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Past Shows
October 28, 2006
 Download an MP3 of the entire program (22MB) (available Saturday, two hours after broadcast).
Invisibility Cloaking Device
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The microwave cloaking device - Courtesy, Duke University |
If you really want to hide something, the best way is to make it invisible. However, this is an obvious challenge: you've got to find some way to stop the object from reflecting electromagnetic waves, and from casting a shadow. But a group of researchers at Duke University in South Carolina think they've taken the first steps towards turning science fiction into science fact. Working with what they call "metamaterials", Dr. David Shurig and his colleagues have created a device that can bend microwaves around a cylinder, so that they'll reform on the opposite side, making the cylinder, and anything inside it, invisible to microwave detectors. While this is a long way from true invisibility in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum, it proves the scientific principle: the rest is an engineering problem. If successful, these devices could make the dreams of every 12-year-old Harry Potter fan come true.
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Deep Underground Microbes
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Mining for microbes - Courtesy, Dr. Barbara Sherwood-Lollar |
One of the incredible features of life on planet Earth is the ability to thrive in the harshest of environments. We've found organisms in the thinnest atmosphere, the deepest ocean and the most radioactive spots on the planet. Now we can add the darkest crevices to that list. Dr. Barbara Sherwood-Lollar, a professor of geology at the University of Toronto, is part of a team that's discovered microbes living three kilometres underground in rock that's been sealed off from the outside world for 25-million years. The microbes are similar to those found around hot, deep sea vents, and, surprisingly, are living without any connection to the surface. That means they don't rely on sunlight for energy. Instead, they're fulfilling all their needs by drawing on minerals found in the rocks. Which means that when it comes to searching for life on other planets, we've now got a new place to look.
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Planet Runs Hot and Cold
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Artist's conception of the planet - Courtesy, NASA/JPL-Caltech |
We've discovered more than 200 planets orbiting other stars, but for the most part we know very little about them. We know they're big, because those are the only planets we can find. Discovering more about them has been difficult because their light is so dim compared to the light of their nearby star. A team using the Spitzer Space Telescope, however, has used a clever technique to gain insights into the atmosphere of one of these planets. They've determined that this planet has one very hot and one relatively cold side, and that the atmosphere must have a special composition to allow this to happen. Canadian astronomer Dr. Sara Seager, a Senior Research Scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, was a member of the team.
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Quirks in the Arctic: Part Two
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Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen |
The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen is currently cruising in the Western Arctic with a crew of research scientists. Their mission is to investigate the impact of climate change in the North. Quirks & Quarks producer Jim Lebans recently visited the Amundsen and he reports on the science that's being done aboard the ship.
Dr. Jody Deming, a professor of Biological Oceanography and Astrobiology at the University of Washington is studying the microbial life of the Arctic Ocean. These microbes eat the phytoplankton which can absorb carbon dioxide and sequester it on the sea bottom. She's concerned that warming waters in the North will stimulate the growth of these microbes, reducing the ability of the ocean to absorb CO2.
Dr. Don Forbes of the Geological Survey of Canada based in Halifax, is studying coastlines in the Arctic, and mapping the sea floor. He's interested in how changing sea levels due to global warming will change the arctic land and seascapes.
Dr. Gary Stern is the chief scientist on this cruise, Research Scientist with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and professor at the University of Winnipeg. He's studying chemical contaminants in the Arctic and has found evidence that climate change is increasing pollutants in the North. Melting permafrost, for example, is increasing the amount of mercury in the water, which is entering the food chain. As a result, he's found beluga whales in the western Arctic with mercury levels four times what they were in the 1990s. This means that the Arctic is changing, which is obvious to residents of the North like Martha Kudlak, from Sachs Harbour on Banks Island.
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