So far on this blog, you've read about the various scientists and events we've visited in our year-long quest to report the most exciting, mind-blowing advances in materials science. This, of course, is all in the name of creating our four-part NOVA miniseries, "Making Stuff."
As the host of the show, I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that it's been the experience(s) of a lifetime. I've been hang gliding. I had an MRI. I spent a weekend on a Navy nuclear aircraft carrier. I rode in a demolition derby (in a 1970's car with no seatbelts). I swam with--and actually got to pet--nine-foot reef sharks in the Bahamas. This should be a VERY entertaining show, provided I survive.
But you can't spend 110 days with a film crew and producers without racking up a few items for the blooper reel, and we've had our share. Here are a few that you probably won't see in the finished show.
Attack of the Fedex Crow
In April, we visited a huge Fedex sorting facility in Oakland, CA. Behind this Fedex depot's parking lot were seven modestly sized metal sheds, filled with thousands of stacked fuel cells, each the size of a CD case. These Bloom boxes, as they're called, permit a company (and, someday, a home) to live completely off the electrical grid. The Bloom boxes convert natural gas into Fedex's own private electricity feed.
Anyway, I was doing a "standup" (talking to the camera) at the Fedex facility's front door, when I received the ultimate disapproval rating--from a crow standing directly overhead at the edge of the roof. Let's just say there's a reason I didn't turn my back to the camera for the rest of that sequence.
As the host of the show, I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that it's been the experience(s) of a lifetime. I've been hang gliding. I had an MRI. I spent a weekend on a Navy nuclear aircraft carrier. I rode in a demolition derby (in a 1970's car with no seatbelts). I swam with--and actually got to pet--nine-foot reef sharks in the Bahamas. This should be a VERY entertaining show, provided I survive.
But you can't spend 110 days with a film crew and producers without racking up a few items for the blooper reel, and we've had our share. Here are a few that you probably won't see in the finished show.
Attack of the Fedex Crow
In April, we visited a huge Fedex sorting facility in Oakland, CA. Behind this Fedex depot's parking lot were seven modestly sized metal sheds, filled with thousands of stacked fuel cells, each the size of a CD case. These Bloom boxes, as they're called, permit a company (and, someday, a home) to live completely off the electrical grid. The Bloom boxes convert natural gas into Fedex's own private electricity feed.
Anyway, I was doing a "standup" (talking to the camera) at the Fedex facility's front door, when I received the ultimate disapproval rating--from a crow standing directly overhead at the edge of the roof. Let's just say there's a reason I didn't turn my back to the camera for the rest of that sequence.
In July, we were in Cary, NC, visiting a company that does ingenious things with magneto-rhealogical (MR) fluids. These, as you surely know, are liquids that turn solid when exposed to a magnetic field. Trust me: you've never seen anything as creepy and sci-fi as this black, oily, split-personality goop.
Anyway, the company scientist thought she'd introduce the MR fluid in a clever, attention-grabbing way. She filled up a plastic cup with the stuff; concealed a magnet underneath; and pretended to toss the goop at my chest. Imagine the amazement that would ensue as the stuff turned instantly into a clay-like substance--and stayed right in the cup!
That isn't what happened.
She somehow miscalculated the amount of fluid. For the second time, a Pogue shirt was sacrificed for science.
Wet Test Track
Last week, we were at Ford's headquarters in Dearborn, MI, to explore how it makes seat cushions nowadays: out of soybean oil. (Most cushion foam is made from petroleum; Ford's seat cushions alone are saving 3 million pounds of petroleum a year.)
First,
I got to help a Ford scientist mix up a batch of this amazing foam. It
entails pouring extremely precise quantities of chemicals into a beaker.
"Now the surfactant," she'd say: "we need 1.87 grams of that." And
she'd grab a plastic bottle with a pointy spout, and pour the chemical
into a beaker sitting on a precise scale.Yeah--until she got to the soy oil itself. As soon as she turned the bottle upside-down over the beaker, the entire cap popped off, and a torrent of unmeasured soy oil plummeted into the mixture.
Guess you had to be there.
Actually, the best part was later that day, when I took a new car--equipped with the soy-oil seats--out for a drive on Ford's enormous proving grounds (a many-acre spread of test driving tracks). As we set up cameras, planned our angles, and got the car ready, my producers and I kept looking up at the sky, which was filling with ominous storm clouds at an alarming rate. If we didn't start soon, we'd be rained out and lose the punchline of the segment.
But the camera needed a fresh tape. Quick! Where are the tapes? Over in the van! Hurry! Oh no--the body mike's battery needs changing! Hurry! It was chaos as the Cloud of Doom rapidly advanced upon us.
Finally, as the camera rolled, they told me to floor it--to head out to the track.
I got in a lap and a half before the skies opened; we just barely got the shot. Everybody was soaked, but happy.
Which, apparently, is the theme for our series shoot so far.
Publicist's Note: MAKING STUFF: Stronger, Smaller, Cleaner, Smarter will premiere Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 9pm ET/PT on PBS
August 3, 2010 1:20 PM
You get me all whipped up about this cool show, then at the bottom of the article, you tell me I gotta wait another year-and-a-half for PBS to run it?! Not fair!
August 3, 2010 2:46 PM
Steve,
Thanks for the comment. By "winter," we meant the winter/spring season that stretches from 2010 to 2011. I'll make that more clear.
August 5, 2010 8:34 PM
Ever since I helped you co-author the " The World According to Twitter" I was wondering when we could work together again.
But since I was never contacted to help you with this show, sniff, I will give you the benefit of a doubt this show will live up to your very high standards.
Should it not, You have my eMail....
;^}