Planning To Power The Electric Vehicle Boom, Hurricane Ian Aftermath. October 7, 2022, Part 1
Science Friday
Science Friday and WNYC Studios
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🗓️ 7 October 2022
⏱️ 48 minutes
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Summary
The Cape Romano Dome House, built in 1982, was an iconic—if more recently unsightly—piece of Florida architecture. The six interconnected domes located in Collier County, Florida, were built to be hurricane resistant and self-sustaining, with solar power, rainwater harvesting, and other innovations.
However, erosion and rising sea levels had put the structure at risk, with the structure’s foundation pillars being completely underwater by 2009. Last week’s Hurricane Ian finally destroyed the structure. Sophie Bushwick, technology editor at Scientific American, joins Ira to talk about the symbolic loss of the building and other stories from the week in science. They discuss possible approaches to repair the damaged Nord Stream gas pipeline, the finding that certain cancerous tumors contain their own microbiomes of bacteria and fungi, and the delicate process of interpreting the behavioral cues of your feline friends.
How States Are Planning To Power The Electric Vehicle Boom
California and New York recently adopted regulations which ban sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. Several other states are likely to quickly follow suit. But the uptick in vehicle demand will also require new infrastructure, and increase demand for mining metals used to produce car batteries.
Jessika Trancik, professor at the Institute for Data, Systems and Society at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and David Reichmuth, senior engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Clean Transportation Program, join Ira Flatow to discuss the future of electric vehicles. Plus, Eric Gebhardt, chief technology officer at Wabtec, an industrial locomotive company, discusses the challenges and promise of battery-electric trains.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Science Friday, I'm Ira Playdow. Later in the hour, the future of electric vehicles, |
| 0:05.1 | California rolled out an ambitious plan, the band the sale of new gas cars by 2035. |
| 0:11.7 | Others are following, but is our infrastructure up to the task of supporting all these new EVs, |
| 0:17.9 | and can the new incentives and the Biden Inflation Reduction Act help with the transition? |
| 0:23.1 | What do you think? Give us a call, 844-724-8255. We are taking your calls live. Yes, we're |
| 0:29.1 | alive this week. 844-724-8255. But first, residents of Florida are still recovering from the |
| 0:37.4 | devastating hurricane, in which brought massive storm surges and flood- like rains. We've all |
| 0:43.2 | seen the pictures, right? Of the boats washed in the middle of the housing developments and |
| 0:47.9 | neighborhoods with homes flattened or inundated with mud. But off the coast of one of Florida's |
| 0:53.6 | many islands, there was a small bit of destruction with a bigger symbolic meaning. Here to talk about |
| 1:00.3 | that and other stories from the Weekend Science is Sophie Bushwick, Technology Editor at Scientific |
| 1:05.6 | American right here in our New York studios. Good to have you back, Sophie. I'm delighted to be here |
| 1:10.0 | in person. Yes, it's nice to have you. All right, let's let's talk about this. Tell me about the |
| 1:15.0 | structure, the Cape Romano dome home? Yeah, the Cape Romano dome home or dome house was this very |
| 1:22.0 | cool home. It was constructed in 1982 and it had these six large geodesic domes all joined together |
| 1:30.3 | to create a house of about 2400 square feet. And it was designed with that dome shape particularly |
| 1:37.2 | because domes are really great at resisting wind. There's nothing for the wind to catch on. |
| 1:41.3 | Right. So it was great at withstanding hurricane force winds. And in fact, in 1992, |
| 1:47.0 | hurricane Andrew hit the area and the inside of the house was trashed. But apparently the exterior |
| 1:52.8 | structure was standing pretty well. But the problem is it was built out on this like spit of land |
| 1:58.8 | and as sea levels were rising, it just eroded away. So the house two of the domes were destroyed |
| 2:05.6 | by Hurricane Irma, but the other four were still standing in the water with partially, partially |
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