i'm phil torres here with dr shini somara, and dr crystal dilworth.oining us is special guest dr mike brown. dr brown is a professor of planetary astronomy. he made many significant scientific discoveries, he's probably best known as the man who killed pluto. welcome to "techknow" dr brown, why did you do it? >> the obvious answer is did it have it coming. if it wasn't me someone else would do it. >> tell me the story. >> pluto never should have been called a planet. it was a mistake, just because everyone thought it was big when it was discovered, as big as june it ter and realised it was smaller and smaller. it is smaller than our moon. and there are thousands of other things out there just like it. >>> if pluto is not a planet, what is it? >> the official definition is work planet. which i like to think about things that look like planets. >> i love the story of the declassification of pluto. it's a great example of how new information can change the idea that a group of scientists have about something they take for time. >>> you came up with an an

>> dr shini somara is a mechanical engineer. dr. crystal dilworth is a neuroscientist. >> we're standing by a pipe marked heated sludge. >> and i'm phil torres, i'm an entomologist. >> that's our team ... >> it smells very organic. >> now lets do some science. >> hey guys, welcome to techknow. i'm phil torres and today we are going to be talking trash and a ton of it. joining me with this trash talk dr. crystal dilworth, dr. shini somara. now first up the water bottle, by some estimates here in the u.s. we use 50 billion of these every year and myth number one is that this is going to be recycled. >> correct, actually it's probably not going to be recycled. a lot of water bottles that we think are headed for recycling facilities end up in landfills and those landfills can have some really negative impacts on the surrounding communities. >> it's actually quite shocking that a material that is designed to be used over and over again actually only gets used once and what we've done is take a water bottle just like this and follow its j

>> dr shini somara is a mechanical engineer. dr. crystal dilworth is a neuroscientist. >> we're standing by a pipe marked heated sludge. >> and i'm phil torres, i'm an entomologist. >> that's our team ... >> it smells very organic. >> now lets do some science. >> hey guys, welcome to techknow. i'm phil torres and today we are m phil torres and today we are on on cannings door to fight the expansion of aoor to fight the expansion of the newby island landfill... located in the neighboring city of san jose. they hold weekly meetings... >> it stinks! >> and they host town halls... >> there is a significant odor that comes from the newby island facility. >> sometimes you know when i just go out and take a walk i just feel dizzy, and i feel like throwing up. >> the whole milpitas is like a huge bathroom, you know, it just so smells so bad. >> milpitas, california... a sleepy bedroom community is the gateway to silicon valley. a bustling tech town of 70,000. many citizens here say the garbage is taking over and ruining their quality of lif

i'm phil torres, joined by shini somara, and dr crystal dilworth. ery year 30,000 americans are dying on the roads. this is still happening despite things like safety belts and airbags and active safety systems. shini, you looked at technology that may give us a crashless future down the road. >> yes, 30,000 faltalties is a -- fatalities is a shocking statistic, some caused by impaired driving. of the remainder, 80% could be avoided using this technology. i went to ann arbor to check it out. let's take a look. [ ♪ music ] >> reporter: ann arbor pammela micheo, a quintessential college town, home of the university of michigan and its transportation research institute where they are developing and testing the future of driving. >> i'm trying to kill him. >> reporter: that was a genuine alert that you were about to collide into a car in front. the city is a big field test for vehicle to vehicle or v2v, a fleet of vehicles talking to each other electronically. you say the vehicles are talking snag. >> in a small range, 200m, the vehicles are sending out

dr shini somara is an engineer. tonight cars learning to communicate with each other.ith electronic smarts reduce accidents and increase safety.