Science & Technology
Monday, May 7, 2012 | 10:00 am
The social networking site Facebook says it plans to go public later this month. (AP)

The world’s largest social network readies its IPO. Do you want in?

Comments [92]
 
Friday, May 4, 2012 | 11:00 am
An unidentified produce employee restocks the shelf of bagged lettuce at a grocery store in Berkeley, Calif. (AP)

On a crowded planet, it may get strange. We’ll dig in.

Comments [231]
 
Friday, April 27, 2012 | 11:00 am
This computer-generated image provided by Planetary Resources, a group of high-tech tycoons that wants to mine nearby asteroids, shows a conceptual rendering of a spacecraft preparing to capture a water-rich, near-Earth asteroid. The group's mega-million dollar plan is to use commercially built robotic ships to squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals like platinum and gold out of the lifeless rocks that routinely whiz by Earth. One of the company founders predicts they could have their version of a space-based gas station up and running by 2020. (AP)

Some scientists and entrepreneurs say they’ll go to outer space for precious metals. We’ll think about that.

Comments [164]
 
Thursday, April 26, 2012 | 10:00 am
photo illustration (Alex Kingsbury/WBUR)

Online apps can now track our moods, relationships, exercise and health. We look at the “Digital Self,” and where it’s taking us.

Comments [170]
 
Monday, April 2, 2012 | 10:00 am
Christopher Astacio reads with his daughter Cristina, 2, recently diagnosed with a mild form of autism, in her bedroom on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 in New York. Autism cases are on the rise again, largely due to wider screening and better diagnosis, federal health officials said Thursday, March 2012. (AP)

Reported autism rates skyrocket – one child in 88 now has an autism diagnosis. One in 54 boys. We’ll take a look behind the sobering numbers.

Comments [159]
 
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 | 11:00 am
George Dyson (credit Ann Yow-Dyson)

Science historian George Dyson on the birth of the digital age, and where we stand now.

Comments [41]
 
Monday, March 12, 2012 | 11:00 am
Apps during an Apple announcement in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 7, 2012. (AP)

A new iPad and the avalanche of “apps,” all over. We’ll look at everyday life in the age of apps.

Comments [121]
 
Friday, March 9, 2012 | 11:00 am
Guffaw (lintmachine/Flickr)

Giggles, chortles, twitters and full-on guffaws – we’ll look at the science of laughter. We need it!

Comments [96]
 
Monday, March 5, 2012 | 10:00 am
In this image made from Japan's NTV/NNN Japan television, smoke ascends from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant's Unit 3 in Okumamachi, northern Japan, Monday, March 14, 2011. The second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked Japan's stricken nuclear plant Monday, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and wounding 11 workers. (AP)

Yoichi Funabashi, the man who led Japan’s top investigation into the Fukushima nuclear disaster gives us the inside story on a national tragedy.

Comments [77]
 
Monday, February 27, 2012 | 11:00 am
Jamie Hyneman, left, "Buster" the crash-test dummy and Adam Savage, right, during a segment of the Discovery Channel's show "Mythbusters." (AP)

Could a penny dropped form the Empire State Building kill you? MythBusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are with us.

Comments [80]
 
Thursday, February 9, 2012 | 11:00 am
Top online review sites Yelp.com, Epinions.com, tripadvisor.com, and Angieslist.com

The wild and woolly world of online reviews – and how they make and break businesses.

Comments [96]
 
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 | 11:00 am
In this Sept. 25, 2007 file picture a visitor passes an exhibition stand of Google company in Duesseldorf, western Germany. German prosecutors have launched an investigation of Google Inc. in connection with a privacy breach that involved it recording fragments of people's online activities through unsecured Wi-Fi networks. (AP)

We’re talking about Google and Facebook and your privacy. The rules are changing. They say it’s great for you – but is it?

Comments [243]
 
Monday, January 30, 2012 | 11:00 am
In this photo taken Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, the skies over the frozen Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska are lit up by a display of the northern lights, or Aurora Borealis. A common occurrence in northern climates, the aurora was enhanced in this display by solar flares in the days preceding the event. (AP)

The science, destruction, and beauty of the solar storm that’s been blasting earth—from the breathtaking Aurora Borealis to future exploration of the sun itself.

Comments [73]
 
Thursday, January 26, 2012 | 10:00 am
In this Oct. 27, 2011 photo, a wind turbine is seen at the First Wind project in Sheffield, Vt. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin wants the state to get 90 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2050, largely eliminating the state's reliance on fossil fuels. (AP)

American Energy. President Obama says we’re going to become an energy power again. Is he right? And how clean can the energy be?

Comments [542]
 
Friday, January 20, 2012 | 11:00 am
This Jan. 17, 2012 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground on Friday, Jan. 13, lying on its starboard side just off the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy. As the ship keeps shifting on its rocky ledge, many have raised the prospect of a possible environmental disaster if the 2,300 tonnes of fuel on the half-submerged cruise ship leaks. Satellites are used to monitor the area while authorities are preparing to remove the fuel from inside the vessel. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe)

Captains and their ships. The ones who stayed, the ones who fled.

Comments [107]
 
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 | 10:00 am
A screen capture from http://sopastrike.com one of the websites leading the protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act. (sopastrike.com)

Clash of titans over Internet piracy and power. Wikipedia goes dark in protest. We’ll look at the big debate.

Comments [284]
 
Thursday, January 12, 2012 | 10:00 am
The Audi R8 GT is displayed on the floor at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. (AP)

Detroit wants to turn your car into a rolling internet connection. We’ll look at cars as the web on wheels.

Comments [371]
 
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 | 11:00 am
This rendered 3-D computed tomography (CT) scan looking down the human head shows the complicated arteries and veins (in blue) supplying the brain above the base of the skull (in green). (Kai-hung Fung/National Science Foundation)

“Just put it out of your mind,” may be better advice than you think: We’ll look at memory and the scientific importance of forgetting.

Comments [141]
 
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 | 11:00 am
Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets". (eldh/Flickr)

The age of Twitter, and where the quick, quick digital impulse goes next. Clay Shirky and Andy Carvin join us.

Comments [46]
 
Friday, December 9, 2011 | 11:00 am
Siri on Apple's iPhone 4s (Alex Kingsbury/WBUR)

Smart phones that talk. Apple’s Siri and Android’s Cluzee, in the studio to take your questions.

Comments [84]
 
ONPOINT
TODAY
May 21, 2012
e temple of Parthenon is silhouetted against a cloudy sunset atop the Acropolis hill in Athens, Thursday May 17 2012. Fitch ratings agency downgraded debt-crippled Greece deeper into junk territory on Thursday, warning of a "probable" Greek exit from the euro currency union if new national elections next month produce an anti-bailout government. Fitch said it had cut Greece's rating by one notch, from B- to CCC, the lowest possible grade for a country that is not in default. (AP)

The threat from Greece to Europe and the world economy. Your economy.

May 21, 2012
A nurse holds a baby in the nursery of the Pennsylvania Hospital in this 1930 photo. The country has reached a historic tipping point -- with minority births constituting more than half of all births, the U.S. Census Bureau reported this month. (AP)

A majority minority births now in the USA. We’ll ask what that means.

RECENT
SHOWS
May 18, 2012
Roger Williams (National Park Service)

Roger Williams, and the history that set the table.

 
May 18, 2012
A demonstrator hit a pot during a protest to mark the anniversary of the "Indignados" movement in Sol square, Madrid, Spain, Tuesday May 15, 2012. Spaniards angered by increasingly grim economic prospects and unemployment hitting one out of every four citizens protested in droves in the nation's largest cities, marking the one-year anniversary of a spontaneous movement that inspired similar anti-authority demonstrations across the planet. (AP)

JP Morgan loses it. Europe wobbles. Facebook fever. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

On Point Blog
On Point Blog
Tom’s Commencement Address At Niagara University
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Tom gave the commencement speech at Niagra University on May 12, 2012. Hear the speech here.

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8 Comments
 
Literary On Point
Monday, May 14, 2012

Enjoy Toni Morrison? Check out these On Point interviews with…

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1 Comment
 
Baby Names
Monday, May 14, 2012

The Social Security Administration released today its top 1,000 baby name list for 2011.

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