Photo courtesy U.S. Air Force

They’re the ultimate in radio-controlled model airplanes. UAVs. Today on Engineering Works!
Almost everyone played with model airplanes when they were kids. Powered by wound-up rubber bands or tiny gasoline engines. Some of our friends really got into it and flew them by radio control. UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are the [...]

 
Photo: www.stock.xchng.com

Listen close. If you’re a kid, or you’ve ever been one, chances are you know what this sound belongs to. Do you know? We’ll find out if you’re right, today on Engineering Works!!
Did you guess? You’re right, of course. It’s that silly engineering marvel, the Slinky.
The toy generations of kids know as the Slinky [...]

 
Photo courtesy Patrick Moore/stock.xchng/

Engineers have always been willing to think big. We’ll look at one of the biggest ideas ever. Today, on Engineering Works!
Big problems often need big ideas to fix them. Probably the biggest problem facing us today is global warming. And engineers around the world are thinking of some really big ways to [...]

 
Photo courtesy Andy Shaffer/stock.xchng/

Today, we’re going to get into the zone - the construction zone - on Engineering Works.
Everybody likes a smooth commute. Nobody likes to see traffic backing up for a construction zone. Even when construction crews are busy repairing or improving roads and streets, we still need to get the kids off to [...]

 

It’s a new kind of war. Fighting with bits and bytes instead of bullets and bombs — cyberwar, today on Engineering Works!
The tiny Baltic country of Estonia seems to be the first battlefield in this new kind of war. Computer engineers and security experts have worried about cyberwar for years. But nobody had ever started [...]

 
Photo: stock.xchng/Mario Alberto Magallanes Trejo

There must be a joke here somewhere, but engineers are working on a better way to look into holes in the ground. We’ll see what’s going on, today on Engineering Works!
Unless we’re planting shrubs in the yard, most of us don’t spend much time thinking about holes in the ground. Some [...]

 

People have been building bridges for thousands of years, but there’s never been a bridge quite like a new one in Germany. We’ll check it out, today on Engineering Works!
Think about famous bridges and what do you get? The Golden Gate Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge. Verrazano-Narrows. If you’re an engineer, you might come up with [...]

 

Computers are getting smaller all the time. Some engineers are taking this idea to extremes. We’ll check it out - today on Engineering Works!
These engineers are looking into a new field of science, or technology, called synthetic biology. The idea is to use living cells to do many of the things computers based on silicon [...]

 

Old McDonald’s farm was never like this. We’ll spy on how satellites and other new technology are helping farmers keep track of their cows and corn — today on Engineering Works!
McDonald never heard of the global positioning system – GPS. But if he was farming these days, he’d probably be using global positioning system technology [...]

 

Everybody does it. Nuke it! Today on Engineering Works, we’ll find out how the biggest microwave oven you ever thought of makes food and other things safer.
Microwave ovens and food just seem to go together. They’re pretty handy. A minute or so and last night’s leftover fried rice turns into a tasty lunch today.
Food engineers [...]

 

If you’re going to talk on your cell phone, you’ve got to keep the battery charged. Engineers and bugs may help. We’ll see how, today on Engineering Works!
Everybody has a cell phone these days. They’re everywhere. Some places, they’re the only phones there are. Consider Uganda. In rural Uganda fewer than one household in 100 [...]

 
Image: European Space Agency (ESA)

We’re going to talk trash like you’ve never seen — space junk. Today, on Engineering Works!
The next time you go outdoors, stop a minute and look straight up in the air. You can’t see it from here, but there’s a whole junkyard floating up above your head. It’s the stuff we’ve [...]

 
Image: Library of Congress

That’s the sound of iron turning into steel. With some help from your plastic water bottle. We’ll explain. Today, on Engineering Works!
Steel makes possible a lot of things we take for granted. Cars. Girders for big buildings. Knives that keep a sharp edge. Useful stuff, steel.
To make steel from iron, you mix [...]

 

Photo: G&A Scholiers/stock.xchng
Everybody knows about cloth. Fabric. It’s that stuff your jeans are made of. Engineers are turning fabric into stuff Levi Strauss never dreamed of. We’ll do more than dream. Today. On Engineering Works!
Cloth. Fabric. Textiles. Whatever you call it, it’s been around a long time. As long as civilization, probably. Mostly it’s been [...]

 

Photo: Husqvarna
Be honest. Nobody likes to cut the grass. But what if your lawnmower did the lawn by itself? We’ll take a look. Today, on Engineering Works!
Everybody likes their lawn to be green and neat. But if your lawn is a big one, you can spend hours keeping the grass trimmed to the height you [...]

 

Photo: Jesper Noer/stock.xchng
How many engineers does it take to make a better light bulb? We’ll find out, today on Engineering Works.
The round incandescent light bulb we all know hasn’t changed much since Thomas Edison invented it 125 years ago. Thin wires, called filaments, inside the glass bulb glow when electricity zips through them. That glow [...]

 

Photo: Jay Simmons/stock.xchng
Let’s listen to the sound of radiation. Today, on Engineering Works!
The first time most people heard of radiation was probably when we dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. The destruction and death they caused made radiation scary.
But radiation has been around for as long as there’s been an earth. Millions of [...]

 

Photo: Jeff Hire
We’re so used to the wonders of high technology that it’s easy to forget there’s any other kind. Low-tech wonders, today on Engineering Works!
High technology seems to drive a lot of things these days, from the way we do business to who’s got the hottest new phone. But if you live in a [...]

 

Photo:
It used to be that you could only find the bionic man or woman in science fiction. Biomedical engineers are changing that. Stay tuned.
If you wanted to see bionic arms or legs in action, you used to have to look back to 1970s television shows or Star Wars movies. Now, those fantasies are moving [...]

 

Photo: Francois Lariviere/iStock
Some people aren’t so sure using more ethanol fuel is a good idea. We’ll see what engineers think. Today, on Engineering Works!
If you’ve been paying attention at all, you know that not everybody thinks producing more ethanol fuel is a good idea. It’s not that most of them have anything against alcohol. They’re [...]

 

Photo: Walter Groesel/stock.xchng
Getting your heart healthy again after a heart attack can be complicated. Engineers think they can help. We’ll see how – today, on Engineering Works!
More than a million people suffer heart attacks every year in the United States. Most of them survive, but that’s just the beginning. Just because you survive a heart [...]

 

Photo: Neerav Bhatt/Flickr.com
Engineers are finding design inspiration in new places. We’ll find some, too. Today on Engineering Works!
When most of us think of engineering design, we picture computers and high-tech laboratories. A lot of engineers do, too. But some are finding inspiration in odd places. Like the Australian outback. A spiky inch-tall lizard called the [...]

 

Photo: Mike Small/flickr.com
Let’s talk about water, floods, and one way engineers deal with them. Today, on Engineering Works!
Humans have been trying to figure out what to do about floods for a long time. Most of us are thinking more about floods now than we used to, ever since Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans in 2005.
One [...]

 

Photo: iko/flickr.com
The engineers are at it again. Recharge your iPod from your swimsuit. We’ll look into it. Today. On Engineering Works!
One of the biggest problems with portable high-tech equipment like cell phones and iPods is that the batteries keep running down. It’s hard to recharge a fading iPod at the beach.
Some engineers in Germany may [...]

 

Photo: rawkus/stock.xchng.com
What would the Fourth of July be without fireworks? Today, we’ll ooh! and ahh! over those spectacular aerial displays, on Engineering Works.
From pom-pon bursts to sparkling flares, there’s nothing like fireworks to captivate a crowd. For centuries, we’ve celebrated royal weddings, baptisms and other special events with lavish productions that light up the night [...]

 

Photo by: FogCityFog/fklickr.com
Break out your flowery shirt and digital camera. Today, we’re tourists, on Engineering Works!
Seeing new places is one of the big reasons tourists are tourists. They want to see and find out about things they’ve never seen before. Let’s go to Rome and see the coliseum. Or ride the cable cars in San [...]

 

Photo by: LostBob Photos/Flickr.com
We’re going to listen to the music. Today, on Engineering Works!
Guitars, especially electric guitars are an important part of modern popular music. Imagine the Beatles without George Harrison’s guitar. Or Jimi Hendrix without distortion. Electric guitars made it work.
Guitar players started experimenting with electricity to amplify their instruments during the 1930s, when [...]

 

Photo: Wendy Longo/Flickr.com
This one’s going to be rough. Or maybe it’ll be smooth. Engineering what you feel, today on Engineering Works!
Think about something nice to touch. The smooth wood of fine furniture. A freshly laundered towel. A baby’s cheek. We all know what they feel like, but try to tell somebody what that feeling is. [...]

 

Photo: Huw Pritchard/Flickr.com
Hold onto your hat! This one’s going to go by fast. High speed, today on Engineering Works!
High fuel prices are driving most automotive engineers these days to find ways to give you better gas mileage. But not all of them. Some are looking for speed.
The ultimate in all-out speed are top fuel dragsters. [...]

 

Photo: Chaim Zvi/Flickr.com
Turn on the tap and the water comes out. No big deal. We’ll drink to that. Today, on Engineering Works!
Most of the time, most places, in the United States, getting enough water is no big deal. Kitchen sink, bathroom shower – turn them on and the water comes out. Making that happen is [...]

 

Photo: Euchiasmus/Wikipedia
Sometimes, they say, life imitates art. So does engineering — sort of. We’ll see how, today On Engineering Works!
If you’re a fan of campy science fiction movies, you might remember the 1966 flick, Fantastic Voyage. In the movie, a submarine with a crew of medical experts is shrunk and injected into the bloodstream of [...]

 

Photo: Beacon Power Corp.
One of the newest ideas for storing a lot of electricity is also an old idea. We’re going around in circles. Today, on Engineering Works!
Everybody knows about electricity, even if all you know is that we use a lot of it.
Here’s the problem. We use a lot more electricity at two [...]

 

Photo:EPA/islamizationwatch
Here’s a strange thought to start your day: You probably have something in common with a terrorist. We’ll think about that, today on Engineering Works!
We usually don’t think of terrorists as firing up the grill for a backyard barbecue. That’s something folks like us do. But the chances are pretty good that when you hit [...]

 
Photo: Francois Lariviere/iStock

Photo: Darrel Ronald/Flickr.com
Here’s a question you probably never thought to ask: what should your car sound like? We’ll listen for an answer, today on Engineering Works!
We’ve all listened to cars, all our lives and we’ve always heard them. The clatter of an old VW bug. The rumble of a high-performance muscle car. But [...]

 
Photo: Bruno Girin/Flickr.com

Everybody knows the Egyptians used huge stone blocks to build their pyramids. Some engineers aren’t so sure. We’ll listen to the argument. Today, on Engineering Works!
Everybody learned in school that ancient Egyptian engineers used thousands of huge limestone blocks to build the pyramids. What we didn’t learn was how the Egyptians got those [...]

 
Photo: geoftheref/Flickr.com

If you look around, there’s plastic everywhere. We’ll look, too. Today, on Engineering Works.
You see a lot of plastic because it works. It’s lighter and cheaper than metal and it’s more durable than cardboard. A lot of it can even be recycled.
In fact, engineers have designed some plastics especially to be recycled or to [...]

 
Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr.com

We’re going to listen to some big words. Engineers know what they are. Today, on Engineering Works!
Engineers use numbers all the time. Sometimes these numbers are really big. Consider power engineers. Power engineers design and build the systems that make and deliver the electricity that lights our homes. They routinely talk in terms [...]

 
Image: Wikipedia

Most of the time when we think about engineers, we think about the nifty things they’re designing and building, now. But a lot of what they do now started a long time ago. We’ll take a look back, today on Engineering Works!
The engineers we know design and build new fuel-efficient cars, ultra-fast computers, tall [...]

 
Image: National Human Genome Research Institute

Just when you were getting used to the idea of genetic engineering, there’s something new. We’ll take a look. Today, on Engineering Works.
If you’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 [...]

 
Photo: EPA/Maurizo Gambarini

Sometimes engineering doesn’t work out the way we planned. We’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 aren’t so enthusiastic. They [...]

 
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The hammering that Hurricane Katrina gave New Orleans isn’t news anymore. Engineers are building something they say will keep it that way. It’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 [...]

 
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Engineers in Germany are getting ready to turn the electric power industry inside out. We’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 [...]

 

Image: Travelin’ Librarian
Transistors, the things that make your iPod and computer possible. We’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 haven’t, of course. An engineer working at Bell Laboratories invented the transistor [...]

 

Image: Dieter Drescher
We’ve all come across things that just don’t make sense, even though they work. Engineers do, too. We’ll look at one, today on Engineering Works!
If you’ve been to a big concert, or a ball game, with a big crowd of other people, you know what happens when it’s time to leave. No [...]