Each Friday, journalist Ira Flatow is joined by listeners and studio guests to explore science-related topics - from subatomic particles and the human genome to the Internet and earthquakes on Science Friday. The program takes listeners behind the headlines to talk to scientists and others from all walks of life, whose achievements have blazed trails through science and changed what we know about the world around us. Past guests have included E.O. Wilson and Oliver Sacks, as well as several Nobel Prize winners.

Veteran NPR science correspondent and award winning radio and TV journalist Ira Flatow hosts Science Friday each Friday, bringing NPR listeners a lively, informative discussion on science and technology.

Flatow's interest in things scientific began in boyhood - he almost burned down his mother's bathroom trying to recreate a biology class experiment. "I was the proverbial kid who spent hours in the basement experimenting with electronic gizmos, and then entering them in high school science fairs," Flatow says.

Mixing his passion for science with a tendency toward being "a bit of a ham," Flatow describes himself as "an educated layman with a tremendous desire to communicate his enthusiasm for science and discovery."

He has shared that enthusiasm with public radio listeners for more than 35 years. As NPR's science correspondent from 1971 to 1986, Flatow covered science, health, technology and the environment; his career found him reporting from the Kennedy Space Center, Three Mile Island, Antarctica and the South Pole. In one NPR report, Flatow took former All Things Considered host Susan Stamberg into a closet to crunch Wint-O-Green Lifesavers in the dark. Conducting the demonstration on the radio from inside the closet, Flatow proved that the Lifesavers do indeed spark when chewed.

Airs: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Friday on KSTX 89.1 FM
Website: www.sciencefriday.com