This is the first installment of Audacious Little Things!

Meet an anthropologist who explains why she thinks the human animal delights in making miniatures of things, and then meet a sculpturist dubbed “The 8th Wonder of the World” whose art requires a microscope to see.

Find out how one kind of protozoan earned itself the title of “The Immortal Jellyfish”. Plus, what researchers think is going on when starlings fly together in those mesmerizing clouds, and what that has to do with creating underwater robots.

Finally, former US and New York State Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, reads his piece, “The Butterfly Effect” and ponders the reason why we are so compelled by its concept.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Merry White is a professor of Anthropology at the College of Arts & Sciences at Boston University
• Dr. Willard Wigan MBE is a British sculpturist who has set two world records with his microscopic art
• Dr. Naomi Leonard is a professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University who studies how starlings fly in groups to develop underwater robots that react to each other
• Dr. Maria Pia Miglietta is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston. She is also the Head of the Miglietta Lab, where she studies Turritopsis Dohrnii, a.k.a. the Immortal Jellyfish
• Billy Collins is a poet who served as Poet Laureate of the United States (2001-2003) and as New York State Poet (2004-2006)

Photo courtesy Dr. Willard Wigan, MBE