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Episode 9 – Space, Robots, & the FUTURE

robot in space

(sources: schaft and NASA)

This week on LASER, a super-sized cast discusses Semiconductor design/processing, Google robots and the DARPA robotics Challenge, a proposed form of space-based propulsion called e-sails, and the extension of the ISS mission until at least 2020!

 

2:00 we do some extended introductions this week, since we realized we haven’t ever properly given background information.

5:15 we allude to a story that was actually cut from this episode (stay tuned next week!)

6:00 introduction of the intended topic, “By Sci-Fi standards, Newest Robots may Disappoint”

10:15 discussion of radiation hardness and radiation sensitivity regarding defense contract work.

18:30 whats the main problem with lead-free solder?

24:30 Starting in for real on the DARPA Robotics Challenge , (our first planned story!)

27:00 Two major robotics companies google acquired were Schaft and Boston dynamics (their robots came in 1st and 2nd place)

28:30 Chase threatens a lawsuit against Boston Dynamics for stealing all their designs from his nightmares.

32:00 Atlas looks like a Max Headroom robot.

33:00 the points system for the DARPA Robotics Challenge

35:30 are our current AI systems good enough?

36:00 are our sensors good enough to have a real autonomous robot? no robotic skin!

39:52 the 2nd paper! “Fast E-Sail Uranus Entry Probe Mission” from the ArXiv preprint server. [Via]

42:30 ***  I think so, but its neutral radially, so there are areas of positive and areas of negative charge, but the sum across an entire circle around the sun might be neutral.

46:55 a little anecdote about the pronunciation of Uranus

48:35 NO we aren’t talking about pseudoscience zero-point energy, these are legitimate vacuum fluctuations. The term has just been co-opted by pseudoscience types… maybe I should have said ‘vacuum fluctuations” instead. I don’t know how much “real” research has been done, but look at work by Dr. Harold White at NASA and his work in to Q-Thrusters,  and look at http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/possible.html#vac

51:50 the ISS mission has been extended to 202 instead of crashing it into the ocean in 2016!!!

52:40 the space station is super important for testing equipment that we want to use for more fancy space missions (like going to mars, or further!)

57:20 we attempt (poorly) to explain the Lagrange points again!

59:50  the  very-long-term plan for an awesome space station is to build/launch ships from a space station (because its easier/cheaper!)

60:15 What got cut off is “planetary Resources” and Deep Space Industries, who are wanting to mine asteroids and refine ore in space!!!

61:00 NASA would also like to stop launching rockets, and instead hire companies to get to low earth orbit, and then they would do the far space exploration from there.

66:30 lots of cross-talk about a moon base!

Stay tuned after the show for some foreshadowing, when @ 71:27 Alex plans to get a burrito that would later give him food poisoning.

Music: (we had  perfect storm today, where we could use two songs from the same artist!)
Intro:  Open – Crying (Get Olde)
Song 1:  STYX – Mr. Roboto
Song 2: STYX – Come Sail Away
Outro:  Dreams are Maps – The Wild (Dreams are Maps)

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By Cameron K – 2014-01-16

Episode 8 – Special Perihelion Edition

perihelion diagram from wikipedia

1) aphelion 2) perihelion 3) sun (Not to scale) source: WIkipedia on Apsis

This is our special perihelion edition, where we celebrate being closest to our sun by reviewing some of the best science and engineering  stories of 2013. Today we’re a whopping 4% closer to the sun than at the furthest point.  This episode spans many different subject areas, but is extremely disorganized, so please don’t take this as a representative of usual episodes. We’ll be back to better shows next week.

1:30 introducing Chris, our new co-host! Chris is a grad student at Michigan State studying organic photovoltaics. He studied at ASU for his undergrad degree in Materials Science & Engineering with many of us other hosts.

7:35 The first story on our list is “creating false memory in mice”

15:02 a paper that suggests a certain fungicide makes bees more susceptible to a gut pathogen that might be contributing to colony collapse disorder. (LINK)
Chase also says “bees” for the rest of the episode, after watching a youtube video of Dr. BEES

26:40 “towards practical high capacity low density information storage in synthesized DNA”

36:37 “Natural Gold particles in Eucalyptus Leaves and their relevance to exploration for buried gold deposits.”

37:00 replace “predict”  with “detect”

41:34 “Using 40 Million year-old amber to test the super Arrhenius behavior of glass-forming systems“.

The final story is about Elon Musk’s Hyperloop project

Song 1:  NWA- Fuck Tha Police
Song 2: Fake Problems – Busy Bee
Song 3: Jonathan Coulton – That Spells D.N.A.
Song 4: The Black Keys – Gold On the Ceiling
Song 5: Gang of Four – Glass

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By Cameron K – 2014-01-05

Episode 7 – The Battery Outbreak

Loofah-From-Chi-Paper

Loofah Image from Chi Paper

This week on LASER, Emily and Cameron discuss batteries built by modified viruses, charge-dependent crystal changes of Lithium/Selenium-Sulfer Batteries, and Microbiological fuel cells built on natural loofah sponges.

 

1:15 we start on “Better Batteries Through Biology?” (HERE is the full paper)

13:00 the three major metrics for battery performance

15:00 will these battery-building viruses cause the next zombie outbreak? hint: probably not.

20:25 we start on the second story: “(De)Lithiation Mechanism of Li/SeSx (x = 0–7) Batteries Determined by in Situ Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy”

27:30 they realized that SeS7 electrodes have the highest charge capacity after 50 cycles, which is a hybrid of the Li-Se and Li-S electrodes.

30:00 the three areas of research that are being worked on to improve battery technologies

3X:XX After a sad attempt at a transition, our third and final story today is based on the paper: “Nanostructured Macroporous Bioanode Based on Polyaniline-Modified Natural Loofah Sponge for High-Performance Microbial Fuel Cells”

35:54 correction: the bacteria don’t “Create” electrons, they just take them off of the food when they’re eating, and they don’t need it.

44:37 For these microbial fuel cells they report a power density of 1090 mW/m^2 (or 1.09 Watts/m^2). For comparision a solar panel is about 170 W/m^2, but solar is the highest power density of the renewable energy technologies, vs 0.22W/m^2 for corn ethanol and 1000W/m^2 for fossil fuels, source home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~vsmil/pdf_pubs/oecd.pdf .

47:00 these icrobial fuel cells would not be for high current high power applications, like cars. They would be useful for slowly generating a constant stream of power to be stored in something like a battery.

52:20 we start the signoff for an unusually-short (but targeted length) episode of LASER!

 

Emily picked the bumper music for this week, so there’s:
Intro:  Open – Crying (Get Olde)
Beyond Electric Dreams – Bad Religion
Electricity – NOFX
Outro:  Dreams are Maps – The Wild (Dreams are Maps)

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By Cameron K – 2013-12-18

Episode 6 – Fukushima Roll

Sushi Image via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2007feb-sushi-odaiba-manytypes.jpgIn Episode 6 – Fukushima Roll – we discuss whether tuna contaminated by the Fukushima disaster is safe to eat, canceled plans for a wind farm off the coast of the UK, and a new advancement in nanostructuring superhydrophobic materials for even better waterproof surfaces.
00:00  we introduce Heather! A new co-host, and our resident Canadian and conservation ecologist. She talks a little bit about her work regarding overfishing of Atlantic Blue Fin Tuna in Canada.

3:25 Our first topic covers a paper published in June 2013 about the levels of radiation found in Pacific Bluefin Tuna  linked to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. (paper: ” Evaluation of radiation doses and associated risk from the Fukushima nuclear accident to marine biota and human consumers of seafood“)

8:10 we forgot to explain that what “ionizing radiation” means is that it is radiation that is able to remove an electron from another atom and turn it into an ion. This significantly changes the bonding properties of the atom, and has the potential to cause damage to an organism.

10:30 Heather explains that radionuclide presence testing is used to map ocean currents and when water has last been to the surface.

23:35 The effects of the radiation from the Fukushima reactor are much lower than the natural radiation in tuna.

29:00 report of how much radiation is actually being put into the ocean (in Becquerel)

31:15 Alex references the XKCD Radiation chart  that shows that the amount of fish in 1kg of affected tuna is a little bit less than the radiation you get from sleeping next to a person.

35:45 Alex: this disaster is a very bad reason to try to demonize nuclear power

41:30 Phew that first story was long. Here’s the second story! Plans for a wind farm off the North Devon coast in the UK were cancelled. (Via BBC)

56:15  We discuss Ultrahydrophobic materials from the Nature Letter: “Reducing the contact time of a bouncing drop”

59:00 somewhere around here we lost Heather to the winds of the internet. We’ll send out a search party and hopefully get her back for a future episode.

Alex also gives a good explination of surface wetting.

61:04 some very basic physics.

70:34 applications for superhydrophobic materials

72:45 we’ll try to get some superhydrophobic coating and do a special episode on them! Let us know if you have any ideas for experiments to perform.

73:43  signoff without heather!

Here’s a link to the article about fish eating plastic: http://deepseanews.com/2013/12/guest-post-the-invisible-consequences-of-mistaking-plastic-for-dinner/

Song 1:  Yoshimi battles the pink robots – The Flaming Lips
Song 2: Whistles The Wind – Flogging Molly

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By Cameron K – 2013-12-06