The Natural Curiosity Project

Language, they say, is the window into the soul of a country or a culture. Based on what we talk about in this episode, souls and cultures must be pretty funny places.

Sometimes, looking at something from different perspectives can change the way we think about it. In this episode, we look at the origins of genetics, a little botany, and ultimately, turn our attention to genetically-modified organisms, or GMOs. Things are not always what they seem.

This is the third Podcast in a series of three about one of the technology ecosystems that’s profoundly changing the world. In our first episode of the series, we talked about the technologies that live in this ecosystem: The Internet of Things, Big Data, Analytics, Cloud, machine-to-machine communications, and artificial intelligence. In the second episode, we looked at one application of this ec...

1968: What a culturally iconic period in America. On the one hand, the Summer of Love, the Monterey Pop Festival, and the Civil Rights Law of 1968 were happening, and the astronauts of Apollo 8 saw the far side of the moon for the first time. But dark things were happening, as well: Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy fell to assassins, riots fractured the country, Vietnam was in full swing, and...

A high-speed train designed in the shape of a kingfisher. Paint colors based on hummingbird feathers. Water purification systems designed by a beetle. Photosynthesis that creates plastic. All these and more are real--we're actually doing these things--because we're paying attention to nature.

The Earth's most precious resource is water--yet we waste a HUGE percentage of it because of leaks in municipal water systems, inaccurate agricultural watering practices, and other practices. In fact, 60% of the water pumped out of the ground worldwide for agriculture never reaches the plants. Yet Deep Sky Vineyard, a tiny (by agricultural standards)vineyard, in the dry heat of Arizona, saved more...

There's a family of technologies emerging on the scene that will change the way we think about the role of technology in our lives. They include Internet of Things, Big Data, Analytics, and a few others. Technology is remarkable, but even more so when we assign it to a specific challenge, then stand back and watch. In this episode, we see what happens when we pair a small business--Deep Sky Vineya...

Climate change, or global warming, or whatever you want to call it, is one of the most emotion-charged topics on the table today. It has become politically weaponized, yet it shouldn’t be, because it’s one of the greatest threats we face as inhabitants of this planet. If you believe that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the problem, you’re partially correct—but only partially. There’s...

On February 26, 1975, disaster struck in lower Manhattan when the AT&T switching center that served the area was consumed by fire. 104,000 customers and 170,000 telephones were out of service. A restoration of that magnitude should have taken a year, but the Bell System marshaled its resources and service was restored in 22 days--a true Miracle on Second Avenue. This is the story. You can see a do...

In 1885, 350,000 head of cattle traveled overland from Fort Worth, Texas to Abilene, Kansas. In 1886, there were none. Why? This episode looks back at the great cattle drives of the American Southwest--and what led to their demise. The reasons will surprise you.

I sometimes run across little bits of interesting information that aren’t enough for a Podcast on their own, but they’re too good to ignore. So for this episode, I’ve pulled a bunch of them together into a long stream of just interesting stuff. Hope you like it.

Steve interviews his friend and colleague Josh Stevens, an authority on network and computer security--and that elusive, mysterious technology called Blockchain--which, as it turns out, is not all that mysterious and is in fact pretty important.

There's very little that is as enjoyable as a day outside. There's also very little that's as rewarding as a day spent taking part in a BioBlitz. Have a listen.

One of the coolest technologies on the near-term horizon is the quantum computer--an amazing device capable of doing so much more than traditional digital computers. In tis episode, we explain what they are, how they work, and where they're going. Grab a drink--this is a wild ride.

Welcome to the Natural Curiosity Project! I'm Steve Shepard, and as your host, I'll take you on journeys of discovery to learn just how awe-inspiring this planet really is. Hope you'll come along for the ride!

Three minutes of snow geese on Lake Champlain, November 2018. Close your eyes, listen, enjoy.

Thomas Young--the last man who knew everything. What else would you call a guy who translated the Rosetta Stone, contributed to physics, figured out how the eye works, and wrote a comparison of the grammar of 400 languages?

Did you know that HG Wells invented the World Wide Web? Sorry, Tim Berners-Lee--he beat you by about 100 years!

A tiny house wren, singing his heart out in search of a mate.

You know how we always take a deep breath after a rainstorm, and think about that wonderful smell of ozone? Newsflash--it ain't ozone: it's something else entirely, and it's VERY important. Have a listen.

It's amazing to me that I can find these tiny little creatures, much smaller than a pinhead, hopping around on the snow in the middle of deep winter. To see a short video of springtails--well, springing, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNSWFmLMVXk.

History is full of amazing people. What's equally amazing is the number of them that most of us have never heard of.

I met Lujan in a small village in Guatemala. What he taught me about --well, just about everything--is priceless. I'd like to share it with you.

I can't imagine a better opportunity to learn than being immersed as I was at the University of California at Berkeley in the early 70s. But much more valuable than my academic learning was how the experience taught me to think critically, and to listen to ideas that I didn't necessarily agree with--and, in fact, was often strongly opposed to. It's a lesson that more people need to learn today in...

Millions of species have disappeared from the planet over the eons, because natural selection says that it's time for them to leave. There's nothing that says we can't be next.