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Month: August 2012

The New Medicine – Fiberoptic Microneedles

My latest piece for IEEE Spectrum is finally LIVE! (And airing on WNYC this weekend – woot!)

It’s about a group of researchers at Virginia Tech who’ve created a fiberoptic microneedle device inspired by a mosquito. It’s designed for use in state-of-the-art cancer treatments. I left VaTech pretty much convinced these guys are going to save the world.

There’s a fancy landing page for “The New Medicine” HERE.

You can hear the complete show on PRX. I’m at minute 47:55. Or you can listen to the stand-alone segment below.

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Distillations #154 – Fast and Slow

I have fallen in love with the subject of our first piece in this show – John Mainstone, the guardian of the pitch drop experiment – the longest running science demonstration in the world. Michael Rhee has that story from Australia. And if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, you can watch the pitch drop experiment in real time here. Also in this episode, producer Stephanie Coleman breaks down the lightning-quick chemistry inside an airbag. Bang!

 

If you, too, can’t get enough of John Mainstone, check out this video produced by our reporter, Michael Rhee.

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Distillations #153 – Best of Season 5, Part 2

And here’s part 2 of our ‘best of” show – season 5. (Wow – I can’t believe we’ve been doing this for 5 years!) First, producer Andrew Stelzer uncovers how researchers are attempting to contact extraterrestrial beings from the show Is Anybody Out There? Then, Distillations’ assistant producer Anne Fredrickson pulls out her cello for an investigation of Stradivari’s instruments. Is there any science behind their superiority? This originally aired on the episode Good Vibrations. All new shows (and new theme music – yay!) two weeks from now.

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