This Week’s NOVA Next Feature
The tireless efforts of two men have transformed the once-formidable Iron Curtain into a wildlife reserve for the 21st century. Follow the epic tale, reported by NOVA Next contributing editor Phil McKenna, in this collaboration between NOVA Next and The Big Roundtable .
In other news from NOVA and around the web:
- Sunday marked the second anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteor strike. Watch “Meteor Strike” streaming online .
- Women can choose among a variety of birth control methods, but men have limited options. But that could change .
- The onset of Alzheimer’s disease could be delayed by a molecule that occurs naturally in humans.
- The joy of eating may be lost on the penguin, which likely can’t taste its own food .
- Anti-smoking pills are typically only prescribed to people who have set a precise quitting date. But now, the door may be open to those who want to quit more gradually .
- Mars One has narrowed its applicant pool down to 100 people. Learn why scientists have ruled out the option of a round trip.
- Is general relativity too perfect ?
- Our friend Oliver Sacks on how his perspective on life changed after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Did you miss "Petra: Lost City of Stone" this week? You can watch it streaming online here.
- Up to 180 people may have been exposed to a deadly superbug at an L.A. hospital. Experts are turning to hospitals’ microbiomes to prevent the spread of pathogens.
- In the once-mysterious epigenome, scientists find what turns genes on .
- Evolution privileges large body size , especially for animals dwelling in the sea.
- For this man, “college” tastes like sausage & “yogurt” like hairspray. Meet the man who tastes words.
- Humans can only distinguish between about 30 shades of gray .