WEBVTT - Tech News: E3 and Nuclear Weapons 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.040 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:18.440 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:20.560 and I love all things tech. And this is the 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:26.920 Tech News or Tuesday June one. Let's get to it. 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:32.640 E three, also known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:37.559 going on in full swing right now, at least virtually speaking. 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.360 E three started out as a trade show event when 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:44.199 the video game industry was actually finding it really difficult 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:49.120 to get mainstream media attention at more generalized trade shows 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:51.400 like ce S. There are a lot of stories about 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.440 game companies being sent out to be intense in the 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:58.720 parking lots outside of the convention centers, you know, where 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.760 there was very little foot track fake. So the industry 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.400 as a whole came together. Uh actually the whole story 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:07.360 pind E three is really fastinating, But it all came 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.760 together in order for video games to get a more 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:15.840 prominent place within the media landscape. These days, however, that's 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.360 not so much of a problem, right The video game 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:24.120 industry is a multibillion dollar industry with huge companies that 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.920 can easily grab headlines, whether there's a trade show or not. However, 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:33.640 E three still stands as a time when various video 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:36.720 game publishers and developers can get together to make announcements 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.479 and show off progress that has been made on anticipated titles. Now, 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.960 I've done lots of episodes in the past about whether 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.880 or not the three is still relevant, and I think 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.279 you know that depends on what you believe the three's 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.560 purpose is. That determines whether you think it's still relevant 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.120 or not. But this year, we've already seen a lot 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:59.520 of announcements from particular companies that should have some gamers 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.720 excited it. And I'm just going to cover this from 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.160 a very high level because trust me, there is more 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.520 than enough content on the internet right now about E three, 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:10.760 and if you are interested, you should seek out the 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:14.760 various video presentations because that's way better than some guy 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.280 in an audio podcast saying and then you see this 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.280 picture of a bunny rabbit, but it's a bunny rabbit 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.080 with a flamethrower like that just you know has a 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:28.120 limited appeal. And a little bit before E three officially started, 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:32.919 Microsoft announced that the Xbox Game Pass service is expanding 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:37.239 to a variety of different devices, including streaming plugin gadgets, 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.000 you know, kind of like the old rocou sticks and 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:44.000 stuff that you can connect directly to compatible television's iPhones 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.320 that's going to stream to iPhones now and smart TVs 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.280 that will have the x Cloud version of the game 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.280 Pass service built into the televisions themselves. It will be 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:55.400 one of those options you can pick from and you 0:02:55.480 --> 0:03:00.040 just connect to controller to your television. Game Pass is 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:03.440 a subscription service, and it lets subscribers play a rotating 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.680 list of game titles from various publishers, a lot of 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:11.320 which are part of Microsoft's growing video game empire, Bethesda 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.560 being one of the crown jewels in that empire. The 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.240 basic service costs nine dollars n cents per month here 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.680 in the United States, but the ultimate tier, which includes 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.080 both game Pass and Xbox Live Gold plus x Cloud 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.720 game streaming service, is fourteen dollars cents per month, and 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:31.520 it gets a little bit more complicated than that. There 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:33.200 are other features, but we're gonna leave it at that 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.560 because this is not a you know, this is not 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:40.680 the Xbox game Pass podcast. But at E three, Microsoft 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:44.800 unveiled a ton of announced games and new games, many 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.920 of which will be available through Game Pass on day one, 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:52.120 and clearly this is a huge drive to grab subscribers who, 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:54.480 for fifteen dollars a month will have access to a 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.560 selection of games that individually might retail for sixty to 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.600 eighty dollars a pop. Now, the plan is to bring 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.640 at least one first party game to game Pass every quarter, 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:08.960 according to Microsoft, and out of the thirty games that 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.360 Microsoft featured in its presentation, more than twenty five of 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.280 them will be available on game Pass, most of them 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.200 available on the day of launch, and that includes titles 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:22.960 like Halo Infinite or Yakuza Like a Dragon, or Bethesda's 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:27.640 new science fiction game star Field, which um looks interesting. 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:29.799 I don't know what to think about that one yet. Also, 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.960 the Xbox port of the popular game Hades will be available, 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.760 Psycho Nuts too will be available, and many many more. 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.240 Oh and Microsoft also showed off a teaser video for 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.800 a new Xbox branded mini fridge, because of course they did. 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:49.040 The fridge looks a lot like an Xbox Series X console. 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:54.320 It's cute. Sony hasn't really been part of E three 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.000 for a few years now, choosing to have its own event, 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:01.480 and Nintendo is holding its Nintendo Direct event later today, 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.359 so I don't have anything to report on that front yet, 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.240 and so it really does feel like E three has 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:10.560 kind of become the Microsoft show, though there are plenty 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:14.760 of companies like actual game companies like Ubisoft and Square 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.359 Enix and Gearbox that are showing off stuff too for 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:21.800 multiple platforms, not just Windows or Xbox. However, that's enough 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:24.520 for video game news. Like I said, the web is 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.240 jam packed with E three videos and commentary. So I'm 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.240 gonna leave off here and move on to other tech news. 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.760 And how about some scary news. First, a nuclear weapons 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:40.240 contractor company called soul Orients is at the focus of 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:44.960 a cyber attack. A ransomware group calling itself REvil r 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.680 e v i L claims responsibility and says that the 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:51.760 group stole data during the attack and it's going to 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.400 auction off that information to the highest bidder on the 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.720 black market. Uh. The same group has claimed responsibility for 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.359 other ransomware attacks in the in the recent past, and 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.600 according to Reveal, the data they took from soul Orients 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.640 include stuff like employee data like salary information and personal 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.839 information like social security numbers and stuff about the employees 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.440 of the company. Now that could represent not just a 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:21.720 threat to each employees privacy, you know, the typical identification 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.240 you know, i D stealing threat. It's also a potential 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:29.039 security threat both for those individuals and for the country 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.120 and and the company as well because of the nature 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.839 of the work, right. I mean, if it's a foreign entity. 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.840 Let's say it's a foreign government that decides it wants 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.240 to have the information of people who work for a 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.800 nuclear weapons contractor, you can see how that could quickly 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:49.360 become a pretty nasty threat to those people's security. Now, 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:51.800 according to the company, the attack did not appear to 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:56.200 compromise any classified information or security related info regarding their 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.360 clients or their business dealings. I would say that the 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.640 information that stolen was pretty bad enough already. But the 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.640 general belief is that Revel, like many ransomware groups, is 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.359 based out of Russia, which is why a lot of 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:14.200 countries have recently been pressuring Russia to crack down on 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:19.640 these groups, something that the country seems slightly less you know, 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:24.320 enthusiastic about doing. The U. S. Supreme Court recently declined 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.440 to hear a case involving LinkedIn and a company called 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.720 hick Labs that's h i Q and the heart of 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.600 the matter here is that hick Labs scraped data off 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.360 of linked In profiles in order to build out a 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:40.160 database of its own, and that information on LinkedIn is 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.800 publicly accessible. That means it's not behind any sort of 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:47.040 password protection or anything. So you could, in theory, achieve 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:50.520 the same result by just manually going to linked In 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:55.559 and viewing profile after profile and just copying information down 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:58.880 that way. Obviously that would take forever to do, but 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:03.120 you could do it. There's nothing stopping you. Microsoft, however, 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.520 sued hick Labs and claimed that the company violated the 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.800 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act or c f a A. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.160 Now that is a law that I'm going to have 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.160 to cover in a future episode of Tech Stuff to 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.400 actually talk about that law, what it was intended to do, 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:22.320 and how it has been used since it's uh, it's 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:26.560 passing because it's a pretty contentious piece of legislation. Some 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:31.040 people refer to it as the worst law in tech law. Anyway, 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.760 the lawsuit went through the court system. It went all 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:38.000 the way up to the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.360 and that court found in favor of hick Labs and 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.440 said that the c f a A does not apply 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.480 to publicly accessible data on the Internet. In other words, 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:49.720 you can't say that this was fraud or anything like that. 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:53.840 They were just copying information that was available for anyone 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.880 to see just by going to the site. Microsoft then 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:58.839 pushed for this case to go to the Supreme Court, 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.280 but as I mentioned at the beginning, the court has 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:05.640 declined to acquiesce to Microsoft's request. Instead, the Supreme Court 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.040 has said that the Appeals Court will have to hear 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:12.199 the case again in light of a different court case 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.760 that relates to this. So I'll probably touch back on 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.760 this because it is interesting. I also do need to 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.120 do an episode about c F A A, so that 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.400 will come up sometime in the future. Also in the future, 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:29.120 more rowboats or robo boats, if you prefer. The U. S. 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.240 Navy is slowly building out what it calls its ghost 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:36.760 Fleet Overlord program, which sounds like it came straight out 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.160 of a Tom Clancy novel, but I assure you this 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:44.480 is real. The fleet refers to ships that can operate autonomously, 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:47.800 and there are at least four such ships in San 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.079 Diego's harbor right now. There's the Nomad and the Ranger, 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.360 which both took a long distance journey to get to 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.120 San Diego, and most of that journey was taken under 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.600 autonomous power, with with a human pilot's taking over for 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:04.000 things like passing through the Panama Canal. And then there's 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.480 also the Sea Hunter and the Seahawk, and these vessels 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:09.960 are all taking part in various trials where the Navy 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:14.920 is testing out the feasibility of pairing autonomous vessels with 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:18.800 ships that have traditional human crews on them and to 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.680 see how they all work together in various scenarios, essentially 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:23.520 like you know, kind of a war games type of thing. 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.720 They also include aerial drones in this approach, and a 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:33.079 submarine that can launch smaller unmanned submersibles through the submarine's 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:37.040 torpedo tubes, which really sounds like science fiction and a 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.199 little bit scary because whenever the topic of autonomous weaponry 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:44.120 comes up, I get a bit uncomfortable. I'm not crazy 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:49.800 about autonomous weapons. The tests, however, are still just that 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.800 this is not an indication that robo warfares around the corner. 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.920 In fact, the Navy says that actual deployment of unmanned 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:02.080 systems is likely at least a decade of off a 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.200 group of big tech companies, including Intel, Autodesk, sales Force, 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:11.520 Alphabet that's Google's parent company, Amazon, and Facebook are petitioning 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:16.440 the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC, to require companies 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:20.400 to publish a climate change performance report. So these big 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.719 companies are arguing that there needs to be some more 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:27.160 accountability within industries and that the SEC needs to make 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:32.080 certain that companies are following through on their their plans 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.240 to reduce carbon emissions and to curtail other activities that 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.880 are potentially harmful to the environment. And you might wonder 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.480 why these big tech companies are pushing for the SEC 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.520 to do this, Like what's in it for them? I mean, 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.200 most companies are not big fans of regulation, so asking 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:54.360 for more government intervention in these matters to require companies 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:58.240 to produce reports seems counterintuitive. However, it may be that 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.600 this is both too you know, actually make moves to 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.800 reduce harm with regard to climate change. In other words, 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.120 it might be a sincere effort to try and do 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:11.680 something about the climate crisis. And it may also be about, 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.240 you know, making certain that other companies are not breaking 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:18.040 the rules and getting an unfair market advantage because unlike 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.880 these companies, Uh, the little ones that are breaking the 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:26.000 rules aren't actually taking the more expensive route of being accountable. 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:32.600 They're taking the shortcut, the carbon rich shortcut, and thus 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.320 getting an unfair advantage. But that's just a guess on 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.120 my part. I don't know for sure. In Pakistan, the 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:43.199 Punjab government has announced a plan that is downright astonishing 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.160 and it all has to do with COVID vaccinations. So 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.400 various companies and governments around the world have created different 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.640 incentives to encourage more people to go and get vaccinated. 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.080 Um and as someone who lives in a state that 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.160 still has an embarrassingly low number of vaccinated adults, I 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.880 can understand that move. But Pakistan is going a step further. 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:08.400 This isn't a get vaccinated and you might win a prize. 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.880 This is get vaccinated or we shut off your phone. 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.280 According to zd net, the Punjab government will block mobile 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.600 sim cards that belong to people who refuse to get vaccinated. 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.320 So if you don't get your jabs, you don't have 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.160 a working mobile phone. Now, on the one hand, I 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:30.600 feel like everyone who can get vaccinated should get vaccinated. 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.800 But on the other hand, cutting off mobile phones is 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:38.680 a pretty tough penalty. Particularly in a world where many 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.000 of us use our phones as our primary means to 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.920 connect to the internet and thus to interact with basic 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:46.960 stuff in our lives. So I personally lean towards this 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.440 being a little too extreme for my tastes. But on 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.040 the other hand, I can't deny that vaccinations are absolutely 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.960 critical and that a lower vaccination turnout means there are 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.800 more opportunities for COVID to spread and you take and 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.640 potentially get worse, which could set the whole world back 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.040 to square one or even further back when it comes 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.120 to fighting the disease. So I didn't know how to 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.320 feel about this one. I do know that if any 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.440 politician tried to do something similar here in the United States, 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.480 there would be riots. According to the e f F 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:22.120 fifteen universities have formed a consortium that is, in effect 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.880 a patent troll. So what is a patent troll? Well, first, 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:28.080 let's talk about patents. A patent is sort of like 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.880 a copyright for an invention. So if you invent something new, 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.200 you can apply for a patent and a patent office 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.160 will review your application and then decide whether or not 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.680 your invention meets the requirements for a patent. So, in 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.440 other words, is it actually a new invention, could it 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:50.360 potentially actually work? Does it rely upon any existing technologies? 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.640 And if so, did you credit those technologies in your application? 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.040 But assuming that your application does meet all the requirements, 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.000 you can get a patent and that protects your invention 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.600 and design for a certain amount of time. And during 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:06.480 that time, no one else can legally produce your invention 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:09.600 unless they first get your permission, which is typically through 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.920 a license deal. You are allowed to exploit your invention 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.320 however you like, so you can go and make you know, 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:17.760 products based off your invention if you if you like, 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:19.640 or you can again license it out to other people 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.560 or both. A patent troll is an entity that scoops 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:27.600 up patents. It doesn't necessarily make patents itself, although it might, 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.360 but it may go around and purchase patents from other companies. 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.760 And often these are low value patents, ones that haven't 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.800 really been you know, exercised very much. Uh, And they're 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.120 not they're not doing it for the purposes of creating 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.760 anything with the patents, like, they're not going to make 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.720 any products or services based off of it. Instead, they 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.440 seek out companies that are making stuff that potentially could 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:54.840 infringe upon one of those patents that the troll owns. 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.040 So patentrols will buy up as many of these low 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.520 value patents as possible. On cast of wide net and 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.000 threatened litigation against companies that the trolls claim are relying 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.960 on technology that is covered by the trolls patents. Litigation 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.040 is expensive. I mean, even if you win the lawsuit, 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.920 it's expensive. So a lot of companies will just pay 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.560 a licensing fee. Meanwhile, the troll isn't actually doing anything 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.120 useful with those patents, and it's generally thought of as 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.160 a pretty skiezy thing to do. According to the e 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.320 f F, this new company is going to follow a 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:30.160 very similar approach, and the group of universities includes Harvard, Cornell, 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:36.080 Columbia University, cal Tech, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania, 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:41.600 among several others. Finally, Airbus is now working on hydrogen 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:45.240 fuel tanks for a planned new type of airliner called 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.120 the Zero E. The E stands for emissions, so hydrogen 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:50.960 can be used as a fuel in a couple of 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.560 different ways. You could create fuel cells, which are sort 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.440 of like batteries, except that you have to replenish the 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.040 fuel in them. So typically you're talking about oxygen on 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.760 one side of the fuel cell and hydrogen on the other, 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.679 and there's like a semi permeable membrane between the two 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.159 that allows ions to flow through from one direction to 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:14.120 the other, but electrons have to flow through a different pathway, 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:18.320 and thus you harness the electrons for you know, electricity. However, 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.479 those would not really be strong enough to power like 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.360 an airliner, so air Bus is looking at hydrogen as 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.919 more of a traditional fuel, the kind that could be 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:32.120 used in combustion engines. Hydrogen is the most plentiful element 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.399 in our galaxy, but that doesn't make it super easy 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.399 to get hold of. Hydrogen bonds readily with other stuff 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.000 like carbon compounds, and that means that getting hold of 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.040 hydrogen usually requires you to pour some energy into the 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.359 effort first, So you have to make sure that you 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:51.119 know the amount of hydrogen you're getting out is going 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.800 to represent more of an energy storage than however, however 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:56.760 much energy you needed to get hold of it in 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:00.040 the first place. Moreover, hydrogen has some other challenge, and 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.080 just for one thing. To make efficient use of hydrogen, 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.879 air Bus needs to have it in liquid form in 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.719 order to you know, hold enough of it to fuel 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:13.480 a plane. Now, that requires keeping hydrogen at the temperature 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:18.000 of minus four eighteen degrees fahrenheit, which is pretty chilly, 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:22.280 much colder than any airplane air conditioner I've ever felt, thankfully, 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:27.560 And hydrogen is also very, very flammable, so those storage 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.800 tanks need to be strong and capable of withstanding temperature 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:34.040 fluctuations and temperature cycles and that kind of thing. But 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.240 this is all in an effort to reduce carbon emissions, 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:43.639 because burning hydrogen doesn't generate carbon emissions the way gasoline does, 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:48.200 or jet fuel for that matter, and reducing carbon emissions 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.600 is something the airline industry is really looking at carefully 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:56.800 because it's no secret that your typical flight has a 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.800 pretty awful carbon footprint associated with it. So getting that 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:06.480 reduced is a big, big incentive for airline companies that 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:10.040 are in a world that is increasingly moving towards a 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:15.600 carbon neutral approach to doing business. And that's it for 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:20.520 the tech news for Tuesday, June one. We'll have some 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.600 more tech news on Thursday, and in the meantime, if 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.160 you have any suggestions for topics I should cover, like 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.960 the cf A A let me know over on Twitter. 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:31.440 The handle for the show is tech Stuff H s 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:40.960 W and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:44.440 Stuff is an I heart Radio production. For more podcasts 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.200 from my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.480 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.