Take a breath and think of scientist-theologian Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen.

Why does Einstein, who died more than 50 years ago, continue to fascinate us?

Ira talks with Francis Collins, incoming director of the National Institutes of Health, about research priorities for the years ahead.

This week, scientists unveiled the first phase results of a public/private effort known as the 1000 Genome Project, an effort to sequence and compare the genomes of 2500 people from around the world.

Ira talks with actress and math author Danica McKellar about keeping students' math skills sharp over the coming summer months.

It's a tough time to be in the job market. We'll talk about the top-rated jobs for people with math and science knowledge.

The sharks may be swimming closer to shore to prey on booming numbers of gray seals.

Study authors say fossil bones have marks from the tools used for butchering.

SETIcon celebrates all things extraterrestrial this weekend.

Researchers report the discovery of a fossilized penguin predecessor, minus the traditional black tuxedo. [7:55]

Centuries of natural selection left longhorn cattle less susceptible to drought and disease.

Do you know when dogs became domesticated? This audio lecture discusses the discovery of an ancient skull sheds light on the domestication of dogs. [10:28]

Doctors should work harder to establish 'context' for a patient's care, considering all factors that might affect the quality of care.

We'll talk about encouraging ingenuity through contests and prizes -- and hear from the winner of the Progressive Automotive X Prize, a major prize awarded this week for advances in car efficiency.

People use tools. Other primates use tools. But crows?

An outbreak of cholera in Haiti has killed nearly 300 people in recent days. We'll talk about the disease, its causes, and its treatment.

Robot was the brainchild of the Czech playwright Karel Capek, who introduced it in a 1920 play.

'Test early, test often' used to be standard procedure when it came to screening men of a certain age for prostate cancer. But is that the best approach?

What is the origin of the word "atom?"

A new collection of essays looks at the contributions of the Royal Society to scientific knowledge.

A new study says a dog did better than conventional tests in identifying patients with cancer.

Why do some animals have much better night vision than others? We'll talk about new research tracing the root of improved night vision to the architecture of the DNA inside the photoreceptor rod cells of the animals' eyes.

Ira talks with one of the researchers behind a material that can make light bend in unusual ways -- potentially leading to more powerful optics, or even a cloak of invisibility.

We'll talk with one of the inventors of a new on-chip, lens-free microscope.