Science

So far in our series about tech predicted in the 1989 movie about time travel, we've talked about sleep inducing technology, biometrics and more. Today's topic? The weather. Back to the Future Part II had a forecast for a 2015 world where a piece of wearable technology told Doc what the weather would do up to the second. Or was the weather being controlled? Matt Novak, author of Gizmodo's Paleofuture blog, joins us to talk about the scene - and about the history of weather control.

Did Back to the Future Part II predict weather control?

No one knows what it is, or why we can't see it. All we know is that without it, the universe would fall apart. 

Performed by Kevin Corrigan, Chet Siegel, Ed Herbstman, Dennis Pacheco, Alexis Lambright, Rob Webber, and Anna Sale. Written by Diana McCorry, and produced by Jonathan Mitchell. Inspired by listener Christopher Tunnell.

Dark Matter

We were made and set here, the writer Annie Dillard once wrote, "to give voice to our astonishments." Katy Payne is a renowned acoustic biologist with a Quaker sensibility. And she’s found her astonishment in listening to two of the world’s most exotic creatures. She has decoded the language of elephants and was among the first scientists to discover that whales are composers of song.

See more at www.onbeing.org/program/katy-payne-in-the-presence-of-elephants-and-whales/241

Katy Payne — In the Presence of Elephants and Whales

This week: an impenetrable mathematical proof, toggling REM sleep on and off, and the latest results from the Rosetta mission.

Science

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