Cool Science Radio's update on a story John and Lynn have been reporting on for the last 2 years…DART is the acronym…and it stands for NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft.

In this episode of Cool Science Radio Mara Grunbaum who has just written Break Down! which is a NatGeo kids book joins Lynn and John. The book explores how things break down, crack, explode, crumple, and shatter. Break Down! explores the world through the lens of what it takes for things to, well, not work. You peer through the smoke and rubble of controlled demolitions to discover the properties of building materials. It shows the inner workings of a cracked cell phone screen, mega-avalanches and sinkholes and it travels back in time to explore the world’s most famous failures.

In this episode of Cool Science Radio, John Wells and Lynn Ware Peek speak with Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson who has just written Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization, This new book brings the rationality of science and the scientific mind to look at the political and cultural issues we talk about every day. After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrates life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take in response. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched.Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette that sees and paints the world differently. From insights on resolving global conflict to reminders of how precious it is to be alive, Tyson reveals, with warmth and eloquence, an array of brilliant and beautiful truths that apply to us all, informed and enlightened by knowledge of our place in the universe.

Cool Science Radio's hosts John Wells and Lynn Ware Peek welcome leading business journalist Mark Bergen in this episode. He writes exclusively about Google for Bloomberg, Businessweek and others. He discusses his new book Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination.

In this episode of Cool Science Radio John and Lynn are joined by senior editor of space and physics at Scientific American magazine, Lee Billings. They discuss what the James Webb space telescope photos can tell us about Jupiter, Mars, and Earth itself - Now that photos are regularly coming back from the telescope that sits a million miles away from Earth.Billings writes about the intersections of science, technology, and culture for Nature, Nautilus, New Scientist, Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, and many other publications. His first book, Five Billion Years of Solitude, chronicles the scientific quest to discover other Earth-like planets elsewhere in the universe.

Today on Cool Science Radio: (1:13) Update on NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, DART, which was intentionally smashed into the asteroid Dimorphos Monday September 26th. NASA administrator Bill Nelson called the mission an “unprecedented success for planetary defense. The next step is to study the asteroid using telescopes on Earth to confirm that DART’s impact altered the its orbit. Then (3:22) Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson who has just written Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization, This new book brings the rationality of science and the scientific mind to look at the political and cultural issues we talk about every day.And finally (29:37) Mara Grunbaum who has just written Break Down! which is a NatGeo kids book. It is filled with photos and fun facts and covers all kinds of things that crash, crumble, and break.

This week on Cool Science Radio hosts John Wells and Lynn Ware Peek's guests include:Leading business journalist (0:59) Mark Bergen. He writes exclusively about Google for Bloomberg, Businessweek and others. He discusses his new book Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination.Then, senior editor of space and physics at Scientific American magazine, (23:12) Lee Billings will discuss what the James Webb space telescope can tell us about Jupiter, Mars, and Earth itself - Now that photos are regularly coming back from the telescope that sits a million miles away from Earth.

On today's Cool Science Radio, hosts John Wells and Lynn Ware Peek's guests will be:(01:00) Russell Foster who has written Life Time: Your Body Clock and Its Essential Roles in Good Health and Sleep. A guide to using the science of the body clock to promote better sleep, better health, and better thinking.(29:09) Then, National Geographic Explorers Steve Winter and Sharon Guynup. Their new book: The Ultimate Book of Big Cats: Your Guide to The Secret Lives of These Fierce, Fabulous Felines.

Today on Cool Science Radio hosts John Wells and Lynn Ware Peek’s guests include:(0:56) Michael Kim, Chief Information Officer at a company called MultiPlan that develops artificial intelligence that uses machine learning to lower healthcare costs by reducing out-of-network claims and cost burdens.Then Pulitzer Prize finalist (26:00) Katherine Blunt who has written California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric -and what it means for America's Power Grid. In the book she adresses Pacific Gas & Electric’s Infrastructure failure and the connection to California fires.

On today's Cool Science Radio John and Lynn's guests will be:Theoretical physicist (01:01) Antonio Padilla who has written, Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity. Padilla explores nine of the most extraordinary numbers in physics that illuminate the ultimate nature of reality.Then, (28:33) Dr. Gabby Wild, Wild is a NatGeo Kids educator and author, and her latest book, How to Speak Animal, helps kids understand how animals communicate through sound, body language, and behavior. It’s full of expert insights and real-life stories of humans exploring ways to “talk” to animals, from teaching great apes sign language to speaking “dolphin.”