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 2786: Ingenuity Leashed
June 02, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2786 Creativity Leashed: How a new way of looking at computers got away. Today, learning from an Alto.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3271: An Obsession with Round Numbers
June 01, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.96 MBEpisode: 3271 An Obsession with Round Numbers. The two-hour marathon milestone has been smashed. But what exactly does that mean? Today, an obsession with round numbers.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3270: Leyat and the Helica
May 31, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.82 MBEpisode: 3270 Marcel Leyat adapts his experience designing aircraft to disrupt automotive development. Today, car design takes flight.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2235: John Perry and Earth’s Age
May 30, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2235 John Perry, Lord Kelvin, Earth's age, and the role of conduction and convection. Today, we see history evolving.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2233: GeeBee and Other Fast Planes
May 29, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2233 Gee Bee, Macchi-Castoldi, and the age of speed. Today, we go for speed.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2230: James Herman Banning
May 28, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2230 James Banning, pioneering Black pilot. Today, James Herman Banning.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2229: Children and Science
May 27, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2229 Hurdles that children must leap to learn science. Today, children and science.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2785: Killer-App
May 26, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2785 VisiCalc: early killer-app. Today, column D, row 3.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3107: Expectations of Brilliance
May 25, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 3107 Why it matters that we expect boys to be brilliant and girls to work hard. Today, let’s talk about who we expect to be brilliant.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3269: Cyanotype
May 23, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.84 MBEpisode: 3269 Blueprint: Once a thing, now only a metaphor. Today, a thing lingers as a metaphor.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2227: A Late Night Movie
May 22, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2227 A Late Night Movie: Beatrice Lillie and a glimpse of another time. Today, let us go to a very old movie.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2232: History and Mystery
May 21, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2232 The real story behind Amelia Earhart, and other tales to good to be true. Today, I'm in trouble.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2226: Old Scientific Illustrations
May 20, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2226 Aesop's Fables and scientific illustration. Today, Aesop's fables illustrate a new science.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2784: Green Golf Courses
May 19, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2784 Environmentally Sustainable Golf Courses. Today, where the grass is always greener.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3072: William Gosset
May 18, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 3072 The brewer, chemist and statistician William Sealy Gosset. Today, a master brewer and a statistician.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2225: Jean-Charles Borda
May 16, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2225 Jean-Charles Borda: More than just a name on an orifice meter. Today, let's meet Jean-Charles Borda.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2223: Charlie Taylor
May 13, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2223 Charlie Taylor, builder of the Wright brothers' engines. Today, the Wright brother's engine.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2762: Aunt Sammy
May 12, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2762 Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes. Today, Uncle Sam's better half.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3078: Restoring the Parthenon
May 11, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 3078 Restoring the Parthenon: The Acropolis Restoration Service and 40+ Years of Hard Work. Today, how to rebuild a ruin.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2222: Jeremiah Horrocks
May 10, 2022 01:00 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2222 Jeremiah Horrocks, the 23-year-old "Father of English Astronomy." Today, a planetary prodigy.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2221: Jaywalking
May 09, 2022 23:00 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2221 Who owns the streets: the invention of jaywalking. Today, who owns the streets.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2224: Megalonyx
May 09, 2022 21:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2224 Thomas Jefferson and megalonyx, the great-clawed ground sloth. Today, Jefferson meets Great Claw.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2217: Magic Stairways
April 29, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2217 Escalator: the Not-All-Purpose Magical Stairway. Today, magic stairways.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2778: Qualia
April 28, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2778 Qualia and Mary's Black and White Room. Today, there's something about Mary.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3044: Randomized Clinical Trials
April 27, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 3044 Randomized Clinical Trials. Today, statistics, evidence and medicine.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3268: View From My Window
April 26, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.87 MBEpisode: 3268 Social Media and the Places We Call Home. Today, we take a view from my window.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2216: Good Health for Boys & Girls
April 25, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 2216 Good Health for Boys and Girls in 1889. Today, we raise your great grandparents.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2215: Surviving Ourselves
April 24, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2215 Surviving Ourselves: Another look at the long ecology debate. Today, the problem of saving the world.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2214: John Edward Routh
April 22, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2214 John Edward Routh: Statics then and now. Today, two textbooks.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2774: Hospitality Industry Archives
April 21, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2774 The Massad Family Research Center and Hospitality Industry Archives. Today, travel made easier.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2912: The Is-Ought Problem
April 20, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2912 David Hume and the Is-Ought Problem in Philosophy. Today, David Hume dissects a problem.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2213: Henri Pitot
April 18, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2213 Henri Pitot, his tube, and the Pont du Gard. Today, a story about aqueducts and airspeeds.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2212: Joseph and John LeConte
April 17, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2212 In which Joseph and John LeConte accept evolution as they themselves evolve. Today, a tale of two slaveholders.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2211: Concrete Canoe
April 15, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2211 Concrete Canoe: a metaphor, a vehicle for learning, and new technology in old clothing. Today, we build our boat from concrete.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2773: The Mechanics of Muppets
April 14, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.69 MBEpisode: 2773 The Mechanics of Muppets. Today, engineering entertainment.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3016: Simpson’s Paradox
April 13, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 3016 Simpson's Paradox. Today, paradoxical averages.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2772: Transhumanism
April 12, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2772 Transhumanism. Today, we change.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2210: Packaging and Waste
April 11, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2210 Taking out the trash -- and there's so much to take out. Today, we take out trash.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2209: Before the DC-3
April 10, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2209 Before the DC-3: The primitive years of commercial airlines. Today, what did we fly in before we had DC-3s?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2208: Beccaria and Franklin
April 08, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2208 Franklin, Beccaria, and Volta: Setting the stage for the electric 19th century. Today, we invent electricity.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2771: Shorthand
April 07, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2771 Shorthand: Past, Present and Future. Today, to the point.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3267: Character Amnesia
April 05, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.8 MBEpisode: 3267 The Human Benefits of Writing by Hand. Today, handwriting in the digital era.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2207: Mount Tambora
April 04, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2207 How the little-remembered eruption of Mt. Tambora killed 70,000 people and gave rise to the novel Frankenstein. Today, a terrible volcano gives birth to Frankenstein.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2206: Evolution in 1944
April 03, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2206 A 1944 progress report on the subject of human evolution. Today, an old progress report on evolution.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2205: A New View
April 01, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2205 The view from above: Another way of seeing. Today, a new look -- at seeing things.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2769: Math Wars
March 31, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2769 Math Wars: The progressive math movement in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Today, math wars.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2869: Horsepower
March 30, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2869 James Watt's introduction of horsepower as a measurement unit. Today, the power of horses.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2767: William Lear
March 29, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2767 William P. Lear: Beyond the Learjet. Today, reaching for the sky.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2203: The Chankillo Observatory
March 28, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 2203 The Chankillo Observatory, first in the Western Hemisphere. Today, we learn the time of the year.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2202: Brownie Cameras
March 27, 2022 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2202 Brownie cameras and brownie sprites -- two sides of one coin. Today, cameras and sprites.