Talk of the Nation

Grammy Award-winning pop diva Whitney Houston died Saturday at the age of 48. Her voice inspired a generation of musicians. Houston's musical director and friend Michael Baker and bass player Matthew Garrison, who played on Houston's 2009-2010 final tour, share memories.

Several times in earth's history continents have collided to form supercontinents only to later break apart. Geologist Ross Mitchell discusses a new study in Nature that predicts in 50 to 200 million years time the Americas and Eurasia will collide to form a supercontinent over the Arctic.

Transcript

JOHN DANKOSKY, HOST:

And now it's time for the Video Pick of the Week, and Flora's here. Hi, Flora.

FLORA LICHTMAN, BYLINE: Hi, John.

DANKOSKY: So what do you have for us?

LICHTMAN: This week, we have a Valentine's Day special, getting ready for next week's Valentine's Day, in case you didn't remember.

DANKOSKY: How romantic.

LICHTMAN: Yes, of course, always on SCIENCE FRIDAY.

DANKOSKY: Yeah.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

NYU psychology professor Gary Marcus took up guitar at the relatively ancient age of 38, by starting with the video game Guitar Hero. Marcus shares his experiences and insights on the science of learning, which he's gathered in a new book Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, sales of vinyl albums continue to grow, setting a new record in 2010. Does vinyl reproduce sound better, or is it just a trend? Two audio experts join guest host John Dankosky to talk about the science of audio, and how perceptions can shape the sound experience.

Transcript

JOHN DANKOSKY, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm John Dankosky, sitting in for Ira Flatow. Scientists have long been studied amyloid beta, those sticky protein fragments that build up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. What you may not know is that amyloid beta is produced in everyone's brain, including my brain as I speak to you right now.

In his book The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards, New York Times science writer and long-time yoga practitioner William Broad investigates popular health claims about yoga--that it boosts metabolism, for example--and finds that scientific studies tell a different story.

Lt. Col. Daniel Davis ignited a controversy when he wrote that what he saw in Afghanistan "bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders." U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Ma), defense analyst Tom Donnelly and McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Johnathan Landay discuss the realities of the war in Afghanistan.

On September 17, 2011, hundreds of people gathered in Lower Manhattan to protest the growing wealth gap and Wall Street's involvement in the economic crisis. Five months later, most of the Occupy encampments across the country have been disbanded and the future of the movement remains uncertain.

SPIN Magazine is hoping to review 1,500 albums and mixtapes exclusively in 140-character tweets on the SPINReviews Twitter feed in 2012. The music magazine recently abandoned their 80-word reviews for the new Twitter format, which critics think is killing the art of the music review.