After traveling through space for seven years, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft began orbiting the planet Mercury in March, 2011. In this podcast, join MESSENGER's principal investigator Sean Solomon as he describes how the spacecraft's specialized instruments are collecting information that is key to understanding terrestrial planet evolution.

The dioramas in the Jill and Lewis Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals have always been splendid, but after more than a year of painstaking restoration, they look better than ever. A multi-video series documents their renovation. In this video, experts describe how they added missing whiskers to the hall's cougar (mountain lion) diorama.

In the next few decades, the global human population will exceed 9 billion—and 70 percent will live in cities. How can hunger be addressed in this growing population? On Saturday, Februrary 2, speakers from Columbia University and the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science will present and lead discussions on this topic, and more, in a day of learning; one topic will be vertical farming.

In the next 30 years, global population is estimated to surpass nine billion people. Will there be too many people, too little food? In this podcast, join NBC News Chief Science and Health correspondent Robert Bazell and a round-table of food experts as they discuss how climate, politics and economics impact food systems and food security.

Guests include activist and best-selling author Raj Patel, geneticist Molly Jahn, and chef and UNICEF ambassador Marcus Samuelsson.

In the mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines, the Ifugao people cultivate rice on elaborate terraces with intricate irrigation systems, a landscaping effort grand enough to have earned designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some households keep carved wooden bulul figures representing mythological deities to ensure good harvests and to protect the fields and granaries.