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Why Useless Knowledge Can Be So Useful

Season 12 Episode 17 | 14m 35s

Our lizard friend the Gila monster probably has no idea that a chemical in its spit inspired one of the most important medical advancements of the 21st century. But this story is really about something bigger. Something deeper, beneath the surface. About why we do science in the first place. And about what kind of questions are the best ones for scientists to ask.

Aired: 12/18/24
Extras
A man dies on a bus and Bea is warned off the case, but she refuses to stop investigating.
A body disappears from the morgue. Patience has a connection to the case.
The competition returns to Nashville as eight home cooks compete to win "The Great American Recipe"!
Sixty million American bison once thundered across the prairies of North America.
A bestselling crime writer is found dead behind locked doors and all is not as it seems.
A body in a museum exhibit leads the team into the shadowy world of fossil smuggling.
Discover Hannah Arendt, one of the most fearless political writers of modern times.
Hannah Arendt came up with the concept of “the banality of evil” during the trial of Adolf Eichmann.
Hannah Arendt was teaching at Berkeley when McCarthyism took hold of the United States.
Hannah Arendt became a stateless person in 1933 upon fleeing Germany to France.
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