Tiny Tech

Episode 020 Ever wonder how a solar cell works? When sunlight strikes a solar cell, its energy is transferred to electrons, which jump out of their original locations and move through the solar cell, creating an electrical current...

Episode 019 Remember when you were a kid, drawing all over your desk with your trusty number 2 pencil and then trying to rub off the black graphite marks with your hands? Well, if you had tried to clean your blackened fingers...

Episode 018 There are many reasons for getting a tattoo: personal expression, remembrance of a family member, or just for fun. But what if there could be a medical reason for getting a tattoo? People with diabetes must...

Episode 017 In the modern world, titania (also known by its chemical formula, TiO2) can be found in many products. This is because titania is great at absorbing UV light, making it ideal for use in protective coatings like paint or sunscreen...

Episode 016 The dark “mag-stripe” on your credit card is made of iron-containing particles, each of which is a magnet with a north and south pole. The information on your card is stored by making magnetic patterns, in which the poles...

Episode 015 How would you like to drive on a racetrack of solid gold or silver? Well, six teams of scientists recently did just that. However, it would take 100 of their racetracks, laid end-to-end, to equal the thickness of a piece of paper, and...

Episode 014 Feeling energetic? Well, sometimes molecules end up with excess energy too. This can happen in several ways, such as when molecules absorb light, are subjected to an electrical current, or undergo a chemical...

Episode 013 Consider the gecko, a fascinating lizard. Geckos have the amazing ability to walk upside down even on the undersides of smooth surfaces such as glass. This ability is due to the millions of tiny flexible hairs on the undersides of their feet.

Episode 012 If you are in the business of making plastics, or gasoline, or pharmaceuticals, you quickly discover that the chemical reactions to make them are really slow: you can mix the reactants and wait years -- and nothing...

Episode 011 What’s the smallest thing you can see? Well, ordinary microscopes can image things that are about 100 times smaller than a human hair, which actually is still pretty big on the nano scale. For smaller objects, you...

Episode 010 I don’t know about you, but I get crabby if my shoes are too small for my feet. Well, electrons don’t get crabby, but they do change properties if they are confined in small spaces. The small spaces that scientists are using to...

Episode 009 … the topic is “green nanomaterials.” Like other nanomaterials, they’re made from nano-sized components, but they are especially friendly to the environment.

Episode 008 A key ingredient in many products, from pencil leads to tennis racquets, is the chemical substance graphite. Graphite is a form of carbon in which the atoms bond to one another in sheets that are one atom thick.

Episode 007 Feeling sick? Although many illnesses are caused by microorganisms, other diseases such as cystic fibrosis and hemophilia are genetic disorders, caused by abnormalities in the DNA of our own chromosomes.

Episode 006 In 1965, the chemist Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors on a computer chip would double every two years, due to improvements in technology to make the individual circuit components smaller and smaller.