Shooting Stars
Photographer Colin Legg makes time-lapse movies of celestial scenes. Legg shares tips, and describes some of the challenges of landscape astrophotography—from babysitting cameras for days and nights on end to running electronics off the grid.
Alan Alda’s Challenge to Scientists: What Is Time?
Calling all scientists! How do you explain the concept of time to an 11-year-old?
Is It Possible to Create a Mind?
What does intelligence really mean? Can we build a machine that thinks as humans do?
A View from the Flip Side
Ten days is all it takes your brain to right a world that looks upside down.
‘Instant’ Looks at Polaroid’s Land
Edwin Land, the inventor behind Polaroid, is the subject of a new book by Christopher Bonanos.
Super-Sized Snapshot
Meet a Polaroid camera that weighs 235 pounds and takes 2-foot-tall instant snapshots.
No Joke — Why Even Tragedy Gets a Laugh
A comedian and a neuroscientist walk into a bar… er, nevermind. Tig Notaro and Robert Provine talk about why we laugh at even the grimmest of subjects.
Photographer James Balog on Climate Change and ‘Chasing Ice’
A new documentary explores how climate change is affecting the world’s glaciers.
SciFri Book Club Has ‘The Right Stuff’
Join the SciFri Book Club regulars for a look back, er…up, at ‘The Right Stuff.’
Ig Nobel Prizes Celebrate Somewhat Suspect Science
Ponytail physics, the sloshing in a coffee cup, and an opera about the universe feature in this year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.