Constant Wonder

Cabin boy Narcisse Pelletier was cruelly stranded in Australia, taken in by Aboriginals, then forced to return to France. In the 18th century, Jeanne Barret disguised herself as a man and became a talented botanist while sailing around the world.

First female doctors in the United States. How female scientists flourished in Britain during WWI.

A few weeds have evolved to mimic the plants we cultivate, with beneficial results. And, how animals use iridescence as camouflage.

Enrique Salmón explains the integral relationship between people and plants. Cassandra Quave of Emory University tests Civil War herbal remedies for antibiotic properties.

Matthew Goodman shares how the all minority City College Beavers basketball team skyrocketed to popularity before crashing back down due to a gambling scandal. Charles Fountain discusses "The Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball."

Tom Zoellner explains how the Sam Sharpe slave rebellion in Jamaica brought an end to slavery in the British Empire. Oxford University's Sudhir Hazareesingh shares the story of the father of Haiti, the former slave Toussaint Louverture, who revolutionized the country.

Ben Montgomery shares how a freed slave in Kentucky worked with a former Confederate hero to win damages from a lynch mob. Caleb McDaniel of Rice University tells the story of a formerly enslaved woman who sued her former master, and won.

Timothy Mousseau has spent the last 20 years studying how radioactivity around Chernobyl affects the animals that live there. Author Adam Higginbotham uncovers personal histories from survivors of the Chernobyl disaster.

Andrea Pitzer tells the story of Dutch explorer William Barents, who was shipwrecked in the Arctic in the 1590s. Maryn McKenna on the quest to find the cause of the 1918 Spanish flu in the permafrost of a remote Norwegian town.

David Robinson considers climate change through the lens of changing snowpack across the country. Kenneth Libbrecht of Caltech creates designer snowflakes in his lab. Tim Linhart of Ice Music makes instruments out of ice.