Science Friday Videos
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The GeoEye-1 satellite will be capable of making out details on Earth just 16 inches across. It will be the highest resolution satellite run by a private company; it's images will be marketed to a range of governments and private customers.

Callers share their scientific triumphs from the summer months. Did you find a fossil? Outfit your house with solar power? Grow a prize-winning pumpkin? Tell us about it.

Bioengineering researcher Michael Dickinson used superslow-motion video cameras to study how flies are so effective at avoiding swatters. He found that flies perform an elegant ballet with their legs responding to threats in less than 1/10 of a second.

The massive Large Hadron Collider at CERN is just a few weeks away from startup. The particle accelerator has passed several key performance tests, and is on track to send the first beam of particles through the ring of the accelerator on Sept. 10.

State and local governments across the country are requiring a growing list of vaccinations for children entering school. Public health advocates say that the vaccines are well-tested and serve a vital role in preventing disease outbreaks, but some parents still have concerns.

Scientists report that they have been able to selectively kill the defective autoimmune cells that were destroying insulin-producing islets in samples of human blood. Denise Faustman, director of immunobiology at Massachusetts General Hospital East, describes the latest diabetes research.

We look at how Hollywood became a driving force in the invention of new technologies from Technicolor to the rise of digital special effects and how new ideas and technologies, such as the Internet, are still shaping the movie industry today.

We bring you a roundup of research being presented at this week's American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia.

New research published this week in the journal Science looks at "automatic mental associations" and finds that they can be good predictors of which way an undecided voter will sway.

Is persuasion an art or a science? We talk to Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist, who thinks a little psychology can improve your shot at getting what you want.

Developers have created flexible sheets of 'nanoantennas' that could aid in getting energy from solar energy or from other heat sources. The sheets could harvest up to 80 percent of the infrared light that falls upon them and the researchers say the material could cost just pennies a yard.

Researchers report they've created an artificial material that bends some wavelengths of light differently. If they're able to expand the work to a wider range of wavelengths, the material could provide an unprecedented level of control over the way light moves, perhaps even making a "cloak of invisibility" possible.

Scientists studying many different parts of the planet's ecosystems are warning that Earth may be on the verge of a sixth major mass extinction event.

New research indicates chili pepper plants may have developed their signature heat as a way to fight off fungal infections caused by insects.

Biofuel advocate David Blume talks about common misconceptions about the use of ethanol for fuel, and about his vision for decentralized, community supported ethanol production in the United States.

As part of our ongoing series on alternative energy sources, we'll take a look at methods to harvest energy from the heat beneath the surface of the Earth.

Using a technique known as self assembly, researchers have found a way to create high-quality repeating patterns with features just ten nanometers across.

Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic, talks about the psychology of driving and the engineering of roadways. He explains some contradictory traffic truths: why roundabouts are safer than intersections and how slower can actually be faster.

Actress and mathematician Danica McKellar is on a mission to get middle-school girls to stop hating math. In her new book Kiss My Math, a follow-up to Math Doesn't Suck McKellar breaks math into easy-to-digest concepts so girls can "show pre-algebra who's boss."

Cyclist Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone. Donald Berry, a statistician at the University of Texas, doesn't buy it. Berry explains how drug testing could be more scientific.

Researchers say that if the conditions had been slightly different for our solar system, planets could have careened into the sun or been expelled into deep space. Also: A volunteer astronomer spots a strange gaseous object some are calling a "cosmic ghost."

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected a salt found on Earth on the surface of Mars. The salt, called perchlorate, is used in fireworks and rocket fuel. The news follows the recent confirmation of the presence of water on the Red Planet.

Scientists at Caltech have created a tiny, lens-free microscope that they say could be built for just $10. Changhuei Yang, one of the microscope's inventors, explains the device and some of its potential uses.

The summer Olympics begin on Aug. 8 will Beijing's air be in shape for the games? The polluted city has taken drastic action to try to reduce smog during the events, shuttering some factories and adopting measures to limit the number of cars on the road.

Could popping a pill turn you into a long-distance runner? Researchers report that they have identified two signaling pathways that are turned on in response to exercise and that artificially turning those pathways on in mice produced rodents with much greater endurance.

A study reveals that domestic fatalities caused by combining prescription medication with alcohol and/or street drugs increased by 3,196 percent between 1983 to 2004. David Phillips, one of the researchers, explains the findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

An experimental drug that aims to unknot the "tangles" that characterize the brains of people with Alzheimer's has shown some promise. Guests discuss recent Alzheimer's findings and the search for new treatments, including statin drugs, often used to treat high cholesterol.

Americans are driving less and switching to more fuel-efficient cars. Can legislators on opposite sides of the aisle collaborate to help the nation deal with the energy crisis? Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) discuss offshore drilling, alternative energy and lowering the speed limit.

Could porous rocks deep in the ocean floor be a place to stash unwanted carbon dioxide? Scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory suggest that undersea basalt formations 8,000 feet below the ocean on the Pacific Northwest coast could absorb up to 120 years worth of U.S. CO2 emissions.

Depression is said to affect more than 20 million people in the United States, but psychiatrist James Gordon argues that it's not disease. In his book, Unstuck, Gordon makes the case that most people don't need drugs to feel better.