The air contains an enormous amount of electricity. Clouds are full of it. But how to actually capture it for a continuous energy resource? Dr. Jun Yao and his colleagues at UMass-Amherst have created a small-scale cloud they call the “generic Air-gen effect” that produces a reliable stream of electricity that can be harvested for general use. In this interview, Dr. Yao describes how the Air-gen innovation was developed, how the electricity is harvested from the air via a special material made of protein nanowires, and when the device can be scaled up for general use.

An innovative project at WPI hopes to turn plastic waste in the ocean into fuel—right on board a ship.

Trichloroethylene, or TCE, is highly toxic even in small doses and have been linked to health threats, including cancer.

Our planet is subjected to more than 50 earthquakes a day. Fortunately, most do not cause significant damage. But some earthquakes are extremely destructive (as recent events in Turkey and Afghanistan demonstrate) The complexity of these tectonic plates shifts make prediction very challenging but fascinating work. Dr. Meade explains the importance of better prediction of earthquakes and the huge challenge of developing better prediction tools.

Brendan Meade's research is focused on the geodetic imaging of earthquake cycle processes with an emphasis on the detection of interseismic elastic strain accumulation. His special emphasis is on the tectonic and earthquake cycle signals across the Japanese Islands to identify the coupled subduction zone interface that ruptured during the great Tohoku-oki earthquake of 2011. Dr. Meade received his Ph.D. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He first joined Harvard as a Daly Postdoctoral fellow and continued as an Assistant then Associate Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences.

Julia Bae has been interested in environmental justice since she first learned about climate change in fifth grade.

Clouds are an essential component of the climate. In normal circumstances, they stabilize Earth’s temperature, both by preserving the planet’s heat like a blanket and blocking excess solar radiation. But with prolonged accumulation of atmospheric CO2, the planet overheats, leading to dramatic effects, including massive wildfires –which release particles called “biomass aerosols.” Those particles seed clouds that affect the climate. In this program, Dr. Cziczo explains how these clouds form and why the excess of biomass particles concern climate scientists.

MIT professor Moungi Bawendi is one of three scientists that won the prestigious award in chemistry.

PFAS, a group of chemicals added to many everyday products, became a concern years ago in the medical community, but governmental agencies were slow to impose regulations.  It is now clear that these “forever” chemicals are everywhere and in everyone. For years, epidemiologists have worked to establish the effects of these toxins on human development and general health. Even now, though, controls on PFAS production and use are inadequate. Philippe Grandjean has been a leader in the international scientific research on PFAS. He provides, in this discussion, the information the public needs for dealing with PFAS-related health issues, and also explains why so much data was not available to researchers until recently.

Dr. Garlick is known especially for developing stem cells for tissue engineering, specifically for advanced treatments for oral health, cancer, scleroderma and complications of diabetes. He established the Center for Integrated Tissue Engineering at Tufts to accelerate the discovery and clinical application of new drugs using 3D tissues. Dr. Garlick has been equally committed to communicating science to the public. This discussion covers his pioneering stem cell research and how that led to his leadership in science communication.