Theodore Caplow is the Commonwealth Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. He is a co-author of The First Measured Century and Recent Social Trends in the United States, 1960-1990. He ...

The first transistor was about half an inch high. That's mammoth by today's standards, when 7 million transistors can fit on a single computer chip. It was nevertheless an amazing piece of technology.

Do You Speak American? has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, promoting excellence in the humanities. Additional funding is provided by the William and Flora ...

Niels Bohr was born and educated in Copenhagen, Denmark. He lived, worked, and died there, too. But his mark on science and history was worldwide. His professional work and personal convictions were ...

WE’RE ON A JOURNEY THAT TAKES US ACROSS THE USA AND THROUGH THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. NOW WE’RE GOING TO FIND OUT HOW TODAY’S SOUTHERNERS ANSWER THE QUESTION “DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN?” THE GREATEST ...

Wilder Penfield was born in Spokane, Washington, and spent much of his youth in Hudson, Wisconsin. When he was 13, in 1904, his mother learned of the newly established Rhodes Scholarship. "This is ...

Alexander Fleming was born in a remote, rural part of Scotland. The seventh of eight siblings and half-siblings, his family worked an 800-acre farm a mile from the nearest house. The Fleming children ...

What Does Your Speech Reveal? We use language to express our identity. Our way of speaking varies and changes to reflect who we are and who we want to be. Carmen Fought asks the provocative questions: ...

Orville and Wilbur Wright were inspired by Otto Lilienthal, a German glider pioneer. Though he crashed to his death in 1896, the Wrights were obsessed the technical problems involved in flight. They ...

Be more knowledgeable, pledge now and support programs like Guns, Germs and Steel. Make a pledge and be a part of programs like this. Become a part of the experience and pledge to your local PBS ...

You say potato ....and I say spud. A look at the different schools of thought on language usage.

Linguists study "crossing" to understand how and why individuals copy the speech of another group. "Borrowing" another language variety is often an expression of identity. Cecelia Cutler explains. Can ...