According to historian Thomas Laqueur, neither sanitation nor the soul fully explain the rang of rituals we've developed for caring for dead bodies. For him, there is a deeper anthropological truth at work: caring for the dead marks the human transition from nature into culture.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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According to Cesar Millan, dogs need exercise, discipline and affection, in that order.
Elizabeth Little is a writer and editor who collects languages. She tells Jim Fleming about the perils of learning tonal languages.
I dunno, but it seems kind of extreme, not to mention risky, to bio-engineer a mass mosquito die-off. So Steve Paulson tracked down the world’s greatest living entomologist to see what he has to say. E. O Wilson is sometimes called “the ant man” – that’s the insect he studied most – but he’s best known as the evolutionary biologist and a champion of biodiversity. He’s 86 years old now, and has just finished what is probably his last book – called “Half Earth”. It’s a passionate plea to save humanity by dedicating half the planet to nature. You’d assume that Wilson would be happy to let mosquitos live in that half… but that’s not what he told Steve.
Chris Kilham tells Jim Fleming why deep, dark, bittersweet chocolate is a health food. It has more anti-oxidants than Vitamin C!
More than 100 million people have Twitter accounts. Every moment, across the globe, they are posting thousands of short digital messages; that’s a lot of data.
Maybe it can help us keep an eye out for cultural change?
Eugene Mirman is an indie comic and the author of an outlandish self-help send-up called "The Will to Whatevs." He tells Jim Fleming that school was horrible for him and gave rise to his nerd humor.
David Greenberger transforms the words of elderly people in his series of "Duplex Planet" zines, comic books, spoken-word performances and radio plays.
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