Engines of Our Ingenuity
Houston PR
The story of technological progress is one of drama and intrigue, sudden insight and plain hard work. Let’s explore technology’s spectacular failures and many magnificent success stories.
This content is in service of Houston Public Media’s education mission and is sponsored by the University of Houston. It is not a product of our news team.
Location:
Houston, TX
Networks:
Houston PR
Description:
The story of technological progress is one of drama and intrigue, sudden insight and plain hard work. Let’s explore technology’s spectacular failures and many magnificent success stories. This content is in service of Houston Public Media’s education mission and is sponsored by the University of Houston. It is not a product of our news team.
Language:
English
Episodes
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1559: The Oldest Technology
4/19/2026
Episode: 1559 Music-making: the first technology. Today, we look for the oldest technology.
Duration:00:03:41
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1558: We O’ercome by Art
4/18/2026
Episode: 1558 Mastered by nature, we o'ercome by art - then as now. Today, an old debate in a new arena.
Duration:00:03:41
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1556: The Manual Arts
4/17/2026
Episode: 1556 In which we run out of manual arts teachers for our schools. Today, let's work with our hands.
Duration:00:03:43
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2583: Children and Their Goals
4/16/2026
Episode: 2583 Children and their Goals. Today, president, pope, astronaut.
Duration:00:03:49
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3253: Machine Learning
4/15/2026
Episode: 3253 Teaching Computers to Think. Today, Teaching a Computer.
Duration:00:03:48
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3166: Spoonerisms
4/14/2026
Episode: 3166 Spoonerisms and Their Unwilling Namesake. Today, spooning in speakerisms.
Duration:00:03:48
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1554: Scientific Instruments
4/13/2026
Episode: 1554 In which new science yields new instruments: 1500 to 1950. Today, a new class of machines and new viewpoint.
Duration:00:03:44
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1553: In Vacuo
4/12/2026
Episode: 1553 Galileo, Torricelli, von Guericke, and the idea of a vacuum. Today, we invent vacuum.
Duration:00:03:42
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1552: Global Warming Again
4/11/2026
Episode: 1552 The ocean - the wild card in global warming. Today, we wonder how things are really heating up.
Duration:00:03:39
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1551: Inventing the Piano
4/10/2026
Episode: 1551 In which Gary Larson tells us the piano was invented earlier than we thought. oday, a lesson in invention from the Far Side.
Duration:00:03:41
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2578: Water Towers
4/9/2026
Episode: 2578 The Wonders of Water Towers. Today, water flows downhill.
Duration:00:03:48
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2864: Bayes’ Theorem
4/8/2026
Episode: 2864 The theorem of Reverend Bayes. Today, let's talk about uncertainty and an 18th century Presbyterian minister.
Duration:00:03:51
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3247: The Prouste Questionnaire
4/7/2026
Episode: 3247 Proust, Turing, and the Measure of Humanity. Today, we go from Turing to Proust.
Duration:00:03:50
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1550: Finding the Book
4/6/2026
Episode: 1550 Making a book of The Engines of Our Ingenuity. Today, we wonder how to make a book.
Duration:00:03:40
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1549: Comptus Rendus, 1836
4/5/2026
Episode: 1549 Compte Rendus, 1836: a snapshot of science at high tide. Today, we read modern science when it was first being made.
Duration:00:03:43
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1547: Ripe for Revolution
4/4/2026
Episode: 1547 Mystery at the threshhold of the Twentieth Century. Today, let's reclaim mystery.
Duration:00:03:44
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1546: Max Jakob
4/3/2026
Episode: 1546 Max Jakob: a breath of fresh air in a new land. Today, a great engineer escapes the Holocaust.
Duration:00:03:44
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2576: Screw Caps for Wine
4/2/2026
Episode: 2576 Are screw caps good for wine? Today, a turn of the screw.
Duration:00:03:49
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2687: What Lives Within Us
4/1/2026
Episode: 2687 Getting to know the organisms that live on and in the human body. Today, what lives within us.
Duration:00:03:48
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3367: Scientific American’s Blunder
3/31/2026
Episode: 3367 In which Scientific American Magazine gets wrong, the airflow during singing. Today, Scientific American gets it wrong.
Duration:00:04:01