Biocrust, Mars InSight, IM Pei, Doorway Effect

How Biocrust Holds It All Together Guest: Sasha Reed, Research Ecologist, United States Geological Survey Our skin is the largest organ of the human body, and the Earth has her own skin too--and it’s a living, breathing, and surprisingly vital part of the environment called the biocrust. Research ecologist Sasha Reed explains exactly how important this “organ” is and why we should pay attention to the soil beneath our feet. Making Windows Out of Wood Guest: Céline Montanari, Materials Science Engineer, KTH Royal Institute of Technology A group of Swedish researchers has discovered a way to make wood transparent. More durable, renewable, safer, and better at insulation, transparent wood could one day replace glass as the go-to material for windows. But that’s not all: now they’ve made it so the new wood material can absorb heat when it’s too hot and release it when it’s cold.  Marsquakes  Guest: Tom Hoffman, Project Manager of the NASA Mars InSight Mission For the first time in history, we have a sound recording of a Marsquake. Like earth, Mars has a molten core and geologic and volanic activity. NASA recently placed a lander there specifically to study the interior life of the red planet. Check out the sounds that it sent back to Earth. The Legacy of I.M. Pei Guest: Peter Rosen, Director, “First Person Singular: I.M. Pei” On May 16, the world lost one of its most famous contemporary architects: I.M. Pei died at the age of 102. You’ll know him as the architect of that famous glass pyramid right in the center of the Louvre courtyard. Putting that modern design smack in the center of a two-hundred-year-old palace was a gutsy move, and it stoked quite a bit of controversy at the time.  But I.M. Pei was not a brash man, not someone who was trying to be in-your-face. Peter Rosen learned this first-hand when he made a documentary of I. M. Pei’s life. Why We're Always Forgetting What We Came Into a Room For Guest: Gabriel Radvansky, Professor of Psychology, University of Notre Dame Have you ever wondered why you totally forget what you were doing when you walk into a new room?  It turns out this is a real psychological process called the “doorway effect.”