Water from Fog

October 20, 2009

Some desert beetles get their water from fog, by allowing it to condense on their bodies into dew drops and drinking it. Some humans living in super dry areas are doing the same thing. This morning I heard a spot on the BBC radio program about how people living in Peru use huge nets to capture fog rolling off the ocean. (Read How Peru is Netting Water Supplies.) The water in the fog condenses on the mesh screens and drips into troughs; pipes carry the water to where it will be used.

It's a great example of how can make a huge difference in the lives of people.

For more examples, see our Wide Angle: Technology Saving the World.

Image: courtesy of IDRC / CDRI; Photographer Sitoo Mukerji

Track or Sponsor Sharks for Science

July 31, 2009

I've learned a few things about sharks since working on the Wide Angle about Shark Technology. The first is that the despite the fact that sharks have been around for millions of years, not much is known about them. And the other is that a lot of scientists are worried about the rapid decline of sharks in the ocean.

And as a result, researchers around the world are tracking sharks to try to learn more. One project, among many, that I found quite impressive is called TOPP, or Tagging of Pacific Predators. It's managed by NOAA’s Pacific Fisheries Ecosystems Lab, Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Lab and University of California, Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory. It's a 10-year project involving 80 nations to track sharks, whales, seals, sea birds and turtles and eventually produce a  Census of Marine Life that will attempt to explain the diversity and abundance of life in the oceans, where that life has lived, is living and will live.

What I like about this site is that anyone can view interactive maps or animations of the animals as they move around the ocean. The image at right shows the path of Mako sharks. The site is user-friendly and a good way to get the everyday person to care about the research.

TOPP also has a widget you can put on your blog to keep track of a particular ocean animal, such as a shark or turtle.

Get This Widget!TOPP.org

I love this thing.

And by the way, if you need a simple explanation about how how shark tracking works check out the one from the folks at Shark Tracker. If you're feeling particularly generous, you can adopt a Great White shark from them and help buy a satellite tracking kit that will help scientists study it.

Sharks Inspire Tech

July 27, 2009

Think "shark" and chances are images of technology are not the first to dance in you're head. But technology abounds. It's used to study sharks -- from satellite tracking to DNA analysis -- and plenty technologies are inspired by sharks. So pull up a beach chair and read what we have in store for you with this Wide Angle series: Shark Technology.

• IM Interview: Sharks in the Emergency Room
  Sharklet Technologies is developing the world's first surface pattern inspired by sharkskin. The surface resists the growth of organisms such as bacteria and could be used in hospitals to reduce disease.

Video Sums Up Cool Tech Jobs Wide Angle

June 25, 2009

Wide Angle: Wind Power

May 26, 2009

Energy from oil is so 1986. Green energy is all the rage now, and wind has a lot of potential to meet our planet's energy demand. A comprehensive study completed by Stanford researchers found that power generated from land-based and off-shore wind is equivalent to 54,000 million tons of oil per year -- five times the world's total energy use. Unfortunately, the world currently gets less than 2 percent of its electricity from wind. So what will it take to beef up wind power and reduce our reliance on oil?

• Blog: Museum Gets Rooftop Companions
  This summer the Boston Museum of Science's roof is going to be a whirl of activity. Scientists will be conducting the nation's first museum-top wind experiment to determine exactly how much power small turbines can swish out.

• Podcast: Wind Power for Antarctic Research Station
  The Belgian research facility, Princess Elisabeth station, located in East Antarctica is designed to be the first zero emission research station. Hear how wind is playing a role.

• News: Smart Wind Turbines to Switch Shapes
  Scientists from Purdue University are creating intelligent wind turbines that shape-shift with the wind. These smart wind turbines would help maximize the amount of electricity generated by wind power while ensuring longer life spans for wind turbines.

• Blog: Street Lights That Blow
  A French renewable energy products company Windela, based in Paris, came up with an off-grid street light powered by a combination of solar and wind power.

• Puzzle: Wind Turbine Breakdown
  Get an up-close, inside view of wind turbine technology, from cogs to blades to towers.

• News: Wind Power
  Today's wind turbine is more than just a large propeller. Researchers are using dozen of different designs and tapping into wind farms as the power plants of the future. Read how it's helping people all over the world.

• Feature: Europe Replaces Old Wind Farms
  The construction crane hauling wind turbines at the 20-year-old Norreaer Enge wind farm in northern Jutland, Denmark, is performing a highly energetic sleight of hand. By next summer it will have transformed a 77-turbine facility into one with just 13.

• Top 10: Countries With the Largest Capacity of Wind Energy
  Our list of ten countries around the world that have the largest capacity of wind energy.

• Video: Oceanic Wind Turbines
  An array of wind-powered generators has the potential to power over 100,000 homes. Find out more about why scientists are investigating the potential of off-shore wind turbines.

• My Take: Community Power Empowers
  The United States has a long tradition of democracy and citizen's rights. Why shouldn't folks be able to build wind turbines, produce electricity for the power grid and generate income? Stefan Gsänger gives us his take.

• Project Earth: Infinite Winds
  Can a wind turbine using the constant winds that exist above sea level to convert energy into electricity? Get the details on the science behind wind power from Project Earth.

Photo: iStockphoto

MORE DISCOVERY TECH WIDE ANGLES

Present-Day Terminators Roam

May 18, 2009

Terminator Salvation opens this week, and I couldn't resist the cyborg angle. The movie conjures up human-machine hybrids and robotic armies doing soldiers' jobs. I know what these mean in Hollywood, but what do they mean in the research labs around the country that are developing ways to meld electronic components with living tissue? And what does the future of war hold when robots will be charged with combat? It's all about as freaky and as scary as the movie. We explore it all on this week's Wide Angle: Present-Day Terminators.

• IM Interview: Upgrading Humans
  Tracy Staedter chats with Desney Tan, who finds ways to upgrade humans by augmenting them with technology.

• Quiz: Is It A Robot Or A Cyborg?
  Robots are made from metal and wires. Cyborgs have that but more -- living tissue. (Think Bladerunner or Terminator). If you met one on the street, would you be able to tell the difference? Test your wits with this quiz.

• News: Ethical Guide for Robot Warriors in the Works
  Ronald Arkin, a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, is in the first stages of developing an "ethical governor," a package of software and hardware that tells robots when and what to fire.

• Puzzle: Wearable Robots
  Robotic hands to help people overcome motor problems to full body exoskeletons that help soldiers carry 200 pounds. Wearable robots are our future. Which one will you sport?

• Feature: Cyborg Moth Gets New Radio
  Electrodes and a control chip are inserted into a moth during its pupal stage. When the moth emerges, the electrodes stimulate its muscles to control its flight. The animal-machine hybrid will transmit data from mounted sensors, which might include low-grade video and microphones for surveillance or gas sensors for natural-disaster reconnaissance.

• Blog: Recycle Bots Take Over
  MIT's 2.007 mechanical engineering design class held its annual competition recently, pitting robot against robot. This year it had an environmental theme: construct robots that can pick up and drop off recycling.

• Podcast: SixthSense Project Bridges the Gap between Real and Virtual Worlds
  If you're one of those people who has watched one too many Terminator films and doesn't want to see the real and virtual worlds melded any further, then by all means do not go the Fluid Interfaces Group website.

• HowStuffWorks: How Robot Armies Will Work
  The Terminator movies demonstrate a future where battalions of sentient, humanoid robots wage war on mankind. While that vision is still well within the realm of science fiction, many countries are looking into creating robot soldiers, including the United States.

• HowStuffWorks: How Biomechatronics Works
  Biomechatronics is the merging of man with machine -- like the cyborg of science fiction. Scientists attempt to make devices that interact with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems with the goals of assisting or enhancing human motor control that can be lost or impaired by trauma, disease or birth defects.

MORE DISCOVERY TECH WIDE ANGLES

The Tech Face of Everest

May 11, 2009

Wide Angle: Technology to Save the World

May 04, 2009

Scientists are harnessing computing systems such as the Internet and embedded sensing networks to keep tabs on the world. What they learn could help us observe ecologies we've never seen before, identify endangered species and even see health trends that could adversely affect large populations. In this wide angle, we'll take a look at the technologies on mission to save the world.

• Podcast: Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project
  Vodafone operates in 25 countries, some of them developing nations, where things like infectious diseases and sudden natural disasters take heavy tolls. In response, it sponsored the Wireless Innovation Project. One hundred applicants submitted ideas that harnessed new and existing wireless technologies in pursuit of social good. Clark Boyd talks with the top three winners.

• Blog: Will the Internet Say "I Told You So"?
  The Internet is being eyed as a way to warn us about ecological catastrophe. Our current ecological monitoring systems just aren't fast enough -- looking for key words and patterns online from scientists, government officials, and casual observers could be more effective.

• IEEE Spectrum Feature: How To Master A Seismic Disaster
  When the next big earthquake strikes Tokyo, an early-warning system could help save lives and property.

• IM Interview: Curing the Mosquito to Stop Malaria
  Malaria is a complex disease that involves the interactions of three organisms: human, parasite, and mosquito. If scientists can interrupt any of these interactions, they could control the disease. Tracy Staedter chats with George Dimopoulos about the methods researchers are developing.

• Blog: Tech for the Developing World, Stat! Malaria
  Dr. Robert Malkin is a professor of bioengineering at Duke University and director for the Engineering World Health program. He recently spoke with me about key problem areas in the developing world and emerging solutions.

• News: Technology Saving the World
  From tagging to Twitter, researchers are developing and using new technologies to track endangered species, population growth and even diseases like the recent swine flu outbreak. Read how they do it and how it's helping people all over the world.

• Blog: Surgery Light, MacGyver-Style
  Periodic power outages are more than just annoying. They're dangerous, especially if one happens in the middle of surgery. Enter the pie-plate-bike-part-LED-battery lamp, designed by a University of Michigan student group.

• Blog: Tracking The Spread of the H1N1 Flu Virus
  People are going out of their way to track the H1N1 influenza virus (that's the swine flu) in real time over the Internet. HowStuffWorks explores how and why.

• Puzzle: Tracking the World
  Secret surveillance cameras and Internet maps are used to track everything from animals to flu outbreaks.

• Video: Text Messages Save Lives
  A text messaging-based program, called Mobiles in Malawi, is saving lives by connecting rural communities to hospitals. Kasey-Dee Gardner explain how it works.

• Top 10: Ways Cell Phones Help People Living in Poverty
  Cell phones are becoming ubiquitous, even in underdeveloped countries. This unprecedented penetration by a communications technology is clearly changing the face of the developing world for the better -- in some cases, in ways that not even the most visionary leaders anticipated.

• Top 10: Innovations for Impoverished People
  Two billion people in the world don't get enough to eat, approximately one billion live on less than a dollar a day and every year 1.4 million children die because they lack sanitary conditions and access to clean water. Some humanitarians think these numbers can be lowered with simple technologies. Here are 10 that are making a difference.

MORE DISCOVERY TECH WIDE ANGLES

Technology on the Agenda

January 21, 2009

Last night, only hours after Obama's inauguration, I visited the White House's .gov web site and, low and behold, it had changed. Changed from the previous staid and information-laden site to a vibrant, interactive entity. Whoa. It shouldn't come as a surprise, really, since the Obama campaign used the Internet to its fullest to organize fundraising and support at the community level like no one else previously. But it sort of feels like a surprise, almost like, hey this guy might actually do what he said he was gonna do. Amazing!

A word that jumps out, and a word he used on the campaign trail, is "transparency." Here is the President's agenda, with details about what he wants to accomplish. On that agenda is a category called "Technology." At first glance, you see that this administration will be embracing science and technology as friend not foe and to use it "to solve our nation's most pressing problems -- including improving clean energy, healthcare costs, and public safety." There are seven major uses listed, each with bulleted action plans below. To summarize:

• Ensure the Full and Free Exchange of Ideas through an Open Internet and Diverse Media Outlets
• Create a Transparent and Connected Democracy (there's that word again)
• Deploy a Modern Communications Infrastructure
• Improve America's Competitiveness
• Prepare All our Children for the 21st Century Economy
• Prepare Adults for a Changing Economy
• Employ Science, Technology and Innovation to Solve Our Nation's Most Pressing Problems

The web site also has a blog and front door through which anyone from the public can participate and inform government.

Ya know. I'm starting to think he meant it.

On Deck for the Week of Dec. 1

December 01, 2008

Monday, Dec. 1: We need to dramatically reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. So, how? Some think we should be burying it in the ground. Others say that's a risky endeavor. We'll have a Double Take, featuring both sides of the controversy.

We'll also have a video from producer Kasey-Dee Gardner about a new endoscope that creates 3-D images. The device provides doctors with a much better (and deeper) image of tissue than conventional endoscopes and that can improve diagnosis.

Tuesday, Dec. 2: Take a break from holiday shopping and do a puzzle. This month, our category is robots inspired by living things. Scientists call them "biomimetic."

Wednesday, Dec. 3: Gene Charleton has his weekly podcast from Engineering Works!

Thursday, Dec. 4: Some ancient buildings are lost and gone forever. But scientists are using virtual reality to rebuild architecture, allowing people to walk along corridors or through courtyards in ways that previously were not possible. Read the IM interview with Jose Kozan.

Friday, Dec. 5: Guest blog from David Alexander Ellis. Does Social Stimuli Expand Time? Recently graduated PhD student, David Ellis, tells us about his area of study and what it's like to be starting down the path of research. Read his guest blog.