Radiolab throws a birthday party for Charles Darwin! Robert Krulwich invites three experts to toast the birthday boy.

In our show, Yellow Fluff & Other Curious Encounters, Robert describes the great Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev, as unlikely to win any beauty pageants. This listener wrote in to disagree and has the photo to prove it:

Jad & Robert,

I was aghast to hear ...

Around the world, millions are celebrating Charles Darwin's 200th birthday.

Radio Lab brings you the highlights:

New Haven: Yale's Peabody Museum is having birthday cake (and a letter from Darwin to once-Yale professor O.C. Marsh).
If you can't make it this afternoon, the Yale Center for British ...

If you've been parasitized, literally or figuratively, we'd love to hear about it. And don't spare us any of the vomitous details. We can handle it.

Email us at radiolab@wnyc.org

Special bonus of the week! A video inspired by the mathematician, Steve Strogatz. At the age of thirteen, Steve was astonished to find that pendulums and water fountains had a strange relationship that had previously been completely hidden from him.

Listen to “Choice,” the first episode in Radiolab’s fifth season, this Friday (Nov 14) at 3pm on 93.9 FM WNYC. Afterwards, go to themorningnews.org to join co-host Jad Abumrad and your fellow Radiolab listeners for a live online chat from 4-5pm.

Attention New York metropolitan area Radiolabbers: Our Robert Krulwich will be on stage this Sunday at the 92nd Street Y with animal communications scientist Irene Pepperberg to talk about her late, lamented but wonderously remarkable African Grey parrot Alex.

Chris had a crush on Lisa. But how to woo her? He met her on a park bench in Chicago, handed her a stack of CD's, and sent her off on an extremely specific mission. Did it work? Find out on this week's podcast.

As you may already know, we are hard at work finishing up Season 5. But we can't finish it ourselves. After some intense jam sessions over the long weekend, Jad and Robert's death-metal side project has rendered them both mute! Don't worry they'll recover.

Back by popular demand, Radiolab's live performance goes on October 26th and 27th at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, Illinois!

Two short pieces on sperm that hint at the new ideas and amazing stories we came across once we started following the trail of this wriggly little cell.

Remember the first time you ever saw an ant hill? That parade of black insects pouring in and out of a small sand mound...most of us stopped, looked, and then moved on to other parts of the playground. E. O. Wilson is the kid who never took his eyes off the mound.

The use of fetal cells in science has become quite controversial. There was an interesting moment in an interview between Radio Lab co-host, Jad Abumrad. and scientist Dr. Leonard Hayflick on this topic when we were making the show Mortality. Dr. Hayflick grew millions of cells from one aborted fetus and pioneered the use of fetal cells for research and the creation of vaccines.

Last summer we traveled to Tanzania in our Laughter show to investigate a 1962 epidemic of contagious laughter. Well, it turns out these sorts of episodes still happen, and not just with laughter.

We play some never-released tape from the vault, and reveal a bit about what techniques we used to try and make it sing.

Jad and cellist Zoe Keating discuss the physics (if not metaphysics) of looping sound, and how to use a 17th century instrument to make avant-garde electronic music.

We're looking into a possible story on thymic irradiation. What's that you ask? It's when your thymus is treated with x-ray therapy - in most cases to reduce its size. But, while it was a popular procedure for kids with respiratory ailments in the twenties, the thirties and even up through the fifties it doesn't happen so much anymore. So now we're hoping you can help.

Robert and Brian Greene discuss what's beyond the horizon of our universe, what you might wear in infinite universes with finite pairs of designer shoes, and why the Universe and swiss cheese have more in common than you think.

Here at Radiolab we’ve been known to tinker with sound.... cutting music, ambi, and big ideas all together to get the point across in the most fun, interesting and understandable way. It’s not your typical public radio interview. Recently, we decided to check in with some of the guests on past episodes to see what they thought. Were they over-edited? Mis-represented? Did they love the show? Hate it?

Here at Radiolab we’ve been known to tinker with sound.... cutting music, ambi, and big ideas all together to get the point across in the most fun, interesting and understandable way. It’s not your typical public radio interview. Recently, we decided to check in with some of the guests on past episodes to see what they thought. Were they over-edited? Mis-represented? Did they love the show? Hate it?