Robert Krulwich
Robert Krulwich works on radio, podcasts, video, the blogosphere. He has been called "the most inventive network reporter in television" by TV Guide.
Krulwich is the co-host of WNYC's Radiolab, a radio/podcast series distributed nationally by NPR that explores new developments in science for people who are curious but not usually drawn to science shows. Radiolab won a Peabody Award in 2011.
His specialty is explaining complex subjects, science, technology, economics, in a style that is clear, compelling and entertaining. On television he has explored the structure of DNA using a banana; on radio he created an Italian opera, "Ratto Interesso" to explain how the Federal Reserve regulates interest rates; he has pioneered the use of new animation on ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight.
For 22 years, Krulwich was a science, economics, general assignment and foreign correspondent at ABC and CBS News.
He won Emmy awards for a cultural history of the Barbie doll, for a Frontline investigation of computers and privacy, a George Polk and Emmy for a look at the Savings & Loan bailout online advertising and the 2010 Essay Prize from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Krulwich earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Oberlin College and a law degree from Columbia University.
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Death, it appears, prefers gentlemen to ladies. Women don't just outlive men, they consistently outlive men at every stage of life. More boys die in utero, in infancy, in adolescence, in middle age, at every stage. That's why nature makes more of them. But why? What's so fragile about guys?
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India has just banned dolphin entertainment parks. They are "morally unacceptable," says a government ministry. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, the U.S. Navy announced that 24 dolphins trained to sniff for underwater mines will be replaced by robots. We are definitely confused about dolphins.
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Moving north: two vans. Moving east: three taxis, a peddle cab and one lady walking. Moving west: six motorcyles, another taxi, a truck and a van. Moving south: a bicyclist, two cabs and a truck. All of them meet and there are no rules. Who lives? Who dies?
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Take a bunch of broccoli, or make it a Slurpee, burger, pizza and fries, swallow, and ask yourself, "How much energy did I just consume?" Enough to light a flashlight? Run an electric toothbrush? If I were a lunch-eating light bulb, how long would I glow? Here's the answer.
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Be really careful when you carve your name onto an ancient Egyptian temple. Not because it's wrong (which it is), but because sometimes the temple comes back to haunt you. The true story of Luther Bradish, an American spy who didn't keep his secret.
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What can you do with beach sand? Build a sand castle. Dig a canal. Make a snake. What can you do with MIT's "smart" sand? One day, you will turn it into a hammer, fork, chair, anything you want. And when you're done? Poof! It's sand again.
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It's not easy making friends with wild animals, especially when the animal is impossibly small, very shy, hiding under a pile of leaves. But when the writer Rachel Carson heard a "ting! ting! ting!" coming from her backyard — like someone ringing a teeny bell — she had to meet this creature, the one she called "the Fairy Bell Ringer." -
Dolphins make their own toys. They do this by producing perfect little air rings in the water, which they then shove, bite, sculpt and swallow. And they aren't the only ones. Today we celebrate (you should pardon the expression) toroidal vortices.
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It has no center. No "off" switch. No brain. The Internet was designed to be virtually indestructible. But what if, one day, somehow, it stops? We can't have it anymore. What would that be like? Here's a short video about a French couple. She's ready. He's not.
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You, you with your lips, throat, cheek muscles and hands, you, with no effort can drink a glass of water. But what about your cat? Your dog? They don't have the advantages you do. Nor do pigeons. And yet, through ways both brilliant and mysterious, they too can drink. Here are their secrets.
