http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu A weekly look at the whimsical, unusual, or just little-known sides of engineering. Brought to you by Texas A&M Engineering at Texas A&M University. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:32:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en ©Texas A&M University engineeringprogram@tamu.edu (Texas A&M University) engineeringprogram@tamu.edu(Texas A&M University) 1440 A weekly look at the whimsical, unusual, or just little-known sides of engineering. Brought to you by Texas AM Engineering at Texas AM University. Texas A&M University Texas A&M University engineeringprogram@tamu.edu No clean http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/graphics/engworks144.jpg http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu 144 144 engineeringworkshttp://feedburner.google.com http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=823 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=823#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:43:11 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=823 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=823 00:01:01 #160; Image: Travelin' Librarian Transistors, the things that make your iPod and computer possible. Wersquo;ll look back in history. Today, on Engineering Works! If you look around at ... #160; Image: Travelin' Librarian Transistors, the things that make your iPod and computer possible. Wersquo;ll look back in history. Today, on Engineering Works! If you look around at all the things we have that use transistors, it seems like we always must have had them. We havenrsquo;t, of course. An engineer working at Bell Laboratories invented the transistor in 1947. It was a big deal, even if nobody realized it at the time. Some folks say it was the most important invention of the 20th century. Before transistors, we used glass vacuum tubes to process electrical signals for things like radios and the earliest computers. They did the job, but they were bulky, heavy, hot, and they broke. Easily. It took the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the race to put a man on the moon to show us how important transistors are and what they can do. Now, transistors are the basic ingredient for computer chips. Think about it. In 19-61, a single computer chip cost more than $30. By 1971, that price had dropped to $1.25. Today, that same chip is less than a nickel. There was a time, in the 1960s, when a radio with six or seven or 10 transistors was a big deal. Now just one high-end microprocessor chip has a billion or so. Fire up your computer and printer and print two or three periods. Each one of them could cover two million transistors. Wersquo;ve covered transistors for today. See you next time. Engineering Works! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Learn more about engineering. Visit us on the World Wide Web. http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu. Podcasts Texas AM University no No http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=793 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=793#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:30:17 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=793 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=793 00:01:01 #160; Photo: Engineers in Germany are getting ready to turn the electric power industry inside out. Wersquo;ll see how, today on Engineering Works! Everybody knows how ... #160; Photo: Engineers in Germany are getting ready to turn the electric power industry inside out. Wersquo;ll see how, today on Engineering Works! Everybody knows how we get electricity. Big generating plants powered by coal or nuclear energy or water. It sizzles along power lines to where we use it to light our houses and power our washing machines and computers and stuff. Maybe therersquo;s another way. How about a really small power plant in your basement? And your neighbors and the folks down the street. Engineers at automaker Volkswagen are getting ready to build small natural gas-powered generators intended to go into peoplersquo;s basements or garages. This isnrsquo;t what you probably think. The electricity coming from your basement wonrsquo;t light up your house. Not directly. Itrsquo;ll go back onto the power grid as a backup for green generating systems like wind or solar power. The idea is to reduce demand on backup generators and let the power company get by with smaller and less-expensive generators. Everybody should come out ahead. The power company because these little generators are almost twice as efficient as conventional power plants. Homeowners because heat thatrsquo;s wasted in conventional generating plants heats their houses in place of conventional central heat. Not everyone thinks itrsquo;s going to work. Wersquo;ll see. In the meantime, watch your electric meter. Wersquo;re shutting down our power for now. See you next time. Engineering Works! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Learn more about engineering. Visit us on the World Wide Web. http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu. Podcasts Texas AM University no No http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=789 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=789#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:31:39 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=789 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=789 00:01:01 #160; Photo: The hammering that Hurricane Katrina gave New Orleans isnrsquo;t news anymore. Engineers are building something they say will keep it that way. Itrsquo;s a ... #160; Photo: The hammering that Hurricane Katrina gave New Orleans isnrsquo;t news anymore. Engineers are building something they say will keep it that way. Itrsquo;s a pump. A big pump. Today, on Engineering Works! People who live in New Orleans found out the hard way that the city can be a bad place to be when a big hurricane comes. Most of the Big Easy is below sea level and it filled up with floodwaters from the storm surge when the levees broke. Engineers are installing a big new pump they say should keep the city dry in case another big hurricane blows in. In engineer-talk, they call it the West Closure Complex, or WCC, and they say itrsquo;s the biggest pump station ever built. If everything stays on schedule, it should be completed in 2011. The West Closure Complex will protect the city from storm surge in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway with two layers of defense. Protection starts with steel floodgates sturdy and tall enough to block a 16-foot storm surge. Then theyrsquo;ll fire up the pumps. These are big pumps, big enough to empty an Olympic-sized swimming pool in less than five seconds. Theyrsquo;re built solid, so they wonrsquo;t collapse under pressure, the way the cityrsquo;s levees did last time. The WCC is built to stand up to 140 mile-per-hour wind. Even runaway barges canrsquo;t dent it. The wind sounds like itrsquo;s rising, and wersquo;ll see you later. Engineering Works! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Learn more about engineering. Visit us on the World Wide Web. http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu. Podcasts Texas AM University no No http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=781 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=781#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:32:50 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=781 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=781 00:01:01 #160; Photo: EPA/Maurizo Gambarini Sometimes engineering doesnrsquo;t work out the way we planned. Wersquo;ll take a look, today on Engineering Works! Top brass in the German army ... #160; Photo: EPA/Maurizo Gambarini Sometimes engineering doesnrsquo;t work out the way we planned. Wersquo;ll take a look, today on Engineering Works! Top brass in the German army are raving about some new equipment that they say will give their soldiers a big advantage on the battlefield. The soldiers who use the new gear arenrsquo;t so enthusiastic. They say itrsquo;s too bulky, too heavy and unreliable. The new equipment package, the ndash; infantryman of the future ndash; looks like something out of a science fiction movie. Think Robo Cop. The new combat gear starts with a protective vest. Plus a built-in mini-computer, new radios and protective goggles. The whole package costs almost 30-thousand-dollars. Each. And guess what? A lot of the German soldiers who have used it for real in Afghanistan hate it. The body armor is so bulky that soldiers wearing it have to scrunch down whenever they get into a vehicle. Really uncomfortable. The goggles tend to fog up at anything more than a brisk walk. Then therersquo;s the computer, which includes a satellite navigation system and electronic maps. It doesnrsquo;t have enough memory, and sometimes just plain gives wrong answers. The new radios donrsquo;t have enough range, and their earpieces tend to fall out of soldiersrsquo; ears. One fed-up field commander has suggested that the army start over and replace parts of it with off-the-shelf equipment that would work better and be cheaper, to boot. We hope our engineering words are working better than that. See you next time. EngineeringWorks! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Learn more about engineering. Visit us on the World Wide Web. http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu Podcasts Texas AM University no No http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=772 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=772#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:35:16 +0000 Gene http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?p=772 http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu/?feed=rss2&p=772 00:01:01 #160; Image: National Human Genome Research Institute Just when you were getting used to the idea of genetic engineering, therersquo;s something new. Wersquo;ll take a look. Today, ... #160; Image: National Human Genome Research Institute Just when you were getting used to the idea of genetic engineering, therersquo;s something new. Wersquo;ll take a look. Today, on Engineering Works. If yoursquo;re at all interested in new technology, you probably know that inserting a gene or two into a plant and getting something useful back is no big deal any more. Thatrsquo;s genetic engineering as we now know it. But listen to this. A new breed of genetic engineers are inventing a new field. They call it, synthetic biology. They aim to use the technology pioneered in genetic engineering to build whole new organisms. One new organism these guys are working on is a plant we could harvest and process into petroleum. Not ethanol, like people are talking about to replace gasoline, but good old oil. Growing in a field instead of miles underground. ne ambitious group of researchers is aiming eventually at reprogramming trees to grow into the shape of a house instead of leaves and branches. It sounds like science fiction, but theyrsquo;re serious. We think. All this will be pretty neat, if it works. But therersquo;s still a long way to go. So far, the longest DNA sequence duplicated in the laboratory is about 35-thousand units long. Compare that to human cells that duplicate a sequence three-billion, with a B, units long. Where will it all end? Hard to tell from here. But wersquo;re out of time, and wersquo;re ending here. See you next time. EngineeringWorks! is made possible by Texas AM Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Wersquo;re on the World Wide Web, too. Visit us at http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu. Podcasts Texas AM University no No