The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3241: Hooker’s Green
Episode: 3241 Green with Immortality. Today, we go green with immortality.
May 06, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3241
Engines of Our Ingenuity
The story of technological progress is one of drama and intrigue, sudden insight and plain hard work. Let’s explore technology’s spectacular failures and many magnificent success stories.
This content is in service of Houston Public Media’s education mission and is sponsored by the University of Houston. It is not a product of our news team.
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Episodes
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1367: Struggling With Abstraction
Episode: 1367 Struggling with abstraction in schools and in public. Today, we think about thinking abstractly.
May 05, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1367
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1366: Rain, Steam, and Speed
Episode: 1366 Rain, Steam, and Speed : Turner's vision of modern times. Today, a painting tells the coming of rail.
May 04, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1366
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1364: Radar
Episode: 1364 Our radar warning of the Pearl Harbor attack. Today, devastation follows when we don't trust a new technology.
May 03, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1364
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3312: Physics in 1861
Episode: 3312 An 1861 Natural Philosophy test reveals far more than it meant to.Today, a look at physics before our Civil War.
May 02, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3312
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2454: Wrinkle Free Cotton
Episode: 2454 Ruth Benerito and Wrinkle Free Cotton. Today, we wash and wear.
May 01, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2454
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3040: Leonardo and Borelli
Episode: 3040 Leonardo and Borelli. Today, two hemispheres come together.
Apr 30, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3040
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2579: Music and Mathematics
Episode: 2579 Music and Mathematics. Today, UH Math Professor Krešo Josić talks about music and mathematics.
Apr 29, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2579
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1363: Man the Treasure
Episode: 1363 Man the measure -- man the meter. Today, let's ask what meters measure.
Apr 28, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1363
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1362: Flying Across the Atlantic
Episode: 1362 The first twenty years of transatlantic flights. Today, we fly the Atlantic.
Apr 27, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1362
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1360: Cleaning Ourselves
Episode: 1360 A brief history of bathing ourselves. Today, let's bathe.
Apr 26, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1360
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1359: Windmills
Episode: 1359 The Windmill: A device that has come, gone, and which may come again. Today, let's tilt at windmills.
Apr 25, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1360
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2452: Kitchen Gadgetry
Episode: 2452 Gadgets in the American Kitchen. Today, gadgets galore.
Apr 24, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2452
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2268: The Lucifer Effect
Episode: 2268 The Lucifer Effect: From Stanford University to Abu Ghraib. Today, our guest, UH journalist Michael Berryhill, looks at the Lucifer effect .
Apr 23, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2268
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2557: The Google Ranking System
Episode: 2557 Linear algebra, the mathematics behind Google's ranking algorithm. Today, let's talk about how Google ranks your search results.
Apr 22, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2557
The Engines of our Ingenuity 1358: William Minor and the OED
Episode: 1358 William Minor helping us to understand language from an insane asylum. Today, a great dictionary and an asylum for the criminally insane.
Apr 21, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1358
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1357: Testing Airplane Propellers
Episode: 1357 An airplane propeller test facility, twelve years before the Wright Brothers. Today, we test airplane propellers, 12 years before the Wright brothers flew.
Apr 20, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1357
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1356: Betting on Science
Episode: 1356 Betting on science. It's been going on for a long time. Today, let's bet on science.
Apr 19, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1356
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1355: George Squire
Episode: 1355 Major General George Squire, Muzak, and struggling to be generous. Today, a story about altruism and Muzak.
Apr 18, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1355
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2450: A Musical Tradition
Episode: 2450 A Musical Transition: The Beatles 1965-1967. Today, a great music group changes.
Apr 17, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2450
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2419: Perfecting Coffee
Episode: 2419 Peter Schlumbohm and the invention of modern coffee-making techniques. Today, a chemist and his coffee.
Apr 16, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2419
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3310: Romantic Nature
Episode: 3310 Nature, Romanticism, and the Poetry of John Clare. Today, we look closely at Romantic nature.
Apr 15, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3310
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3311: Aerial Warfare in 1918
Episode: 3311 A 1918 National Geographic Magazine makes propaganda as it reports WW-I aerial warfare. T oday, Aerial warfare in another century.
Apr 14, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3311
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1353: Small Towns
Episode: 1353 In which we visit a small town. Today, let's visit a small town.
Apr 13, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1353
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1351: M & Mme Blanchard
Episode: 1351 Balloonists Jean-Pierre and Marie Blanchard, the first barnstormers. Today, we join George Washington at a balloon ascent.
Apr 12, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1351
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1350: Amerigo Vespucci
Episode: 1350 Vespucci and the naming of America. Today, we name America.
Apr 11, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1350
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2447: Simple But Brilliant
Episode: 2447 The Special Theory of Relativity in Einstein's Own Words. Today, simple but brilliant.
Apr 10, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2447
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2010: George McJunkin and Ales Hrdlicka
Episode: 2010 George McJunkin and Ales Hrdlicka: Who discovered the Clovis culture? Today, guest historian Cathy Patterson looks at an unlikely anthropologist.
Apr 09, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2010
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2780: Mail Plane to History Maker
Episode: 2780 Mail Plane to History Maker. Today, a very odd design feature.
Apr 08, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2780
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1349: Short-Lived Technologies
Episode: 1349 Short-lived, but dramatic technologies. Today, technologies that last only a little while.
Apr 07, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1349
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