The Pulse

Would you buy a car that’s programmed to potentially kill you?

No way, right? But, as driverless cars are beginning to hit the road, how would you want them to behave in no-win situations, where no matter what you do, somebody will die? Should they be programmed to kill the smallest number of people possible, even if that includes you — the vehicle’s owner?

It’s not a pretty question. We debate it with an artificial intelligence ethics expert, using a thought experiment called “The Trolley Problem.”

Also on the show: We stare into strangers’ eyes for four minutes to see if we feel closer to them afterwards. We talk to a researcher who says he has found a pesky mosquito’s Achilles heel. And we get a sense of how tinnitus sounds as music.

Come with us as we step inside a time capsule of life on earth — the natural history museum. On this special episode recorded in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, we explore natural history museums around the country — we visit one museum that is questioning what “natural” history really means, we explore a forest that is a museum of its own, and we dive into the dilemma surrounding those old-school dioramas that we all love.

General admission tickets are free, just please don’t touch the specimen!

 In the world of medicine, it can be hard to find the root of a problem. On this episode, we delve into the long, complicated history of the pain scale. Are emoji faces or numbers enough to convey how you feel? Plus, we explore what medical schools are doing to prevent student suicides from rising. 

On a scale of 0-10, this episode will cause you no pain at all. 

We’re going to take you from the hottest of the hot, to the coldest of the cold on this episode. We explore how cold can save lives, and we take a trip to the coldest tundra on Earth. Then we heat things up again to figure out the science of sweat, plus what climate change will mean for the summer Olympics. 

Get ready to feel a chill deep in your bones despite the hot summer heat. 

Health and wealth are intrinsically tied together, but how can people fix the things that are making them unhealthy if they don’t have the money to change their ways?  We delve into the world of health and science by the numbers — a $1,000 pill for a deadly disease, a 750-pound safe full of marijuana, and survivor number three of a rare “brain-eating” amoeba. 

Plus, a dark family story stemming from a controversial lobotomy, and fates that are considered worse than death itself. 

Distance makes the heart grow fonder, just ask an astronaut. About 550 people have gone to space. When they return, many report feeling changed — their perceptions of the earth, their relationships, their approach to life are all fundamentally altered from their time away from the planet.

Get ready for takeoff. 

As the Democratic National Convention wraps up in Philadelphia this week, we take a look inside what people are saying about the environment. Then, we take a step back in time to another Philadelphia convention 40 years ago that led to a rash of mysterious deaths and an intense investigation to find the killer. 

Plus, we’ll take you into some unconventional hospital rooms — one is like a spa, and the other is home to a celebratory chemo treatment. 

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This is a great time of year to hit the road, explore the world, and most importantly, take a vacation. But instead of taking you to places that would make you green with envy, we’re going to dig into the science behind the many perils and mishaps involved in traveling. 

At this time, make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position and that your seat belt is correctly fastened…it’s going to be a bumpy ride. 

We’re getting to the root of some important questions: why are teeth treated differently than other body parts, when it comes to care and insurance? Why aren’t big research institutions reporting study results? What’s the best way for doctors to ask patients about assault?

Who have you hugged today? Was it a Hollywood hug or a serious bear hug? There’s more to those embraces than just affection! We send our least touchy-feely reporter to meet a woman who has been deemed the supreme hugger. Then we meet a scientist who studied tiny gecko feet to figure out what makes these critters stick, and a physician who didn’t know of a life he had touched until 50 long years later.