Shows / Engines of Our Ingenuity
Engines of Our Ingenuity
The 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.
Episodes
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2588: Synthetic Sound Waves
Episode: 2588 Synthetic Sound Waves. Today, the sound of music.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3370: Poetic Meter
Episode: 3370 A Look at Poetry and the Importance of Rhythmic Metre. Today, the rhythm of poetry.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3369: Tiny Living Factories
Episode: 3369 Small cells and microorganism that behave like living factories. Today, tiny living factories.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3368: Reality
Episode: 3368 The possibility that there exists a reality out of reach of any human science. Today, we wonder what’s real.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1564: The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Episode: 1564 The Second Law of Thermodynamics and time's arrow. Today, we see why time goes only from then to now.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1562: Guido da Viegevano
Episode: 1562 Guido da Vigevano uses war as an excuse to invent. Today, a medieval inventor goes to war -- almost.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1561: Herbert J. L. Hinkler
Episode: 1561 'Hustling Hinkler, Up in the Sky' - an early Australian flier leaves his mark. Today, an odd hero of early aviation.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2585: Measuring Race Times
Episode: 2585 The technology of timing races. Today, who won that race?
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2942: Hilton Hotels in Space
Episode: 2942 Hilton Hotels in Space. Today, we reach for the stars.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2638: Artificial Gravity
Episode: 2638 Artificial Gravity for Human Spaceflight; What is Gained, What is Lost. Today, astronaut Michael Barratt discusses the pros and cons of…
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1560: Narrow Perception
Episode: 1560 In which we 'look' at the world through a narrow slit. Today, we look at the world through a narrow slit.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1559: The Oldest Technology
Episode: 1559 Music-making: the first technology. Today, we look for the oldest technology.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1558: We O’ercome by Art
Episode: 1558 Mastered by nature, we o'ercome by art - then as now. Today, an old debate in a new arena.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1556: The Manual Arts
Episode: 1556 In which we run out of manual arts teachers for our schools. Today, let's work with our hands.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2583: Children and Their Goals
Episode: 2583 Children and their Goals. Today, president, pope, astronaut.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3253: Machine Learning
Episode: 3253 Teaching Computers to Think. Today, Teaching a Computer.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3166: Spoonerisms
Episode: 3166 Spoonerisms and Their Unwilling Namesake. Today, spooning in speakerisms.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1554: Scientific Instruments
Episode: 1554 In which new science yields new instruments: 1500 to 1950. Today, a new class of machines and new viewpoint.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1553: In Vacuo
Episode: 1553 Galileo, Torricelli, von Guericke, and the idea of a vacuum. Today, we invent vacuum.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1552: Global Warming Again
Episode: 1552 The ocean - the wild card in global warming. Today, we wonder how things are really heating up.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1551: Inventing the Piano
Episode: 1551 In which Gary Larson tells us the piano was invented earlier than we thought. oday, a lesson in invention from the Far Side.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2578: Water Towers
Episode: 2578 The Wonders of Water Towers. Today, water flows downhill.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2864: Bayes’ Theorem
Episode: 2864 The theorem of Reverend Bayes. Today, let's talk about uncertainty and an 18th century Presbyterian minister.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3247: The Prouste Questionnaire
Episode: 3247 Proust, Turing, and the Measure of Humanity. Today, we go from Turing to Proust.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1550: Finding the Book
Episode: 1550 Making a book of The Engines of Our Ingenuity. Today, we wonder how to make a book.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1549: Comptus Rendus, 1836
Episode: 1549 Compte Rendus, 1836: a snapshot of science at high tide. Today, we read modern science when it was first being made.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1547: Ripe for Revolution
Episode: 1547 Mystery at the threshhold of the Twentieth Century. Today, let's reclaim mystery.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1546: Max Jakob
Episode: 1546 Max Jakob: a breath of fresh air in a new land. Today, a great engineer escapes the Holocaust.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2576: Screw Caps for Wine
Episode: 2576 Are screw caps good for wine? Today, a turn of the screw.
- Engines of Our Ingenuity
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2687: What Lives Within Us
Episode: 2687 Getting to know the organisms that live on and in the human body. Today, what lives within us.