ReInventors

Science and Nature Series / 1 Season

ReInventors is a show that features scientists, inventors, and tinkerers in the Pacific Northwest who are working to create a more sustainable future. You'll meet folks who are reimagining the basic elements of our everyday lives - where we live, what we eat, the way we get to work.

3m 32s

Edible plastic is here, and it tastes like... | ReInventors

S1 E1 / 3m 32s

A scientist at Oregon State University is developing edible food packaging as well as edible coating for fruits and vegetables. Her goals: reduce plastic waste and keep food fresher longer. Katie Herzog visits Yanyun Zhao in her lab for a taste test.

How to turn leftovers into electricity

S1 E2 / 4m 34s

A startup company in Seattle is converting half-eaten burgers, spoiled milk, and spent yeast from a brewery into electricity and fertilizer. Katie Herzog visits Jan Allen, from Impact Bioenergy, to find out how a shipping-container-sized digester converts leftovers into energy.

Self-Driving Bikes: Seattle’s Next Transit Revolution?

S1 E3 / 3m 48s

Professor Tyler Folsom and his students at University of Washington Bothell are spearheading a grassroots effort to develop lighter, more affordable, personal rapid transit: self-driving bikes.

Meet the Man With a Nuclear Reactor in his Basement

S1 E4 / 4m 16s

In the basement of a house on a quiet residential street in a suburb just outside of Seattle resides the ultimate home science experiment — a nuclear fusion reactor.

What if clean energy was as easy as pressing 'print'?

S1 E5 / 4m 2s

Imagine if you could turn almost any surface into a solar panel: office windows could power the buildings that house them. In a disaster, the tent walls of emergency shelters could generate enough energy to improve conditions for the people inside. What if solar power was so cheap and efficient that even cloudy places like the Pacific Northwest could rely on it?

Fighting mosquitoes with frickin' laser beams

S1 E6 / 4m 19s

You can always count on pesky mosquitoes to make their presence known through bothersome buzzes and itchy bites. But they're worse than annoying: Nearly half a million people a year worldwide die from malaria carried by the critters. Scientists at Intellectual Ventures Laboratory in Bellevue, WA, are battling these deadly carriers with the coolest technology possible: lasers.

We've seen the future of meat, and it's plants

S1 E7 / 4m 48s

Move over, Tofurky. Plant-based meats are booming, and companies like Seattle-based Field Roast are redefining an entire food group. But it's more than a matter of just taste or ethics: Animal-derived proteins carry a larger carbon footprint than their veggie substitutes, so your hamburger choice has real consequences for the environment.

Would you lock yourself in a box of smog–for science?

S1 E8 / 5m 23s

Long-term exposure to air pollution is one of the leading environmental causes of death worldwide. Researchers at the Air Pollution Exposure Lab study participants who spend two hours in a plexiglass box filled with diesel exhaust calibrated to mimic the air quality of Beijing.

How bug ranching can fix the food system

S1 E9 / 6m 8s

A nonprofit focused on protecting salmon and a Washington bug farm are trying something new. Through her company Beta Hatch, bug rancher Virginia Emery raises mealworms as an alternative feed to fish meal — a zero-waste option that even reduces waste from other agricultural industries.

Can these super oysters survive our screwed-up oceans?

S1 E10 / 4m 56s

Thanks to us, the famously delicious oysters of the Pacific Northwest are in danger. The CO2 and methane we release into the atmosphere ends up acidifying the ocean — which makes it difficult for oysters and other shelled sea creatures to calcify the homes they carry on their backs.

Meet the Climate Game Changer

S1 E11 / 5m 3s

Fighting climate change can feel terrifying for plenty of adults. But 17-year-old Rayan Krishnan turned it into a game — literally. Along with fellow students at Redmond’s Tesla STEM High School, he created Operation Sustain, a video game that teaches kids about climate change.

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