1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff Works dot com 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: where smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain and it is 3 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: time once again for the Friday News Roundup, where we 4 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,720 Speaker 1: feature some of the most interesting science and technology articles 5 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:24,320 Speaker 1: of the week. If you were to pick the thing 6 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,479 Speaker 1: that has the probability of having the most effect on 7 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 1: humanity in the future, it would probably be IBMS demonstration 8 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:36,519 Speaker 1: of a graphine transistor running at an impossible to imagine 9 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty five giga hurts. If a CPU 10 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,200 Speaker 1: could clock at that speed, it would be roughly fifty 11 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:46,320 Speaker 1: times faster than the typical CPU chip available today. That's 12 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 1: quite unlikely because the clock speed of a chip is 13 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:52,519 Speaker 1: a lot more complicated than the speed of one transistor, 14 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:56,680 Speaker 1: and these transistors are more designed for radios rather than 15 00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 1: for you know, computing kinds of applications. But even so, 16 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:03,920 Speaker 1: if you could take graphing and get even a two 17 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:06,440 Speaker 1: x or a four x speed up, so you know, 18 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,920 Speaker 1: a chip running at ten giga hurts or twenty giga hurts, 19 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: that would be impressive. Given that speed increases of pretty 20 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,479 Speaker 1: much stalled at three giga hurts for several years. We'll 21 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: have to see where IBM and other manufacturers take this, 22 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: but it appears possible that graphing or some derivative thereof, 23 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:28,039 Speaker 1: could be the thing that replaces silicon over the next decade. 24 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: If you go to Interesting Reading number seven twenty seven, 25 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:35,399 Speaker 1: you can get details on these new transistors. But if 26 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 1: I were to pick the thing this week that has 27 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,040 Speaker 1: the coolest buzz factor, that would have to be a 28 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: guy talking about building a life size functional at at 29 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:48,880 Speaker 1: Yes and at at. This is the all terrain armored 30 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: transport that came out in the Empire Strikes Back film. 31 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: You remember in the hot scene at the beginning of 32 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: the film, there's this ice planet and these giant walkers 33 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 1: are walking across the ice to destroy the rebel base 34 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: and the power reactor or whatever it was. The idea 35 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 1: being that these walkers can somehow handle terrain that's you know, 36 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,320 Speaker 1: rough and complex, much better than a wheeled vehicle could. 37 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:17,840 Speaker 1: So let's ignore the obvious, like kind of silliness of 38 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:22,000 Speaker 1: such a tall vehicle that's connected to such a narrow chassis, 39 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:24,560 Speaker 1: especially since the legs in the film appear to have 40 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: little or no sideways mobility to handle tipping over. But 41 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,560 Speaker 1: you know, these design problems have no effect on the 42 00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:36,160 Speaker 1: utter mind blowing power of the machines. When you saw 43 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: them in the film, especially when you saw them for 44 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 1: the first time in theaters, it was just an amazing spectacle. 45 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,720 Speaker 1: So building a real one and having it walk around 46 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:47,640 Speaker 1: would be a triumph. There's a guy named Mike Kohler 47 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:50,760 Speaker 1: who's hoping to raise money for the project on Kickstarter. 48 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:54,120 Speaker 1: If you google Interesting Reading number seven twenty eight, you 49 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: can you can read more about it. There's an interview 50 00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:00,480 Speaker 1: with him there. Speaking of legs, there is a female 51 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:06,639 Speaker 1: double leg amputee who's making lemonade out of lemons. She um, 52 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:08,959 Speaker 1: you know, as I said, as a double leg ampute 53 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:12,320 Speaker 1: so that's the lemon part. But she's able to now 54 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:16,040 Speaker 1: don a prosthesis that turns her into a mermaid. The 55 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:20,359 Speaker 1: prosthesis combines her two stumps into a single tale for swimming, 56 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: and she swims so well that she would like to compete. 57 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: But obviously this would have to be a new category 58 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,360 Speaker 1: of competition, since you know, normal people who are in 59 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: swimming competitions aren't wearing fins or tails or anything else currently, 60 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: so we'll have to see how this develops. If you 61 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 1: google Interesting Reading number seven seven. You can read more 62 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:43,720 Speaker 1: about her story. We all have lithium ion batteries and 63 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 1: things like our cell phones, are iPods, are iPads, our cameras, 64 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,880 Speaker 1: and our laptops. How could we get the most life 65 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: and power from these batteries? Because they are expensive and 66 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: we do use these devices a lot, it would be 67 00:03:56,560 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: nice if the batteries could last as long as possible. 68 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 1: So Popular mechanics study this question and has four recommendations. First, 69 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 1: a lithium ion battery prefers an intermediate state of charge 70 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: that is given a choice, it would last longest if 71 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,719 Speaker 1: it is not ever fully charged to its maximum voltage 72 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,640 Speaker 1: and if it's not ever fully drained down to you know, 73 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:23,599 Speaker 1: no charge left on the battery. Those two conditions can 74 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: shorten the life of the battery by quite a bit. 75 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:29,800 Speaker 1: The second tip is, you know, following on that, to 76 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 1: avoid full charges at full discharges at any time, But 77 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,560 Speaker 1: the number of cycles if you're at an intermediate charge 78 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: is irrelevant. So you know, if you charge it three 79 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: times a day to keep it at an intermediate charge, 80 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: that's okay. The number of times it comes on and 81 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:49,479 Speaker 1: off the charger is not relevant. Then number three is 82 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:53,159 Speaker 1: something we probably already knew heat and cold are bad 83 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: for lithium ion batteries, as they are for a lot 84 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: of other batteries. And also you don't want to keep 85 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:02,880 Speaker 1: lit em I on batteries constantly on a charger because 86 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:05,680 Speaker 1: for one, that keeps him at this fully charged level, 87 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: which is bad, and for another it adds heat. So 88 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,200 Speaker 1: if all of this is true, and really there's no 89 00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:14,359 Speaker 1: reason to believe that it's not, it makes you wonder 90 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:17,599 Speaker 1: why all these tricks aren't built into chargers already, Like 91 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:19,840 Speaker 1: why would a charger take a battery up to full 92 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: charge if that's bad for the battery? But you know 93 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:25,920 Speaker 1: we have to wait, I guess for these chargers that 94 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: are smart enough to avoid these problems. So if you 95 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:31,159 Speaker 1: want to learn more about this, you can go to 96 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:35,040 Speaker 1: Interesting Reading seven to get the details. It really is 97 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:39,520 Speaker 1: a pretty fascinating article. Speaking of making things last longer, 98 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:43,159 Speaker 1: there was a story in Interesting Reading seven five where 99 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:47,159 Speaker 1: a z Camaro with the sticker still on the window 100 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,080 Speaker 1: and just a few miles on the odometer had been 101 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:53,120 Speaker 1: left in a sort of time capsule and then got 102 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:56,960 Speaker 1: pulled out of hybridation more than twenty years later. Except 103 00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:58,840 Speaker 1: for a lot of dust, it appeared to be in 104 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: pristine shape, which might suggest that if you're going to 105 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 1: do your own time capsule with a car and it, 106 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 1: you might want to invest in one of those fabric 107 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:08,440 Speaker 1: car covers and put it over the car before you 108 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:10,880 Speaker 1: stuff it in the box or the trailer or whatever 109 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 1: you're gonna store your time capsule in. Anyway, it was, 110 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:15,840 Speaker 1: you know, a fun video to see them pull the 111 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:17,720 Speaker 1: car out, and they had done a nice job of 112 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:22,039 Speaker 1: preserving the seats with plastic and stuff, so it was 113 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:24,960 Speaker 1: it was a neat little thing to see. But that 114 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:28,159 Speaker 1: brings up a great point. If you are going to 115 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:31,880 Speaker 1: buy a car today and save it for the future yourself, 116 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: and you wanted to hold its value, what car should 117 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,120 Speaker 1: you buy? So you know, you don't want to buy 118 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:40,360 Speaker 1: a car that people are gonna look at as junk 119 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:42,279 Speaker 1: in twenty or thirty years. You want to pick a 120 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,600 Speaker 1: good car. And so there's this article and interesting reading 121 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:50,160 Speaker 1: number seven six that explores this question. The article recommends, 122 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:52,799 Speaker 1: you know, the obvious stuff like keeping the car pretty 123 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:56,839 Speaker 1: much exactly as this time capsule car was kept. You 124 00:06:56,920 --> 00:06:59,320 Speaker 1: buy the car, it has very low mileage. If you 125 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:01,640 Speaker 1: can leave the around the window, that's great because it 126 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:03,880 Speaker 1: shows you you know exactly what's on the car and 127 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:06,600 Speaker 1: how much it exactly costs. You want to have all 128 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: original equipment on the car, you want it to be 129 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: in mint conditioned. But what kind of car should you pick? 130 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 1: And this is where it gets very strange, at least 131 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:17,120 Speaker 1: with the first car in the list, because it's the 132 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 1: PT Cruiser, and I would never have picked that particular 133 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 1: car is one that would be valuable in the future, 134 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:26,560 Speaker 1: but apparently because of its body style and so on, 135 00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:31,120 Speaker 1: it has the potential to really hold its value. Then 136 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:32,680 Speaker 1: you go down through the list and the rest of 137 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: them are a lot more obvious than that, including things 138 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: like the Dodge Viper and the Plymouth Prowler and the 139 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 1: BMW Z three and even the Chevy Vault, which I, 140 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: you know, thought was interesting. Of course, the Vault is 141 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:47,760 Speaker 1: in there because it's unlikely that anyone will ever own one. 142 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:50,200 Speaker 1: They're making so few of them. And I actually went 143 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:53,320 Speaker 1: to the Chevy dealer here and Raleigh and asked about 144 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 1: the Vault, and apparently if it even ever makes it 145 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:58,280 Speaker 1: to North Carolina, it would be in something like two 146 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: thousand and twelve. Maybe the Dler was really sketchy on 147 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:04,360 Speaker 1: whether he would ever have Chevy vaults on his lot. 148 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:07,520 Speaker 1: So anyway, if you want to see all the recommendations, 149 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:12,520 Speaker 1: google Interesting Reading number seven twenty six. Everyone knows what 150 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:16,120 Speaker 1: skyscrapers look like today, you know, they all have these 151 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:18,920 Speaker 1: different embellishments to make them a little different from the other. Sure, 152 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 1: but they're all pretty much tall, thin, tower like buildings. 153 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,560 Speaker 1: So what is the skyscraper the future going to look like? 154 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:30,640 Speaker 1: And a magazine called evol had a competition, and some 155 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:33,600 Speaker 1: of the designs that came out of that competition are 156 00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:37,200 Speaker 1: mind blowing because most of the designs look nothing like 157 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:41,000 Speaker 1: skyscrapers look today. Many of them don't even scrape the sky. 158 00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:45,800 Speaker 1: They are much squatter and and flatter but immense. You know, 159 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: they spread out instead of necessarily going up, and you 160 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: can have complete communities inside a single structure with these things. 161 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:57,439 Speaker 1: It really is interesting to look at the pictures from 162 00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:01,359 Speaker 1: the competition because many of them are quite quite unexpected. 163 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:04,840 Speaker 1: So if you google Interesting Reading number seven eight and 164 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:07,120 Speaker 1: look for the article in the future of skyscrapers, you 165 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:09,800 Speaker 1: can go through those pictures and see what's coming down 166 00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:14,959 Speaker 1: the road in terms of skyscrapers. Some of these skyscrapers 167 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: could house what might be the latest in farming technology. 168 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:23,240 Speaker 1: More and more farming is moving indoors, and lettuce is 169 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 1: the most important example. Currently, much of the lettuce grown 170 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:30,560 Speaker 1: today is grown indoors because the process of growing it 171 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:34,000 Speaker 1: indoors cut it down on all sorts of problems, and 172 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:36,680 Speaker 1: because lettuce is a pretty quick crop, it doesn't take 173 00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:39,920 Speaker 1: long for it to go from seed to maturity relatively speaking. 174 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:43,640 Speaker 1: So an interesting reading number seven seven there's an article 175 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:47,280 Speaker 1: on future farms where more and more of this ends 176 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:51,400 Speaker 1: up happening, and every single thing, including the lighting, the temperature, 177 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:55,200 Speaker 1: the humidity, everything is under human control, so the plants 178 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:59,240 Speaker 1: grow optimally. This to me is a little hard to imagine, 179 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:03,000 Speaker 1: especially on the lighting, because lighting is pretty expensive. You know, 180 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:04,760 Speaker 1: not only do you have to buy the fixture and 181 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:07,520 Speaker 1: the bulb, but then you have to pump electricity into it. 182 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:09,960 Speaker 1: And plants need a lot of light. They need bright, 183 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:13,760 Speaker 1: bright light to do their thing. Whether it's completely comes 184 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 1: to pass or not is open to question, but the 185 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:21,240 Speaker 1: indoor part is definitely understandable. On most vegetable crops, grains 186 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:24,040 Speaker 1: I would expect like wheat and corn will be grown 187 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:28,040 Speaker 1: outdoors well into the future, but the indoor farming of 188 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,640 Speaker 1: vegetables seems very likely. So if you go and google 189 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:35,240 Speaker 1: Interesting Reading seven you can learn more about the future 190 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:41,720 Speaker 1: of farms. Scientists, engineers, and inventors are known for experimentation. 191 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:44,240 Speaker 1: They are out on the cutting edge and they do 192 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:47,480 Speaker 1: experiments to discover what will work and what won't work. 193 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:51,040 Speaker 1: Some of these experiments do work out, some don't, and 194 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:55,040 Speaker 1: then some are horrific, horrific failures. So this week there's 195 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:59,800 Speaker 1: an article entitled fifteen Bizarre Experiments Gone Tragically Wrong and 196 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:04,840 Speaker 1: has fifteen experiments that fall into that terrible, horrible category. 197 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:07,920 Speaker 1: There are several that you would expect to find if 198 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:10,520 Speaker 1: you're you know, if you're up on your weird human 199 00:11:10,559 --> 00:11:15,079 Speaker 1: scientific experiments, psychology experiments like the Stanford prison guard experiment 200 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,480 Speaker 1: that show how truly awful human beings can be when 201 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:23,640 Speaker 1: left in peculiar situations. There are also some medical experiments 202 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:27,800 Speaker 1: from the era where apparently experimental doctors had no ethics. 203 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 1: There's the token aviation experiment that you know ended in death, 204 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,240 Speaker 1: as many aviation experiments did in the early years, and 205 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:38,520 Speaker 1: even you know some today. And then there's the truly 206 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:40,880 Speaker 1: weird stuff. A couple of which I had never even 207 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:43,959 Speaker 1: heard of. So if you go to Interesting Reading number 208 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:48,280 Speaker 1: seven twenty eight you can learn more about these bizarre experience. 209 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:52,720 Speaker 1: It was a pretty interesting read. One article that got 210 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:55,240 Speaker 1: a lot of hits this week is the brain Stuff 211 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 1: article on the wave disc engine. This engine design is 212 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:02,320 Speaker 1: coming out of Michigan State University and has gotten two 213 00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:06,040 Speaker 1: and a half million dollars in federal funding to you know, 214 00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: bring it from the um, you know, the not even 215 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:11,920 Speaker 1: a prototype but just sort of an idea stage into 216 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:16,680 Speaker 1: a reality stage. It is a completely unconventional design like 217 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:20,160 Speaker 1: nothing I've ever seen before, and the claims are amazing, 218 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:23,880 Speaker 1: like sixty percent efficiency. This would be three to four 219 00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:27,360 Speaker 1: times more efficient than the typical piston engine of today, 220 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:31,319 Speaker 1: which you know might get fifteen to twenty percent efficiency 221 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:34,360 Speaker 1: out of the gasoline that goes into it. So this 222 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:37,600 Speaker 1: wave disc engine would be a huge deal. If this 223 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:40,840 Speaker 1: engine really pans out at a sixty percent efficiency, even 224 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:43,079 Speaker 1: if it panned out at a forty percent efficiency, that 225 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 1: would double the efficiency today and that would be amazing. 226 00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:50,040 Speaker 1: So one thing about this engine is it's a fixed 227 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:54,400 Speaker 1: rpm turbine like design, and that means it would likely 228 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:57,760 Speaker 1: be running a fixed load electrical generator or something like 229 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: that in a hybrid vehicle. But you know, when I 230 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:05,040 Speaker 1: look at this, I am I am pretty skeptical. The 231 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:07,360 Speaker 1: articles that have been published so far on the wave 232 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:10,640 Speaker 1: disc engine have been very high on hype and very 233 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:13,480 Speaker 1: low on details of how this engine is going to 234 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:18,000 Speaker 1: actually work. So if you read the articles, we're supposed 235 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:21,199 Speaker 1: to actually see a working model of this engine by 236 00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:23,440 Speaker 1: the end of two thousand and eleven, and we'll get 237 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:26,240 Speaker 1: to see if it lives up to all the expectations 238 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:30,559 Speaker 1: fairly quickly. If you google brain stuff Wave disc Engine, 239 00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:32,680 Speaker 1: you can learn more about the engine, and some of 240 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,240 Speaker 1: you know my thoughts on whether or not this might work. 241 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:38,120 Speaker 1: I am going to be fascinated to see what happens 242 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:41,480 Speaker 1: when the when the first real engines come out, and 243 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:45,840 Speaker 1: I really hope that I'm wrong, but I'm quite skeptical 244 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:49,760 Speaker 1: at the moment. There was a story about myth Busters, 245 00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:53,520 Speaker 1: in particular about Jamie Hyneman this week and his work 246 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:57,400 Speaker 1: with the US government to develop better armor for vehicles 247 00:13:57,440 --> 00:14:00,520 Speaker 1: that will protect them from explosives like I E. D 248 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:04,679 Speaker 1: s and minds that are embedded in roads. The idea 249 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:07,839 Speaker 1: is to make much lighter armor so if you look 250 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:11,120 Speaker 1: at some of the current designs for armorund vehicles, they 251 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:14,360 Speaker 1: already show a fair amount of creativity. There's of course 252 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:18,320 Speaker 1: heavy steel plating, and sometimes that plating is glued or 253 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:22,320 Speaker 1: stickered onto thinner sheet metal to provide a quick fix, uh, 254 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 1: you know, a quick layer of extra armor. For example, 255 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:29,800 Speaker 1: on humvees. There are some V bottom vehicles where the 256 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:33,480 Speaker 1: V shape tries to deflect the blast waves away from 257 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:36,800 Speaker 1: the vehicle after the blast, so instead of coming right 258 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:38,520 Speaker 1: up through the bottom of the vehicle of the blast 259 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:42,360 Speaker 1: waves are are blown outward. There's something called reactive armor 260 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:45,520 Speaker 1: that explodes when something like an RPG hits it to 261 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 1: blow the grenade away from the vehicle. So it'll be 262 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:50,440 Speaker 1: interesting to see what Jamie comes up with. If you 263 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:54,000 Speaker 1: google Interesting Reading seven eight you can read more about 264 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:59,840 Speaker 1: his thoughts on armor design. And finally, there's head track. 265 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:02,960 Speaker 1: If you've seen the demos of any of the head 266 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:08,040 Speaker 1: tracking displays, the results are spectacular, and you know they've 267 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:11,800 Speaker 1: been around for several years. The displays were used to 268 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:14,320 Speaker 1: looking like don't do any head tracking at all. They 269 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:16,920 Speaker 1: work more like paintings. When you move your head, it 270 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:20,840 Speaker 1: has no effect on the screen. A head tracking display 271 00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:24,200 Speaker 1: is instead like the window of a building. As you 272 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:26,880 Speaker 1: move your head around, the view of the window changes, 273 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:30,280 Speaker 1: So if you walk closer to a window, you see more, 274 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:33,760 Speaker 1: If you walk further back, you see a narrower range. 275 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:35,440 Speaker 1: If you walk up close to the window and look 276 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: out to the left, there's actually you know, a lot 277 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:40,320 Speaker 1: more stuff you can see out to the left, and 278 00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:43,120 Speaker 1: so on. A window works a lot different from a painting. 279 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:46,600 Speaker 1: So people have been, you know, goofing around with head 280 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:50,400 Speaker 1: tracking for I don't know, three or four or five years, 281 00:15:50,640 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 1: and amazingly, even though it's such a cool looking thing, 282 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:57,680 Speaker 1: it's never made it into a widely used application. So 283 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:02,360 Speaker 1: now there's an iPad two app location that uses the 284 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:07,320 Speaker 1: iPads FaceTime camera to implement head tracking, you know, inexpensively 285 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:10,880 Speaker 1: obviously basically for free, because the camera's already there, and 286 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:14,160 Speaker 1: maybe this will be the version that breaks through. This 287 00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:16,680 Speaker 1: is you know, it's an application that really deserves the 288 00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:19,640 Speaker 1: limelight because it is cool when you see it in action. 289 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,840 Speaker 1: So if you google interesting Reading number seven twenty six, 290 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:26,480 Speaker 1: you can get a discussion in a video demonstration. So 291 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:28,920 Speaker 1: that's it for this week. If you'd like to get 292 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:32,440 Speaker 1: more details on these topics or about a hundred others. 293 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:39,200 Speaker 1: You can google interesting Reading number seven seven and seven 294 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,960 Speaker 1: nine for details. Until next time, have a great weekend. 295 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,360 Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics. Does 296 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:49,600 Speaker 1: that how stuff works dot com and don't forget to 297 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: check out the brain stuff blog on the house stuff 298 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:54,080 Speaker 1: works dot com home page. You can also follow brain 299 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:57,440 Speaker 1: stuff on Facebook or Twitter at brain stuff hs W. 300 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: The house Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it 301 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:03,520 Speaker 1: today on iTunes.