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 1818: Leon Theramin
February 01, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.69 MBEpisode: 1818 Leon Theremin's remarkable music machine. Today, our guest, scientist Andrew Boyd, talks about the man who wed music to electricity.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2957: The Power of Cities
January 31, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2957 The Power of Cities. Today, let's talk about cities and power laws.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2999: Hannibal’s Grand Strategy
January 30, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2999 Hannibal's Grand Strategy: Genius or Failure? Today, Hannibal at the gates.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1108: 100 Million Land Mines
January 29, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.6 MBEpisode: 1108 100,000,000 land mines -- killing off civilians in perpetuity. Today, land mines tell us about modern war.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1107: Engineering Education
January 28, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.65 MBEpisode: 1107 In which we call ourselves engineers, for the last 200 years. Today, we learn where engineers come from.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1105: Mary Roberts
January 27, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.64 MBEpisode: 1105 Mary Roberts: The frustration of a 19th century woman scientist. Today, we face the anger of a woman who's been erased.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1104: Von Suttner and Nobel
January 26, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.64 MBEpisode: 1104 Nobel, The Baroness von Suttner, and the Peace Prize. Today, the origin of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1748: Multiples of Nine
January 25, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 1748 A remarkable perception of a mathematical oddity. Today, Guest Andrew Boyd, chief scientist at the PROS organization, shares an "age-old" story about numbers.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2846: Coffee Houses
January 24, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2846 Coffeehouses and the Birth of a Public Sphere. Today, let's share a cup of coffee.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2960: Herculaneum
January 23, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 2960 CSI Herculaneum: How A Terrible Discovery Helps Paleodemography. Today, CSI Herculaneum.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1103: How We Die
January 22, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.64 MBEpisode: 1103 How We Die: A surgeon comes to terms with death. Today, a doctor reflects on death and the machinery of sustaining life.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1101: Paconius’s Folly
January 21, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.66 MBEpisode: 1101 A Roman engineer's not-quite-right idea for moving a pedestal. Today, a clever Roman engineer outsmarts himself.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1098: Who Invented the Telephone?
January 20, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.62 MBEpisode: 1098 In which we try to decide who really invented the telephone. Today, an old question: who invented the telephone?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1097: Acceptable Risk
January 19, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.61 MBEpisode: 1097 A surprising answer to the question, "How much risk is really acceptable to us?" Today, let's look at the idea of risk homeostasis.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1716: Bounding Billies
January 18, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.69 MBEpisode: 1716 Bounding Billies: The century-long reign of the wound-rubber golf ball. Today, our guest, operations researcher Andrew Boyd, tells about the simplest of toys, the golf ball.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3090: Friedrich Richard Petri
January 17, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.66 MBEpisode: 3090 Friedrich Richard Petri. Today, drawing the frontier.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2888: Strength Through Joy Car
January 16, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2888 The Strength Through Joy Car: Hitler's Volkswagen and American Consumer Culture. Today, the "strength through joy" car.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1096: Inventing the Organ
January 15, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.64 MBEpisode: 1096 Ktesibios invention of the pipe organ in the 3rd century BC. Today, the invention of the pipe organ.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1095: The Lesion Within
January 14, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.63 MBEpisode: 1095 The lesion within: Medicine learns look inside the human body. Today, we try to locate the seat of disease.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1622: Fingerprints
January 13, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.7 MBEpisode: 1622 Fingerprints, crime detection, and identification. Today, I ask, "Who are you?"
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1621: Motherland
January 12, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 1621 Motherland: The Stalingrad Memorial. Today, we visit a really big statue.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2855: Gregorian Chant
January 11, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.79 MBEpisode: 2855 Plainchant, Gregorian Chant, and Today's Music. Today, plain and simple.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1094: Mesa Verde
January 10, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.67 MBEpisode: 1094 Mesa Verde: Another civilization abandonded at its peak. Today, we ask about permanence in a civilization.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2822: Herodotus
January 09, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2822 Herodotus describing historical events of 5th century BC, fantastical and entertaining component of The Histories. Today, we visit Herodotus.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2364: The Longest Year in History
January 08, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2364 46 BC: In which Julius Caesar creates the longest year. Today, UH scholar Richard Armstrong tells us about the longest year in history.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2566: Champagne
January 07, 2024 18:56 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2566 Taking Champagne to the Masses. Today, we pop the cork.
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3285: Epiphanies
January 06, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.94 MBEpisode: 3285 Literature's Famous Epiphanies: Real and Fictional. Today, one of literature's famous epiphanies.
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2446: Limits of Logic
January 05, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2446 Gödel, Ginsberg, and the limits of logic. Today, the limits of logic.
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2445: What Made Robert Norton Go?
January 04, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2445 In which Renaissance engineer Robert Norton thinks about gunnery. Today, the inner life of an early engineer.
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2669: Christmas Greenery
January 03, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2669 Plants and greens associated with the Christmas Season. Today, Christmas greenery.
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1760: The Christmas Lectures
January 02, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 1760 The Christmas Lectures: Michael Faraday's Gift to children. Today, the Christmas Lectures.
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1671: Other Selves-Other Christmases
January 01, 2024 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 1671 Quantum mechanics takes to a place we didn't know was there. Today, we think about multiple Christmases.
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2039: Quiet on the Western Front
December 31, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 2039 In which we experience quiet on the Western Front. Today, it's quiet on the Western Front.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1093: Under Pressure
December 30, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.64 MBEpisode: 1093 The sad tale of Eads' great bridge and caissons disease. Today, the story of a great bridge and a mysterious disease.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1092: Rocket Belt
December 29, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.64 MBEpisode: 1092 The unrelenting search for Buck Rogers' rocket belt. Today, let's fly without an airplane.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2970: The Ever Changing train
December 28, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2970 The ever changing train: Cars and crew. Today, a story of change.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2927: Dual Inheritance Theory
December 27, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2927 Dual Inheritance Theory: How our Genes and our Culture are co-evolving. Today, a very odd design feature.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2780: Mail Plane to History Maker
December 26, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.68 MBEpisode: 2780 Mail Plane to History Maker. Today, a very odd design feature.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1091: Balloon Bombs
December 25, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.61 MBEpisode: 1091 Balloon Bombs -- the Japanese secret weapon. Today, a tale of two secret weapons.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1090: Poe’s Conchology
December 24, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.62 MBEpisode: 1090 In which Edgar Allen Poe writes about conchology. Today, an act of plagiarism is not quite what it seems to be.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1089: At the Art Museum
December 23, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.61 MBEpisode: 1089 A museum guard talks to me about art and creativity. Today, a security guard explains creativity to me.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1088: Housework
December 22, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.57 MBEpisode: 1088 Housework: In which work doesn't exactly expand to fill the time. Today, "Man may work from sun to sun, but woman's work is never done!"
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2968: Riblet Tramways
December 21, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2968 Brothers Byron and Royal Riblet. Today, a tale of two brothers.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2901: Cybernetics
December 20, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2901 Norbert Wiener and Cybernetics. Today, let's talk about Norbert Wiener and cybernetics.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2881: Racial Mythologies: Günther vs Huxley
December 19, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2881 Racial Mythologies: Hans Günther vs. Julian Huxley on the Concept of Race. Today, poison in the library.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1087: Aluminum
December 18, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.61 MBEpisode: 1087 Aluminum: from a precious metal to a cheap structural material. Today, we try to extract silver from clay.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1086: An Obsession with Obsidian
December 17, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.62 MBEpisode: 1086 Aztec obsidian, too good to give up. Today, we ask why the Aztecs didn't make full use of metal.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1085: The First American Steam Engine
December 16, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.57 MBEpisode: 1085 The first American steam engine. Today, steam comes to America.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1084: The First Steamboat
December 15, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.58 MBEpisode: 1084 Jouffroy's steamboat -- 24 years before Fulton. Today, let's go looking for the first steamboat.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2966: Muffler
December 14, 2023 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.81 MBEpisode: 2966 Mufflers, Noisy Motorcycles, and Acoustics. Today, we pipe down.