2026-10-11 -- control

#1 · news-in-context Sep 28, 2026

As of 2025, the US has more Nobel laureates than any other nation and more than the next five nations combined.

About 34% of Nobel Prizes have gone to Americans, with prominent winners including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ernest Hemingway, Richard Feynman, Paul Krugman, Linus Pauling, and President Jimmy Carter.

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#2 · explainers Sep 26, 2026

Since 1901, the Nobel Prizes have honored major global achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace efforts.

Alfred Nobel—the inventor of dynamite—established the awards based on instructions in his third and final will, signed November 27, 1895, using the vast majority of his estate.

In 1968, Sweden's central bank established a sixth prize—the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences—to celebrate its 300th anniversary and in memory of Alfred Nobel.
Each Nobel Prize includes a gold medal, a Nobel Prize diploma, and a monetary award exceeding $1M.
Nobel Prize winners are chosen by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the humanities-focused Swedish Academy, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet—a Swedish medical university—and the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

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#3 · experiences Oct 6, 2026

Explore a series of NASA visualizations tracking satellites and space debris

The series illustrates the population of objects orbiting Earth as of February 2024, using data from US Space Command. These include active satellites, defunct spacecraft, rocket bodies and debris fragments larger than roughly 10 centimeters in low Earth orbit.

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#4 · explainers Jun 30, 2026

An Alzheimer's patient discusses her condition with children

Alzheimer's is a deadly disease that profoundly changes a person's abilities and personality, which makes it difficult to explain to kids. Responding to potentially uncomfortable questions with honesty (and relatable imagery) about the costs and nature of the disease goes a long way in fostering understanding.

itk Inspired by their families' experiences with cancer, two teens create a card game to help own · sim 0.41 · keep 0.77 · score -1

#5 · explainers Apr 8, 2025

Patients are a part of the progress

Navigating a cancer diagnosis can be terrifying and overwhelming. There is a robust community of patient advocates dedicated to prevention and diagnosis, research and clinical trials, legislation, needs of individual cancer types, among others. See how patient advocacy improves cancer research leading to improved treatment options and patient care.

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#6 · explainers Apr 6, 2026

Meeting someone with common healthcare challenges can be life-changing

The understanding that comes from meeting others who have similar experiences can provide hope that life can get better, the solace of affirmation, and make navigating a new diagnosis or a rare illness, in particular, much easier.

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#7 · experiences Mar 26, 2026

Reimagining YouTube as cable TV, complete with channel-surfing

The site streams YouTube content as if it were broadcast television, providing the ability to flip through channels and enter videos mid-stream, and you also can't easily skip ahead. The product is designed in part to bring back serendipity to video discovery.

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#8 · curiosity Sep 17, 2026

Spotify's success turned Swedish entrepreneur Daniel Ek into a billionaire in his mid-30s.

Ek and his cofounder Martin Lorentzon envisioned Spotify as a legal version of Napster.

Securing licensing deals with major labels like Universal Music, Sony, and Warner Music gave Spotify access to a broad music catalog.
Its freemium model, offering both a free tier supported by ads and a paid ad-free tier, helped attract early adopters.
Customers loved the convenience of streaming songs rather than paying per download from services like iTunes.
At first exclusive to desktops, Spotify launched mobile apps for iOS and Android devices in 2009.
Rapid growth followed Spotify’s mobile expansion; the service had around 1 million users at the start of 2009, which grew to around 7 million by the end of that year.
Spotify entered the US in 2011, which helped its global user base expand to 20 million by 2012.

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#9 · news-in-context Oct 5, 2026

Explore state maps of the US death penalty, from where it's still legal to where executions have been carried out.

Lethal injection is now the most common US execution method, followed by electrocution; the last US hanging took place in Delaware in January 1996.

More than 1,900 people were on death row as of the summer of 2026, and 23 people were sentenced to death in 2025.
Twenty-three states don't have the death penalty, a shift that began in 1847, when Michigan became the first state to ban it.
Across all executions, 76% of victims in the underlying crimes were white, suggesting crimes against white people have prompted stronger criminal justice system penalties.
There have been more than 1,500 executions in the US since the late 1970s, and more than a third took place in Texas.

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#10 · explainers Jun 29, 2026

Every world champion in F1 history

Over the last decade, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have dominated the podium, and their Red Bull Racing and Mercedes teams have taken every Constructors' Championship since 2010. But which team had the most championships in the 1950s? Who has the most Drivers' Championships in Formula 1's history? This article shows every Drivers' and Constructors' champion since the start of Formula 1 in the 1950s.

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#11 · longform Feb 27, 2026

'This American Life' once tried to recreate the original recipe for Coca-Cola

Given that the Coca-Cola formula is one of the company's most closely-guarded secrets, the radio show's team was surprised to come across a 1979 newspaper article with what looked like the original recipe for Coke.

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#12 · experiences Sep 2, 2024

YouTube brought endless content—and endless culture wars

How did YouTube grow from a startup in 2005, to a media powerhouse with more than 2.5 billion monthly logged-in users who watch more than 1 billion hours of video every day? That’s what this podcast interview with Bloomberg tech reporter Mark Bergen on NPR’s Fresh Air explores.

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#13 · news-in-context Sep 17, 2026

Read a user's review of the differences between Spotify and its closest rival, Apple Music.

When it comes to digital music streaming services, Spotify and Apple Music have solidified their place as the #1 and #2 services, respectively, based on their number of users.

Spotify’s closest rival in the US is Apple Music, which reportedly had more than 93 million paying users as of January 2025.
Spotify had about 300 million paying subscribers as of August 2026.

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#14 · news-in-context Jun 8, 2026

Visualize the impact of approximately 9,000 metric tons of satellites and space debris orbiting Earth—70% of which, including the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope, do so in low Earth orbit.

The growing reliance on space-based platforms for modern technologies, including Starlink satellites, increases the risk of debris collisions.

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#15 · explainers Sep 28, 2026

The Nobel Prizes are among the highest science honors, though they have long been criticized for their limited scope and representation of disciplines and minorities.

Thousands of university professors, scientists, and past Nobel laureates are invited each year to nominate individuals for the Nobel Prize, and the nomination information is kept confidential for 50 years.

According to the rules established when the awards began in 1901, Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine can each be awarded to no more than three individuals.
About half of the Nobel Prizes in the sciences have been awarded for discoveries in particle physics, atomic physics, cell biology, neuroscience, and molecular chemistry.
Many disciplines, including mathematics, computer science, climate science, oceanography, and geology, have historically been underrepresented in the Nobel Prizes.
Through 2024, only 26 of 650 unique individuals who received a Nobel Prize in the sciences were women, and no Black individual has won one during the same period.

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#16 · experiences Oct 1, 2026

See what space trash is passing overhead at your location with a real-time map of satellites and debris circling in low Earth orbit.

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#17 · experiences Sep 17, 2026

Read about how Spotify creates niche genres, from 'Webcore' to 'Phonk.'

One of Spotify's most recognizable features is its playlists.

The provider offers an endless stream of strangely titled mixes with names like "Hyperpop" and "Lorem," which suggest uniform genres and scenes despite featuring seemingly random assortments of artists and songs.
By organizing its music in this way, some argue that the process erases organic movements that developed outside of the app.

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#18 · explainers Dec 31, 2025

Viral pop artists create systems of participation, not just music

Musicologist (and Swift expert) Paula Clare Harper weighs in on the factors that make music go viral. Tracks designed for shareability that feed well into content algorithms on streaming platforms are able to grow in popularity, with traditional human gatekeepers sidelined.

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#19 · news-in-context Mar 6, 2026

Grands Prix run March through December at circuits across 5 continents

F1's season crosses five continents in locations steeped in history and meaning for drivers, teams, and the sport. There are 22 events in 2026, starting in Australia and ending in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

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#20 · explainers Jun 30, 2026

How massive cargo ships fight off modern pirates

Piracy on the high seas costs a reported $16 billion each year from either theft or damage incurred during an attempt to pirate massive cargo ships. This video breaks down several ways companies attempt to fend off would-be thieves. Pirate crews are...

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#21 · experiences Oct 5, 2026

Less than 1% of shipwrecks have been explored, partly because a single dive can cost millions of dollars.

While an estimated 4,300 shipwrecks are within NOAA's 14 National Marine Sanctuaries, divers have only surveyed about 430.

An estimated $60B in treasure lies in wreckage across the world's oceans, though shipwrecks are typically documented to avoid collisions rather than for exploration.
Between 90% and 95% of the sea floor remains unexplored, and only about 10% of the world's shipwrecks have even been located.

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#22 · news-in-context Oct 6, 2026

Rising satellite numbers pose increased risks of planes being hit by falling debris

Projections of more than 100,000 satellites in space by the 2030s—eight times the number in 2025—highlight a growing threat to aviation. Experts suggest the odds could reach seven in 10,000 annually by 2035, alongside higher risks to people on the ground.

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#23 · explainers Sep 28, 2026

Various awards have been established to honor contributions in science, technology, and mathematics beyond the disciplines honored by the Nobel Prizes.

Established in 2002, the Abel Prize awards $750,000 to a mathematician for pioneering scientific achievements, while the $1M Turing Award honors contributions in computer science.

The Lasker Awards provide $250,000 to individuals in the categories of basic research, clinical research, and special achievement, as well as a public service award every other year.
Kavli Prizes, named after Norwegian American philanthropist Fred Kavli, provide $1M prizes to scientists in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience every other year since 2008.
Nicknamed the Nobel Prize for the environment, the Tyler Prize "recognizes scientists, ecologists, economists, policymakers, or organizations working to preserve and enhance the natural world."
The Vetlesen Prize honors researchers in earth science, while the Wolf Prizes for Sciences and the Arts are four awards that recognize "breakthroughs in physics, medicine, mathematics, chemistry, or agriculture."
The Kyoto Prizes recognize achievements in the three categories—advanced technology, basic sciences, and arts and philosophy—every year, with recipients getting 100M yen.
The Millennium Technology Prize honors innovations "that support a more sustainable, enhanced quality of life," while the Draper Prize honors an inventor whose work has "significantly improved quality of life."

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#24 · experiences Jun 30, 2026

Visualizing Earth's space garbage

An unsavory byproduct of humanity's brilliant exploration of space, the Moon, and more, is the rapid production of space debris floating around in orbit. Its estimated over 25,000 objects are in orbit, a number that grows everyday as satellites are decommissioned, rockets enter orbit, and more. Now, you can visualize what this debris looks like from a zoomed-out perspective with this brief video.

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#25 · news-in-context Jan 15, 2026

By 2030, experts estimate a 1 in 1000 chance of a plane being hit by space debris

As more satellites and spacecraft are launched, the rate of space debris re-entering Earth's atmosphere, including those that do not burn up completely, increases. International space agencies and air traffic control systems will need to coordinate to develop standardized methods and technical solutions to prevent and minimize future crisis scenarios.

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#26 · explainers Jun 2, 2026

Deep-sea mining can provide access to critical mineral reserves larger than all known land reserves combined, while threatening fragile ecosystems harboring undiscovered medicines.

Deep-sea mining involves machines that sweep across the ocean floor to collect nodules or other samples containing critical minerals, which are then extracted during processing at the surface.

Proponents believe this process would reduce child labor and human rights violations currently occurring in land-based mining operations that collect the minerals needed for modern-day electronics.
Deep-sea mining sweeps would kill many unknown organisms, including some that may produce undiscovered compounds that serve as lifesaving antibiotics, such as those in deep-sea sponges that kill harmful bacteria.
The Clarion-Clipperton Zone—a region in the Pacific Ocean larger than the European Union—is estimated to contain up to six times as much cobalt as all land reserves, yet about 90% of the species in the area are unknown to scientists.
Deep-sea mining operations also interfere with carbon storage and nutrient recycling near the seafloor, which can have downstream effects on climate change and fisheries that humans depend on.

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#27 · experiences Aug 12, 2026

Explore a database of more than 220,000 shipwrecks, the largest compilation to date.

Historians estimate that less than 1% of shipwrecks have been explored. Only about 189,000 locations of the 220,000 wrecks on the site are known.

This database features over 80,000 images, with related news updated on a rolling basis.

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#28 · news-in-context Oct 6, 2026

In 2023, there were nearly as many payloads in LOE as trackable pieces of debris

In 2021, the European Space Agency estimated that more than 130 million space debris objects larger than 1 millimeter were in low Earth orbit, though only about 22,000 were being tracked. As of late 2025, the tracked total exceeds 49,000.

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#29 · explainers Jul 15, 2026

Of the 736 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and economics awarded through 2023, more than 95% come from the same academic family, having been taught by a lineage of previous winners.

Research shows that 702 winners can trace their academic genealogy—who their teachers were, and who their teachers' teachers were, and so on—back to British physicist John W. Strutt.

John W. Strutt won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1904 for the discovery of argon and taught JJ Thomson, whose work led to the discovery of the electron.
The nearly all-encompassing cluster may result from Nobel Prize nominations being submitted by a group that includes previous winners, who may be more likely to nominate their academic descendants.
Past Nobel Prize winners may also be in favorable conditions for their work and draw in the most talented individuals to work with them, who also benefit from these conditions.
Besides having worked with a past winner, future Nobel Prize winners are statistically most likely to be men from or who have moved to North America.
Through 2023, more than half Nobel Prizes in the natural and medical sciences have gone to researchers who work in particle physics, cell biology, atomic physics, neuroscience, or molecular chemistry.

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#30 · experiences Oct 1, 2026

Play a space junk collection game

Developed by Astroscale, a company with a contract from the UK to remove satellites from orbit safely, the game enables players to simulate the company's planned COSMIC mission and test their space debris-catching skills.

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#31 · news-in-context Dec 17, 2024

By 2028, a space trash-avoiding maneuver is expected to occur every 18 seconds

As the number of active Starlink satellites increases, greater efforts will be required to keep low Earth orbit free of debris, sparking a new technological space race. NASA has found that using lasers to manage small and medium debris could save up to $9B over 30 years.

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#32 · explainers Apr 28, 2026

While major oil spills result from accidental pipeline ruptures or damage to transportation vessels or rigs, as much as half the oil that reaches coastlines has naturally leaked from the seafloor.

The gradual erosion of rocks containing crude oil-filled pores near the ocean floor produces regular leakage into underwater ecosystems, but these substances do not cause significant damage because they are less toxic than refined petroleum products and leak at very low rates.

Oil spills can devastate ocean environments by degrading the water-repellent properties of marine birds' feathers, reducing the insulating properties of fur, and poisoning food chains if ingested.
Organisms contaminated by crude oil after spills, including oysters, shrimp, and tuna, can suffer stunted growth, reduced reproduction, and mortality, with resulting population declines affecting fisheries.

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#33 · experiences Oct 6, 2026

Thanks to digitized archives, shipwreck hunters can now do in a day the research that once took them at least a week or two.

Autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicles now let explorers reach almost any depth in the ocean without risking human lives.

Searchers found Shackleton's Endurance in 2022, using sonar and an underwater robot while their ship's propellers kept nearby ice clear.
Many of the estimated 3 million vessels lost in the sea are expected to never be found.

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#34 · curiosity Aug 20, 2026

Historians estimate that only 1% of shipwrecks have been discovered.

Many shipwreck sites have completely deteriorated, but artifacts aboard the vessels remain, while many lack historical records of the event or location.

According to various sources, there are over 200,000 cataloged records of sunken ships, with some still to be found.

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#35 · explainers May 7, 2026

Explore a list of Nobel Prize winners supported by National Science Foundation grants.

As of 2025, 274 Nobel laureates have received funding from the NSF at some point during their careers, including every prize winner in economic sciences since 1997.

NSF-funded Nobel laureates include 49 individuals in physiology or medicine, 82 in physics, 70 in chemistry, and 73 in economic sciences.

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#36 · longform Sep 30, 2026

Elizabeth Holmes has publicly spoken about the 'hell and torture' of prison since she began serving time.

Following a nearly four-month trial in 2022, the Theranos founder was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to roughly 11 years in prison.

However, Holmes maintains that she is innocent and wants to continue working on her blood-testing technology upon being released from prison.
The former CEO no longer speaks in the low baritone voice she adopted while running Theranos.
Holmes gave birth to her second child with partner Billy Evans three months before she reported to federal prison.

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#37 · explainers Jun 2, 2026

As of 2025, China has been awarded the most deep-sea mining contracts by the ISA

The International Seabed Authority—established by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea—grants 15-year contracts for governments and private companies to legally search for minerals and test seabed mining technologies. China is already the global leader in the processing and refining of critical minerals.

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#38 · experiences Aug 20, 2026

Explore an interactive map of WWII shipwrecks.

Historians estimate roughly 20,000 ships were sunk during World War II as a direct cause of fighting, primarily in the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters.

This mapping project lists about 75% of them, while the remainder lacked specific location data.

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#39 · curiosity Sep 23, 2026

The Dokos shipwreck, the second-oldest discovered to date, is more than 4,000 years old.

The major factors influencing how long it takes for a ship to erode on the seafloor are the ship's materials, and how much oxygen there is on the seafloor where the ship sank.

The Industrial Revolution marked a change from wooden ships to metal ships. In warm, oxygen-rich waters, wooden boats tend to decompose far more quickly than metal boats, as animals and microbes can break down the wreckage.
Deeper, colder, and less oxygen-rich waters don't host as many fish to eat the wreckage, so wooden boats can lie there without eroding as quickly. However, microbes that can feast on metal live in these waters and, therefore, decompose metal ships.
The Black Sea, an oxygen-poor body of water, hosts roughly 60 known shipwrecks going as far back as Ancient Greece. Many of the oldest shipwrecks discovered to date sank during the late Bronze Age, as Mediterranean trade networks began to flourish.

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#40 · explainers May 28, 2026

A trio of scientists won the Nobel in Physiology or Medicine that year, but they performed their award-worthy work beginning about two decades before winning the prize. This announcement includes details about the science and notes that the three scientists will equally share the 11 million Swedish kronor (almost $1.2M).

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#41 · experiences Jun 26, 2025

An archive of some of America's most significant shipwrecks

From The Portland—known as New England's "Titanic"—to the Civil War's USS Monitor, this archive from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides overviews of some of the most well-known shipwrecks in US history.

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#42 · explainers Sep 28, 2026

Explore the full list of Nobel laureates, which spans about 1,000 individuals, and their accomplishments.

The Nobel Foundation's website also provides biographies of every winner, as well as interviews and videos with more recent winners.

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#43 · longform Oct 1, 2026

In 2023, a missing submersible touring the Titanic's wreckage triggered multinational search and rescue efforts for days, until a tragic discovery revealed that all five on board were killed in an implosion.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada's final report indicated that the submersible's implosion resulted from a damaged carbon fiber hull and insufficient regulatory oversight.

The private underwater tourism company OceanGate took paying customers to visit the Titanic wreck, previously conducting several successful dives.
The loss of the submersible led to scrutiny of OceanGate's insufficient safety and engineering practices.
The event drew widespread media and online attention, with many people drawing comparisons to the 1912 Titanic disaster. Both tragedies appeared preventable but resulted in part from ignoring safety warnings.

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#44 · curiosity Aug 12, 2026

Watch footage from the moments the Titanic wreck was discovered by a joint US-French research team in 1985.

One of the most famous shipwrecks in modern history, the RMS Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg in April 1912. It was discovered on the seafloor by the research team about 370 miles southeast of Newfoundland.

The tragedy inspired a 1997 film by director and oceanography enthusiast James Cameron, which eventually became the first movie to surpass a global box office gross of $1B.

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#45 · explainers Sep 28, 2026

With rules established when scientists worked in small labs or in isolation, the Nobel Prizes have struggled to reflect the collaborative nature of modern research.

At most, each Nobel Prize can be shared by three people, but discoveries increasingly involve the gradual work of large teams that work together and build on one another.

In 2013, the Nobel Prize in physics went to two theorists, even though over 5,000 scientists were listed as authors on papers confirming the existence of the Higgs boson.
The 2017 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three scientists for the detection of gravitational waves, but the papers detailing the discovery had nearly 1,000 authors.

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#46 · experiences Jul 7, 2023

The art of 'undiscovering' phantom islands

Centuries of maps include islands and isles that appear to only exist on atlases. This article explores the discovery and "undiscovery" of such landscapes, which still persist despite modern technology. As recently as 2012, Google Maps showed an...

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#47 · explainers Jun 30, 2026

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was not among the prizes in Alfred Nobel's will but was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was established after the Swedish Central Bank donated to the Nobel Foundation to celebrate the bank's 300th anniversary.

The committee responsible for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize has historically interpreted "economic sciences" broadly, with winners including psychologist Daniel Kahneman and political scientist Elinor Ostrom.
Although the committee generally identifies a winning body of work and connects it to appropriate researchers to be honored, the final decision is made by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
While the award is not given posthumously, the average age of economics prize recipients is the oldest among Nobel Prize categories, as it often takes decades to assess genuine impact.

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#48 · experiences Aug 12, 2026

Explore a photo gallery of underwater shipwrecks taken by Tobias Friedrich, a German scuba diver specializing in underwater photography.

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#49 · curiosity Oct 26, 2022

Researchers discover a massive Lake Superior shipwreck

A 292-foot Whaleback ship, Barge 129, was found in Lake Superior 120 years after a storm sank it, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said.

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#50 · explainers Sep 28, 2026

Nobel Prizes in science have favored male, North American, and European scientists from established academic institutions, with only 11 female winners in the 20th century.

The Nobel Prize nomination process is invitation-only, meaning previous winners are involved in selecting new laureates, which critics argue has contributed to the lack of diversity among Nobel laureates.

Some have argued that, beyond nomination rules, limited outreach has biased the Nobel Prize nomination process against researchers from developing nations.
As of 2024, seven of the world's top 10 science research institutions—ranked by contributions to natural and health sciences journals—are in China, but only 10 Chinese-born or Chinese-heritage scientists have won Nobel Prizes.

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#51 · experiences Jun 2, 2026

What revisiting a 1979 experiment reveals about ecosystem recovery after deep-sea mining

A 2023 study co-led by the National Oceanography Centre and the Natural History Museum, London, found that tracks made by the mining vehicle remained largely unchanged since 1979. Small animals, such as amoeba-like xenophyophore, were seen in the cleared areas, but sightings of larger animals known to live in the region were much rarer.

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#52 · explainers Feb 12, 2026

In 1936, Eugene O'Neill became the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize in literature.

When discussing his work, the Nobel committee noted "the power, honesty, and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy."

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#53 · experiences Jun 30, 2026

Explore the deepest parts of the ocean

The deeps of the Earth's oceans are some of the most extreme environments on the planet. Take a trip 36,000 feet to the deepest parts of the sea in this informative, 10-minute animated video.

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#54 · curiosity Sep 23, 2026

Explore fascinating artifacts found in different shipwrecks, including centuries old alcohol, love letters, and a Titanic musician's violin.

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#55 · explainers Sep 28, 2026

After the dynamite he invented to make handling explosives safer was instead used for warfare, Alfred Nobel reshaped his legacy by establishing the Nobel Prizes.

In 1867, Alfred Nobel invented dynamite by stabilizing nitroglycerin—an endeavor that cost his youngest brother Emil his life three years earlier.

Dynamite revolutionized construction and mining in the 19th century, but its use for military purposes disturbed Nobel, who posthumously donated the majority of his wealth to establish the Nobel Prizes.
Per Nobel's third and final will, his wealth should be used to award "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind."

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#56 · experiences May 31, 2022

Scientists discover what looks like an underwater road

Crew aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus discvered a “yellow brick road” that looks it leads to Atlantis. Climage change may affect future ocean studies.

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#57 · explainers Jun 29, 2026

The full list of every Pulitzer Prize winner

Since its inception in 1917, over 2,000 Pulitzers have been awarded to writers published in the US, from poetry and fiction to investigative reporting and history books. You can explore the winners by decade and year, or see the winners by category, including those no longer used.

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#58 · experiences Apr 10, 2025

How the ocean is the new frontier of innovation

Space has been called the final frontier of innovation and investment for decades. Many innovators say the ocean is the new space, the vast majority of whose hidden depths remain obscure. In this podcast episode, business-minded experts discuss the opportunities founders see in the ocean, including seagrass restoration, underwater cable networks, and more.

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#59 · curiosity May 30, 2023

Mapping Michigan's shipwrecks

For centuries, the Great Lakes have provided vital access to the Midwest from the Atlantic Ocean, allowing the establishment of key trading outposts and ultimately the growth of major cities in the region. An estimated 6,000 vessels were lost on the Great Lakes with approximately 1,500 of these ships located in Michigan waters. Explore the deadly legacy of the region with resources pulled together by the Michigan History Center.

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#60 · explainers Feb 26, 2026

The 2011 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for the discovery of dark energy, which has driven the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Through the use of standard candles—objects whose brightness is well-known—astronomers can determine distances by recognizing that the same phenomena will dim in predictable ways with increasing distance.

By observing the same type of stellar explosions at various locations, Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess found that the universe's expansion has accelerated for the past five billion years.

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Shipwrecks, Satellite Explosion, and the World's Best Bridges