, and the psychology of self-control.

We talk with top neuroscientist Bruce Hood about his new book, “SuperSense: Why We believe in the Unbelievable.”

Alaska’s Mt. Redoubt is one active volcano. And other volcanoes are roaring or rumbling. We’ll ask vulcanologists what’s going on.

Galileo Galilei and Pope Urban VIII, back, onstage, in a play by Richard Goodwin. Faith and science tangle again.

What Would Be the Military Response?
Many people are confident that, sequestered deep within the cryptic machinery of the United States Department of Defense, are plans and personnel ready to deal with the aftermath of discovering extraterrestrials. It’s a pleasant assumption, and one that gains currency from the fact that, a half century ago, [...]

Heavens and Hells and more – a top neuroscientist offers forty ways to imagine the afterlife.

“CSI” it’s not. A new report on crime labs from the National Academy of Sciences calls into question decades of forensic techniques. We’ll investigate.

Sylvia Earle has spent a lifetime exploring ocean depths. She tells us about her new brainchild, Google Ocean, and the bottom of the deep blue sea.

Stem cell researchers are making up for lost time, and looking forward to big medical breakthroughs. We’ll talk with two top scientists on the leading edge of stem cell research.

Pharmaceutical companies – and some scientists – are pushing to make drugs like Adderall and Ritalin mainstream performance enhancers.

President Obama has pledged to “restore science to its rightful place.” We’ll ask what that means, for America – and the future of science.

We’ll talk with the field biologist who tracks new threats, to jungle and stream, before they become pandemic.

Descartes said “I think, therefore I am.” Bestseller Russell Shorto reminds us it’s more complicated than that, in his new tale of faith, reason, and “Descartes’ Bones.”

Way faster than a speeding bullet, protons are whizzing through the Large Hadron Collider. Big Bangs, black holes, and the Great Beyond.

Physics and the presidency. A top scientist says our challenges require breakthroughs.

Robotic Mars exploration has been no picnic. Half of all Mars missions have ended in failure. But right now, the Mars Phoenix Lander is up there, well-landed, sending back astonishing images, and — it appears — shaking off its problems extending the eight-foot arm that will dig for ice.
The Phoenix is looking for conditions that [...]

Jill Price has a memory like few others in the world. She’s 42 years old, and she remembers everything.
Every instant of her life, and the life around her, since she was fourteen. Down to the smallest detail. Like a movie that never stops running. Whether she likes it or not. And not just what happened, [...]

Perfumes are more than a scent. They are a state of mind — at least that what all the ads tell us.
A little dab here and you’re picnicking in fields of wild flowers, or experiencing the blush of first love. A spritz there and you’re rolling in satin sheets, and feeling oh so Hollywood. Dab [...]

Science writer George Johnson is in love with the science of the old days — before super-colliders and supercomputers and terabytes of data to be churned.
When he thinks of the beauty of science, he thinks of the simple, shattering experiments of Galileo and Newton, Pavlov and Faraday.
Until very recently, he says, the most earthshaking science [...]

For a long time in life, Alzheimer’s seems like somebody else’s problem. An issue for the unfortunate old. A misty, separate continent of life.
And then, it can hit you. Your own parents, needing help. Losing their grip. Your own odds of following them into Alzheimer’s — higher than you’d ever wish.
One in 10 people get [...]