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Past Shows
February 9, 2008
 Download an MP3 of the entire program (22MB).
Energy Brace
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The Energy Harvester, courtesy Science Mag.
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When humans walk, a lot of the energy used goes not into speeding us up, but actually slowing us down. Dr. Max Donelan, an assistant professor of kinesiology at Simon Fraser University, decided to take advantage of this to generate electricity. Using a system similar to that used in hybrid cars, which use generators to catch the energy from braking, Dr. Donelan has designed a knee brace that harnesses the power of walking. Already, his device is able to generate 5 Watts of power, enough to charge 10 cell phones. He sees this as a great tool for the medical world, for powering implants, as well as a way of charging portable devices for those who want to remain off the power grid.
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Bionic Lens
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Dr. Parviz' lens, courtesy University of Washington |
Computer displays and televisions are getting larger, but Dr. Babak Parviz, from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, is bucking that trend by making them smaller. The catch is that his displays are going to be much, much closer to your eye - immediately on top of them, in fact. Dr. Parviz has developed a way to make contact lenses, with electronic circuits embedded in them, that can be used for display or even for medical sensors.
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The Barnacle's Penis
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Feeding Legs and relaxed Penis of a Barnacle, courtesy Chris Neufeld |
Barnacles, at first glance, may not seem to be the most impressive form of sea-life. But Chris Neufeld, a graduate student at the University of Alberta, currently working at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on Vancouver Island, says they have a lot to brag about. Mr. Neufeld has been studying the reproductive systems of these seemingly impassive crustaceans. It turns out that barnacles sport the longest penis in the animal kingdom. As if that weren't enough, the length of their penis changes depending on the neighbourhood they live in. Those from wave-exposed shores were shorter than, stouter than, and more than twice as massive for their length as, those from nearby protected bays.
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Baboon Family Values
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Juvenile grooming an adult male baboon, courtesy S. Alberts |
If you look at baboon society, you might not think the males have much to do with raising the youngsters. After all, they don't feed the kids, nor do they necessarily stick around after babies are born. But paternal care may be much more important than we'd previously thought. Dr. Susan Alberts, a professor of biology at Duke University, noticed a few years ago, that male baboons can recognize their own offspring. She wondered if this was having any impact on how well the youngsters survived and flourished. By examining almost 20 years of data she was able to show that when males stick around, their offspring mature sooner, allowing them to produce more offspring of their own. Dr. Alberts thinks the presence of a male parent reduces the stress for infants, and lets them devote more of their energy to growing, rather than fighting off competitors.
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Extinction Crater
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An artist's impression of a major meteor impact |
As alluring as Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is for a little sun and sand, you wouldn't have wanted to be there 65 million years ago, when a 10-km long asteroid plowed into it. The impact punched a 35-km deep hole in the Earth and set off a catastrophic chain of events which, scientists believe, led to the mass extinction that put an end to the dinosaurs. Dr. Sean Gulick, a geophysicist at the University of Texas, has been studying the remains of the Yucatan's Chicxulub crater in order to find out just why the impact was so deadly. Dr. Gulick and his colleagues have found that the lay of the land may explain, in part, why the meteor had such a devastating effect. The asteroid landed in deeper water than previously assumed and therefore released about 6.5 times more water vapor into the atmosphere. The impact site also contained sulfur-rich sediments called evaporites, which would have reacted with water vapor to produce acid rain.
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Solar Gas
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Solar Furnace - Photo by Randy Montoya |
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have developed a way to make gasoline out of solar energy, doing in moments what nature does over eons. By focusing solar heat, they crack carbon dioxide to create hydrocarbons, thus potentially providing a carbon-neutral way to produce hydrocarbon fuels. In effect, they are reversing combustion and turning carbon dioxide back into fuel. Dr Ellen Stechel is managing the Sunshine To Petrol project at Sandia.
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Theme music copyright Raphaël Gluckstein. Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0
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