WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Cook County got a failing grade for air quality last week. Now the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is involving Chicago schools in pollution monitoring.

Argonne Lab is utilizing the world's 4th fastest computer to create visualizations of aneurysms —and the formation of the universe itself.

Chicago’s new Grid Garbage Transition marks a dramatic change for city refuse collection. Its workings were left largely unchanged in the past 100 years.  

Chicago's data team develops futuristic tools with names like “Project Unicorn” and “Project Batman” and challenges civic-minded residents — and hackers — to glean ways to improve the city using data.

Increasingly, Chicago aldermen and department heads cite data before making decisions. As Mayor Emanuel deepens that commitment, we profile the community that is pressed hardest for digital tools and decision-making and ask whether there’s more to be done.

Charter advocates and even the Chicago Tribune editorial board say 19,000 kids are on charter school waiting lists in the city. There’s just one problem with that number: It’s not accurate. 

Matthew Gee is a co-founder of Chicago startup Effortless Energy, where his business card reads “Chief Nerd.” They think they have an answer for the question that dogs every energy saver who sings the praises of efficiency: If it’s so good, why isn’t everyone doing it?