Recent episodes

Reviewing Science On The Big Screen From sci-fi to documentaries, good science films tell the human story behind scientific ideas. Which films get the science right, and which don't? Physicist and movie critic Sidney Perkowitz runs through some of this summer's top science flicks.

Video Pick: An Airplane That Flies Itself Meet the V-Bat: it's about 70 pounds, eight feet tall, equipped with computers and flies without a pilot. Engineer Stephen Morris, the president and CEO of MLB Co., describes how the plane works and what it might be good for.

Could Algae Be Milked Like A Cow? Algae-based biofuel is made by grinding up algae cells and extracting the oil. Reporting in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Richard Gordon, of the University of Manitoba, and colleagues suggest that engineering algae to secrete oil might be a more efficient approach.

Wind Has Soaring Potential, Study Finds Wind alone could provide more than 16 times the electricity needs of the U.S., according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Harvard professor Michael McElroy and Revis James, of Electric Power Research Institute, discuss the challenges of harnessing wind power.