Recent Episodes
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Out of the Bog
In 1915, workers cutting peat in a Denmark bog discovered the skeletal remains of a man. They uncovered the right anklebone, lower left shinbone, jawbone and a fragmented skull, along with a wooden club, a ceramic vessel and cow bones. Scientists eventually determined that the remains were those of a man who lived and died about 5,200 years ago. He was given the name Vittrup Man, and scientists think he was killed by blows to the head between 3100 BC and 3300 BC. ... More » }
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Did you ever wonder why we don't have tails?
Our tailbones are the last vestiges of the tails we once had. We lost them some 25 million years ago when evolution parted hominoids from Old World Monkeys. What's been a mystery is how we lost our tails. A new study points to a change in the TBXT gene. ... More » }
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The microbiome of death
You'd think with dying being a part of living that we would know all there is to know about how the body decomposes. Not true, partly because ethical concerns limit our access to human corpses. But each new study sheds a bit more light. A recent one involves three donated human bodies to see how they decompose across seasons, climates, and environments. ... More » }
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3D Printing a Brain
The brain is perhaps our most mysterious and complex organ. Its structure is unique, and its chemical composition is much different from our other organs. One tool being refined in helping us understand the brain is growing tiny brains called organoids. Stem cells are coaxed into forming these pea-sized structures that then allow us to study it. ... More » }
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A Cancer that Could be Eliminated
We have few vaccines that can prevent cancer, but one is here and could save the lives of 300,000 women a year. Human papilloma viruses or HPV cause ninety percent of cervical cancers and the HPV vaccine can prevent it. Yet only a fifth of people get it. ... More » }
