Reactions

Why is the US buying Canada's trash for $30,000 per gram?

Companies around the world are fighting to buy a rare radioactive substance, despite its $30,000-per-gram price tag. This substance powers emergency exit signs that can stay bright for two decades without power, glow-in-the-dark keychains, and might one day unlock the holy grail of clean energy. What is this mystery substance?

Why is the US buying Canada's trash for $30,000 per gram?

12m 7s

  • How an HIV Miracle Drug Vanished: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How an HIV Miracle Drug Vanished

    E1 - 9m 47s

    In 1998, a pharmaceutical company suddenly lost the ability to make their lifesaving HIV drug at one of its production facilities. Then that failure spread to the company’s analysis labs. Then it spread to the other production facility, and within months the lifesaving drug had effectively vanished from the entire planet. And this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.

  • Everyone is Wrong About Mexican Coke (Even Johnny Harris): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Everyone is Wrong About Mexican Coke (Even Johnny Harris)

    S10 E16 - 9m 36s

    Mexican Coke tastes different than American Coke; after all, it’s sweetened using cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. That, at least, was the conventional wisdom until 2011, when a paper published in the journal Obesity found that Mexican Coke contained no cane sugar. Instead, the authors found plenty of glucose and fructose, which are the main ingredients in high-fructose corn syrup.

WETA Passport

Stream tens of thousands of hours of your PBS and local favorites with WETA Passport whenever and wherever you want. Catch up on a single episode or binge-watch full seasons before they air on TV.