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Science Nation

WETA is pleased to feature selections from the National Science Foundation's Science Nation online magazine.

These informative, short form pieces highlight the latest advancements in science and technology, and spotlight the researchers who are making them happen.

Look for these features throughout the broadcast day on WETA Television or watch online below!

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Now airing on WETA Television

 

A Video Sampler

Screenshot from Science Nation feature, Neon Cancer

Neon Cancer Detector

Professor Michael Sailor hopes to dramatically change how cancer is being treated. He is on a quest to create nanoparticles that travel the bloodstream, latch onto cancers in their earliest stages and destroy them. Sailor's project is fighting the war on cancer at the nano-level. The armed forces he is amassing are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Sailor, a professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, has spent years in search of the right stuff – a material safe enough to enter and travel the bloodstream to conquer cancers.

Watch online »
Go to NSF website »

Screenshot from Science Nation feature, unraveling tornadoes

Unraveling the Mysteries of Tornadoes

The project is called VORTEX2, but it could also be called The Amazing Chase. For five weeks in the spring of 2009, and again in spring 2010, 100 researchers and scientists from 16 universities will deploy about 40 vehicles armed with high tech equipment to measure and probe tornadoes and tornado development. The researchers will span across the Midwest in search of tornadoes--all to better understand how, when and why they form.

Watch online »
Go to NSF website »

Screenshot from Science Nation feature, Tongue Driver

Tongue Driver

Maysan Ghovanloo at Georgia Tech designs technology that allows disabled people to control everything - from wheelchairs to computers - with their tongue! We visit his lab and meet Jason DiSanto, who was paralyzed from the neck down this past April. DiSanto is testing the tongue controller by navigating his wheelchair around a small course. The technology involves a small magnet the size of a grain of rice, which can be pierced into a person's tongue. A companion device embedded with magnetic sensors, such as an orthodontic brace or headset, can then trace the movement of the tongue and transmit those signals wirelessly to a nearby portable computer.

Watch online »
Go to NSF website »

Watch more at the NSF website »

About the Host

Miles O'Brien

Miles O'Brien is a 26-year broadcast news veteran who has successfully melded a talent for telling complex stories in accessible terms with a lifelong passion for science, aviation, space and technology.

Based in New York City, he owns a production company that creates, produces and distributes original content across all media platforms.

For nearly 17 years he worked as a correspondent, anchor and producer for CNN based in Atlanta and New York. At various times he was CNN's science, space, aviation, technology and environment correspondent – and anchored such shows as Science and Technology Week, CNN Saturday and Sunday Morning, Talkback Live, Headline News Primetime, CNN Live From…and CNN American Morning.

Miles is excited to be working with the National Science Foundation and the "Science Nation" team.

About Science Nation

The National Science Foundation's Science Nation online magazine examines the breakthroughs, and the possibilities for new discoveries about our planet, our universe and ourselves: An artificial retina that can help the blind to see; new materials to build things bigger, better, lighter, and stronger; new ways to make our lives better without making the environment worse; and what we can learn from organisms that can live and thrive in frozen deserts or steaming-hot volcanic vents. Each week, Science Nation takes a dynamic, entertaining look at the research--and the researchers--that will change our lives.