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DOLPHIN LIFESAVERS- PART 2:
How Dolphins See with Sound

In today's world of unmanned underwater vehicles, the bottlenose dolphin is still the Navy's best defense against dangerous underwater mines. The dolphins have a unique ability to find objects using their biological sonar, called echolocation. They produce clicks - and then listen for the echoes as the sound bounces off objects. They can then figure out if the object is a fish or a ship or a mine. Scientists at the Navy's Marine Mammal Program in San Diego, California have developed a "biosonar monitoring tool" so they can study just how echolocation works. One day they would like to build a robot that can do the same thing. Until then, dolphins will be guarding the coastline.

[flv image="http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Beam_me_up.jpg"]http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Dolphin Lifesavers_pt1.flv[/flv]

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DOLPHIN LIFESAVERS- PART 1: 
Training for a Mission

Bottlenose dolphins are the Navy's best defense against dangerous underwater explosives - called mines. At the Marine Mammal Program in San Diego, California, these amazing animals are trained to find mines and then flag their location. It sounds risky - but it's not. Mines are designed to go off when ships bump into them - not dolphins.

The dolphins are born and raised at the base - where there are dozens of scientists and handlers who take care of them and study their behavior. They are trained with love and, of course, lots of tasty fish. In return, they use their unique biosonar ability, called echolocation, to do a job that's impossible for humans or robots. They can quickly and accurately locate mines buried deep under the ocean floor. These dolphins are great at their job, and their mine-hunting missions have found 100's of mines and saved countless lives.

[flv image="http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Beam_me_up.jpg"]http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/ComputerVision.flv[/flv]

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COMPUTER VISION:
Teaching Machines to Recognize Images

Shown two photos of a person taken from different angles, most people will immediately recognize them as the same person. But it's not that easy for a computer because their brains are not as flexible as human brains.

Teaching computers to see more like humans is the job of Alan VanNevel and his team of scientists at a Navy Research Lab in China Lake. They've created some amazing pattern recognition programs - using math.

"If we had an image of your face we'd have some numbers that represent your eyes and your nose and your chin, and we take all those together and then use those to say, ‘hey it's a face that we're looking at,’” explains VanNevel

[flv image="http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Beam_me_up.jpg"]http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/CellsInSpace.flv[/flv]

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CELLS IN SPACE:
Helping Astronauts and Injured Soldiers

An experiment created at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and blasted into space aboard the Space Shuttle is helping design better ways to treat injured soldiers and keep astronauts healthier.

Astronauts working in low gravity and the traumatically injured can both suffer from wasting, a condition where bone and muscle mass deteriorate. The automated Cell Culture Module aboard the Space Station helps study what is happening.

By comparing cells grown in space and on Earth, biomedical engineers like Alison Garcia at Walter Reed are learning how to treat wasting and other diseases associated with growing old.

[flv image="http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Beam_me_up.jpg"]http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Carbon_NanoPearls.flv[/flv]

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CARBON NANOPEARLS:
Cooking Up Tomorrow's TV Technology

Combining the abilities of a master chef and a futuristic jeweler, materials engineer Shanee Pacley is a leading specialist in the exciting field of nanotechnology.

Pacley's specialty is nanopearls, clusters of extremely small balls of pure carbon that under a powerful microscope resemble a string of pearls. The young scientist cooks them up at 450 degrees Celsius and then studies their properties.

Uses for the nanopearls created at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Research laboratory are still being imagined. An early contender is thinner televisions that use less energy and last far longer than today's models.

[flv image="http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Beam_me_up.jpg"]http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Building_Body_Parts.flv[/flv]

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BUILDING BODY PARTS:
Saving lives, Salamander style

If an injured salamander can grow a new limb, why can't a human? Maybe they can, say researchers at the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

Starting with cells from patients’ bodies, scientists at this Wake Forest University facility have grown 22 different types of tissues and organs. Lives are being saved and more amazing successes are on the way.

"The science fiction of yesterday happens to be a lot of the medicine of today,” says Anthony Atala, MD the Institute’s co-director. “It is the imagination that allows us to seek these solutions that someday in the future become a reality."

[flv image="http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Beam_me_up.jpg"]http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Brainwaves.flv[/flv]

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Brainwaves:
Reading Brain Waves to Keep Pilots Sharp

Flying is second nature for today's highly skilled Air Force pilots. But when challenges arise, these aviators need to stay focused.

Helping out are researchers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. By placing pilots in flight simulators and monitoring their brain waves, the scientists are designing systems that can assist in crunch time.

"Once we've detected that someone's getting overloaded, getting stressed, and likely to make mistakes, what we try to do is make the computer, make the automatic systems, more of a partner with the pilot," explains researcher James Christensen, PhD.

[flv image="http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Beam_me_up.jpg"]http://stemresources.wm.edu/videos/Breathe Easy.flv[/flv]

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BREATHE EASY:
Ship Filters Keep It Clean

Filters are used in buildings to collect dust, dirt, or chemicals from air to ensure that we don't take contaminants into our bodies. Sailors must be protected in their environment as well, so engineers at a Navy research lab in Dahlgren, VA., are designing and testing air filters to keep personnel safe on ships.

On land, air-filter systems in houses pull air from a home, pass it through a mechanical filter, and then feed it back inside. But ships bring in outside air and blow it through three different filters, which can protect sailors against pollution and smoke -- and even chemical and biological agents.

"Being an engineer you can always see what it is you're affecting," says mechanical engineer Will Clark. "You're learning how to solve a problem, to make a difference, to change something."

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WHERE IN THE WORLD?:
Navy engineers move from how it works to making it better

Knowledge and use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has increased tremendously over the last several years. Though unknown just a few years ago, hikers today use it as an invaluable tool to help them figure out where they are. And it's not just for hikers, the same is true for drivers, pilots, ship captains, firefighters and even parents hunting for an out-of-town amusement park or a restaurant.

Researchers at the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center lab in beautiful San Diego are exploring ways to make GPS even better. Among the applied research avenues being explored by scientists and engineers is an effort to shrink the size of the GPS atomic clock to a size smaller than a dime. Pointing to a current atomic clock sitting in a rack of instrumentation equipment, engineer Edward Agunos jokes the new clock will definitely be easier to carry around.

Working in an atmosphere where research is stressed and new challenges like improving GPS are part of the fun, is something these engineers crave. "You never get bored," says Nahal Abadi. "You always have something new to look forward to."