Big Picture Science: Sensor Sensibility

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Have you lost your senses? You’ll find them everywhere you look. Sensors respond to external stimuli – light, sound, temperature and much else – to help us make sense (ha!) of our universe. And more are on their way. “Ubiquitous sensing” is the term that describes a world blanketed by tiny sensors: on bridges, in paint and medicine bottles, and even in our brains!

Discover where you’ll find sensors next. And, has the world’s largest detection device found the elusive particle that will help explain the universe? Where are you, Higgsy-wiggsy?

Also, out-of-this world sensors have detected a possibly Earth-like planet. What’s next for the Kepler planet-hunters?

Plus, DIY sensor kits, and, if computers can do all that, why can’t we send the odor of, say, freshly-baked bread over the Internet? The case for a smell-o-meter.

Guests:

• Frank Close – Physicist at Oxford University, author of The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
• Jan Rabaey – Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), University of California, Berkeley
• Barry Shell – Writer in Vancouver, Canada
• Andy Huntington – Interaction designer, based in London
• Sara Seager – Professor of planetary science and physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Planet hunters – Daryll LaCourse and Tom Jacobs, citizen scientists with Planet Hunters

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