LASER: Materials Science Podcast
Latest Episodes
Episode 21 – Underground with Dr. Sarah Truebe
In this episode Cameron interviews Dr. Sarah Truebe, the cave resource manager at Kartchner Caverns State Park in Arizona. This episode was recorded underground at the end of a day we spent cleaning graffiti out of this popular wild cave.
Episode 20 – Room Temperature Superconductivity Controversy
We’re back! You may have heard about some controversy surrounding a recent pre-print published on the arxiv about room temperature superconductivity. This would be an extremely exciting result if it weren’t for some issues.
Episode 19 – 2015 Perihelion Edition
Welcome to 2015! This year's perihelion edition was recorded on the day which the earth is closest to the sun. We cover a diverse list of important scientific and engineering happenings from 2014, and even talk about a little biology and genomics rese...
Episode 18 - Space Space Space
This week we discuss Space X and Boeing contracts to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station by 2018, and some new luxuries that will soon be available on the ISS; a 3-D printer, and an espresso machine!
PULSE! #4 - Better Coffee Through Chemistry
Most coffee-particular people already know that the quality of the water you use is important for good coffee, but a recent paper describes how affecting the specific hard mineral content can have important changes in the relative extraction of specific f
Episode 17 - Life, The Universe, and Frogs
This week on LASER we discuss a realistic computer simulation of a universe, a proposed mechanism for why tin whiskers are destroying our most sensitive computers, and GaInSn liquid metal used to reconnect severed nerves in frogs.
Episode 16 - Sun & Surf
For our first episode of the summer on LASER: Let's Agree Science & Engineering are Rad, we discuss our own Chris' recently-accepted paper about inorganic ZnS window layers on organic solar cells. These increase the efficiency, and help protect the cell
LASER Pulse! #3 - The Heartbleed
This week's LASER Pulse! is about the Heartbleed computer vulnerability. We cover the basics of the heartbleed bug, why its important, and mention that you really need to CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS. Because this is a Pulse episode, there are little to no ed
Episode 15 - Airships for the Future
The cast of the Technically Speaking Podcast join us to talk with about the future of super rad airships for scientific use--similar to satellites! We also talk about a company planning a new method for extracting Lithium from geothermal vents, to meet t
Episode 14 - Filters and Photodetectors
On Episode 14 of LASER we discuss using tree branches as water filters, a new type of super-thin room temperature infrared light detector that uses graphene, and the $1 Origami Microscope.