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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Scientists are combing the universe for signs of exoplanets -- planets that orbit a star other than our sun.  They're finding them in record numbers.  Most believe it's only a matter of time before they find an exoplanet that can -- and perhaps does -- suppport life.  Sara Seager is a planetary scientist at M.I.T. and one of the pioneers of the field. 

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

There may be as many opinions about selfies as there are Twitter handles. Are they self-empowerment, or narcissism? Are they just personal branding? Or can they be art? Writer and critic Sarah Nicole Prickett came in to give us a primer.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The most popular baby names in the US last year were Noah and Emma.  We know that because 20 years ago, Michael Shackleford wrote a computer program to track the annual popularity of baby names.  Expectant parents everywhere should thank him.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In a small studio in Brooklyn, one artist is reimagining selfies. Erin Riley finds online self-portraits and transforms them into larger-than-life tapestries. The woven women don’t have faces… but they do have stories.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Tariq Ramadan has been called the Muslim Martin Luther King. The Swiss philosopher travels widely trying to build bridges between European Muslims and conservative clerics...

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sjon is the Icelandic trickster, drawing on Icelandic sagas and surrealism to write his mythic stories.  He tells Steve Paulson why we need to re-enchant the world.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Steve Brodner talks about what makes a good political cartoon.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Many of history's greatest scientists, from Newton to Maxwell to Einstein, have devoted significant study to the behavior of light, and, as a result, most physicists thought there was little left to say on the subject. But in April 2016, Paul Eastham, a physicist at Trinity College in Dublin, published a new paper proving that a fundamental assumption scientists had made about light was wrong. 

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