Word: sensors
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...Island, right in the middle of the bay, so Lowe can study them easily. In order to understand how much impact a hammerhead has on the bay ecosystem, Lowe is trying to learn how much energy it expends and how much food that takes. He has designed a miniature sensor that attaches to the baby shark's back and registers every beat of the tail as the shark swims along. By feeding the babies a precise amount of fish, then putting them in a tank with constantly flowing water--a sort of shark treadmill--he can determine just how many...
...second part of the experiment, Lowe puts a sensor-equipped shark into the open bay and follows it as it darts back and forth. After two days of nonstop tracking, he and his exhausted crew have a precise record of where the baby has gone and, by counting its tail beats, how much energy it has used. "We still have a lot of data to gather," he says, "but once we really understand what role the hammerhead pups play here, we can use that to begin understanding how adults fit into the ecosystem of the open ocean...
...reduce the risk, Williams is testing a remote gas sensor that can read a volcano's emissions from a plane flying nearby or even a car driving past at a distance of as much as 20 miles. The instrument works by detecting changes in the infrared energy caused by different gases in the volcanic plume. Says Williams: "Volcanoes give gaseous signals of approaching eruptions. This gives us the lead time we need to get people educated and not terrorized...
Traditionally, a false start occurs when a runner starts before the starter pistol fires. But advances in technology have led to these errors being registered by a sensor attached to the starting block and connected to the starter...
...mice thin. But they are still trying to puzzle out just how it works. Friedman, for one, believes leptin is almost certainly a hormone that travels through the bloodstream to act on the brain. In fact, it appears leptin may act in a feedback loop like the temperature sensor in a thermostat--or in this case a "fatstat"--to tell the body whether to turn metabolism and appetite up or down. Thus when leptin is low, hunger pangs increase, body temperature drops, and metabolism slows. When leptin is high, everything reverses. In such fashion, the brain strives to keep body...