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Big Picture Science

Sensor Sensibility

Big Picture Science

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.51K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2011

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you lost your senses? You’ll find them everywhere you look. Sensors respond to external stimuli – light, sound, temperature and much else – to help us make sense (ha!) of our universe. And more are on their way. “Ubiquitous sensing” is the term that describes a world blanketed by tiny sensors: on bridges, in paint and medicine bottles, and even in our brains! Discover where you’ll find sensors next. And, has the world’s largest detection device found the elusive particle that will help explain the universe? Where are you, Higgsy-wiggsy? Also, out-of-this world sensors have detected a possibly Earth-like planet. What’s next for the Kepler planet-hunters? Plus, DIY sensor kits, and, if computers can do all that, why can’t we send the odor of, say, freshly-baked bread over the Internet? The case for a smell-o-meter. Guests: Frank Close - Physicist at Oxford University, author of The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe Jan Rabaey - Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), University of California, Berkeley Barry Shell - Writer in Vancouver, Canada Andy Huntington - Interaction designer, based in London Sara Seager - Professor of planetary science and physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Planet hunters - Daryll LaCourse and Tom Jacobs, citizen scientists with Planet Hunters Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.

0:05.0

Tech moves fast.

0:08.0

So keep pace with the Daily Crunch Podcast from Tech Crunch.

0:12.0

With new episodes every day, this podcast Crunch new tech, regulations, and more.

0:23.0

Listen to Tech Crunch Daily Crunch now,

0:25.5

wherever you get your podcasts.

0:27.6

That's Tech Crunch Daily Crunch,

0:29.9

wherever you get your podcasts.

0:39.0

The world is constantly changing and transforming. Cut through some of the noise with What's New With Wired,

0:42.0

a podcast that goes in depth on the latest

0:44.9

news and technology and culture. Their award-winning journalism will help you make

0:49.6

sense of what's happening in the world. Listen to What's New With Wired wherever you get your podcasts.

0:55.8

That's What's New With Wired science was invented by the Greeks. Guys like Aristotle,

1:10.8

he had only one name, but he addressed important questions, such as the structure of the universe.

1:16.0

So clearly the Earth is at the center of the Cosmos, and the Sun and the planets revolve around it in perfect circles.

1:24.0

Say Aphrodite, could you pass the Suvlaki?

1:26.0

But Aristotle had to do the science in his head.

1:29.0

He had no instruments, no telescopes or microscopes cameras,

1:33.0

microphones, no strain gauges, whatever they are.

1:35.9

In other words, he couldn't do any experiment

1:38.3

that involved using anything more than his own senses.

1:41.4

Well, 25,000 years later, things got better. There were sensors.

...

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