The Arduino

Full Transcript: Getting control of your home environment is much easier when you can use certain handy devices to monitor conditions and make necessary adjustments. We now take intelligent thermostats and smoke detectors for granted but, with so many intelligent appliances available off the shelf, we have an embarrassment of riches. The ease with which … Read more

Electronic Amplification

Listen to the Audio and/or Subscribe to the Podcast Full Transcript: In the late 1940s, William Shockley led a team at Bell Laboratories to develop a new kind of amplifier for the US telephone system. He, together with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain announced the invention of the bipolar “junction transistor” at a press conference … Read more

Electronic Switching

Listen to the Audio and/or Subscribe to the Podcast Full Transcript: In railroading a switch diverts a train from one track to another. In plumbing, a valve can redirect the flow of water between pipes. In early electronics, directing electrons along a certain path was controlled by what North American scientists called a tube, while British … Read more

Electronic Ducting

Listen to the Audio and/or Subscribe to the Podcast Full Transcript: An ion is any atom that bears a positive or negative electrical charge. Positively charged ions are called cations; negatively charged ions, anions. The imbalance between quantities of electrons and protons gives rise to electron movement both within and between atoms. Electronics is, therefore, … Read more

An Introduction to Electronics

Listen to the Audio and/or Subscribe to the Podcast Full Transcript: The number of individual atoms contained in just one drop of water is estimated to be over one billion trillion. Some scientists hold that such a drop has the energy potential of continuously producing more than one hundred horsepower sustained over a period of … Read more

Microcontrollers & Microprocessors

Listen to the Audio and/or Subscribe to the Podcast Full Transcript: Computers are mathematical processors. And, because information in almost all forms can be reduced to a binary form, computers can handle far more than math. Through the Internet of Things, we’ve come to rely on a variety of small devices to exercise control over … Read more

Equal Justice

Listen to the Audio and/or Subscribe to the Podcast Full Transcript: In this segment, we continue our discussion with Ramona Johnson. This time focusing on whether equal justice under law can become real. Among the points raised within this segment are the racial profiling and poverty factors as they result in an unequal application of … Read more

21st Century Policing

Listen to the Audio and/or Subscribe to the Podcast Full Transcript: Continuing our discussion with Ramona Johnson we focus on some practical considerations with respect to police reform. Our takeaways from this segment underscore the fact that more creativity, research, and real world experience must be brought to bear before we will know precisely how … Read more

Mental Health Resources

Listen to the Audio and/or Subscribe to the Podcast Full Transcript: Continuing our discussion about mental health and public policy with Ramona Johnson. Here we examine how resources for health care are allocated. Let’s review: Mental illnesses are neuro-chemical, biological diseases, just like many other physical diseases. And yet, the resources allocated to address these … Read more

Mental Health Policy

Listen to the Audio and/or Subscribe to the Podcast Full Transcript: In this segment, we continue our discussion with Ramona Johnson. This time focusing on mental health in light of public policy . Among the points raised in this segment are the dynamics that play in the policy arena. There are economic considerations. For example, … Read more