Quoctrung Bui/NPR Is That A Lark I Hear? A Nightingale? Surprise! It's A Bat by Robert Krulwich, Quoctrung Bui October 1, 2014 • There are animals famous for their songs. Whales sing. Birds sing. We humans have Aretha, Elvis, Ray Charles, Pavarotti. But bats — who knew? Listen Loading… Playlist Embed Embed Close embed modal <iframe src="http://www.npr.org/player/embed/352586936/352587081" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no">
Robert Rauschenberg/SFMOMA Weekend Special 2 Ways To Think About Nothing, One Mo' Time by Robert Krulwich September 28, 2014 • Let's compare two kinds of nothing: an empty patch of deep space and an empty piece of paper that was once beautiful. There's nothing to see in either. Or is there?
Adam Cole/NPR Everything Dies, Right? But Does Everything Have To Die? Here's A Surprise by Robert Krulwich, Adam Cole September 26, 2014 • Meet two animals. Both are teeny. Both live in water. Both mature extra fast. But while one dies in about a week, the other — well, prepare to be amazed.
Robert Krulwich/NPR This Blog Is Ending Soon by Robert Krulwich September 24, 2014 • Krulwich and his Wonders are packing up, and before I go, I'd like to shake all your hands, each and every one of you, and say thank you. This is my goodbye.
Courtesy of Matt Inman 'Murdersquishing' Them To Death: How Little Bees Take On Enormous Hornets by Robert Krulwich September 19, 2014 • They are small. They are weak. They are vulnerable. But these little bees take on a humongous predator in the most ingenious way.
iStockphoto Weekend Special Howling Babies Drove Prehistoric Warriors Into Battle? by Robert Krulwich September 14, 2014 • Can a colicky baby's piercing scream be militarized? As in, made (literally) into a weapon of war? Oh, absolutely, says this scholar, smiling ever so slightly.
Courtesy of Tyler Nordgen What Makes A Star Starry? Is It Me? by Robert Krulwich September 12, 2014 • Draw a planet (a circle, right?). Now draw a star (a pointy thing, yes?). Now ask yourself, aren't stars all round? Our sun is. So why do we make them pointy? Come learn the answer.
BirdCast/YouTube Souls Tumbling In The Light by Robert Krulwich September 10, 2014 • Every fall, birds head south and, around Sept. 11, New York sends two beams into the sky. When birds and lights collide, that could mean trouble — but New York is surprisingly gentle.
Nature Video/YouTube Weekend Special Mapping What You Cannot See, Cannot Know, Cannot Visit by Robert Krulwich September 7, 2014 • We live on a planet, next to a star that's part of a galaxy that's part of ... ah, here comes the new discovery. We are at the very tip of a giant galactic "supercluster." Take a look.
NIH Human Connectome Project/Science Photo Library/Corbis Building Me: A Puzzlement by Robert Krulwich September 5, 2014 • I am made of atoms — 7,000 trillion trillion of them. How did I teach them to tie my shoes? Or did they teach me?
Gordon Parks/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Glenn Gould In Rapture by Robert Krulwich September 4, 2014 • You don't get to see this too often: a man (in this case, a very talented man) totally possessed by his muse. Watch pianist Glenn Gould deep in what psychologists call "a flow state."
Courtesy of Marco Cianfanelli A Giant Appears At The Edge Of An African Roadway by Robert Krulwich September 3, 2014 • If the task is to think backward, to an important moment in history, here's a stunning way to do it: It's a jewel of a monument alongside a road in South Africa.
Courtesy of Erik Johansson Weekend Special Roadways You Can Install Like Throw Rugs by Robert Krulwich August 24, 2014 • You look. You gape. You can't believe your eyes. Well, take a peek at this image and ask yourself, 'How did they do this?'
Robert Krulwich/NPR When Venus Was Filled With Venusians — 50 Billion Of Them by Robert Krulwich August 21, 2014 • Look up at the night sky and ask, "Anybody there?" Then consider this answer (from the 1830s): There are 22 trillion individuals in our solar system.
Robert Krulwich/NPR If You're Born In The Sky, What's Your Nationality? An Airplane Puzzler by Robert Krulwich August 20, 2014 • Suppose two Chinese parents get on an Australian airplane and, while flying over U.S. territory, they have a baby on the plane. Can that baby be an American citizen?
Vi Hart/YouTube When Snails Lose Their Way by Robert Krulwich August 15, 2014 • There are happy snails. There are lonely snails. And there are lost snails. This one is lost. Totally. But it sings.
Focus Features/YouTube Stephen Hawking's Dazzling Life Becomes A Movie, But What Sort Of Movie? by Robert Krulwich August 14, 2014 • A new movie turns the physicist into a romantic lead. But how will it handle the not-so-wonderful parts of his marriage? Truthaholics want to know.
Courtesy of Thomas Doyle Elemental Storytelling by Robert Krulwich August 12, 2014 • Thomas Doyle tells stories with teeny frozen people. They aren't cold. They are frozen in time, but he freezes them with exquisitely suspenseful, Sherlock Holmes-like care.
SmarterEveryDay/YouTube What A Balloon Shouldn't Do, But For Some Reason Does by Robert Krulwich August 7, 2014 • Tether a balloon to the floor of a car, step on the gas, and watch the balloon do something it shouldn't. Ask why. Then discover the answer. Then feel smart.
Robert Krulwich/NPR How To Cross 5 International Borders In 1 Minute Without Sweating by Robert Krulwich August 5, 2014 • Nations need borders for security, for revenue, for defense, for identity. But for fun? Introducing borders that giggle.
Tanaka/Flickr Weekend Special Guess Who's Been Waiting In The Lobby For A Hundred Million Years? by Robert Krulwich August 2, 2014 • The M-Thing. It's patient. It's modest. It's relentless. It stays.
Robert Krulwich/NPR Where The Birds Are Is Not Where You'd Think by Robert Krulwich July 28, 2014 • Birds are everywhere, but the greatest concentration of different birds — the "bird mecca" of America — is not in our great parks, not in our forests, not where you'd suppose. Not at all.
Courtesy of I.M. Chait An Animal Makes A $10,000 Deposit, But Not At The Bank by Robert Krulwich July 23, 2014 • A Beverly Hills auction house has an unusual fossil for sale. It's not an ancient animal. It's something an ancient animal left behind — and it's very, very long.
NASA/JPL-Caltech What's Better Than A Total Eclipse Of The Sun? Check This by Robert Krulwich July 22, 2014 • This may be the most heart-rending, most beautiful eclipse in our solar system. But you can't travel to see it. Not yet.
Robert Krulwich/NPR Neil Whosis? What You Don't Know About The 1969 Moon Landing by Robert Krulwich July 16, 2014 • The year he landed on the moon, astronaut Neil Armstrong was famous, iconic, an American hero. One year later he wasn't. In 1970, how many people remembered his name? This will surprise you.
