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120 Giants Found Living With 86-Year-Old Man

I don’t know what kind of nerve, ferocity and stubbornness got 86-year-old Brendon Grimshaw to buy an island in the Indian Ocean, replant it with 16,000 trees, grasses and then lure a bunch of giant tortoises — big galumphing ones and itty bitty ones to live with him (one gets born in his bedroom) — [...]

Does Good Flavor Equal Sustainability?

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode Food Matters. Watch Chef Dan Barber’s full TEDTalk — How I Fell In Love With Fish — on TED.com About Dan Barber’s TEDTalk Chef Dan Barber squares off with a dilemma facing many chefs today: how to keep fish on the menu. With impeccable research and deadpan [...]

Can We Protect Food’s Future And Improve School Lunch?

Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode Food Matters. Watch Cary Fowler’s full TEDTalk — One Seed at a Time, Protecting the Future of Food — and Ann Cooper’s talk about school lunches on TED.com About Cary Fowler’s TEDTalk The varieties of wheat, corn and rice we grow today may not thrive in a [...]

Why Was A Huge ‘Rogue Earthquake’ Not Destructive?

They’re calling it a “rogue earthquake.” On April 11 of this year, one of the 10 biggest earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of Indonesia. It was felt from Bangladesh to Australia. You may not have even heard of this magnitude 8.6 quake. It barely made the news in the U.S. because it did [...]

Thomas Jefferson’s Vegetable Garden: A Thing Of Beauty And Science

When you listen to All Things Considered host Melissa Block’s story about Thomas Jefferson’s garden, you’ll hear how he cared about putting peas on the table and sharing seeds with his friends. He also set loftier goals for his vegetable garden: Monticello’s south-facing expanse was a living laboratory for a lifelong tinkerer and almost obsessive [...]

Mars Rover Opportunity Emerges From Winter Doldrums, Gets Back On Move

With the darkest days of the Martian winter now over, NASA took its Opportunity Mars Rover for a drive this week. The rover had been stationary while its solar panels lacked enough sunlight to power its batteries. The rover’s drive Tuesday was a short one: “about 12 feet northwest and downhill,” according to NASA. The [...]

The Dinosaurs’ Nemeses: Giant, Jurassic Fleas

Fossil-hunting scientists are coming to grips with a new discovery that could change forever how we think of dinosaurs. What they’ve found is that dinosaurs may well have been tortured by large, flealike bloodsucking insects. Yes, it appears that the greatest predators that ever roamed Earth suffered just as we mammals did — and as [...]

Look Up: Tonight, ‘Supermoon’ Is Closer To Earth

Head outside at sunset tonight and look up at the sky. If the full moon seems a tad larger than normal to you, that means one of two things: You are exceptionally perceptive, or you were already expecting to be dazzled, after hearing some of the buzz about this year’s “supermoon.” It turns out that [...]

Who Killed Mens’ Hats? Think Of A Three Letter Word Beginning With ‘I’

A hundred years ago — and that’s when this picture was taken, in 1912 — men didn’t leave home without a hat. Boys wore caps. This is a socialist political rally in Union Square in Manhattan. There may be a bare head or two in this crowd, but I think those heads are women’s. Here’s [...]

Greenland’s Ice Melting Slower Than Expected

A new study has some reassuring news about how fast Greenland’s glaciers are melting away. Greenland’s glaciers hold enough water to raise sea level by 20 feet, and they are melting as the planet warms, so there’s a lot at stake. A few years ago, the Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland really caught people’s attention. In [...]