shini somara and marita davidson.ou went through a bit of a swim. >> i got to are swim with researchers from cal state shark lab, measuring all sorts of environmental conditions. let's take a look at it. this is catalina island. 27 miles off the coast of los angeles. a place known for its beauty both above and below the ocean that surrounds it. most of the fish that call these waters home go relatively unnoticed. but one species is impossible to miss. them. if you were from cal state's shark lab, it's not a bad place to set up shop. >> this is going to change how we study sharks in the ocean. >> chris lowe, getting to know him and his work is getting your feet wet. obviously, here a day at the office requires a different attire. and it also provides a different view of the world. it takes only a few moments underwater to understand chris lowe's passion for the ocean. and for the sharks he studies. >> what is it about sharks that interests you from a scientific perspective? >> they're a canary in a coal mine for the oc

i'm phil torres, joined by shini somara, marita davison, and cara santa maria.e are in for a treat. shini - you just got back from on amazing journey to one of the most spectacular places in the world. please tell us about it. >> well, it was an absolute dream come true mission that i was on. i went to greenland and i was mapping glaziers with n.a.s.a. on a peace-free aircraft. the views were stunning. let's take a look. i travelled half a world away to get to a case some call the canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change. greenland. i was here to observe an n.a.s.a. mission called operation icebridge. since 2009 n.a.s.a. has been flying airborne missions out of kangaloosa, a former u.s. airbase. the goal is to measure changes to the arctic sea ice and the ice sheet over greenland. we are just on our way to the air base and i am feeling kind of a bit nervous. i'm not the most relaxed of flyers. so let's see what happens. >> it was 6am, and about 10 degrees farenheit. >> so it's usually about a quarter of a mile walk to the plain. whatever condition

i'm phil torres and i'm here with kosta and marita.ow, scientists are detecting millions of earthquakes around the world. what technology do you study to help mitigate them? >> here is san francisco's bay bridge. they absorb the areas of the earthquake while leaving the rest of the infrastructure intact. really, really cool. let's check it out. rising from the san francisco bay is the newest architectural jewel of northern california. the new bay bridge, which connects san francisco and oakland, is now open for business. and what a sight it is to see! roughly 280,000 vehicles travel the east and westbound lanes each day. it's now the widest bridge in direction. this is six years worth of round the clock time lapse video of the new 2.2 mile east span. the project cost $6.4 billion. this is earthquake country. the great san francisco quake of 1906 wiped out 80% of the city. the old bay bridge opened in 1936. and it sits in the worst possible spot: right between two major fault lines. the san andreas and the hayward faults. and the worst-

shini somara and marita davidson.when i'm in the field doing my research, one of my big issues i'm working on is how to conserve our wildlife. i got to go down to the san diego zoo. sme they are prerving dozens of -- they are preserving dozens of different species. this zoo is frozen! so let's take a look. at the famous san diego zoo safari park, lies a zoo within a zoo, replaced by liquid nitrogen and cell cultures. this is san diego's frozen zoo. that's right, zoo. not the one you grew up visiting but one in which there are living cells from over a thousand expertise, preserved species , preserved and frozen, all to help protect future generations of animals currently facing extinction. what was the genesis for creating the frozen zoo? >> the possibility to save sells -- cells allowed us to undertake, each cell of an individual is capable of producing the entire individual. >> take me through the process of freezing cells. >> we get a biopsy, a small slice of that fest >> we can take those cells and treat them so th

marita davison is specialising in ecology. tonight, what are the scientists at monsanta up to. we go into their lab. are they moving away from genetically modified crops. dr crystal dilworth is a molecular science and cara santa maria has a bank ground in science. i'm phil torres, an endometeorologist. tonight spiders and goats - and how we may hannes spider -- harness spider silk. that's the team, let's do some science. ♪ music ] >>> hey guys, welcome to "techknow." what does the bulletproof vest have to do with goat's milk. the answer lies in spider silk - of all things. i got a chance to look at the future of fabrics. it is fascinating. let's take a look. >> reporter: they are nature's masterful architects, genius at structural design. their silk - though just a fraction of the size of a human hair, is stronger than steel and more powerful than tevlar. you have called spider silk the ancient biomaterial for the future. what do you mean by that? >> spiders have been around for roughly 600 billion years. it has properties that no manmade properties have. >> what can you use it

i'm phil torres, joined by crystal dilworth, marita davison, and cara santa maria.e about to meet baxter, a smiling robot that may come to a factory near you and helping some workers there. let's look. >>> a human-sized robot named baxter is redefining work. he is a 2-armed robot with an animated space. if he bumps into something, or someone grabs his arm, sensors stop the arm allowing a human to reposition it. making hands-on training safe, easy and intuitive. it's used for simply industrial jobs such as loading, unloading, sorting and handling materials. baxter is able to work on an assembly line, next to a person training him to learn the representative tasks. with behaviour-based intelligence, baxter senses and adapts to task. >> so one of the questions that comes to mind when you see a piece like this is is this robot going to replace human jobs? >> i think we can look to different industries that are implementing and using robots now. the agricultural industry is one where there's a push towards automation, and a concern that it will displace the workforce and

marita davison is specialising in ecology. tonight, what are the scientists at monsanta up to.e go into their lab. are they moving away from genetically modified crops. dr crystal dilworth is a

marita davidson is a biologist specializing inning innings innd evolution. kosta grammatis is an engineer

marita davidson is a biologist specializing inning innings innd evolution. kosta grammatis is an engineer

. >> marita davidson could not joan us but "techknow"'s phil torres joins us.it sounds complicated is it? >> crossbreeding is very simple. the same thing we've done for thousands of years. a lettuce that is more disease resistant, you crossbreed that with a lettuce that tastes better. hopefully the outcome is both in the same form. monsanto is trying to do that. >> genetic modification is more to the point. you cut the gene out of one organizorganism, stick it into r one, they can end up with an end result, crossbreeding takes a lot longer. monsanto is trying to make this go quicker. is. >> the key question is, is it safe? >> absolutely. they are just using gents to beo be more precise which plant with which plant. >> speaking of accurate you have an intriguing accurate piece about spiders. >> yes, absolutely. what do goats and bullet proof vets and a million dollar industry have in common? the answer is spider silk. the biomedicine of the future. it will be night your body, it will be everywhere. they just got to figure out how to make a lot of it. >> phil wil