The elusive ivory-billed woodpecker.
Image courtesy of John A. Ruthven

Obsessed birders searched the swampy woods of the southern U.S. for years, listening for the call of the ivory-billed woodpecker. How was the bird finally found? In this hour, we'll go in search of birding's holy grail: the ivory-billed woodpecker.

Plus, physics and writing--poet and scientist Alan Lightman joins us to talk about the intersection of art and science, and we'll talk with the daughter of Richard Feynman about a new book of his collected letters.

Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (3-4 Eastern). Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests:
Tim Gallagher
Author, "The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker" (Houghton Mifflin, 2005)
Editor-in-Chief, Living Bird Magazine
Director of Publications, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York

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Michelle Feynman
Editor, "Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman" (Basic Books, 2005)
Altadena, California

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Alan Lightman
Author, "A Sense of the Mysterious: Science and the Human Spirit" (Pantheon, 2005)
Adjunct Professor of Humanities
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Books/Articles Discussed:

"A Sense of the Mysterious: Science and the Human Spirit," by Alan Lightman. Pantheon, 2005.

"Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman," edited by Michelle Feynman . Basic Books, 2005.

"The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker," by Tim Gallagher. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

(find books discussed on previous broadcasts)

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This segment produced by Annette Heist