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The whirring heart
The Cleveland Clinic's Innovation Summit looks at the business of heart care, but the keynote speaker will share his experiences as the nation's most famous heart patient.

For people with severe heart disease, a small motor implanted in the chest can take over for a heart that’s ready to give out.  It’s a 20 year-old technology that’s suddenly gaining attention thanks to one very famous patient. In this week’s Exploradio, we look at a life without a pulse.
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The Rx for hospital design
Experience Design is a new field that looks at the emotional impact of an architectual space.  It's used in retail, at Disney theme parks, and now, in hospitals.

The developers of theme parks, high-end retail, and Las Vegas casinos all know something about creating the right ‘experience’.  Now an area hospital is applying lessons from the field of ‘experience design’ to help enhance the patient experience. In this week’s Exploradio, we meet a former multi-media artist researching  what goes into the ideal hospital stay.
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The liquid crystal kingdom
The future is now at Kent State's Liquid Crystal Institute, the world's foremost lab dedicated to research in this mysterious state of matter.

Look around and you’re likely to encounter liquid crystal technology -  your computer screen, alarm clock, cell phone, calculator -- even  the parking meter.  What was once an obscure branch of chemistry is now indispensible technology, and the world center for liquid crystal research is at Kent State University. In this week’s Exploradio, we meet the new head of the program, and learn what’s next at the Liquid Crystal Institute.
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Wooster's solar record
The College of Wooster installs the largest solar array of any school in the country without spending any cash

The College of Wooster flipped the switch last month on the largest solar array for any college or university in the country.  They didn’t plan it that way, and they didn’t pay anything for it. In this week’s Exploradio, going off the grid, bigtime.
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The natural origins of music
The sounds and rhthyms of nature help a Cleveland composer make the most of summer's passing glory

From the Exploradio archives, as the waning days of warm weather give way to autumn's embrace: It’s late August, and summer is winding down.  Song birds will soon head south, and the frost will silence the nightly chorus of crickets, katydids, and singing insects.  In this week’s Exploradio, a Cleveland composer shares her exploration of the natural origins of music in tribute to the sounds of the fading season.
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The Power of Crystals
A legacy industry born in Cleveland struggles to compete in the 21st century.

Crystals have long fascinated with their geometric beauty and promise of hidden properties.   They are at the heart of early radios, electronic devices, and quartz watches, but new materials have dimmed the power of crystals.  In this week’s edition of Exploradio we look at the art of growing synthetic quartz, an industry born in Cleveland and now struggling to survive.
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Swellable Glass
Wooster chemist takes accidental invention out of the lab and into production, and cleans up.

In science, an accidental discovery can quickly take you into unchartered territory, where sometimes it’s best to follow along and see where it leads you.    This week on Exploradio, a Wooster chemist follows up on an experiment gone wrong, and is now ‘cleaning up’.
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Inside the Cloud
The new AT&T Akron data center feeds the wireless world with power hungry infrastructure

One third of American adults now own a smart phone, according to a recent Pew study.   We talk, text…send pictures, but seldom consider how of these bits of data travel from here to there.  The answer is in the basement of a non-descript building in downtown Akron. In this week’s edition of Exploradio:  a glimpse at the infrastructure powering the wireless world.
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Whale necks and noses
How research in Ohio is revealing mysteries of Alaskan whales, and how whale secrets could help humans with sore backs

Each spring the Inupiat Eskimos of Barrow, Alaska gather to hunt the bowhead whale.  Researchers from Northeast Ohio are joining them to learn more about the massive creatures.    In this week’s edition of Exploradio -  how discoveries by researchers at the Northeast Ohio Medical University may help protect the whales’ Alaskan habitat, and someday help humans suffering from sore backs.
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Cleveland's role in America's innovation initiative
Head of NorTech will advise Congress and President on ways to boost competitiveness

Innovation is a term that’s often thrown around by policy makers, but figuring out what it is, and how it works is Rebecca Bagley's job.  She’s head of Nortech, a Cleveland-based innovation think-tank.  Bagley is also a member of the federal Innovation Advisory Board which is reviewing national policies that effect American competitiveness.  The group presents its findings to congress early next year. Bagley says innovation basically comes down to staying ahead of the competition –
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Human studies help zoo primates
Studies on human shift workers are being used at the Cleveland zoo to help nocturnal primates adapt

Humans are tuned to work in the day and sleep at night.   Nocturnal primates have opposite rhythms, up at night and sleeping all day.   And when either of these patterns are broken  -  like a nurse working the night shift, or a nocturnal animal kept up all day at the zoo -  there can be serious health effects.  In this week’s edition of Exploradio -  we look at how human studies are being adapted to improve the health of nocturnal primates.
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The secret world of race tires
Firestone helps the Indy 500 celebrate 100 years of racing and engineers in Akron tweak the secret formula for ever faster results,

The 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 is this Sunday.   And engineers at the Firestone research center in Akron will be eagerly watching results on race day… tweaking the formula for a winning tire.  But, as we report in this week’s edition of Exploradio, the technology of race tires remains an intensely guarded secret.
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The future of fuel-cell technology in Ohio
Stationary applications rather than vehicles may be the best hope for the emerging technology

Fuel cells are a ‘new’ technology that’s been ‘just around the corner’ for more than 20 years.  Now advocates say the industry has finally arrived, even while the federal government is scaling back support.
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Blue Penguins and other mysteries
Feather researchers in Akron use fossil evidence to determine coloring of an extinct dinosaur and make a new discovery along the way

Books on dinosaurs tend to paint them in fanciful colors, from Barney purple to day-glo orange.  Now scientists can tell artists the true colors of at least one extinct dinosaur.    In this first installment of Exploradio, a weekly series exploring science and innovation in Northeast Ohio, we look at how researchers at the University of Akron started off studying penguins and ended up with a picture of a dinosaur …
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