WETA Television

Key Bridge (left). Credit: Elizabeth Grove

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!

Now airing on WETA Television

A Video Sampler

Screenshot from Science Nation feature, Just by a whisker

Japanese Quake Test

In Miki, Japan, a six-story wooden model condominium was shaken by the equivalent of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. The test was said to be the largest simulated earthquake ever attempted with a wooden structure. The full-scale building sat on a metal shake table that rocked it violently back and forth. The table, designed to hold up to 2.5 million pounds, reproduced forces based on those recorded during the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, California. But, it was scaled up by 180 percent to simulate an earthquake so violent it would only occur on average once every 2,500 years. The goal of this shake-table experiment, the largest ever, was to challenge building regulations that currently prohibit buildings of seven-stories or more in quake-prone regions of the United States.

Watch online »
Go to NSF website »

Screenshot from Science Nation feature, Geomagic

Geomagic: Expanding Tools for a 3-D World

What do space shuttle safety measures and modern shoemaking have in common? Both use a 3-D design and engineering technology that streamlines a wide range of inspection and manufacturing processes. Geomagic is an industry leader in the technology called digital shape sampling and processing, or DSSP. It starts with scanning an object, from a race car to a human body, with optical beams. A camera inside the scanner transmits millions up to a billion points to a computer. NASA uses the technology to identify damage to the space shuttle because flying debris during liftoff can harm the orbiter's protective tiles.

Watch online »
Go to NSF website »

Extremophile Hunter

Astrobiologist Richard Hoover really goes to extremes to find living things that thrive where life would seem to be impossible--from the glaciers of the Alaskan Arctic to the ice sheets of Antarctica. He thinks it is even possible that over the course of billions of years, life has spread around the solar system--a sort of cosmic cross pollination. Microbes could live in the ice deep within comets, frozen there for eons until a collision with another planet or moon delivered them to a new home.

Watch online »
Go to NSF website »

Watch more at the NSF website »

About the Host

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.