Jungus

Can chemistry explain what makes Stilton stinky and goat cheese gooey? Liz Thorpe, vice president of Murray’s Cheese in New York and author of the new book The Cheese Chronicles, talks about the science and business of making cheese in America.

The Tony award-winning musical Next To Normal portrays a family struggling with mental illness and the treatments offered by modern psychiatry — with rock songs about Valium and bipolar disorder.

John Dabiri, bioengineer at Caltech, has developed new techniques for studying the motion of aquatic animals. In a recent study in the journal Nature, Dabiri and colleagues explain how swimming animals contribute to ocean mixing — the process that distributes heat, nutrients and gasses throughout the sea.

Researchers are studying Bolivia’s Tsimane tribe to better understand the effects of aging in the developed world. Gerontologist Eileen Crimmins describes a study that looked for signs of heart disease in the Tsimane, who still live a relatively traditional lifestyle.

Computer scientist Hovav Shacham has figured out a way to hack into older, seemingly more secure voting machines. Shacham talks about the “hack-ability” of electronic voting systems, election security and the best way to run an election with the current machines.