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 2812: Flying the Atlantic
September 02, 2023 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2812 poised to begin transatlantic flight in 1938. How it came out in 1945. Today, we fly the Atlantic.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2807: Downward Diffusion
September 01, 2023 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2807 3D printing provides the latest view of the downward diffusion of technology. Today, technology keeps diffusing downward.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2933: Math and The Dreyfus Affair
August 31, 2023 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2933 Math and The Dreyfus Affair. Today, courtroom drama.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2905: The Gift of Imagination
August 30, 2023 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2905 Imagination's Contributions to Science and Technology, Developmental Psychology and Imagination. Today, the gift of imagination.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2820: Remaking Ben-Hur
August 29, 2023 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2820 A Spectacular Series of Spectaculars: Remaking Ben-Hur. Today, remaking Ben-Hur.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2800: 2800 Years Ago
August 28, 2023 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2800 Two information revolutions: 2800 years ago, and surrounding the 2800th Episode. Today, 2800 years ago.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2792: Silent Revolutions
August 27, 2023 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2792 Glorious revolutions - which we see only after they've passed. Today, silent revolutions.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2788: Measuring Our Machines
August 26, 2023 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2788 Measuring and testing our machines — not yet as electronic as it might seem. Today, an old book on testing machines harbors a surprise.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2787: Doolittle’s Raid
August 25, 2023 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2787 Doolittle's Tokyo raid: Much more than the mere gesture it seemed to be. Today, a costly gesture that may've saved America.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2308: Twenty Years
September 04, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2308 A twentieth-year reminder of what we're trying to accomplish. Today, twenty years together.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2306: Earth Tones
September 03, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2306 In which Wayne Gilbert paints in earth tones from Earth itself. Today, we look at earth tones.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2302: Henry Koster
September 02, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2302 Henry Koster: one man's life in the movies. Today, one man's life in the movies.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2835: Reverse Engineering the Brain
September 01, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2835 Reverse Engineering the Brain. Today, we look to the brain.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2674: The Royal Naval Surgeon
August 31, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2674 The Royal Navy Surgeon; Taking Medicine to Sea in the Age of Sail. Today, the Royal Navy Surgeon.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3139: Maryam Mirzakhani
August 30, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.8 MBEpisode: 3139 Maryam Mirzakhani: A life in Mathematics. Today, let's talk about the Iranian-American mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2300: Pink Flamingos
August 29, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2300 Pink Flamingos: vicissitudes in the search for art. Today, pink flamingos.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2304: Carnegie and Young Watt
August 28, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2304 Andrew Carnegie reads an important lesson in the life of young James Watt. Today, Carnegie speaks through Watt.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2299: Technology in 1873
August 27, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2299 A snapshot view of dazzling technological change. Today, we try to focus on a blur of change.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2297: Balsa Wood
August 26, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2297 Balsa wood: triggering the imagination and creation of composite materials. Today, we build with balsa wood.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2832: Claude-Louis Navier
August 25, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2832 Math meets engineering: Claude-Louis Navier's bridge. Today, building bridges.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3280: The Kewpie Doll Effect
August 23, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.82 MBEpisode: 3280 Neoteny, Cute, and the Kewpie Doll Effect. Today, we consider "cute."
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2295: Using Up Aeroplanes
August 22, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2295 All the old biplanes allowed to crash, because it was so much fun. Today, we use up the old aeroplanes.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2294: The Internet Contaminated
August 21, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2294 Contaminating the indelible mirror of everyday life -- the Internet. Today, I'll contaminate the Internet.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2292: Music, Creativity — & Anarchy
August 20, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2292 Music, creativity, and anarchy: accomplishment arising from the ground up. Today, music and creativity -- from the ground up.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2291: The Bees’ New Home
August 19, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.79 MBEpisode: 2291 It's moving day for a hundred thousand bees. Today, sex in the parking lot.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2830: Generative Art
August 18, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.79 MBEpisode: 2830 Computing Generative Art. Today, new territory.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3187: Raspberry Pi
August 17, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 3187 The Raspberry Pi, a Small Computer with a Lot of Flavor. Today, a very sweet computer.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2994: Punching Out
August 16, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2994 Escaping from a Stricken Aircraft; the Rise of Ejection Seats. Today, “punching out”.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2289: The Tower Building
August 15, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2289 The rise and demolition of New York's first skyscraper. Today, the skyscraper arrives.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2288: Faulkner and Handley Page
August 14, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2288 William Faulkner and the Handley Page bomber at the movies. Today, William Faulkner takes us for a ride in a bomber.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2287: Fritz Haber
August 13, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2287 The ceremony of innocence is drowned: Fritz Haber swallowed by wars. Today, innocence is drowned.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2286: Of Ponzis and Pyramids
August 12, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2286 Ponzi and pyramid schemes: How we love to throw our money away! Today, we get rich quick.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2828: Cray
August 11, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2828 Seymour Cray and Cray Supercomputers. Today, we go super.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3210: Scourge of the Sea
August 10, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.94 MBEpisode: 3210 Scourge of the Sea, the long search for a cure for scurvy. Today, a medical cure, lost and found.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2826: Carbon Sequestration
August 09, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2826 Reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide with carbon sequestration. Today, the world’s highest profile molecule.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2282: The Gokstad Ship
August 06, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2282 In which the Gokstad Viking ship tells its story. Today, the Gokstad ship.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2821: Lobotomy
August 05, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2821 Science gone wrong: the lobotomy. Today, science gone wrong.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2281: Lindbergh and Nungesser
August 05, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2281 Lindbergh, Nungesser, and the stories woven about them. Today, Lindbergh, Nungesser, and their stories.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2280: Onoda and Yokoi
August 02, 2022 17:00 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2280 In which Hiroo Onoda and Shoichi Yokoi cannot figure out that the war has ended. Today, the strange tales of Onoda and Yokoi.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2819: Folding Bicycles
August 02, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2819 Folding bicycles battle new terrain. Today, altered shapes.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2278: Meitner and Hahn
August 01, 2022 23:52 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 2278 Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn: friendship in the face of terrible odds. Today, Meitner and Hahn, an odd couple.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2285: Fiat Biplanes
August 01, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2285 In which Fiat builds the last great combat biplanes. Today, Fiat Biplanes.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2283: Shoe Polish and Lubrication
July 31, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2283 An anachronistic old book links shoe polish and lubrication. Today, shoe polish and bearing lubrication.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2276: The Cascade Effect
July 30, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2276 The Cascade Effect: In which we join in conclusions based on incomplete science. Today, we try to sort out science.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2274: Old Graves in an Old Town
July 29, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2274 Old graves in an old town and a new view of who we were. Today, old gravestones.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2811: Jury Duty
July 28, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2811 Jury Duty: deciding the size of the jury pool. Today, jury duty.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3133: The Liar That Helped Win D-Day
July 27, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 3133 Juan Pujol García: the Liar Who Helped Win D-Day. Today, a great big liar saves the day.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3092: Descriptions of Arts and Crafts
July 26, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 3092 Descriptions of Arts and Crafts. Today, saving arts and crafts.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2273: Rifling
July 25, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2273 Why we rifle footballs, bullets, knives, and arrows. Today, a look at rifling.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2270: Louis de Brogue
July 24, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2270 Louis de Broglie: The prince and blurred pea. Today, the prince and the blurred pea.