From diseases and disasters to the miracles wrought by evolution, the environmental forces that shape our lives are the inspiration for countless science writers. This event featured five award-winning authors whose best-selling books explore the complicated interplay of science, ethics, history and social responsibility.

For all that Darwin contributed to our understanding of the biological world, he was haunted by one vexing question: How does the incremental process of evolution suddenly produce, say, humans—animals who walk upright, communicate through language, and possess the brainpower to travel to the moon?

What happens when a black hole a billion times more massive than our sun powers a star-like object? It’s a quasar of a question. These massive and extremely remote celestial …

Scott Aaronson, renowned computer scientist known for his no nonsense take on, well, everything, joins Brian Greene to demystify the state of quantum computation, AI, and much more. This program …

What is color? It seems like a simple question at first, but when you think about it, the reality of what we’re seeing is a pretty complex situation. Our human eyes sift through a small piece of the vast electromagnetic spectrum and translate it into every color of the rainbow.

Using brainwaves to send a Tweet, biomechanical engineer Adam Wilson demonstrates how neural prosthetic devices can allow people with motor disabilities to communicate with the outside world. Episode filmed live …