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Season Two
Episode 1: Energy
Host Amy Seidl visits with Vermont scientists to explore the history of energy in human society, examining how we use energy and the challenges and opportunities associated with adapting to new, renewable sources. Included: how Vermont scientists are contributing to the growth potential of wind energy and helping redefine the electric grid to accommodate alternative energy sources.
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Episode 2: Food Webs
This episode explores two Vermont “food webs”: the aquatic food web of Lake Champlain and the terrestrial food web in the time since wolves disappeared from the Vermont landscape. While food webs can be relatively simple to understand, Vermont scientists are delving into their complexities by modeling one of the smallest self-contained food webs known: the aquatic habitat in the pitcher plant.
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Episode 3: Technology of Social Sciences
What are the technological tools used by today's social scientists to understand the behavior of large populations? This episode explains how Vermont scientists are studying child behavior and “teaching” robots how to learn. Also, a look at how the Internet is affecting our behavior and how data mining enables scientists to understand the collective behavior and emotions of hundreds of thousands of people.
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Episode 4: Transportation
This episode starts with a lesson in how the combustion engine works, then investigates the challenges of continued dependence on gasoline vehicles in the face of climate change and declining oil reserves. Also, a look at emerging transportation alternatives including electric vehicles and a renewable system called "vehicle-to-grid."
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Episode 5: Fresh Water
This look at one of Vermont's most plentiful resources also includes a broader discussion of the status of fresh water across the U.S., and highlights case studies and research programs - from coastal Maine to the Mississippi bayou to the dry landscapes of the West. What are scientists doing to ensure clean water for our future?
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Podcasts
Season One
Episode 1: Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is our ability to engineer specific attributes of materials and machines by controlling their features at an amazingly small scale -- one billionth of a meter. At UVM, a scientist gives a glimpse of how nanotechnology may increase the efficacy of cancer drugs.
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Episode 2: Weather and Climate Change
Scientists from UVM, Lyndon State College, and the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium in St. Johnsbury explain how the earth's climate system works and explore the impact of global warming.
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Episode 3: Water and The Landscape
This episode explores a complex system --- the Lake Champlain watershed. UVM faculty collaborate, using their expertise in geology, hydrology, ecology, computer science and other disciplines to develop complex modeling. Their work will help to quantify human impacts on Vermont's water systems
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Episode 4: Remote Wireless Sensing
This episode looks at how remote wireless sensing is being applied to enhance health and quality of life. One example is monitoring the strength of structures like bridges. In other applications, computer scientists are developing ways to monitor environmental conditions and natural resources.
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Podcasts
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Land Development and Water Quality
In this episode, Beverly Wemple, associate professor at the University of Vermont's Department of Geography explores changes that are affecting our water quality. How does changing weather affect our water? What happens when we remove trees and the soil becomes more susceptible to erosion? How can we manage and develop the forested landscape while reducing the potential of forest management to degrade our water resources?
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Remote Sensing of Mechanical Stress
The science and technology of remote wireless sensing consists of many disciplines. In this episode, Steve Arms, president of MicroStrain, Inc., describes one example of remote wireless sensing. Piezoelectric materials create a voltage when they are stressed. Combining this with remote sensing technology, MicroStrain will help to save the U.S. Navy hundreds of millions of dollars in helicopter maintenance costs.
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UV Radiation and Greenhouse Gases
In this episode, Vermont state climatologist Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux explains one of the major planetary components of climate change: greenhouse gas. The ozone layer protects us from UV radiation, but with increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the "greenhouse effect" is increased, warming and deflecting more solar radiation back to the earth.
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Remote Sensing of Environmental Conditions
Accurately measuring environmental conditions is critical for natural resource planning, estimation of agricultural conditions, weather forecasting and a number of essential scenarios affecting our everyday life. In this episode, Christian Skalka, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Vermont, explains how scientific advances in gathering and transmitting environmental data are giving us a better understanding of the water quality in Vermont's winter snow pack.
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Nanotechnology and the Hydrogen Economy
At the nanoscale, the physics and chemistry of materials change. Walter Varhue, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Vermont, proposes to use materials at the nanoscale, in the presence of water and sunlight, to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This process could lead to the creation of cheap, clean energy, a promising component of the hydrogen economy.
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Funding for the Emerging Science project is provided by VT EPSCoR.
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