Mar 8th, 2010 · Toyota gave detailed evidence Monday that it says disproves claims that electronics may cause the unwanted acceleration that led to the recall of more than 8 million cars and trucks. The company was countering tests by a professor who said Toyota engines could rev without a driver pressing on the gas.
Mar 7th, 2010 · Atrazine is widely used as weedkiller on American farms. And a new study shows this common chemical may have gender-bending effects on frogs. Host Guy Raz talks to biology professor Tyrone Hayes about his work with atrazine and frogs. Hayes found that 9 of every 10 male frogs he exposed to atrazine became chemically castrated. And that other 1 out of every 10? Well, he became a she.
Mar 5th, 2010 · Rumors of Chief Justice John Roberts' retirement from the Supreme Court spread Thursday like wildfire. The blog Above the Law traced the rumor back to a Georgetown law professor who was trying to teach his students the importance of using reliable sources. David Lat of Above the Law discusses how a simple college lesson spun out of control.
Mar 1st, 2010 · A Harvard University professor and biomedical scientist invented a calorie-free way to enjoy chocolate — inhale it.
Feb 27th, 2010 · People between the ages of 19 and 29 make up a third of all uninsured Americans under retirement age. And for many of them, that's a choice. But that puts a strain on the health-care system. Host Guy Raz talks to Tom Baker, a University of Pennsylvania law professor who's proposing a 19th-century solution to this very 21st-century problem: tontines. The health insurance policies would pay a cash bonus to people who buy insurance and then don't use it. The practice was outlawed 100 years ago.
Feb 26th, 2010 · In his new book, The Calculus of Friendship, math professor and writer Steven Strogatz looks back on his 30-year correspondence with his high school math teacher. Can calculus, differential equations and chaos theory help explain the complex nature of human relationships?
Feb 22nd, 2010 · First Lady Michelle Obama has begun nationally promoting her campaign to combat childhood obesity. And she says the media plays a major role in the problem. Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and Dr. Darcy Thompson, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, discuss the link between advertising and childhood obesity.
Feb 21st, 2010 · George Lakoff, a professor of linguists at the University of California, Berkeley, and a specialist in "framing" the way language shapes the way we think, tells host Guy Raz that the future of climate change legislation depends on the words used to explain it.