Making Sense: Sight unseen

Birds navigate using Earth’s magnetic field, but scientists still don’t know how they actually sense it. Called the holy grail of sensory biology, magnetoreception offers a window into the thousands of unique sensory worlds animals experience. Guest: Ed Yong, author of An Immense ...  Show more

This global weather phenomenon could help make 2027 the hottest year on record. Our friends at The Gray Area explore what the upcoming El Niño season could reveal about the future of our climate. Guests: Sean Illing, host of The Gray Area; David Wallace-Wells, New York Times clim ...  Show more

Close your eyes and think of a giraffe. Can you see it? I mean, *really* see it - in rich, vivid detail? If not - you aren’t alone! We’ve had scores of messages from listeners who report having a ‘blind mind’s eye’. They don’t see mental images at all and they want to know why. J ...  Show more

Close your eyes and think of a giraffe. Can you see it? I mean, *really* see it - in rich, vivid detail? If not - you aren’t alone!We’ve had scores of messages from listeners who report having a ‘blind mind’s eye’. They don’t see mental images at all and they want to know why. Ju ...  Show more

Following the recent episode "Aphantasia: Blindness of the Mind's Eye," a number of Stuff to Blow Your Mind listeners wrote in about their own inability to summon voluntary mental images. Join Robert and Joe as they read and discuss some of the many listener mails on the matte ...

This week's episode comes to us from our friends at Radiolab! Close your eyes and imagine a red apple. What do you see? Turns out there’s a whole spectrum of answers to that question, and producer Sindhu Gnanasambandan is on one far end. In this episode, she explores what it mean ...  Show more