Engines of Our Ingenuity
1,199 episodes - English - Latest episode: 13 days ago - ★★★★★ - 165 ratingsThe story of technological progress is one of drama and intrigue, sudden insight and plain hard work. Let’s explore technology’s spectacular failures and many magnificent success stories.
This content is in service of Houston Public Media’s education mission and is sponsored by the University of Houston. It is not a product of our news team.
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Episodes
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1817: Scaling Numbers
February 02, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 1817 Scientific literacy and the confusion of units. Today, we lay numbers out on a dial.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1812: Inventing Boyhood
January 31, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 1812 Reinventing boyhood in the late nineteenth century. Today, we invent boys.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3015: Hooke and Newton
January 30, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 3015 Hooke and Newton Collide. Today, the pudding’s in the proof.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1813: Raymonde de Laroche
January 29, 2020 17:00 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 1813 Raymonde de Laroche, a brief bright flame. Today, the first woman pilot.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2544: Face Recognition
January 29, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2544 How humans and computers recognize faces. Today, UH math professor Krešo Josić recognizes your face.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3224: Disney’s Master of Illusion Fred Joerger
January 28, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.89 MBEpisode: 3224 Fake rocks, forced perspective, and other forms of illusion in the private home of Disney Imagineer Fred Joerger. Today, facades, both physical and personal.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1810: The Calculus
January 27, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 1810 Learning calculus -- or maybe we knew it already. Today, let's do calculus.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1814: Cultural Climate & Invention
January 26, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 1814 Cultural climate, invention, and labor-saving achieved through labor. Today, an unexpected cause for invention.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3223: Reading and Listening
January 24, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 3223 The problem of writing for people to read and for people to hear. Today, we read and we listen.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3013: Alfred Kahn and Deregulation
January 23, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 3013 Alfred Kahn and Deregulation. Today, the wrath of Kahn.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2638: Artificial Gravity
January 22, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2638 Artificial Gravity for Human Spaceflight; What is Gained, What is Lost. Today, astronaut Michael Barratt discusses the pros and cons of artificial gravity.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3012: Newton, God, and Gravity
January 21, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 3012 Newton, God, and Gravity. Today, we get pulled in.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3222: The “Color” Black
January 20, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 3222 Black, the colorless and highly desirable color. Today, black is the "color."
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1811: Catacombs
January 19, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 1811 Catacombs - as seen through nineteenth-century eyes. Today, catacombs.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1809: Fonthill
January 17, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 1809 Fonthill Mansion/Castle: architecture or a passing dream? Today, very personal architecture.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3010: Efficient Auto Racing
January 16, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 3010 Efficient Auto Racing. Today, pushing the limits.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2806: Thor and Engineering
January 15, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2806 Thor, the god of thunder, engineering behind comic book, college courses that deal with fracture. Today, our guest Haleh Ardebili talks about Thor and Engineering.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3221: Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection
January 14, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.92 MBEpisode: 3221 The Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection and its contributions to medicine. Today, a bone collection.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1807: Rocketry: The Last Blast
January 13, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 1807 The last blast of the wild rocket boy. Today, a parable about childhood's end.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1808: First Time Up!
January 12, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 1808 First Time Up!: In which Ford celebrates his new Trimotor and we fly for the first time. Today, our first airplane ride.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3220: Leaderless
January 10, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.8 MBEpisode: 3220 Self-organization as a replacement for leadership. Today, we function without a leader.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3009: Foley
January 09, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.79 MBEpisode: 3009 Foley: Sound Thinking. Today, sound thinking.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1805: The Milk of Human Kindness
January 06, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 1805 The milk of human kindness in cities around the world. Today, the milk of human kindness.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1804: New York Harbor – 1852
January 05, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 1804 Timewarp in an 1852 painting of New York Harbor. Today, an artist catches history in flight.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1802: Freelan and Francis Stanley
January 03, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 1802 Freelan and Francis Stanley, and their steamer. Today, the Stanleys and their Steamer.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3219: Gravitational Transport
January 02, 2020 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.84 MBEpisode: 3219 Gravity-Powered Intracity Transport. Today, a wild ride.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1803: Fire Escapes
December 29, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 1803 The fire escape: an icon that hardly still exists. Today, fire escapes.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1800: All-Embracing Sciences
December 27, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 1800 A concern about sciences that encompass everything. Today, a single science for all things?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3008: Sealed Clamshell Packaging
December 26, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 3008 Sealed Clamshell Packaging. Today, tightly sealed.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2514: Linear Algebra and Netflix
December 25, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2514 How Netflix uses linear algebra to determine what movies you will like best. Today, UH math professor Krešo Josić talks about math and your movie choice.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3218: Dylan’s Education
December 24, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.83 MBEpisode: 3218 Bob Dylan's Self-Education. Today, Dylan goes to school.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1799: Miriam F. Leslie
December 23, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 1799 Miriam Leslie: like Gloria Steinem, Clare Boothe Luce, and Elizabeth Taylor all rolled into one. Today, Miriam F. Leslie.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1801: Windmills: Fancier and Fancier
December 22, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.8 MBEpisode: 1801 An update on windmills/wind-turbines and renewable energy. Today, a windmill report.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3217: Model Airplanes in 1937
December 20, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.8 MBEpisode: 3217 Two 1937 booklets reveal a shift in the art of model airplane building. Today, I look through a window into another time.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3006: Generalization
December 19, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 3006 The Good and Bad of Generalization. Today, we generalize.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2353: In C
December 18, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 2353 Reflections on -- or in -- the key of C. Today, French hornist Roger Kaza plays in C.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3216: Internment Camp Art Schools
December 17, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.89 MBEpisode: 3216 World War II, the Los Angeles Art Students League, and Japanese American internment. Today, art and survival.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1798: Mind Reading
December 16, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 1798 Mind Reading: An exclusively human ability. Today, let us be mind readers.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3004: Higher Dimensions
December 10, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 3004 Lenin, Mach, and Higher Dimensions. Today, higher dimensions.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1793: What Was Your Name?
December 09, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 1793 What was your name in the States?": Beginning anew. Today, what was your name, back in the States?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1794: Autogiro
December 08, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 1794 From Autogiro to Gyroplane: Making the Unicorn Real. Today, a forgotten chapter in the history of flight.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1792: Foghorns and Sirens
December 06, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 1792 The Siren call: not exactly lured by steam sirens and foghorns. Today, we make noise.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3003: The Pennsylvania Prison System
December 05, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 3003 The Pennsylvania Prison System. Today, in the pen.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2628: The Edge of Space
December 04, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2628 When traveling into space, how do you know you're there? Today, astronaut Michael Barratt asks, where exactly is the border of space?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3002: Choice
December 03, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 3002 How Technology Has Enabled Choices. Today, we make a choice.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1791: The Thames Tunnel
December 02, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 1791 The Thames Tunnel: Heroic engineering and its promotion. Today, the Thames Tunnel.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1790: The Fireside University
December 01, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 1790 The Fireside University: struggling to know and teach, technology and science. Today, a fireside university.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1789: Farbenlehre
November 29, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 1789 Goethe's Farbenlehre: science and Romanticism. Today, light and color.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2997: Aging
November 28, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2997 Much Ado About Aging. Today, some things never get old.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2368: Time Out of Joint
November 27, 2019 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2368 In which Shakespeare and Cervantes die on the same day, but eleven days apart. Today, UH scholar, Richard Armstrong tells us about puzzles in chronology.