First published in the United States by W.W.Norton and Company, on March 1 1997, Guns, Germs and Steel was initially subtitled ‘The Fates of Human Societies.’ Within a few months, this subtitle had ...

Perhaps the most puzzling question Jared Diamond encounters as he investigates animal domestication is: Why were no large mammals ever domesticated in tropical Africa? Africa, south of the Sahara, is ...

Astronomers measure distances to the stars in terms of light years, units that combine time and distance. One light year is the distance light travels in one year; so if you look at a star ten light ...

Cinematographer Francis Kenny and Timothy Ferris on Key Biscayne by Mark Diamond Enlarge Image Timothy Ferris interviewing Robert Smith on Key Biscayne by Mark Diamond Enlarge Image Robert Smith on ...

In this lesson, students build two circuits and explore how transistors function. When Bell Labs introduced the transistor in June of 1948, a spokesman proudly announced "This cylindrical object . . .

NANCY KOEHN: The 1920s were a very important decade in the lives of consumer society in America. Many of those goods, from hoop skirts to candy bars to cereal, had been around for several decades by ...

QUESTION: Please start by telling the story about Robert Lynd before he was married, in Wyoming, working the oil fields. STAUGHTON LYND: My parents met at the base of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, ...

"When God wants to speak with us, he does not avail himself of an angel but of parents." (Martin Luther) Martin Luther was named after St Martin by his parents Hans and Margarette Luther, a pair of ...

"The Sun is just one among a hundred billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, each with its own cosmic tale to tell." — Timothy Ferris, in the film Seeing in the Dark The stars seem to change little if ...

BRUCE GEELHOED: Lynd came to Muncie in the 1920's with some money from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., by that point a noted philanthropist, with the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller Institute for ...

Astrophotography has come a long way in recent years, thanks to digital cameras (which are more light-sensitive than film), digital photo processing (which can bring out the subtle details in dim ...

To learn more about the astronomical objects and events portrayed in the film, click on one of the images below. Perhaps the most imposing sight you can see through a telescope is the planet Saturn ...