Hunters wiped out gray seals from the Cape Cod region in the 1800s. They've returned with federal protection, and now biologists are using high-tech tracking devices to study gray seals and how they interact with their environment, so they can be better protected.
Engineering
Where The Wild Things Are
Researchers at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences are using camera traps, and enlisting citizen scientists, to study wild animal populations, behavior, habitat, and in a long term study, how human activity is affecting animal populations in a given area.
What’s My Story: Zoologist
Roland Kays started studying animals in a physics class. He thought he wanted to work in a genetic engineering lab but thought better of it when he saw a film about a zoologist peering into prairie dog mounds looking for burrowing owls. He switched his major to zoology and fell in love with mammals. Today, he keeps tabs on thousands of mammals in their natural habitats with the aid of new technology and citizen volunteers at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.
What's My Story: Ph.D. Research Assistant in Chemistry
It took Tana Villafana some time to figure out that she wanted to be a chemist. She started out hoping to be a writer and a musician. But as things worked out, she got to combine her love of the humanities with her love of electromagnetism.
Ph.D. Research Assistant: employed by a university to conduct research while seeking to earn a doctorate degree. They are typically responsible to a principal investigator.
Art Under a New Wavelength
Technologies originally designed to address one issue can be adapted to solve another. In this case, a laser designed to image and diagnose melanomas is now being used to study centuries-old works of art.
What's My Story: Aeronautical Engineer
Dr. Ashok Gopalarathnam is an associate professor of mechanical & aerospace engineering at NCSU. As a boy he read adventure novels about a detective in Special Air Police. Today he uses wind tunnels and computer simulations to understand the physics of vortices and stalls of airplanes, helicopters, and hand-held drones.
When did you discover you wanted to be an aeronautical engineer?
Riding the Wind
From cyclists to race cars, the motion of an object is determined by the sum of the forces acting on it. Those forces have both strength and direction and they can be observed and measured to predict future motion. Watch how an aeronautics engineer works with Newton's three Laws of Motion to test the best posture and helmet for a cyclist in a wind tunnel.
InfoGraphic: How The Rain Flows
Related Resources:
Rain Catchers
Stormwater runoff is a major source of pollution in our streams and lakes. Those lakes are also a source of drinking water. State law requires cities and towns to cleanup the runoff, because it doesn't get treated in sewage plants - it goes right in the lakes and rivers. Durham is launching an innovative 5 year program called 'Raincatchers' in hopes of slowing down, reducing, and naturally cleaning up stormwater.
NCSU Solar Grant
A U.S. Dept. of Energy grant will be used at North Carolina State University to design solar energy systems & installation & connection procedures that require little or no customization by homeowners & installers. The systems would set up quickly and connect to the power grid easily, while still meeting building and electrical codes. Original Broadcast Date: 04/15/2013.