Is euthanasia the shape of things to come? The basic question of the emergent field of bioethics is discussed here in its many varieties – and varying verities – by three concerned and sophisticated scholars: Dr. Leon Kass, who served as the head of the bioethics commission for the second President Bush, plus John Tilner and Nigel Cameron.

It is not the “opposable thumb” or “bipedal locomotion” that accounts for human superiority over other animals. Rather – and of course – it is the evolved brain of homo sapiens. Two leading brain researchers discuss the role of the brain in “language, love, liberty” and other distinctive human attributes in this 2007 conversation.

The African origin of our species was scientifically established by Louis Leakey and his family, which is represented in this vigorous conversation by his daughter-in-law, paleo-anthropologist Maeve Leakey. Two other distinguished researchers on the evolutionary emergence of the “talking, walking, thinking” relative of the higher apes join us in this 2003 conversation. Jonathan Kingdon is from Oxford University and Robert Martin is from the Field Museum.

n 2005 the “father” of modern sociobiology, E.O. Wilson of Harvard, joins with Robert Richards, historian of Biological Science at the University of Chicago, in a masterly overview of Darwin’s four great books and of the current status of evolutionary theory and research.

It began with military needs and opportunities and it has gone on to change the very texture of our lives. Just think: “Smart Phone!” How everything on earth came to be viewable from space (whether your vehicle’s position or a moving ISIS squad about to be “droned”) is due to the pervasive new technology, still expanding, of Global Positioning Systems. We speak with Richard Easton, author of a fine new book, GPS Declassified, about the history of GPS technology. He is also the son of the man, Roger Easton, who gets the deserved lion’s share  of the credit for inventing GPS.