How does a virus invade your body? With the help of medical animator David Bolinsky, Robert Krulwich explain step-by-step in this NPR video from 2009. There’s also more to read at Krulwich Wonders.

Another NPR favorite: Catching Up with the Flu. Or watch more videos about how bodies work.

The Paris-based Quatuor Ebene plays the second movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Op. 80 string quartet at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO, Brooklyn for NPR Music Field Recordings.

NPR’s Human-Powered Helicopters: Straight Up Difficult!

How difficult? The Sikorsky Prize from the American Helicopter Society has promised $250,000 to anyone that build’s a human-powered helicopter that can “hover for a minute, reach a height of 3 meters (about 10 feet), and stay in a 10-meter box.”

No one has claimed this prize in 30 years. And not for a lack of trying. 

But students at the University of Maryland, Team Gamera HPH, are now closer than most to reaching this goal. Watch the video above and read more about them on NPR.

via Kottke.

A Blast From The Past: Shuttle Through The Decades

One year ago today at 11:29 a.m. EDT, Atlantis launched into orbit at 17,500 mph. A bittersweet launch, it was the very last NASA shuttle mission — though thankfully not the last of the excitement for space explorers. 

If you and your kids can handle some sensory overload, watch all 135 space shuttle launches at once. It gave us a chance to talk about the Challenger disaster and provided a new perspective on the 1981-2011 shuttle program.

When sick people search the Web for remedies or tweet about their symptoms, they’re sending an early warning signal about disease outbreaks. Now scientists and public health officials are listening in.

From NPR: the perils, power and benefits of networks and our interconnectedness, both physical and virtual. File under: Epidemiology, “the study of the distribution and patterns of health-events, health-characteristics and their causes or influences in well-defined populations.”

Also, a great illustration for why we cover our mouths when we sneeze or cough. (Happily, that first sneeze made quite an impression on the co-curator.) Ick!