Black Holes + Wormholes = Quantum Answers

"If physicists had a holy grail it would go by the name of Quantum Gravity."

"For 60 years researchers have been searching for a way to unite the very large and the very small into a single coherent theory. But for all their efforts, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity — which describes the Universe at large scales — simply won't play nice with quantum physics — the all-encompassing vision of the micro-world. But the appearance of a remarkable new idea is raising eyebrows, and hopes, around the world. Maybe, just maybe, a new clue to the most fundamental of fundamental theories has been found."

"It all begins with the weirdest weirdness of quantum physics."

"Quantum mechanics was developed more than a century ago to explain the behavior of the atomic domain. Using their instruments to probe to ever-smaller scales, physicists 100 years ago found that the sub-atomic world behaves quite differently than our own. The list of quantum weirdness is long and includes things like intrinsic uncertainties and electrons existing in two places at once."

Massive Solar Plant A Stepping Sone For Future Projects

"The largest solar power plant of its kind is about to turn on in California's Mojave Desert."

"The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System will power about 140,000 homes and will be a boon to the state's renewable energy goals, but it was no slam dunk. Now, California is trying to bring conservationists and energy companies together to create a smoother path for future projects."

"To get the best view of the Ivanpah solar project, you have to go up to the top of a 400-foot concrete tower. Below, close to 200,000 mirrors shimmer across a dry, dusty valley."

Why Mosquitoes Love Me and Other Mysteries Revealed

Come summertime, some of us here at Shots are reminded, as we lounge on decks and venture into overgrown gardens, that we are irresistible to mosquitoes. As we gripe about our itchy, pocked limbs, we can't help but wonder just why they unfailingly devour us and pass over our friends and loved ones. And when it comes to repellent, it's hard to tell just what works best.

So we called up Dr. Roger Nasci, chief of the branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that tracks insect-borne viruses, to get some answers to our summertime mosquito quandaries.

Q: So why is it that backyard mosquitoes swarm and feast on some people, while others seem to be less palatable to them? Is there any truth to the claim that some blood is sweeter?

A: Well, first off, let's remember that here in the U.S. we have 175 species of mosquitoes, and a relatively small number of them feed on people. But they'll feed on anything that has blood.

The World's Oldest Know Calendar Discovered In Scotland

"In general terms, there are two eras that characterize the 200,000 years or so of human presence on Earth: first, and for most of this time, the hunter-gatherers, nomadic groups that roamed the land in search of food and shelter. Then came what we call "civilization," product of the fixation of larger groups around fertile areas. Presumably, the first were the Natufians some time around 10,000 BCE, along the swath of land between Israel and Jordan."

"Knowledge of past civilizations and culture depends crucially on what archeological excavations are able to find, and on how these findings are interpreted. It is possible that other agricultural societies were already established before the Natufians and we simply haven't been able to uncover any evidence. This is a basic trait of so-called historical sciences, where what at one time is known as the "first" may be superseded by new discoveries. In a sense, the search is endless."

Skipping Breakfast Is Risky

"Breakfast has long gotten a good rap for everything from aiding weight loss to improving focus in the classroom."

"And ever since the Alameda County study in California back in the 1960s linked breakfast — along with a host of other habits — to a longer lifespan, there's been a societal push towards breaking the fast."

"'It's such a simple lifestyle change that people can make,' says researcher Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health."

"Rimm is the co-author of fresh research that links yet another significant benefit to eating a morning meal: reducing the risk of heart attack."

Staying Healthy May Mean Learning To Love Our Microbiomes

"Not so long ago, most people thought that the only good microbe was a dead microbe."

"But then scientists started to realize that even though some bugs can make us sick and even kill us, most don't."

"In fact, in the past decade attitudes about the bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microbes living all over our bodies has almost completely turned around. Now scientists say that not only are those microbes often not harmful, we can't live without them."

"'The vast majority of them are beneficial and actually essential to health,' says Lita Proctor, program director for the Human Microbiome Project at the National Institutes of Health. The project is identifying microbes on key body parts, including the nose, gut, mouth, and skin, in order to get a better sense of the microbes' role in human health."

From Ramen To Rotini Following the Noodles of the Silk Road

"Popular lore has it that the Italian merchant Marco Polo was responsible for introducing the noodle to China. This legend appeals to Italians, but if you ask the Chinese, they may beg to differ."

"In her latest book, On the Noodle Road, author Jen Lin-Liu chronicles a six-month journey along the historic Silk Road from eastern China, through central Asia, Turkey, Iran and eventually arriving in Italy in search of the true origin of the noodle."

"As Lin-Liu tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer, the myth of pasta traveling from west to east was first popularized by Macaroni Journal, the official trade journal of the pasta manufacturers of the U.S. In 1929, the journal had a story 'about how Marco Polo arrived at a destination that seemed more South Pacific than Chinese and came across natives drying strands of dough.'"

Clever Hacks Give Google Glass Many Unintended Powers

"At Philz Coffee in Palo Alto, Calif., a kid who looks like he should still be in high school is sitting across from me. He's wearing Google Glass. As I stare into the device's cyborg eye, I'm waiting for its tiny screen to light up."

"Then, I wait for a signal that Google Glass has recognized my face."

"It isn't supposed to do that, but Stephen Balaban has hacked it."

"'Essentially what I am building is an alternative operating system that runs on Glass but is not controlled by Google,' he said."

"Balaban wants to make it possible to do all sorts of things with Glass that Google's designers didn't have in mind."

"One of the biggest fears about Google Glass is that the proliferation of these head-mounted computers equipped with intelligent cameras will fundamentally erode our privacy."

All Charged Up Engineers Create A Battery Made of Wood

"The big idea behind Joe's Big Idea is to report on interesting inventions and inventors. When I saw the headline "An Environmentally Friendly Battery Made From Wood," on a press release recently, I figured it fit the bill, so went to investigate."

"The battery is being developed at the Energy Research Center at the University of Maryland in College Park."

"I really wasn't sure what a wood battery would look like. I knew you could make a battery out of a potato and wires, so I figured maybe they were doing something similar with a block of wood."

Our Collective War Story in 185 Photographs

"War Photography is a genre-defining exhibition currently on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. And also the last place I wanted to find myself on a sunny midweek morning."

"As a photojournalist and picture editor, I've consumed my fair share of conflict photography, essays and films. How could this exhibition possibly be any different from all the other shows I've seen in this vein?"

"After all, it has the usual array of iconic war photographs: the falling soldier during the Spanish Civil War, Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima and the Vietnamese general executing a suspected Viet Cong member."

Zealot Tells the Story of Jesus the Man Not the Messiah

"When religious scholar Reza Aslan was 15, he went to an evangelical Christian camp. For the first time, he heard the gospel story — the story of Jesus. It was a profound experience for him, and he immediately converted. But later, when Aslan went to college and began working toward a degree in the New Testament, he found he had doubts."

"'The more I started studying the historical Jesus, the man who lived 2,000 years ago ... the more I started to realize that there was this chasm between the historical Jesus and the Jesus that I had been taught about in church,' he tells NPR's Rachel Martin."

"Aslan became more interested in Jesus the man than Jesus the Messiah, and that's now the subject of his new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. 'That person became so much more real to me than the celestial spirit that I had been introduced to in church,' Alsan says."

From Carnegie Hall, A Youth Orchestra That's A National First

"It's a hot summer afternoon and the recital hall at Purchase College is abuzz with excitement and nervous energy. One hundred and twenty teenagers, from 42 states, are about to embark on an extraordinary musical and personal journey."

"Clive Gillinson, executive director of Carnegie Hall, steps up to the podium to greet them: 'Welcome to all of you. It's wonderful to welcome you here to the first ever National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America!'"

"There are youth orchestras and summer music camps all over the U.S., but Carnegie Hall may have created the best music camp ever. For the past two weeks, some of the best teenage musicians in the country have gathered on the Purchase campus to create an ensemble that is a first in the States. Gillinson, who became executive director of Carnegie Hall in 2005, says playing cello in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain was a highlight of his life."

China Unveils Massive Building With Fake Beach Fake Sun

"The Chinese are calling the New Century Global Center, which opened in late June in Chengdu, the world's largest stand-alone structure.

Inside, visitors can shop, stay at either of two 1,000-room luxury hotels, go to a skating rink, or even a fake beach or fake Mediterranean village all lit by a fake sun."

"It isn't the world's tallest building — that honor belongs to Dubai's Burj Khalifa; nor is it the largest — that's the Boeing Everett Factory in Everett, Wash. What the New Century Global Center appears to be is the world's biggest building by floor space. Just how big is it?"

"Well, inside it you can fit ...

... 20 Sydney Opera Houses

... 4 St. Peter's Squares, Vatican

... 3 Pentagons"

Saving One Species At the Expense of Another

"To keep America's wilderness anything like it used to be when the country was truly wild takes the help of biologists. They have to balance the needs of wildlife with those of cattle-ranching and tourism, and even weigh the value of one species against another. Ultimately, they have to pick and choose who makes it onto the ark. And, as scientists in Montana's Centennial Valley have discovered, all that choosing can be tricky."

"Take the case of the valley's trumpeter swans. These are the largest waterfowl in North America. They have a 7-foot wingspan. They're ivory-white, curvaceous, and elegant — and 80 years ago they were almost extinct. Simply put, there were too many people using the same land the swans needed. And there were too many hunters."

"The flock of trumpeters I found lounging on a lake in the Centennial Valley belongs to a small population that has struggled back from the brink. In the Centennial, biologists built ponds for the birds, and fed them — and the swans' numbers recovered."

Growing the Latest in 16th Century Medicine

"The Renaissance Garden at the New York Botanical Garden, a recreation of a 16th-century medicinal garden, is so lush and colorful, it only takes a stroll through to absorb its good medicine."

"The garden, part of a summer exhibit called Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World. is a small-scale model of the 16th-century Italian Renaissance Garden at Padua, Europe's first botanical garden."

"The landscape includes Mediterranean flowers in multiple colors, fountains and odd plants that many people have never seen, like the opium poppy, with its unusual seed pods. The garden in Padua was created in 1545 as part of the University of Padua medical school, one of the earliest and most important medical schools in Europe."

Why Doesn't Everybody Buy Cheap Generic Headache Medicine

"Why does anyone buy Bayer aspirin — or Tylenol, or Advil — when, almost always, there's a bottle of cheaper generic pills, with the same active ingredient, sitting right next to the brand-name pills?"

"Matthew Gentzkow, an economist at the University of Chicago's Booth school, recently tried to answer this question. Along with a few colleagues, Gentzkow set out to test a hypothesis: Maybe people buy the brand-name pills because they just don't know that the generic version is basically the same thing."

"'We came up with what is probably the simplest idea you've ever heard of,' Gentzkow says. 'Let's just look and see if people who are well-informed about these things still pay extra to buy brands.'"

For Star Spangled Banner: A Long Road From Song To Anthem

"All over the country on Thursday, fireworks will light up the sky. In many places, those fireworks will come with a patriotic soundtrack — one that wouldn't be complete without "The Star-Spangled Banner." The song officially became America's national anthem in 1931, but it's been around since the early 19th century."

"Author Steve Vogel explores the story behind that anthem in Through The Perilous Fight, which details the end of the War of 1812. He tells NPR's David Greene about the Washington lawyer who wrote the song and why it took so long for it to become the national anthem."

The Zip Code Turns 50 Today: Here Are 9 That Stand Out

"Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Zone Improvement Plan, the network of ZIP codes we use for everything from mail delivery to credit card security."

"The U.S. Postal Service began using the five-digit codes on July 1, 1963, hoping they would improve the efficiency and speed of mail sorting. Since then, the codes have assumed a role in the identities of many Americans, helping to define where they live or work."

"In recognition of the anniversary (and because we are geeky), we've examined the list of more than 40,000 ZIP codes. Here are nine worth noting, based on data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and Esri, a leading geographic software company:"

Billion People and Trillions of Creatures To Be Photographed Together on July 19

"It's going to be a very small picture, but we're all going to be in it. All trillions of us on Earth."

"It's not our first group portrait, but Carolyn Porco, the woman in charge, says it's going to be gasp-worthy. She should know. She helped shoot some of the early ones."

"What am I talking about?"

"Well, going back a bit, here's the first one, the granddaddy of Earth pictures. It's often called the 'Blue Marble' shot, and it was our first look at our whole planet suspended in space, taken in 1972 as the Apollo 17 crew headed toward the moon. It makes us look dazzlingly blue — and quite alone."

Put Down Oil Drill Pick Up the Test tube: Making Fuel From Yeast

"What if we could get our gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel from yeast instead of from oil wells? That's not as crazy as it sounds. In fact, it's already happening on a small scale. And there's a vigorous research effort to ramp this up on a massive scale."

"One of the more innovative approaches uses a new technology called 'synthetic biology.' Jay Keasling is one of the leaders in this hot field."

"With his supershort crew cut and friendly demeanor, Keasling would fit in nicely where he grew up — on a corn farm in Nebraska that's been in his family for generations. But these days you'll find him in a glistening building in Emeryville, Calif., home to several of his many endeavors."