On Today's Podcast
As Companies Build Data Centers For AI, Communities Push Back
A boom in construction of AI data centers is facing backlash over soaring electricity and water usage, and the resulting utility hikes.
Listen NowDecember 5, 2025
A boom in construction of AI data centers is facing backlash over soaring electricity and water usage, and the resulting utility hikes. Plus, to save spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest, one plan suggests killing thousands of barred owls. And, geologist Anjana Khatwa explains how embracing wonder and awe adds to our scientific understanding of the rocks that form our planet.
Behind the Scenes with Inventor – and Actor – Hedy Lamarr
A new book looks at the life of the brainy movie star Hedy Lamarr.
Behold, The 1,000-Pound Pumpkin
Visit Robert Sabin’s pumpkin patch: he has been growing giant pumpkins—the breed is Atlantic Giant—for over ten years.
Meet The Balloonatics
It’s crunch time for the “balloonatics” at Macy’s Parade Studio.
Keeping a Betta
In this activity, students will research general information about bettas and use that information to determine suitable habitat requirements and maintenance. Students will work collaboratively to perform weekly maintenance duties to keep their betta alive. Students also will observe physical characteristics of their betta and conduct investigations on the behavioral characteristics of their betta.
When Is a Moth Like a Hummingbird?
A hawk moth feeds by hovering in front of flowers and slurping nectar through a proboscis, basically a body-length straw.
Mineral Madness
Geologists are greatly interested in minerals because they can reveal an enormous amount about the history of the geologic environment in which they are found. Geologists can classify and identify minerals by observing various properties such as streak, hardness, luster and, in some cases, fluorescence. In this activity, students will examine 10 mineral specimens and explore the different properties that minerals exhibit.
Geek My Pumpkin
Maniac Pumpkin Carvers Marc and Chris carve hundreds of pumpkins each fall, which go for a few hundred bucks and rarely end up on stoops. They gave us some tips for how to bring our pumpkins to the next level this Halloween.
Could A Lack Of Empathy Explain Cruelty?
Simon Baron-Cohen explains the consequences of decreased empathy.
Cultivating the Perfect Chili Pepper
If you’ve had supermarket salsa, you’ve probably eaten one of Ed Curry’s chili peppers. Visit his farm and find out how the heat gets in chilis.
Termite Symbiosis
In this activity, students will sort and classify interactions between pairs of organisms under the appropriate symbiotic relationship of commensalism, parasitism, and mutualism. Then students will observe mutualism in action, as they perform a termite dissection.
Design Your Own Wind Powered Turbine
Learn the parts of a wind turbine, build your own out of recyclable materials, and test it to determine how to harnesses the most wind.
Technology’s Odd Couple Teams Up For Science
Musician will.i.am and inventor Dean Kamen are working together to get kids interested in robotics.
Discover DNA By Making Colorful Chromosomes
Discover how human physical traits are determined by specific segments of genes, then build a simplified model of a pair of chromosomes.
Where’s the Octopus?
When marine biologist Roger Hanlon captured the first scene in this video he started screaming.
Tending Crops On A Brooklyn Rooftop
A rooftop farm in Brooklyn grows vegetables and doubles as a green roof, insulating the warehouse below.
Creating Reservoirs Under Roads and Parking Lots
Porous pavement allows water to pass down to the water table, rather than run off into storm drains.
Brine Shrimp: Getting to Know a Salt Water Arthropod
In this activity, students will assemble a small saltwater aquarium to raise and observe brine shrimp. Then students will observe and record the growth of brine shrimp through various stages of their life cycle, and examine their various anatomical features.
Pinhole Viewer
By building their own pinhole camera, students will learn how cameras, telescopes, and their own eyes use light in similar ways.
Fossil Detectives: Use Paleontology To Solve Dino Mysteries
Act like a fossil detective—or paleontologist—to observe and examine a set of fossils to classify them as body fossils and trace fossils.
Solar Spotting
Using the Swedish Solar Telescope, a ground-based observatory, Goran Scharmer and colleagues probe the penumbra—that’s the stringy structure around the perimeter of the dark part of the sunspot.