The Body Farm--A Different Way to Give Your Body to Science

Guest: Dawnie Steadman, director of the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee Knoxville

If you've thought about donating your body to science, you might consider the Body Farm. Examining donated bodies leads to hands-on forensic training to solve crimes.

 

Therapist Uses Eye-Tracking to Help Patients Overcome Trauma

Guest: Deany Laliotis, Director of Training for EMDR Institute

We talk to a therapist who retrains how her patients’ brains process trauma using the tracking of eye movements. Sound like hypnosis? What’s the science behind the practice?

 

How a Weird Bug Found in Canada might Revolutionize Zoology

Guest: Alastair Simpson, Professor of Biology, Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

After centuries of evading biologists' ever-expanding knowledge of life on earth, a number of hemimastigotes, tiny microscopic organisms, have been captured by a group of biologists in Nova Scotia. After a bit of study, the biologists realized they weren't just dealing with a new kingdom like animals or fungi, but an entirely new branch on the tree of life.

 

Where did the Polynesian People Really Come From?

Guest: Christina Thompson, Harvard Review editor, author of "Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia" and "Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story"

How did the earliest Polynesians conquer the largest ocean on our planet? How did they manage to colonize virtually every habitable island in the vast, watery triangle between Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island?  It’s quite the historical puzzle--a puzzle we’ll try to solve.