The Story

Dave Goulson, a bee biologist at Scotland’s University of Stirling, recently wrote a study in the journal Science linking a controversial pesticide to the decline in bumble bee population.

Dick talks with sound recorder Gordon Hempton who searches out the sounds of silence - in the Amazon and around the world. When he finds a place untouched by man-made noise, he works to preserve it.

Marvin Killgore is a meteorite hunter, collector and dealer. His hunts have taken him all over the world. In Siberia, he took his metal detector into the forest. On his way out, he saw tiger tracks covering his own. He tells Dick that the challenge is to not only find the meteorites, but to figure out how to get them home. Also on the show: a man finds a 3.92 white carat diamond on the ground. And, a corn maze that may just save a family farm.

Orion Magazine writer Jeremy Miller explores the exact center of the U.S. population, and finds that its movement has paralleled the country's westward expansion and development.