Big Picture Science for 06/04/12 - Better Mousetrap

Big Picture Science - Better Mousetrap

ENCORE It’s the perennial dream: build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. We go to San Jose’s famed Tech Museum to learn what it takes to turn a good idea into a grand success.

Remember the Super Soaker squirt gun? Hear how its inventor is now changing the rules for solar energy.

Where do good ideas come from? A Eureka moment in the bathtub? We’ll find out that it doesn’t happen so quickly – or easily.

And finally, the life cycle of society-changing technologies, from the birth of radio to the future of the Internet.

Inventions, inventors and innovation: all part of the mix on “Better Mousetrap.”

Guests:

• Steven Johnson – Author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
• Lonnie Johnson – Inventor and former NASA engineer; CEO of Johnson Research and Development Company
• Tim Wu – Professor of Communication Law at Columbia University and author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Borzoi Books)
• Alana Connor – Vice President Content Development, The Tech Museum, San Jose

Originally released February 7, 2011

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Better_Mousetrap

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 03/19/12 - Catch a Wave

Big Picture Science - Catch a Wave

Let there be light. Otherwise we couldn’t watch a sunset or YouTube. Yet what your eye sees is but a narrow band in the electromagnetic spectrum. Shorten those light waves and you get invisible gamma radiation. Lengthen them and tune into a radio broadcast.

Discover what’s revealed about our universe as you travel along the electromagnetic spectrum. There’s the long of it: an ambitious goal to construct the world’s largest radio telescope array … and the short: a telescope that images high-energy gamma rays from black holes.

Also, the structure of the universe as seen through X-ray eyes and a physicist sings the praises of infrared light. Literally.

And, while gravity waves are not in the electromagnetic club, these ripples in spacetime could explain some of the biggest mysteries of the cosmos. But first, we have to catch them!

Guests:

• Anil Ananthaswamy – Journalist and consultant for New Scientist in London
• Harvey Tananbaum – Director of the Chandra X-Ray Center, located in Cambridge Massachusetts at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
• David Reitze – Executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), California Institute of Technology
• Albert Lazzarini – Deputy director, LIGO, California Institute of Technology
• Alan Marscher – Professor of astronomy at Boston University

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Catch_a_Wave

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Solar Radio Storm

Source - Space Weather News for March 28, 2011: http://spaceweather.com

SOLAR RADIO STORM: A profusion of emerging sunspots has kicked off a days-long radio storm on the sun. VHF receivers on Earth are picking up loud bursts that sound like waves crashing on a beach. This ongoing event continues a recent trend of increasing activity as Solar Cycle 24 heats up. Check http://spaceweather.com for audio and images of the instigating sunspots.

OUT-OF-THE-BOX SOLAR TELESCOPE: Spaceweather.com is pleased to offer an affordable solar telescope that allows you to safely observe sunspots with minimal setup or previous experience. Unlike other solar telescopes, this one works at night, too! Visit the Space Weather Store for details:
http://www.shopspaceweather.com/explore-scientific-white-light-solar-observer-system.aspx

"Radio-Active" Solar Flare

Source - Space Weather News for Feb. 14, 2011: http://spaceweather.com

EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR ACTIVITY: Solar activity increased sharply over the weekend with the eruption of an M6.6-class solar flare from behemoth sunspot 1158. The blast produced a strong burst of radio waves heard in the loudspeakers of shortwave receivers around the dayside of our planet, and it appears to have hurled a faint coronal mass ejection toward Earth. Sights and sounds from the event are highlighted on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com.

SPACE WEATHER ALERTS: Would you like a call when geomagnetic storms erupt in your area? Sign up for http://spaceweatherphone.com (voice) or http://spaceweathertext.com (text) for space weather alerts.

Are We Alone for 02/07/11 - Better Mousetrap

Are We Alone - Better Mousetrap

It’s the perennial dream: build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. We go to San Jose’s famed Tech Museum to learn what it takes to turn a good idea into a grand success.

Remember the Super Soaker squirt gun? Hear how its inventor is now changing the rules for solar energy.

Where do good ideas come from? A Eureka moment in the bathtub? We’ll find out that it doesn’t happen so quickly – or easily.

And finally, the life cycle of society-changing technologies, from the birth of radio to the future of the Internet.

Inventions, inventors and innovation: all part of the mix on “Better Mousetrap.”

Guests:

• Steven Johnson – Author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
• Lonnie Johnson – Inventor and former NASA engineer; CEO of Johnson Research and Development Company
• Tim Wu – Professor of Communication Law at Columbia University and author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Borzoi Books)

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Better_Mousetrap

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Radio Storms on Jupiter

Source - Space Weather News for April 13, 2009
http://spaceweather.com

RADIO STORMS ON JUPITER: On April 11th, an amateur radio astronomer in New Mexico heard loud pops and crackles coming from the loudspeaker of his shortwave receiver. The sounds resembled terrestrial lightning, but the source was not on Earth. It was a radio storm on Jupiter. You can listen to the sounds on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com .

Astronomers have long known that Jupiter produces strong shortwave radio bursts detectable from Earth; the fact of Jupiter's "radio activity" is not news. However, now may be the best time in decades to listen to the giant planet. The sun is in the pits of a century-level solar minimum. Low solar activity increases the transparency of Earth's atmosphere to shortwave radio waves, allowing signals from Jupiter to more easily and clearly reach the ground. At the same time, terrestrial radio interference subsides (another side-effect of solar minimum), so Jupiter bursts are easier to identify.

2009 is going to be a good year for Jupiter. The planet is moving away from the sun and may now be seen shining brightly in the eastern sky before dawn. Students, teachers and amateur scientists who wish to try listening as well as watching should consider building their own radio telescope. Kits are available from NASA's Radio JOVE program: http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/

First Meteor Shower of 2009

Source - Space Weather News for Jan. 2, 2009: http://spaceweather.com

FIRST METEORS OF 2009: The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on Jan. 3rd when Earth enters a stream of debris from shattered comet 2003 EH1. The timing of the encounter favors observers in western North America and across the Pacific Ocean who could see dozens to hundreds of meteors during the dark hours before sunrise this Saturday morning. Visit http://spaceweather.com for a sky map and more information.

SOMETHING NEW: For the new year, Spaceweather.com is pleased to announce a new service: Space Weather Radio, broadcasting live "sounds from space" around the clock. Today you can listen to the Air Force Space Surveillance Radar in Texas. When a meteor passes over the facility--ping!--there is an audible echo. (Activity should be high during the Quadrantid meteor shower this weekend.) In the near future we'll be adding broadcasts of solar radio bursts and VLF signals from the ionosphere. The streams are punctuated by Daily Space Weather Updates from Dr. Tony Phillips. Click here to begin listening: http://SpaceweatherRadio.com