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.
Continue reading Adventures in "Making Stuff".
