A high-school science teacher had him time the swing of a pendulum at various lengths. He found that graphing his measurements formed a parabola. “I got an uncanny chill. There’s something secret that I have just seen, that if you don’t know math, you can’t see.” A mathematician is born. Plus, life with Murray the … Continue reading »

In describing her profession, the dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health cites Adam Smith, the dean of private property: “He said the role of government is to create the public good that we can only create together, in which everybody gains but nobody profits. And public health to me is the most … Continue reading »

This young astronomer studied astrophysics and folklore and now researches places in our galaxy where livable planets are most likely to form. She’s as rational as the next astrophysicist but acknowledges an early enthusiasm: “I spent way too long, countless hours as a child, trying to move things with my mind, or control fire or the … Continue reading »

A champion of citizen scientists – sophisticated but uncredentialed – she cofounded the NYC Bat Group and conducts bat tours of Central Park for the Museum of Natural History. A conversation at KGB’s Red Room. Produced with Lori Schwarz. Music: Mike Casey Continue reading »

He directs prison health services at Bellevue Hospital, treating inmates from New York City jails. “We have mostly chest pains, broken jaws, kidney failure, altered mental status.” Broken jaws. From fights. Delivering high-quality care in high-stress circumstances. Music: the Wisterians. Produced with Dr. Ruth Oratz. Continue reading »

She practices rehabilitative medicine, as a clinician and a researcher, helping patients recover from strokes and spinal cord injuries. Why yes, she has taken a patient sky-diving. (Medicare wouldn’t cover it.) A conversation at KGB’s Red Room. Produced with Lori Schwarz. Music: Guy Ruby. Continue reading »

This neurogeneticist esteems Rita Levi-Montalcini, who won a Nobel Prize for her work on human growth factor. She experimented with eggs, and then she ate the eggs. Science during wartime. In hiding. In a basement lab. Great stories at KGB’s Red Room, produced with Lori Schwarz. Music from Leslie Goshko. Continue reading »

When Antonie van Leeuwenhoek devised his microscope in 1676, it was not to study bacteria, says this microbiologist: “He designed it so he could look at thread; he was a draper.” Thus an amateur – a tailor – sparked a scientific revolution. A conversation with a champion of citizen scientists at KGB’s Red Room, produced … Continue reading »

As a college kid in 1964, he went to Mississippi for Freedom Summer.  Later he began working with the Bard Prison Initiative, and he’s now a dean at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. In a sense, his work remains the same: the pursuit of of social justice. Music from Valerie and Ben Turner: Piedmont Bluz. Continue reading »

Is scientific thought regional? Do people in Iceland devise different ideas from people in India? No, says geophysicist Einat Lev: science is science around the world. Yet she’s visited 40 countries, most with no volcano. Paradox or pleasure? A conversation at KGB’s Red Room, produced with Lori Schwarz and 500 Women Scientists. Music from Francois … Continue reading »