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When does a story about science become science fiction? Cosmologist Lawrence Krauss and theoretical physicist Brian Greene discuss how to spin a yarn about string theory or the Big Bang, without hyping the science. And novelist Ian McEwan, whose books touch on neurosurgery and quantum field theory, talks about what science offers to fiction.

The Sonoran Desert, which spans some 100,000 square miles in southwestern North America, is one of the most diverse desert ecosystems in the world. Host Ira Flatow and guests discuss some lesser known desert creatures, and explore the secret life of that American southwest icon, the saguaro cactus.

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TOM BODETT, HOST:

Now, panel, how will that teenager blow his 30 million? P. J. O'Rourke?

P. J. O'ROURKE: Well, 30 million is about what college education costs for a kid these days. So he's going to spend it to get a college education so he can get a good job.

BODETT: Kyrie O'Connor?

KYRIE O'CONNOR: He's going to blow it on cars he can't drive, women he can't date and liquor he can't drink.

BODETT: And Adam Felber?

ADAM FELBER: He's going to wait two years and then he's going to buy Yahoo.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Transcript

CARL KASELL: From NPR and WBEZ-Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME!, the NPR News quiz. I'm Carl Kasell, and here's your host, at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, filling in for Drew Carey filling in for Peter Sagal, Tom Bodett.

TOM BODETT, HOST:

Thank you Carl.

(APPLAUSE)

BODETT: Wow. Those are some big - and numerous - shoes to fill. And by the end of the show those shoes will be fuller than a preacher's pockets at a Sunday picnic. And by that I mean what, Carl?

KASELL: No clue, Tom.

(LAUGHTER)