i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives. we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check out our team of hard core nerds. dr. shini somara, life and death in the or, one woman in desperate need of a transplant. will the donor lung arrive before it's too late? marita davidson is a biologist specializing in ecologist and evolution. tonight, swimming with sharks and a shark robot that will one day protect these fascinating creatures. i'm phil torres, i'm an entomologist exploring spiders in the rain forests of peru. now let's do some science. ♪ >> hi guys, i'm phil torres, welcome to a very special episode of "techknow." we're getting revolutionary access to technology, a revolution story, dr. shini somara to tell it. >> it is one of the most interesting things i've ever done in my life. changed my idea, machines replacing human bodies, essentially. take a look. >> breathing. it usually happens so naturally, most of us never e

i'm phil torres and i'm here with kosta and shini.u recently went to a very interesting farm in the middle of an airport. >> yes, something called tower garden. check it out. this is going to allow a lot of people a different life, to grow produce anywhere. let's take a deeper look. ♪ ♪ >> for over 8,000 years, we've been plowing dirt to grow our food. in fact, we've go gotten so goot it that over 80% of the world's farmable land is already in use. by 2050 we can expect another 3 billion people on planet earth to join us for dinner. another china and india. on average, food travels 1500 miles from farm to table. how can we continue to grow food to feed the hungry masses? one answer is strert cal farming farming. smerl, california known for its eclectic shops and restaurants has another new feature, a vertical farm. >> i'm alex thomson , montecito farms. >> seedlings to harvested vegetables. his farm produces are fresh vegetables to seven restaurants every day. >> this is a tower garden. can you tell us how it works? >> it is a vertica

i'm phil torres here with kyle, marita and crystal.what you got for us. >> so imagine the day when you go to the supermarket and instead of going to the meat section you go to the protein section. you have chicken, beef and pork but a whole lot of plant based protein as well. i got to check out their products and put it to the test in a barbecue. let's check it out. grilled, sauteed, processed or packaged. >> organic science fan? >> america's obsession with meet is ferocious. >> four pounds is even better. >> and bigger is better when it comes to our april tide as evidenced from this wendy's ad from the '80s which epitomizes america's infatuation with beef. >> where's the beef? >> we school 250 pounds per person per year. experts predict we won't be able to sustain it. >> i would say we are already not doing it sustainably. we already are applying on the planet's resources more than we really should be if you just look at climate change alone. >> the united nations estimates that meat consumption will rise nearly 75% by 2050. the risin

i'm phil torres joined today by lindsay moran and dr. crystal dilworth.eet the researchers behind these spectacular machines, take a look. >>> it's an early morning scene played off in households everywhere. jason koger must get himself ready, plus his child. making some important decisions about what he's going to be wearing today. >> being a bilateral amputee you have to use prosthetics. if you oar single arm amputee, you have the ability to use a real hand to help. you know it's kind of like a tool form. >> near san diego, california, katie walker is putting her latest tool are to effect. customized personally for herself on the field. >> if the attachment pops off. the bat attachment the bat handle goes right inside of here. so it's supposed to after i swing after i pop it through i can pop it right off and start running. >> and then rotate around. cool. >> for upper limb amputees like jason and katie, gone are the days of hook lever arms. alongside occupational therapists to design custom made prosthetics for patients' dreams. >> the opportunity osee

. >> i'm phil torres, an entomologist. tonight i meet the indiana jones of space technology, and discover -- >> we're the same people who. >> kosta grammatis. and lindsay moran. a former cia agent. that's our team. now let's do some science. ♪ >> hey guys, i'm phil torres. welcome to "techknow" i'm joined by are crystal dilworth, and kosta grammatis. and linda moran. - lindsay moran. >> let's take a look at the safety of e-cigarettes in general. >>> they're fruity flavorful fun and more popular than ever. the explosion in advertising dollars and sales of strong cigarettes are in the billions as the devices are being touted as a safer alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes. >> i think it's the best thing smoke. >> i wake up in the morning and my lurchtion hurt really bad. i started vaping and it started getting better and better. >> are the claims really true or are they a smoke screen? the health rirvetion associated with the use of electronic cigarettes associate with the liquids themselves. the research at u.c. rivers

i'm phil torres, i'm an entomologist. but tonight, i've got the story that will have you shaking your heads. why bugs should be a part of your next meal. that's the story, now let's do some science. are ♪ ♪ ♪ >> welcome to "techknow". i'm phil torres and today i'm here with kyle, lindsay and rachelle. we're going to start with a story of how we can use our dna in medicine . rachelle, what do you have? >> i submitted my dna for a company called 23andme. let's find out. >> simple test, nothing complicated. the first thing i have to do is take the tune and i get to fill it with slief hav splie saliva. you can watch me spit. that's done. i joined 23 million people who sent their saliva to 23andme. to conduct a personal dna test. they begin with our 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent, filled with you're dna. dna is a double helix with base pairs of nucleotides. as paired with cs. >> katy: , g s.over and over. so that a sequencing machine has enough material to determine the exact order of those as ts gs and cs. >> that's the

i'm phil torres and here with kosta and shini. here in the u.s.n you think about tornado alley, you think of oklahoma. you recently went there. >> very high frequency of tornadoes, 50 on average. we went to moore, oklahoma, it was devastated by tornadoes on may 20th. we went to university technologists, let's take a look. >> west side of burton we have a major tornado coming down. >> may 20th, 2013, one of the worst tornadoes on record is captured on a time lapse video that went viral. >> people in west moore must be underground for this tornado. we have large large chunks of debris. >> the entire nation watched, as the tornado took a direct hit on the hig elementary. in moore. >> from the looks of the school i knew it wasn't looking good. >> winged recorded at over -- winds recorded at over 210 miles per hour. turning the ground into a pile of rubble. >> it needs to be a priority. you need to have a shelter. >> 300 miles from moore in texas tech university lab, they work to make it a reality. >> what we have here is an air cannon called boomer .

i am phil torres. for most of us, communicating with the human voice is something we kind of take for granted but not so with some of meet. >> yeah. i was able to meet three patients that all have als. it's a devastating condition that degenrates the muscles in the body including those in the vocal cords. so they lose their ability to speak. but using technology, they were able to communicate with me in a really remarkable way, such as these stories we are working. take a look. >> on a snowy day in the of seasons, the training camp for the baltimore ravens football team seems deserted but a j.b. rigans, the senior advisor to player development is at his desk as he is every day. >> you come here to work several times a week, and one wouldn't blame you if you wanted to stay at home. what keeps you coming here? >> sure, i could have stayed home and gone into seclusion after my als diagnosis. but coming to work is about refusing to give up. if we are isolated from human interaction, our spirits will wither

i am phil torres. now, we are all relatively familiar with facial recognition technology, but there has been recently. >> these algorith imdz were used by the military for counter by the military for counter terrorism and crime in cases. as i found out, this technology has a much wider application. let's take a look. >> you can't hide your face. you have always had a privacy face with your face being out there and about. you were counting on people recognizing it. not a computer. >> facial recognition technology was first popularized by shows unit. >> we magnified the photo. facial recognition software does the rest? >> congratulations. you are not our perp. >> scenes like this are playing out in police departments around the current tree. facial recognition is helping everyone from cops to nightclub sglfrnz. >> come up to our door, our main office, the lab, and we have access control, face recognition going on here. i am just going to go up and look through the window. there is a camera there that wil

i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives. we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check out our team of hard core nerds. dr. shini somara, life and death in the or, one woman in desperate need of a transplant. will the donor lung arrive

i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives. we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and we're doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. hard core in other words: marita davidson, is a scientist, specializing in ecology and evolution. testing a meat substitute that claims to taste like the same thing. >> it does taste like chicken.

i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives.we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and we're doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. hard core in other words: marita davidson, is a scientist, specializing in ecology and evolution. testing a meat substitute that claims to taste like the same thing. >> it does taste like chicken.

i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives.dware and humanity and we're doing it in a unique way. a show of science by scientists. dr. shini somara shini somara is a mechanical engineer. as scientists test new building tines can they survive the most powerful twisters on the planets?

i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives. we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check out our team of hard core nerds. dr. shini somara, life and death in the or, one woman in desperate need of a transplant. will the donor lung arrive

i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives.ardware and humanity and we're doing it in a unique way. a show of science by scientists. dr. shini somara shini somara is a mechanical engineer. as scientists test new building tines can they survive the most powerful twisters on the planets? kosta grammatis, feeding a hungry planet.

. >> i'm phil torres, an

dilworth, a molecular scientist and i am phil torres. i am an entomologist. >> that's our team. let's do some noedz /* [ music ] >> guys, welcome to "techknow." joining me are car a santa maria, shini somara and krista dilworth. i am excited for today's episode because it involves one of the best animals out there, man's best friend, the dog. and cara, you got to play with a bunch of dogs. we know dogs make us happy but they can also potentially make ? >> yeah. so there is evidence to show that dogs can actually detect cancer. and i got to visit the laboratory, some training facilities and even meet a woman whose dog detected her breast cancer. let's check it out. -year-old who grand chap pin rain dance or just plain troy as his family calls him is a pure-bread show dog but to his distinction. >> definitely credit him with saving my life. there is no question about it >> diane's family has a history of breast cancer. so she has been diligent about getting mammograms. in fact, she had been given a clean bill of health a few months before when troy, then a puppy started acting str

"techknow" phil torres here in los angeles. a pleasure, man, let's start with o.j.i remember his playing days and his ravens days. he didn't bank his voice. we'll get to what that means in a moment. what voice is he actually using? >> he's using this computerized voice. it's a standard one. there are a handful of options out there, but like you said he didn't bank his voice because the technology was not yet developed. by the time that als had robbed him of his voice. that goes to show how much it's advanced in just a few years. >> how does voice banking technology really work? >> basically the way they do it is once you're diagnosed with something like als they suggest that you read and record on a microphone pages and pages of commonly used phrases along with things you use on a daily bases. they add that to the eye-tracking technology and as you saw she's able to say i love you. she's able to call her dog over in her voice. we all the realize how much we take for granted sounding like ourselves or having loved ones sounding like themselves. >> is there a way to,