The window testing facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (Photo: LBNL)

Windows may not be as sexy as solar panels or electric cars, but they play a major role in energy efficiency. Buildings are responsible for 40% of the country’s energy use, which is why researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are trying to improve windows by making them smarter.

As Berkeley Lab engineer Howdy Goudey demonstrates in his lab, studying windows involves some pretty complex physics.

“So we use an infrared camera to study heat transfer in windows,” he says, pointing to a normal-looking video camera that senses heat instead of visible light. Goudey uses the camera to study how windows lose energy.

For the most part, windows simply aren’t good insulators. They leak heat in the winter when we want a warm house and they let heat in during the summer. Many homes still have single-pane windows, which were the name of the game in the 1940s and 50s when California was booming.

That changed when energy prices sky-rocketed in the 1970s. Double-pane windows became common. And then came double-pane windows with invisible coatings, which are twice as efficient. Today, they make up more than half of windows sold.

Measuring Low-e Windows

Goudey demonstrates how they work by turning on two heat lamps. “You’ve seen them in a diner keeping food warm," he says, putting them behind two identical-looking double-pane windows.

We stand in front of one window, which feels like standing in the sun. “But if you hold your hand to other one, compared to this one, it’s very dramatic,” Goudey says.

An infrared image of two windows during winter conditions, as seen from the inside of a room. The window on the right has a low-e coating while the window on the left doesn't. Warmer temperatures mean a better insulating window. (Image: LBNL)

The second window is cooler because it has a low-emissivity coating, or low-e, as its known. It’s an invisible layer of metal on the glass that acts as an insulator. And it does one more thing.

When sunlight shines directly through a window, it provides both light and heat. Most of us want light coming in, but heat is the last thing we want on a hot summer day. So, the coating on the window blocks the heat from the sun (in the form of infrared light), while letting in the visible light. This is known as solar gain. (Check out this guide for more on what to look for when buying windows.)

“If you have a few windows in a room with direct sun on them, its equivalent to running a little space heater. So it’s significant energy,” says Goudey.

However, on a cold winter day, the extra heat from sun would be helpful. “You’d actually like that solar energy to come in and help heat the space,” he says.

That’s why researchers are working to develop a “smart” or dynamic window that can change based on the weather or temperature.

Using Nanotechnology to Make Windows Smarter

At Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, Delia Milliron grows tiny nanocrystals that will eventually become a window coating.

“Nanocrystals are very small,” says Milliron. “Way smaller than you can see with your eyes. And so that’s why when we spread them out in a coating on the window, you don’t see anything.”

Milliron’s coating is dynamic. In one setting, it lets in both the light and heat from the sun. But, apply an electric charge of a couple volts and the window blocks the heat from the sun, while still letting light in.

Ideally, these windows would be controlled by your heating and cooling system, which could adjust them based on the weather. Milliron and her team are currently working on the coating itself. Their next step is to build a full-scale prototype. Other companies also have similar kinds of dynamic windows in the works.

Windows as Energy Suppliers

This changes the conversation about windows, says Stephen Selkowitz, head of building technologies at Berkeley Lab. Before, windows were energy losers. Now, windows could actually make buildings more efficient. And that means big cost savings.

“If we add up all the energy and economic impact of windows in the US, it costs building owners about $40 billion a year. And I’d rather have the $40 billion in my pocket than sort of sending it out the window,” says Selkowitz.

Smart windows could start appearing in larger projects like office buildings next year and should be more widely available to homeowners in three to five years. But they could be twice as expensive as today's windows. Selkowitz expects the cost coming down as manufacturing ramps up.

“The biggest expense in replacing windows is often the labor of replacing the window. And if you already decided to put a new window in, the marginal cost of going to a much better window is almost always worth it,” he says.

So, while it may be only a few tech-geeks that spring for smart windows at first, Selkowitz says that leads the way for the rest of us – and for new buildings codes, where technology can have a much broader impact.

Every day our lives are affected by the work of chemical engineers who specialize in solving problems through the use of polymers. Simply put, polymers are long “macro-molecules”, formed by combining carbon or silicon atoms with other elements like hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The combinations form long chains of repeating chemical structures, each with a unique set of chemical properties and characteristics. Depending on the atoms used and their arrangement, engineers and chemists use polymers to create almost anything from a soft toothbrush bristle to a tough bullet-proof vest.

Some polymers occur in nature, like cellulose, amber, shellac, and natural rubber. Other polymers are manufactured by chemists and engineers, and are referred to as synthetic polymers. In an ongoing quest for better and more useful materials, these scientists aim to make substances tough enough to work in the bitter cold of Antarctica or under the immense pressures encountered thousands of feet below an ocean’s surface.

Becki Ramsay, Chemical Engineer at Parker- Hannifin Corp. in Cleveland, Ohio.

As a part of the “Great Job!” series that highlights exciting careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), a production crew with WVIZ/PBS ideastream®, in Cleveland, Ohio, spent a day with Becki Ramsay. Becki is a chemical engineer with the Hose Products Division of Parker-Hannifin Corporation. She and her team create hoses from synthetic polymers to meet the design specifications they get from mechanical engineers.

During our interview, Becki expressed to us why she decided early on to become an engineer.

Eventually, Becki decided that she was interested in polymers so she continued her studies to eventually become a chemical engineer.

As a result of her work with Parker, Becki and her team create hoses that remain flexible and convey power through hydraulic fluids while operating under the most extreme environmental conditions, whether it’s sub-zero temperatures or in an application that will pulse it millions of times. These hoses are absolutely critical in the operation of machinery used in industries such as construction, mining, forestry, transportation, and more.

Inside this Burst Test Chamber, hoses are filled with water and pressurized until they explode.

Every day, Becki works with chemists and other engineers to create and test the quality of new materials. On the day of our shoot, we visited the Burst Test Chamber. The chamber is made of armor-plated steel and bullet-proof glass. Inside the chamber, hoses are filled with water and pressurized until they explode. Many of the hoses have bursting points in excess of 14,000 pounds per square inch. That would be like getting hit by an explosion with more than 15 million pounds of force, or having to lift three space shuttles! During one of the tests, the hose exploded at nearly 16,000 pounds per square inch!

It was a fascinating day for us. Sometimes we take so much for granted that we don’t think about the interesting careers and interesting people who change our world with their inventions every day. Look around your house. If you look closely enough and think deeply enough, you’ll be amazed, too, by the number of everyday conveniences we have because of the ingenuity of chemical engineers like Becki Ramsay and the many other polymer scientists just like her.

The gist of the 2008 TV story was that geologists are now able to use special paleoseismic techniques to analyze earthquake faults and determine their seismic history over several thousand years. By noticing patterns in earthquake activity over long periods of time, they can also make predictions about when major events are likely to happen in the future. They determined that a major event of 6.8 or higher happens every 140 years or so on the Hayward Fault. It's been 143 since the last one.

Engineer Khalid Mosalam

A 2003 report by the USGS found that there is a 62% probability of at least one magnitude 6.7 or greater earthquake in the 3-decade interval 2003-2032 within the San Francisco Bay region. With odds like this, I'm grateful that there are people like Khalid Mosalam and his colleagues at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center's Shaking Table Laboratory who dedicate their careers to learning how to make the built environment that we live in, work in and travel on more safe in an earthquake.

I'd included about a minute of video from the Shaking Table Lab in the 2008 piece but I always regretted that I wasn't able to show more of this facility. So when we started putting together an entire episode focused around the theme of earthquakes, I thought a short segment about the Shaking Table would be perfect for this show.

Substation equipment getting shaken up on the table

When we were there shooting in 2008, they were testing some electrical substation switches which were interesting but definitely not as dramatic as some of the other structures they build and shake in three axes, often until collapse. The generous engineers at PEER were able to provide us some videos of other structures they tested including a two story house, a masonry wall and a bridge pier support. The 20' x 20' table is one of the largest in the world to be able to move in three directions (translation and rotation) so, according to Mosalam, it's an extremely important piece of equipment at UC Berkeley and has contributed to important research that will result in people being safer when the next 'big one' hits.

Stanford has three classes up for online registrations: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Introduction to Databases and Machine Learning. Since opening registration this August, over 100,000 people have registered for these three courses combined.

All three courses begin on October 10th. As with the Introduction to AI course, there is a basic track and an advanced track. The basic track requires participants to watch lectures and complete quizzes while the advanced track also requires homework and exam participation. Both tracks provide a certificate of completion.

With everything free, there are some limitations. These classes do not count as Stanford university credit and do not provide direct access to the instructor. I might not be an expert in computer science, but I am definitely interested enough to follow at least one of these classes.

Let us know in the comments what you think of Stanford's offer and if you plan to take any of these courses!

Mark Perez's Life Size Mouse Trap

If you haven't already seen it, this giant "toy" is a Rube Goldberg machine come to life. Weighing in at two tons, the mouse trap takes four days to set up and a one day breakdown with a 10 person crew.

Inspired by the board game Mouse Trap, this Bay Area troupe has been delighting audiences with their giant kinetic sculpture since 2008.

Looking to continue touring around the US, they need your help! The mouse trap costs about $3.00 per mile to transport, adding up to some serious fees for long road trips. Perez's group has started a kickstarter to help fund future touring aspirations. The group hopes to build veggie oil fueled touring equipment to drastically lower costs. If you'd like to help out, visit their Kickstarter page and watch this video:

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Scientists are trying to mimic the ability of spiders to produce ultra-strong fibers without the use of heat or toxins.

Underwater glue, molecular-sized solar cells, self-assembly, insect communication, swarm behavior, genetic algorithms – what do these biological phenomena have in common? These are all inspiring innovation through a process called "biomimicry." Biomimicry is budding in the Bay Area in the form of new business technologies, design think tanks, and K-university curriculum.

By bringing biologists to the design table, biomimicry offers solutions for increasing sustainability of products, processes, and systems. Popular Science published an article in March interviewing Biomimicry Guild's Tim McGee on how bio-inspired design is reshaping the future.

Biomimicry is gaining widespread recognition for its interdisciplinary approach to innovation. The College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley hosted Janine Benyus's talk on biomimicry and the future of architecture and environmental design last February. Recognizing the opportunities that abound through interdisciplinary collaboration, IDEO and Autodesk designed and built a digital library of nature's strategy's called AskNature. Conventional businesses are even being challenged to address and improve organizational, IT, and design challenges using concepts and expertise from octopi and flamingos.

Despite the buzz, actually designing and building things that are biomimetic is quite challenging. Stanford lecturer and designer Jeremy Faludi attests, "Most designers, engineers, architects, and other people who build things just don't know that much about biology and the natural world, and when they do, there's often a gap of capability in available materials manufacturing methods, and economic systems." Even the most creative people can get stuck thinking along certain lines. Defining a design problem is challenging and finding strategies in nature that inspire solutions can be even trickier.
Researchers study swarm behavior for more efficient computing.

A new interdisciplinary course at UC Berkeley, "How Would Nature Do That?", tackles these challenges through project-based learning. Students from architecture, engineering, business, science, and design disciplines learn from each other and nature to implement innovative solutions to sustainable design challenges. By offering case studies of biomimicry, along with guest lectures and a series of design challenges, instructors Tom McKeag, Dr. Robert Full, and Dr. Lewis Feldman hope students will gain exposure to multiple methods for design.

Dr. Robert Full uses bio-inspired design and established the UCB Center for Interdisciplinary Bio-inspiration in Education and Research (CIBER).

A few weeks ago I visited the class, which is held at the Cal Design Space. Several student teams were previewing some of their ideas; one team was tasked with designing a sustainable humidity control system for a greenhouse. Discovering that the Hercules beetle changes color with changes in humidity, the team conceptualized a filtration membrane that activated upon sensing changes in color. In addition, I was delighted to hear renowned biomechanist Dr. Steven Vogel of Duke University give a presentation on his previous work. His talk inspired students to consider designing passive HVAC systems based on his observations of limpets, sand dollars, fish nostrils, rhododendrons, desert spiders and many other examples.

The course is sponsored by Qualcomm’s MEMS Technology Unit and is a joint effort of the College of Natural Resources, and the College of Letters & Science. Highlights from the course include guest lecturer Dr. Michael Weinstock from the Architectural Association of London and author of the "Architecture of Emergence," as well as visits to the CIBER lab, tidepooling at Duxbury Reef in Bolinas and a field trip to Qualcomm in San Jose.

Biomimicry education can also be found in other sustainability courses and centers in the Bay Area. Cabrillo College's sustainable cultures class all incorporate biomimicry principles into design thinking. The Monterey Bay Aquarium hosts the daily show 'Whales to Windmills': Inspiration from the Sea, a Biomimicry Institute production. Biomimicry curriculum produced by BioDream Machine teaches students at the Marine Science Institute in Redwood City to observe different adaptations and functions within San Francisco Bay marine life. Even the Cal Academy of Sciences devotes a website which introduces bio-inspired technologies.

Qualcomm's Mirasol display technology uses the same principle of light interference to produce color as does a butterfly wing.

The Bay Area is also a hub for biomimicry technology. Moss Landing-based company, Calera, manufactures a concrete that sequesters CO2 by emulating sea coral. San Rafael's PAX Scientific developed fluid-handling devices based on the efficiencies of natural fluid flow. And in Napa, Aquagy uses anaerobic digestion and microalgae to treat wastewater in a carbon-negative process.

With any new method of design comes rounds of trial and error. But that's not stopping investors and researchers. JWT, a prominent marketing communications brand, announced that biomimicry is the #11 thing to watch in 2011. With its widespread recognition, biomimicry is certain to inspire real innovation to today's design challenges.

QUEST on KQED Public Media

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Photo courtesy of RoboGames

The 8th annual RoboGames is being held from April 15 – 17 at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. This is a wonderful opportunity to bring kids (or your inner child) to an event featuring some of the most exciting robotics projects built by people just like you.

Teams from around the world are bringing their robots to compete against one another, displaying feats of engineering that are inspiring, intriguing and just really fun to watch.

From their website:

"RoboGames is the olympics of robots – we invite the best minds from around the world to compete in over 50 different events: combat robots, fire-fighters, LEGO bots, hockey bots, walking humanoids, soccer bots, sumo bots, and even androids that do kung-fu. Some robots are autonomous, some are remote controlled – but they're all cool!"

For more information, visit robogames.net.

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NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org.

Every February, comments from school kids come in about my previous "Famous African-American Scientists and Innovators" blog posts. It has become tradition every February to put out another post and this is my fourth installment. This year in April is the 50th Anniversary of Yuri Gagiran going into space, the 30th Anniversary of the first US Space Shuttle Columbia launching into space and the 10th Anniversary of Yuri’s Night. So in celebration of both famous African-American and space exploration, I am focusing this post on the exploration of the final frontier – space.

Robert H. Lawrence (1935 to 1967)
First African American Astronaut

At the age of 16, Robert Lawrence graduated in the top ten percent from Englewood High School in Chicago. At 20, he graduated from Bradley University holding a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry and also became a Cadet Commander in the Air Force ROTC. At 21, he became an Air Force pilot after successfully completing training at Malden Air Force base. As an Air Force pilot, he accumulated over 2,500 flight hours, 2,000 being in jets. He flew the Lockheed F-104 to research the gliding of various un-powered spacecraft returning to Earth from orbit. In 1967, he was selected by the USAF as an astronaut in the Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) program. This placement made him the first black astronaut. Unfortunately, in December of the same year he was killed in the crash of an F-104 Starfigher at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He was flying in the back seat and instructing a pilot on the steep-descent glide technique. The pilot made the descent but flared too late, both pilots ejected but Lawrence did so too late and struck the ground, killing him instantly. In his brief NASA career, Major Lawrence earned the Air Force Commendation Medal and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Citation.

Guion Bluford Jr. (1942 to Present)
First African American Astronaut to travel in space

In 1983, Guion Bluford Jr. became the first black astronaut to travel in space. Bluford participated in four space shuttle missions on Challenger between 1983 and 1992 and logged 688 hours in space. His first shuttle launch in the Orbiter Challenger was also the first night launch and night landing in NASA’s history. Guion Bluford was no stranger to being airborne before his career with NASA; he flew over 144 combat missions, logged 5,200 hours in jets and 1300 hours as an instructor pilot in his career in the Air Force. Over his career, he has been highly decorated as a war veteran, Air Force pilot, engineer and astronaut culminating in being inducted into the the International Space Hall of Fame in 1997 and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2010.

Mae Jemison (1956 to Present)
First Female African American Astronaut

Mae Jemison received a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University in 1977 and continued on in her education to recieve a doctorate degree in medicine from Cornell University in 1981. In her career, Dr. Jemison became the Area Peace Corps Medical Officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa. During her time in West African she developed and participated in research projects on Hepatitis B vaccine, schistosomaisis and rabies working alongside the with the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control. Several years after returning to the United States, Dr. Jemison was selected for the astronaut program. She was the science mission specialist on STS-47 Spacelab that traveled in space from September 12-20, 1992. It was a cooperative mission between the US and Japan and consisted of 127 orbits around the earth conducting life science and materials processing experiments. Dr. Jemison was a co-investigator on bone cell research experiments conducted during the flight.

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Photo taken by Edgar Lee

There have been times I’ve seen the Crucible from the road, as I made my way to visit my dad. Last year, Creative Director, Michael Sturtz gave me and a few colleagues a tour through the space. Walking through in awe, I kept thinking about my dad and how he would be a kid in a candy store at the Crucible. My dad got his degree in mechanical engineering and I grew up with the mantra, "If something works, take it apart and find out why”.

Crucible takes that one step further in adding artistic and community components. The Crucible is a non-profit arts education center that fosters a collaboration of arts, industry and community by teaching and showcasing fire, metal, glass and light art. Founded in 1999, The Crucible offers more than 500 classes to nearly 5,000 students annually in disciplines such as bronze casting, neon art, welding, glass working, blacksmithing, fire dancing, textiles and woodworking. One of my favorite parts of the Crucible is the converted fire truck coined the Educational Response Vehicle that acts as a mobile classroom. It was brought out to the California Academy of Sciences for our NightLife World Ocean day celebration last June. Off the truck came blacksmithing, glass blowing and torch welding units. The fire cannon also welcomed guests at it belched out billows of fire into the night sky.

I was also very impressed with the strong community tie of the Crucible. They have a few tiers of a bike program for local west Oakland youth. Workshops are set up for kids to bring in their bikes to be fixed. Technicians explain what they are doing so the kids can get a better understanding of “how it works”. For those interested, there is a six-week Earn-A-Bike program where youth can learn more. They fix two bikes, one to keep and one to sell to raise funds for the program. Youth who want more after the six-week course can also enroll to create their own custom bike in by bringing in their own bike to re-create using more intermediate skills. The bike program has been the most popular community outreach program and continues to grow.

Last Friday, January 14 and Saturday, January 15, 2011 from 7PM-11PM, the Crucible had their 12th Anniversary Benefit show entitled, "The Crucible Revival; Keep the Fire Burning." Proceeds went to support educational programs at the Crucible and the line up included a fabulous mix of performances, dance, fire and art. Performances focused on reviving beloved and specataular moments of Crucible history in tribute to Michael Strutz’s contributions in his tenure as founder and both Executive and Creative Director. More information on the line up and tickets can be found here. This Thursday, the Crucible comes out to NightLife to add the heat to the theme Fire and Ice.

Being in the Crucible space reminds me of sitting in the garage when I was young watching my dad work on something. The space is set up so people can take “how it works” and transforms it into knowledge, community, art and performance. It’s an inspiring place.

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It probably goes without saying — the dentist’s chair isn’t the most popular place to visit. But going to the dentist may one day be a very different experience. Researchers at the University of California San Francisco are developing new technology that may make a dentist’s drill less common.

Inside one of the treatment rooms at the UCSF School of Dentistry, Dr. Peter Rechmann is holding a small tool that could be a very big leap forward in dentistry — a laser. Unlike that familiar drill we love to hate, a laser drills into a tooth without making contact.

Listen to the QUEST radio story Visiting the Dentist Chair of the Future.

“So you don’t feel vibration. Yes, you hear the sound, you hear the tck tck tck, but that’s it,” says Rechmann. That makes a big difference, especially when Rechmann is working with younger patients. “Kids typically fear things more than adults. And they don’t care, they like it. Sometimes they say, ‘Oh, that was interesting’.”

Lasers have been used in dentistry for about a decade, but mostly on soft tissues like gums. Rechmann says laser drills are becoming more common now that the cost is coming down. And he expects lasers to soon play an even bigger role by actually helping to prevent cavities.

Rechmann holds a pulled tooth and fires short laser pulses at a small area on the outside. “The temperature on the enameled surface gets heated up to between 400 and 1000 degrees Celsius. It sounds terrible but it’s not. It’s really just the outer surface,” he says.

The extreme temperature slightly alters the make up of the outer tooth enamel which, Rechmann says, makes it more resistant to tooth decay. They’re now testing the treatment in clinical trials and it could be available in one to three years.

“If you treat this once, OK, you should still keep on brushing your teeth, but it’s really strongly protecting your teeth,” says Rechmann.

Of course, what our teeth really need protection from are our own bacteria. They’re specially adapted to live in our mouth, which, with all the food we chew, is a pretty nice place to call home.

“It’s a very nice place. It’s nice and warm and comfortable,” says John Featherstone, Dean of the UCSF School of Dentistry.

“Bacteria produce acid – that’s their major waste product. And that acid dissolves the enamel in the teeth.” Featherstone says in the past, dentistry has been focused on cleaning up the damage done by these bacteria. Now, he also sees the field moving towards prevention.

“If we can diagnose as we can now early on, what it tells us is that there’s disease process going on and we have to halt the disease process,” says Featherstone.

But given our teeth brushing habits – or lack thereof – Featherstone says there will probably always be a need to fill cavities. But what if cavities could fill themselves?

Self-Filling Cavities

Stefan Habelitz is standing in front of a refrigerator that holds 20,000 pulled teeth, collected from local dental clinics. Habelitz is a material scientist. He studies the structure of teeth.

“It’s amazing, a really amazing structure. For an engineer, it’s a real feast,” says Habelitz.

Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in our body. It’s designed to break apart foods like seeds or hard candy. “But if it can’t, it will release stress by forming fractures, by forming cracks,” Habelitz says.

Those tiny cracks are actually good — they’re part of the tooth’s design. They prevent it from being broken by one big crack. The problem with our teeth, Habelitz says, is that unlike our bones or skin, we can’t regrow tooth enamel. At least, not by ourselves.

“So let’s just drop these teeth in here.” Habelitz takes a few teeth with very large cavities and drops them into a beaker filled with a special solution. Tooth enamel is made of a mineral – so Habelitz says it’s not too difficult to remineralize or rebuild the enamel. That’s something the fluoride in toothpaste helps do.

“But once the bacteria makes it through the enamel, then it has been so far impossible to remineralize these legions,” says Habelitz.

That’s because deeper in the tooth in the material called dentin, minerals are mixed with organic structures, which are much harder to regrow. What Habelitz has in this beaker is a special compound that regrows the minerals and bonds them to the organic structures.

“So only when that link is established, the tissue that you build up again actually will be strong enough and stiff enough to support the pressure that you apply when you chew on your teeth,” he says.

One day, Habelitz says this process could be done right inside a patient’s mouth. The problem now is the process takes a long time — several weeks to fill a small cavity. “It should be an approach that needs to be done at least within a day, ideally within a few minutes.”

Habelitz is working to speed up the process, though it will be years before it’s available. But even if he and his colleagues can only regrow a small amount of a tooth, that’s part of a tooth that doesn’t have to be filled.

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