"The plow that broke the plains" depicts the social and economic history of the Great Plains from the settlement of the prairies by cattlemen and farmers through the World War I boom to drought and depression. "The river" traces life in the Mississippi River Valley during the previous 150 years, showing the consequences of sharecropping, soil exhaustion, unchecked erosion and floods, and concludes with scenes of regional planning, TVA development...

After learning about children and families in the poverty-stricken villages of Zambia, ten-year-old Sawyer Anderson wanted to help them obtain clean water. Sawyer and her volunteer teammates raised more than $26,000 to develop wells in south-central Africa. This equates to 10 wells and 3,000 lives.

"Examines cutting edge developments in science, technology, and medicine, covering a variety of topics that include: new findings in pandemic research; cyborg technologies; new developments in understanding the brain; the latest advances in extending human life; innovations in energy resources; developments under way to countervail potential water shortages."--