The month of May, with fresh new leaves and lovely blossoms, is a delightful time in the garden. Horticulturist Roberta Clarke joins our host Mindy Todd to talk about the plant highlights of the season. We hear tips on favorite plant varieties, and strategies to minimize damage from insects and other pests. 

It is spring now, and raining, but just a couple of weeks ago, at the very end of March, I was hiking in the hilly woods of western Massachusetts, and there was still a couple feet of snow.

There's a lot to talk about on this week’s “Looking Skyward" with WCAI's "All Things Considered" host Brian Morris and Dr. Regina Jorgenson, Director of Astronomy at the Maria Mitchell Association on Nantucket.

Imagine losing an arm or leg and thinking “No problem! It will grow back.” Now, imagine finding a bump on your big toe one day, only to have it grow into a complete clone of you that buds off and walks away. Laughable, right?

But that’s exactly what earthworms and their aquatic cousins can do. Duygu Özpolat, a fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory, wants to know how, and why not all animals can do the same.

 Özpolat hasn’t always worked with worms. She started with chicken embryos.

Nine out of 10 elementary schools in Europe offer children the opportunity to learn multiple languages, but only a quarter of American elementary schools offer instruction in a language other than English. And enrollment in language classes at the secondary and college levels have been falling in recent years.

But Americans may not be as language depauperate as we think. We’ve just been holding the bar too high.

In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries declared “post-truth” the word of the year, and many have since embraced the idea that we are living in a post-truth era.

“If you cut them into small pieces, each of those pieces will become a whole new worm, instead of dying. And, in addition to that, they also can make clones of themselves. So, imagine one day you see a little bump on your feet, and then that gradually grows into a whole new you and buds off. This is the kind of things they do.” - Duygu Özpolat

This week on Living Lab Radio:

WCAI News Director Steve Junker hosts a roundup of some of the top local and regional news of the week, including: the Mashpee Wampanoag get a victory as the US Congress passes a bill affirming the tribe’s sovereignty; a lawsuit between the towns of Yarmouth and Dennis goes to court; and shark souvenirs are hot items, but Cape retailers are trying not to cross the line of good taste.

The Forgetting podcast: Episode 10

Greg and David are joined by Gloria Clayborne, the wife and caregiver to jazz icon Junior Mance, who has dementia. Greg talks about going into a rage and stepping out of a cab in Manhattan. Gloria discusses some of the strategies she uses to deal with her husband’s hallucinations and incontinence. David, Greg and Gloria talk about sex, and how some Alzheimer’s patients still have strong sex drives and a desire intimacy.

This episode was recorded on May 24, 2017.