Science Nation

Science Nation

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation. This series take an engaging look at the breakthroughs and possibilities of new scientific discoveries about our planet, universe, and ourselves.

Person picking up wood chips and putting them into a plastic bag. Caption: (Huber) Cellulose is basically stored solar energy

Red, black, and white snakes in a tube. People in white lab coats and gloves are in the background. Caption: They can go many places things with arms and legs can't.

Icons of people placed all around the world with lines connecting them to each other. Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life. Caption: We've taken that research online, looking at Facebook.

Funnel with filter feeding into a receptacle. The fluid in the filter is dark and the filter is dirty. Caption: She's developing fluoride filtering devices

Four soldiers in a desert. Caption: in Kevlar-like body armor.

Sea slug crawling on the sea floor. Caption: in the nervous systems of slugs and other animals.

Man walking and looking at trees. Caption: (narrator) Compared to many crops, trees are slow growers.

SupraSensor measuring tool. Caption: to detect nitrate fertilizer in soil.

Illustration of an energy source on a grid. Caption: and will power more than 650 homes.

A parent sitting with their baby. Caption: All babies have innate sensitivity to all languages.

Two scientists examining a plant. Caption: (narrator) Plant virologist Steven Lommel is in charge.

Cooling lava turning into stone. Caption: Kilauea is one of the longest currently-erupting volcanoes.

Fog rising off a lake. Caption: (narrator) The team watches a switch in progress on Swan's Island.

Two young girls looking at plants. Caption: teaching students hydroponic farming

Solar panels on a roof top. Caption: But even now, they say solar energy is ready for prime time.

Person holding a lid. Caption: sees bio-inspired surfactants gaining market share,

Man looking at leaves in a stream. Caption: They're looking at stream health,

Geometric block with holes. Caption: It's time to print something, well, a lot harder: metal.

Woman loading a jug onto a cart. Caption: If we can lower the cost of the filtration,

Person pointing at fabric. Caption: Try these biomedical textiles on for size.

Two insects on a plant. Caption: insects, usually males, have some signature moves:

A computer drive. Caption: to build out a wide-ranging, urban-sensing project

Small lizard on a hand. Caption: They are the same species but may be diverging into two.

Small rabbit in the snow. Caption: (Shipley) In the winter, it might eat 99% of its diet in sagebrush.

Man releasing water into the air from a pump. Caption: equivalent to a major storm,

Oysters in the water. Caption: is to restore the oyster ecosystem.

Electrons in a microscope. Caption: You have to look at them using an electron microscope.

Satellite image of a hurricane. Caption: how storms impact cities and towns along our coasts.

Two water recycling machines. Caption: and take gray water recycling up a level.

Person at a computer looking at a projection of a wire frame human face on a screen. Caption: how robots interact with humans,

Glowing orb of a star surrounded by green, nebulous light. Stereo COR1 B. Caption: will suddenly be ejected into interplanetary space.

Bat held down by cardboard restraint, pinning wings to body. Caption: how these highly-specialized creatures navigate their world.

Rocky shoreline with green algae coating some of the rocks. Caption: how the blooms affect fish stocks and oyster beds,

Two people moving a flat of plants. Caption: are reimagining the future of farming --

Person standing at a control board with reels of tape. Caption: The good old days of reel-to-reel aren't over yet.

Inflatable object passing through a narrow opening in a solid wall to inflate on the other side. Caption: We call these vine robots because they grow

Top view of a helipad at the top of a skyscraper. Caption: vulnerable to earthquakes, like in Downtown Los Angeles.

Spinach leaves suspended from the mouths of plastic bottles over clear liquid. Caption: It was a chance to exercise his innovator's mindset.

Screen displaying power consumption for individual appliances, over a 7-day period, for the total month, and other metrics. Caption: How do we provide users with fine-grained information

People lined up outside a mobile health clinic. Caption: How can we get to the families that need help?

Body of water in shades of red, yellow, range, and pink showing heat gradients. Caption: navigating using thermal sensors to locate people in the water,

A team of psychologists monitors a human brain. Caption: our minds process what we see.

A rock arch in Utah. Caption: of these spectacular geological landmarks.

An Illustration depicts the bone grafting at the ball and socket joint. Caption: a 3 D printed shoulder customized to spec just for her.

Hands of an elder person. Caption: (narrator) It worked to steady his shaky hands.

A person working on a machine. Caption: in the presence of a large magnetic field,

An electromagnetic spectrum is superimposed on the image of a galaxy. The visible spectrum is highlighted. Caption: A radio wave is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum,

Illustration of human body. Caption: Enzymes, antibodies, even our muscles are all protein based.

A water body. Caption: More people and more buildings mean more strain on the system.

A device strapped on a man's hand. Caption: That device strapped to his arm is a sweat biosensor.