Looking through a telescope is like being inside a time machine -- you are seeing light from the past. And some space telescopes allow astronomers to see light that is billions of years old and existed before there was an Earth or sun. Astrophysicist Michelle Thaller introduces us to scientists who started two of the most powerful telescopes, the Hubble, which launched 25 years ago, and the James Webb Space Telescope, being built right now.

Photo caption: Drs. Jane Rigby (L) and Michelle Thaller gaze up at a giant piece of machinery at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center that will be used to test the James Webb Space Telescope before its launch in 2018.

More behind-the-scenes from this episode: http://transistor.prx.org/2015/04/the-ultimate-wayback-machine/

This episode was produced by Lauren Ober. Mix and sound design by Whitney Jones. Photo by Lauren Ober.

In the fall of 1902, twelve young men in suits regularly gathered for dinners in the basement of a government building in Washington, D.C. The men ate what they were served, even though they knew that their food was spiked with poison. The mastermind behind these experiments was Harvey Washington Wiley. Before you condemn him, though, you’d be surprised to know that you probably owe him a debt of gratitude. Incidentally, Wiley is the founding father of the Food and Drug Administration.

More about this episode: http://transistor.prx.org/2015/03/the-poison-squad/

The Poison Squad was produced by Sruthi Pinnamaneni with sound design by Brendan Baker. It was hosted for this episode of Transistor by Genevieve Sponsler and mixed for Transistor by Erika Lantz.

Image is Harvey Washington Wiley in his lab. Copyright FDA.

Many depictions of amnesia in TV, movies, and cartoons are just plain wrong -- some laughably so. Host Dr. Wendy Suzuki talks with Prof. Neal Cohen, a Neuroscientist from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For 20 years, Neal has used bad examples of amnesia as well as the rare accurate depictions as a powerful tool in his popular course about amnesia in pop culture. Neal entertains and educates with examples from Futurama, Memento, and 50 First Dates, and more, and we'll hear some of those clips.

Learn more about this episode at: http://transistor.prx.org/2015/03/totally-cerebral-amnesia/

This episode was hosted by Wendy Suzuki and produced by Julie Burstein, with editing and sound design by Derek John.

(Puzzle image from http://tinyurl.com/paxblvk)

Everybody knows about white noise — that sound that comes out of your TV when it’s not working quite right. But there are many other colors of noise, too: pink, brown, blue, and purple. Marnie Chesterton brings us this story on the colorful science of sound.

A Rainbow of Noise was produced by Marnie Chesterton and mixed by Henry Hocking. It was hosted for this episode of Transistor by Genevieve Sponsler and mixed for Transistor by Erika Lantz.

Learn more: http://transistor.prx.org/2015/03/a-rainbow-of-noise/

It still seems hard to believe, but for one disease, poop — yes, human poop — is nothing short a miracle cure. Microbiologist Christina Agapakis takes a look at Fecal Microbiota Transplants or FMT and what happens when you take the really complex gut microbiome from a healthy person and transplant it into the gut of a really sick person. For patients suffering from a one of the most common and deadly hospital acquired infections, Clostridium Difficile, or C Diff, one poop transplant can cure them, sometimes within hours. But, why?

Learn more about this episode here: http://transistor.prx.org/2015/03/the-straight-poop/

This episode was produced by Kerry Donahue and Sruthi Pinnamaneni, and mixed by David Herman. Photo of OpenBiome office door by Genevieve Sponsler.

Space scientists are acutely aware of what can happen when climates change in other parts of our solar system. Take Venus, where it rains sulfuric acid and is 900°F on the surface, but it wasn’t always that way. Astrophysicist Michelle Thaller talks with a NASA expert on Venus about how the planet became a hellscape. And she talks with the Library of Congress’ inaugural chair of astrobiology about how to grasp this new geologic era where humans cause rapid change.

This episode of Transistor is hosted by astrophysicist Michelle Thaller. It was produced by Lauren Ober. Mix and sound design by Whitney Jones.

Episode extras can be found at transistor.prx.org.

Venus image copyright NASA.

Imagine remembering your childhood, your parents, the history you learned in school, but never being able to form a new long term memory after the age of 27. Welcome to the life of the famous amnesic patient “HM”. Neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin studied HM for almost half a century, and considered him a friend, even though he could never remember how he knew her. Suzanne gives us a glimpse of what daily life was like for him, and his tremendous contribution to our understanding of how our memories work.

This episode of Transistor is hosted by neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki and produced by Julie Burstein, with editing and sound design by Derek John.

Episode extras are at transistor.prx.org.

Image of Henry Moliason (Patient HM) in the lab, copyright Suzanne Corkin.

In her episodes of Transistor, neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki introduces us to scientists who have uncovered some of the deepest secrets about how our brains make us who we are. She begins by talking with groundbreaking experimental psychologist Brenda Milner, who in the 1950s, completely changed our understanding of the parts of the brain important for forming new long-term memories.

This episode of Transistor is hosted by neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki and produced by Julie Burstein, with editing and sound design by Derek John.

Episode extras are at transistor.prx.org.

Image is of host Wendy Suzuki.

In her episodes of Transistor, biologist Christina Agapakis is exploring the microbiome: the trillions of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live in and on our body. She starts with food. Bacteria-rich foods such as tempeh, cheese, pickles and yogurt have long been praised for their probiotic effect. But can you really add enough good bacteria to your digestive system to outnumber the bad?

This episode of Transistor is hosted by biologist Christina Agapakis, and produced by Kerry Donahue and Sruthi Pinnamaneni. Mixed by Tim Einenkel.

Episode extras are at transistor.prx.org.

We're closer than ever before to discovering if we're not alone in the universe. The host for this episode of Transistor, astrophysicist Michelle Thaller, visits the NASA lab that discovered that comets contain some of the very same chemical elements that we contain. Then, Michelle talks to a Vatican planetary scientist about how science and religion can meet on the topic of life beyond Earth.

This episode of Transistor is hosted by astrophysicist Michelle Thaller. It was produced by Lauren Ober and edited by Katie Davis. Mix and sound design by Whitney Jones.

Episode extras can be found at transistor.prx.org.