Engines of Our Ingenuity

Episode: 2901 Norbert Wiener and Cybernetics.  Today, let's talk about Norbert Wiener and cybernetics.

Episode: 2881 Racial Mythologies: Hans Günther vs. Julian Huxley on the Concept of Race.  Today, poison in the library.

Episode: 1087 Aluminum: from a precious metal to a cheap structural material.  Today, we try to extract silver from clay.

Episode: 1086 Aztec obsidian, too good to give up.  Today, we ask why the Aztecs didn't make full use of metal.

Episode: 1085 The first American steam engine.  Today, steam comes to America.

Episode: 1084 Jouffroy's steamboat -- 24 years before Fulton.  Today, let's go looking for the first steamboat.

Episode: 2966 Mufflers, Noisy Motorcycles, and Acoustics.  Today, we pipe down.

Episode: 3238 Whitewash, as Metaphor and Practice.  Today, whitewashing.

Episode: 2836 Bumping into Signs: Emergent Semiotic Spaces.  Today, signs of the times.

Episode: 1083 Pierre Lallement, one of many who invented the bicycle.  Today, we look for the inventor of the bicycle.

Episode: 1082 The last shall be first: steam turbines and cuneiform.  Today, we finally get back to where we started.

Episode: 2730 How the superconductor led us to yet one more unanticipated future.  Today, the semiconductor rewrites our future.

Episode: 2729 The China Clipper, 25 seaplanes that touched our imaginations.  Today, a brief bright moment.

Episode: 2924 Not In This Universe: When the possible really isn't.  Today, we do a lot of typing.

Episode: 2893 How the batteries work; The electrodes and electrolytes; The Wonders of Electrochemistry.  Today, the magic of batteries.