LASER: Materials Science Podcast

Discussion of what we can learn form caves, how they are studied, and some ethics of studying sensitive cave features.

Discussion about recent controversy surrounding a claim of room temperature superconductivity. Very exciting claims, but because it isnt verified and there are some questions about the manuscript, this is treated almost as a review of the pre-print, with a short description of data issues found by Brian Skinner.

Welcome to 2015! This year's perihelion edition was recorded on the day which the earth is closest to the sun. We cover a diverse list of important scientific and engineering happenings from 2014, and even talk about a little biology and genomics research! (but don't worry, its mostly cool physics, space, and engineering stuff.)

This week we discuss Space X and Boeing contracts to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station by 2018, and some new luxuries that will soon be available on the ISS; a 3-D printer, and an espresso machine!

Most coffee-particular people already know that the quality of the water you use is important for good coffee, but a recent paper describes how affecting the specific hard mineral content can have important changes in the relative extraction of specific flavor and strength affecting chemicals in your brew. We discuss the basics of coffee preparation, and the conclusions of the paper.

This week on LASER we discuss a realistic computer simulation of a universe, a proposed mechanism for why tin whiskers are destroying our most sensitive computers, and GaInSn liquid metal used to reconnect severed nerves in frogs.

For our first episode of the summer on LASER: Let's Agree Science & Engineering are Rad, we discuss our own Chris' recently-accepted paper about inorganic ZnS window layers on organic solar cells. These increase the efficiency, and help protect the cell from environmental damage. We then talk about the NRL Press release describing long-chain hydrocarbon fuel (jet fuel) they have made by extracting CO2 and Hydrogen from seawater!

This week's LASER Pulse! is about the Heartbleed computer vulnerability. We cover the basics of the heartbleed bug, why its important, and mention that you really need to CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS. Because this is a Pulse episode, there are little to no edits (just the intro and outro really), and the whole show is only about 20 minutes.

The cast of the Technically Speaking Podcast join us to talk with about the future of super rad airships for scientific use--similar to satellites! We also talk about a company planning a new method for extracting Lithium from geothermal vents, to meet the needs of the Tesla Giga-Factory.

On Episode 14 of LASER we discuss using tree branches as water filters, a new type of super-thin room temperature infrared light detector that uses graphene, and the $1 Origami Microscope.