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El Nino Is Coming Back; A Unique Way to Train Firefighters; Tiger Woods, Britney Spears Come Out With New Video Games
Aired March 09, 2002 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Today on NEXT@CNN, mudslides, forest fires, tornados, not so fond memories of the last El Nino. Now it looks as if another one is on the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONRAD LAUTENBACHER, NOAA ADMINISTRATOR: The Gulf of Mexico and Florida could become more stormy and rainy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: But is the news all bad?
Disaster in a big rig, this tractor trailer is a rolling fire hazard, but firefighters appreciate it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're almost not sure what's going to happen next.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: A unique way to train firefighters without burning down the house.
And a tale of Tiger and Britney, and how you can try to beat them in their own game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's weird. You're actually playing your own video game and actually playing with yourself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Going one-on-one with the champ. All that and more on NEXT.
JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Hi everybody, and welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm James Hattori, this week from San Francisco's Pier 39, where visitors from around the world come to take in spectacular views of the city by the bay. Of course, it wouldn't be San Francisco without a little bit of rain or wind sometimes. But no matter where you are, brace yourself El Nino is back. That's right, government forecasters are looking for the Pacific Ocean warming phenomenon to resurface next winter.
You probably remember the devastating weather that occurred last time El Nino paid a visit, but forecasters say this one may not be as rough, and in some parts of the country, the news may be good. Ann Kellan takes a look at what's looming over the horizon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Here's what the last El Nino caused, mudslides in California, fires in Indonesia, floods in Texas. Now forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center say another El Nino is coming. What damage will it do?
The last El Nino in 1997-98, people in California lost more than a billion dollars in property damage from mudslides and rain. Will California be hit again? Forecasters say it's too early to tell. This El Nino that's now heating up waters in the Pacific is considered milder than the last El Nino. Forecasters want to watch its behavior over the next two months, before predicting its impact on a few states, including California.
LAUTENBACHER: The Gulf of Mexico and Florida could become more stormy and rainy during that period.
KELLAN: North Florida and the Southeast, brace yourself for rain next winter. That could turn out to be good news for some areas dried from drought. The Southwest need rain, but if forecasters call it right, expect a drier winter than normal.
El Nino brought some good memories the last time around. Warmer winter days in the middle states and Northeast brought people out to play and shop. The U.S. saved $6.7 billion in heating costs, according to a Northern Illinois University study, while retail sales in 1997-98 increased by $5.6 billion.
Forecasters predict another warm winter in the Midwest and Great Plains states. It's still too early to tell if the Northeast and New England will get a break from the cold next winter, while the Pacific Northwest forecasters say we'll get less rain next winter.
El Nino reduces the number of hurricanes and tropical storms, though one is all you need to do life-threatening damage. During the last El Nino, the U.S. saved about $5 billion in emergency relief alone.
DAVID CHANGNON, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY: In our study we found in the U.S. a benefit of about $15 billion, so it's huge.
KELLAN: Yet worldwide, the last El Nino caused 2,100 deaths and $22 billion in property damage. Parts of the world are already feeling the effects of this El Nino, specifically south of the equator, where winter is in full swing. And reports from Peruvian fisherman they're catching warm water fish, shrimp for example, instead of cold water varieties like anchovies. Wildlife feels El Nino's heat.
LAUTENBACHER: On the oceans, you will see things like the salmon, ground fish, they will move with the temperatures in the water.
KELLAN: During the last El Nino, sea lions suffered. Some even starved to death when fish that usually hug the coast and the warmer waters swam further out in the temperate sea.
LAUTENBACHER: This is really only the second one that we predicted, so I have a group of people that are banking their reputations on this.
KELLAN: Forecasters will tell you it's always a gamble to make weather predictions, especially months ahead of time. And there's a lot of pressure and money on the line to get it right.
LAUTENBACHER: It makes a big difference to our economy to know what's about to happen in terms of energy resources, in terms of our fishing industry, in terms of agriculture.
KELLAN: NOAA claims these early forecasts give industries and agencies like FEMA time to plan ahead, hopefully saving money, resources, even lives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Another weather related concern, imagine no orioles in Baltimore, not the baseball team, the birds. New research from the National Wildlife Federation says several state birds, including Maryland's Baltimore Oriole and Iowa's American Gold Finch could completely abandon the states they represent. The culprit, climate change according to the study from the National Wildlife Federation. The research says some song birds are already shifting their ranges, and some, such as the endangered Golden Cheeked Warbler could go extinct.
While some conservationists are worried about the birds, others are concerned about the future of the world's lakes. Experts met recently at an International Conference on Lakes. Gary Strieker has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Most of the world's freshwater lakes and reservoirs, about five million of them, are facing serious ecological threats. Many are dying. There are two major reasons, overuse especially from diversion of lake water for irrigation, and contamination by toxic waste and nutrients from industry, farms, and sewage.
(on camera): According to scientists, of all natural ecological systems, lakes are the most vulnerable and difficult to restore. But policymakers in many countries have widely ignored what is happening to their lakes.
(voice over): The amounts of water stored in the world's freshwater lakes is about 35 times the amount in rivers, at least one billion people depend directly on lakes for their livelihood and for drinking water. Lakes are a source of commerce, food, and energy production, and a major habitat for plant and animal species.
Experts attending an International Lake Conference in Japan have called for new measures to protect and restore lakes, focusing on surrounding watersheds, and the runoff carrying contaminants that slowly accumulate in lakes.
WILLIAM COSGROVE, WORLD WATER COUNCIL: You have to pay attention to these and stop them from accumulating, because you won't see if you're just looking at the lake. You don't see these signs until it's too late.
STRIEKER: After a lake becomes degraded, especially a large lake, it takes a long time and expensive capital investment to restore it. That's why successful restorations are rare, especially in poor developing countries, and why scientists say it's now critically important to save the world's lakes while there's still time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Fingerprint evidence, concrete proof in a court of law? Not necessarily. That story and much more when NEXT@CNN returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Ask just about any tourist or other traveler, and they probably experienced firsthand the beefed up security at U.S. airports, from body pat-downs to shoe swabbing, and the fun doesn't end there. By the end of the year, airports must have technology in place to screen every piece of checked luggage for bombs. But as Kathleen Koch reports, there's a snag.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They have been the million dollar quandary in aviation security, machines that screen checked bags for bombs, machines Congress told the government to put in every airport by the end of the year.
But the two approved manufacturers couldn't make the 2,200 needed, and it will cost more than $5 billion. Now the government says it signed agreements with other suppliers.
JOHN MAGAW, UNDERSECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: We can use some of these other companies, so now these other companies are looking at, you know, how many they can build in a certain period of time.
KOCH: But they don't have much time or money, their entire budget just $2 billion. So the government is also considering cheaper technology, so-called trace detection systems used to check bags during the Olympics. Some lawmakers believe that would meet the December deadline to have explosive detection equipment in all airports.
REP. JIM OBERSTAR (D), MINNESOTA: What I envision is totally in keeping with the law. Explosive detection systems, trace detection, and enhanced x-ray technology that, taken together, will speed the process of screening checked luggage.
KOCH: Even supporters caution the focus must be not just on getting technology, but making sure it works.
MICHAEL GOLDFARB, FORMER FAA CHIEF OF STAFF: The danger would be to rush technology to meet a congressional imposed deadline, as opposed to designing technology to protect the public.
KOCH (on camera): Getting the equipment in place come December will mean that for the first time, all checked bags will truly be screened for explosives. Critics say the next issue, determining better ways to respond to threats once they're identified.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Testing for explosives seems to be pretty cut and dry science, but another crime fighting tool, fingerprinting, has come under attack as being not scientific at all. As Renay San Miguel reports, a Pennsylvania judge's ruling has smeared the validity of fingerprint evidence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): You see them at every infamous and not so famous crime scene. While families of the victims mourn, cameras roll, and police look for answers, crime scene investigators, forensic scientists, are hard at work in the background, quietly lifting fingerprints that they hope will help convict the perpetrators.
Their work has been used in courts for 90 years. It's even the basis for a hit TV series. But in January, a federal judge created a real life forensics drama by saying fingerprinting isn't really a science after all.
District Judge Louis Pollack, ruling in a Philadelphia drug related murder case said there's no way to judge error rates in matching fingerprints. "The work is based more on opinion, not scientific standards," the judge said. "Therefore, forensics experts can not say in court that fingerprints from a crime scene definitely match those of a suspect. Experts can give their opinions, but that's all."
There were plenty of opinions about Judge Pollack's ruling at this recent convention for forensic scientists in Atlanta where the latest evidence-sifting software and hardware were on display.
ANDRE MOENSSENS, FORENSICS EXPERT: It was extremely surprising because the judge reached the decision on the basis of a record without really hearing any evidence.
SAN MIGUEL: Forensics expert, Andrea Moennssens, disagrees with the judge and blames the decision on the advent of DNA evidence in highly publicized cases. He says the judge expects the same exactitude with fingerprints as with genetics, but says, they're two different sciences.
MOENSSENS: Having spent a half a century with fingerprint identification, I feel very confident that even if the purists haven't been convinced by evidence, that uniqueness has been established. I feel very confident that it has.
JIM STARRS, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: It does take a little skill to roll a print. It can get smudged otherwise.
SAN MIGUEL: Jim Starrs, a professor of forensic sciences at George Washington University Law School has been something of a doubting Thomas among his colleagues for a long time. He hails the decision, saying his field could use a second look.
STARRS: I'm just simply looking for the evidence to back up the unsupported statements that have been made for so many years.
SAN MIGUEL: Starrs is referring to the differing standards set by different jurisdictions for fingerprints. England, for example, required 16 points of similarity between an inked print done in a police precinct house and a latent or crime scene print.
But the City of Boston says Starrs requires only eight points for a match. The judge's ruling only applies to his district. It doesn't apply to past cases. But people like Starrs say, it could be used to attack other forensic sciences like ballistics, tire marks, bite marks. Suddenly, the routine work in labs like this one isn't so routine anymore.
(on camera): For years, forensic scientists, like those here at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, have used a variety of methods for making fingerprints appear. Chemicals, powders, dyes, lights and lasers, all become the tools of the trade for transforming fingerprints into court exhibits.
(voice over): Some argue that the ruling not only applies to forensic science, but to the scientists themselves.
SIMON COLE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: One of the impacts of this controversy is that as fingerprint examiners and fingerprint labs are vouching for their credentials in court, you're beginning to separate out the wheat from the chaff, and you're beginning to see that some fingerprint examiners in this country have very good training, and some fingerprint examiners do not.
SAN MIGUEL: Technological advances, like databases that link fingerprint libraries from a variety of law enforcement agencies, as well as software that turns fingerprints into mathematical equations for easier comparisons to decades old prints, have helped catch people like Vernon Robinson, convicted in 1990 for a 1963 murder. Now, after nearly a century of work, forensic scientists are having to prove themselves all over again in court, all because a judge has told them, "show me the evidence. Show me the science."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, training the next generation of video game designers. Also get down and boogie with Bruce Burkhardt, as he passed out some gaming gadgets that will get more than just your thumbs moving.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: The virtual horserace is on to see who will popularize online video games. Sony's PlaysStation 2 headed toward the gate this week, betting that its future is on the Web.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI (voice over): With more than 34 million consoles in North American alone, Sony Playstation dominates at home video gaming. Now, it wants to connect its community of gamers.
KAZ HIRAJ, PRESIDENT: Expanding into the online arena is something that the consumers have been looking for.
HATTORI: So in August, Sony will offer a $40 network adaptor that plugs into the back of its Playstation 2 console, allowing gamers to play each other over the Internet. The adaptor will automatically access Internet providers, including Earthlink, AT&T and AOL. It will work with existing broadband connections, but also has a dialup modem for slower analog access.
Sony plans to introduce about a dozen network-enabled games in August, so current disks won't work online, and there won't be any monthly fees, beyond the Internet subscription. But games are just the beginning.
HIRAJ: That will be a small component of a variety of software offerings, whether it's motion picture movies, music, and other entertainment content, that's going to be available to the consumer through the Playstation 2.
HATTORI: Other game companies, including Microsoft, maker of the X-Box, and Nintendo, which produces the Game Cube, also have grand visions of broadband and big subscriptions fees, but that could be years away. Until more homes are wired for high-speed access, Sony at least for now, is content to let gamers play around for free.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: As game systems like Playstation become more sophisticated, world class game designers become more in demand. Kristie Lu Stout reports from a school in Hong Kong that's developing a killer reputation for turning out top game makers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. GINO YU, HEAD, MIC: This is actually a digital camera, using a Gameboy Advanced. So we built a prototype. We're tying a blue tooth interface to it right now, so we're doing a lot of wireless applications as well too, because that's another one of these technologies that have a lot of technical application.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You hacked into a Gameboy.
YU: Yes, we hacked into a Gameboy, basically.
STOUT (voice-over): Such high tech hijinks are par for the course at Hong Kong's Multi Media Innovation Center or MIC, the ultimate training ground for tomorrow's game box wizards.
YU: We just started this year a new Master's Program. It's the first of its kind in Asia. It's a Master's in multi media and entertainment technology. Where it's a unique program, where we're combining art design students with traditional technology engineering students into a new program.
This is developed by a student in our training program in six weeks, so complete textures and models and everything. This is what our studio looks like in the VR world. They have (UNINTELLIGIBLE), a blue screen facility. We used to run our training workshops here, and if the students don't do a good job, you just kind of (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
STOUT: Going completely ballistic is encouraged in the MIC classroom, while in the motion capture studio the world's best Kung Fu fight choreographers are transformed into digital action figures. Hands-on experience gained in the lab and at local game companies that offer the chance to work on real world projects.
HARRY MILLER, CEO, EN-TRANZ: Hopefully I can provide people who can train the students here by teaching them program design art, not just how to do it, but how to do it on a world class level.
STOUT: A community of game developers with a solid portfolio and a pension for blowing up the classroom.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: One gaming trend that's already very popular in Asia is catching on in the U.S. Instead of thumbing around with the traditional controller, you can use a wide range of peripherals or add-ons that hook up to your game system. Our Bruce Burkhardt talks with gaming expert Marc Saltsman in this week's techno file.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARC SALTZMAN, PERSONAL TECH GURU: The first game we've got here is "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3" a very popular skateboarding game. Now, of course, you can use a regular controller to play the game, but Thrustmaster here, they've designed this game called, this board called the Freestyle board. You step on it and it's got tilt sensors underneath and two programmable buttons, but we haven't set those up.
So let's just start the game. Whatever you do on the board, it happens on the screen. So here I am on top of this clothesline, and you move left, it goes left in the game. You move right, it goes right in the game. OK, Bruce, why don't you give it a try now. Let's pause the game. Now it's your turn.
BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I don't have the sense you have between what I'm doing with my feet and what's going on in the game.
SALTZMAN: Right. It takes a while to get -- oh, nice move. There you go. OH, ouch.
BURKHARDT: I think that's pretty good though.
SALTZMAN: Yes, all right.
BURKHARDT: What do we have here?
SALTZMAN: Well, this just like it looks like, it's called the freestyle bike and it's meant for motor cross racing games, or maybe snowmobiling or even jet skiing games. So if you want to sit on this part here.
BURKHARDT: You actually sit on it.
SALTZMAN: Yes, just straddle this table.
BURKHARDT: OK.
SALTZMAN: And we are looking at a game called MX-2002. Just like the real bike, you can gas it on the right. And then the last one we want to show today is for a dancing game. So it replaces your controller that you would use with your hand. See these four arrows here, of course left, right, forward, and back. Right when it enters the arrow. You can hear it in the music. Left. Right. Right. Right. Right. OK. You failed unfortunately. Let me show you how it's done.
BURKHARDT: Normally, I have a much better rhythm than that.
SALTZMAN: Oh, sure. See what I mean.
BURKHARDT: I've got rhythm. I'm Bruce Burkhardt and that's "Techno File."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Was that the funky chicken? Remember that? Maybe it was the funky Bruce. In any event, Brittany Spears has her own dance mat too. We'll tell you about that later in the program. In the meantime, if you like those gadgets, check out our website, cnn.com/next. We'll have links to information on those products and other ways to get gaming couch potatoes on their feet. We'll be back after a break and a check of the latest news. ANNOUNCER: Still ahead on NEXT AT CNN, Tiger Woods gets into the swing of things. The Hubble gets a heart transplant, and NASA gets a message from beyond the solar system, all that and more when NEXT AT CNN returns in a few minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN from San Francisco's windy Pier 39; across the bay, a view of Alcatraz Island. Meantime, 360 miles above us, the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia is wrapping up an 11-day mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. The packed schedule included five walks in five days, outside in Zero G, for the seven-member astronaut crew, an ambitious undertaking indeed, and one chronicled all the way by Miles O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The week of walks began with wings, solar wings. Hubble's nine-year-old models had lost some oomph and were vibrating in the wild temperature swings of low earth orbit. Vibrations are the enemy of clear images.
During a pair of nearly identical space walks, the teams of John Grunsfeld and Rick Linnehan and Jim Newman and Mike Massimino, removed installed the old solar arrays, which rolled up like window shades. They attached some new rigid arrays that are smaller yet able to produce 20 percent more electricity, and they replaced a bulky gyroscope.
That set the stage for one of the tensest moments for Hubbleistas since the mission to correct the telescope's blurry vision in 1993. For the first time since it was launched, Hubble was turned off for four and a half hours, while Grunsfeld and Linnehan swapped out the telescopes power control unit. The heart transplant was a success, and Hubble was left with ample power to run its instruments during what scientists hope will be another eight years in orbit.
With Hubble's health improved, the astronauts focused on its scientific well-being. The space walkers installed a new instrument with some great potential. The advanced camera for surveys is 10 times more powerful than the current workhorse on Hubble, which gets the photo credit for images of the most distant galaxies ever seen.
The new camera is likely to extend Hubble's reach even deeper into the cosmos. The space walkers also worked to bring an idle Hubble instrument back online. The Nitmos (ph) infrared camera operates at very low temperatures, 100 degrees below zero Celsius. So when its cooling system failed three years ago, the instrument was shut down. The astronauts installed a new $21 million cooler that should allow astronomers to see the universe through infrared colored glasses.
NASA had reason to be rosy after watching this mission unfold. Hubble, once a laughing stock, is rewriting the astronomy textbooks, defining the age and expansion of the universe, spotting black holes, seeing stars at their birth and death. Scientists say Hubble is at the vanguard of a golden age of astronomy, and they are thanking their lucky stars.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: NASA made a long distance call last week and 22 hours later, someone answered. That someone is Pioneer 10, launched 30 years ago this month. NASA used a radio telescope in the California desert to contact the craft and see if it was still operating. Pioneer's original 21-month mission was to study Jupiter.
The Pioneer just kept going, and in 1983, it became the first manmade object to leave the solar system. What's next for Pioneer? It's now headed for a star in the constellation Taurus, but at the speed it's going, it won't get there for 2 million years. We'll keep you posted.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up on NEXT, bicycles see the light as researchers look for ways to prevent unpleasant encounters between bikes and cars.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Across the U.S. house fires have been on the decline thanks to better building practices and quick response. The downside is that firefighters are getting fewer chances to practice their skill. A California company offers a solution that's both high tech and mobile.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI (voice over): A two-man crew enters a fully engulfed structure fire. Flames are shooting from a stove, up the kitchen wall, creating so much heat even the ceiling ignites. It's a hot, smoky, and dangerously unpredictable environment.
RICH HOPKINS, NOVATO FIRE DEPARTMENT: You're almost not sure what's going to happen next. Your head's on a swivel and you're looking around like you're supposed to and you just take everything that comes at you.
HATTORI: But everything coming at these crews is taking place inside this 50-foot big rig truck, parked behind the fire station in Novato, California. It's the only private mobile training unit of its kind in the U.S. One person runs the computerized control panel, while monitoring the crew through a window in a small shielded room.
TOM ZURFLUETH, NORTH TREE FIRE INTERNATIONAL: I control the scenario, where the fire's going to be, how long it burns for, how hot it burns for, the smoke application. The fires are extremely hot. The guys are pushing it around, just like you do in a normal fire, and all the same things are encountered, all the problems that happened.
HATTORI: Propane tanks fuel the flames spewing from three hot spots, a kitchen stovetop, a rack containing hazardous, flammable materials, and a second-floor bedroom at the top of the stairway.
HATTORI (on camera): (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in a real fire can approach 1,500, even 2,000 degrees. Here in the training setting, about 1,200 degrees, still very realistic, but not so hot as to damage fire equipment.
CHIEF KEVIN JOHNSTON, NOVATO FIRE DEPARTMENT: We talk beforehand. We set up the scenario that we'd like to do and through their computer control, they're able to get fire going in various areas, and we change it based on how the crew is doing, how they're responding, their level of experience.
HATTORI: North Tree Fire International's mobile trainer rents for $3,900 a day, and it's booked about 100 days a year. The City of Novato hired the unit to reinforce critical lessons being taught to a class of new recruits, things like how to approach a fire, nozzle technique, and teamwork.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right guys, what did you encounter when you first made entry?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A fully involved room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fully involved?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A good working fire on the stove that was going over the ceiling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I may have waited a second or two too long, because it was coming down the back wall before I gave water.
HATTORI: The simulator is especially valuable because training with staged open fires is increasingly rare, due to environmental restrictions.
JOHNSTON: This is irreplaceable. You have to be able to get in to see, to smell, to feel, to understand the full experience of what a fire is.
HATTORI: And for fire crews, understanding what to expect when the alarm sounds, training for the unexpected means a greater chance of coming home safely.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Arriving home safely is the goal of some research at the University of Florida. Marsha Walton explains how a popular wristwatch technology may help avoid nighttime disasters by making your bicycle glow in the dark.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARSHA WALTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Each year in the United States, some 900 people die in bicycling accidents, and over a half million more require an emergency room visit. One University of Florida professor is looking to technology to reduce these numbers.
PROFESSOR CHRIS NIEZRECKI, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: I noticed that it was very difficult to see bicycle riders at night, even with headlights or taillights on that you can buy now. It was pretty difficult to see them.
WALTON: Using a small battery pack, and the same type of glowing material found in some watches, Dr. Niezrecki and his students were able to make their bikes light up the night.
NIEZRECKI: We've done some preliminary tests, and we've shown that you can easily identify the bike from over 600 feet away.
WALTON: A Consumer Product Safety Commission study found that motorists involved in car or bicycle collisions report the bikes and riders were not visible, and experts say that as many as 50 percent of all bicycling accidents happen at night, even though it's estimated nighttime riding accounts for less than 10 percent of recreational cycling.
While the glow bike's current use is to help avoid these nighttime disasters, this new technology is even used for other applications as well.
NIEZRECKI: A blind person e-mailed me and he said "they don't make electric -- they don't make canes that glow in the dark. There's no reason why it couldn't be extended to wheelchairs or motorcycles or things like that as well.
WALTON: For now though, these university researchers believe they've seen the light that may save lives on their campus and perhaps around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Dr. Niezrecki has patents pending and is looking for a commercial partner for the invention. He's hoping to release the finished product to the public soon, retailing for about $75.
ANNOUNCER: Next on NEXT, scientists enlist some unusual cameramen for their research into Antarctic fish, that and more coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Welcome back. As you can see behind me and undoubtedly here, this group of California sea lions has taken up residence at Pier 39. It sounds like they're having a great time too. Now some of their relatives have been drafted for service beneath the Antarctic ice. Researchers at the National Science Foundation equipped (UNINTELLIGIBLE) seals with underwater cameras.
They're using the animals to track two important links in the southern ocean food chain, the Antarctic silverfish and the Antarctic tooth fish because seals like to eat both those species, which are easily found hundreds of feet under water below heavy packed ice.
Each seal was equipped with a forward and rear facing video camera, special infrared lights and data recorders. The equipment tracked both their movement through the water and their interactions with their prey. The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) allows scientists to closely observe the fish in their natural environment for the first time. Researchers think the technique could also help them study other deep water environments.
A penguin paradise has been saved, thanks to New York philanthropist Michael Steinhart (ph). He donated two remote uninhabited islands, part of the Falkland chain in the South Atlantic, to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The islands are a major breeding ground for marine birds, including Rockhopper penguins, Gentoo penguins and the world's largest colony of black browed albatross. The illegal egg harvesting and unregulated tourism threaten this wildlife haven, but now it will be better protected. Conservationists plan to build a new research station here to better understand these remarkable islands.
Japan has been defying the worldwide ban on whaling for close to a decade. Now the nation also plans to import whale meat for the first time in 11 years. Japan says it will buy whale flesh from Norway to show solidarity with Norway's hunting policy.
Japan and Norway are the only two whaling nations, but Norway hunts whales commercially, while Japan says its hunt is only for scientific research, even though Japan does end up selling the meat as well. Both nations argue that there are plenty of whales and the ban on hunting them should be ended. Conservation groups are outraged over the planned sale, but Japan calls the decision a matter of principle.
A government study has some explosive implications indicating as many as 15,000 Americans may have died from cancer due to fallout from nuclear testing conducted by several nations including the United States. The report, due out later this year, already has many Americans asking, "what about me?" Natalie Pawelski explains some of America's nuclear past.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Most nuclear explosions were not supposed to kill anyone. They were just tests aimed at proving what bombs could do in an age of mutually assured destruction. But kill they did. Government numbers say widespread fallout from the tests has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans so far.
SEN. TOM HARKIN (D), IOWA: Well, what we know I think is sort of the tip of the iceberg here. We know that there's been upwards of perhaps 15,000 deaths that are attributable to these nuclear tests.
PAWELSKI: Congress ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare a major report on these hidden Cold War health risks. The study is overdue. The department has given Congress a progress report, but the critics on the Hill say that's not enough.
HARKIN: People have a right to know. If they were exposed where the big areas of fallout were and they need to be, I think, screened and told what to do to protect their health. PAWELSKI: We may never know the names of the victims, because it's almost impossible to tie any one individual case of cancer directly with the test. Who's to blame? Hard to say. When the damage was done, the world was at war, first hot, then cold.
Standards were different and those doing the tests may not have realized all their potential impacts. But government fallout maps show how radioactive substances, even from tests far overseas, contaminated unexpected places.
ARJUN MAKHIJANI, INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY: What is surprising and very new is that it has created intense hot spots in the continental United States, all the way from California, Washington and Oregon, to Vermont, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
PAWELSKI: And there's domestic fallout, from the U.S. Nuclear Test Site in Nevada, which also spread radiation far a field.
MAKHIJANI: In some areas, children got doses to the thyroid as high as the fallout areas from the Chernobyl accident.
PAWELSKI (on camera): Since the Manhattan Project, there have been more than 2,000 nuclear test detonations worldwide. Most above ground testing ended 40 years ago. But some of the radioactive substances released into the atmosphere remain dangerous a lot longer than that. More than a decade after it ended, the Cold War may still be claiming victims.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Still ahead on NEXT, Tiger Woods goes down in defeat to these two kids. How will our Jeannie Moos do? Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Finally, you know it had to happen. Two more celebrities are turning into video game stars. Jeanne Moos tees up with Tiger, and gets down with Britney.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Connect the dots and you get Tiger Woods making his latest video game. Will the real Tiger tee up? Tiger's latest video game debuted at the world's biggest toy store in Times Square.
STUART SCOTT, ESPN: Toys 'R Us, or as we say in the hood, We Be Toys.
MOOS: We be lying if we didn't admit we were lured into doing this story by the offer of 20 minutes alone with Tiger playing his game.
TIGER WOODS: No, this is the one after it.
MOOS (on camera): What do you mean the one after? WOODS: We're playing speed golf.
MOOS (voice over): Little did Tiger know he'd be stuck with a novice who'd never before touched a video game nor golf club.
MOOS (on camera): Now are we on some special golf course here?
WOODS: Yes, we're at Pebble Beach, the first hole at Pebble Beach. Ready and go.
MOOS: Wait, I wasn't ready. Tiger had to wear a special suit for hours of what's called motion capture so his cyber twin would have all the right moves.
WOODS: It's physically like me but I'm a little bit bigger. I wish I could be that big.
MOOS: Tiger's been playing video games since he was a kid.
WOODS: So it's weird actually playing your own video game and actually playing yourself. That to me is just too trippy for me.
MOOS: Sports video games have gotten so lifelike, the players are almost spooky and sports figures aren't alone.
MOOS (on camera): Look who else has their own video game?
WOODS: Brittany, huh?
MOOS: She's really -- I mean they got her body down.
JAMIE GAFUS: Oh yes, she's beautiful.
MOOS (voice over): The Brittany Spears video game is due out in May.
GAFUS: Well the idea is you're a dancer auditioning to be on our tour.
MOOS: Brittany herself chimes in to let you know how you're doing. But when it came to me -- the game even comes with a foot pad you can tap on instead of using the controller, sort of the Brittany workout. Hang in there Tiger. He was apparently beaten at his own game by two kids from the Make a Wish Foundation.
SCOTTIE MARSH, TIGER FAN: I beat Tiger Woods.
MOOS: For a minute, I thought I would too.
MOOS (on camera): Hey, you're in trouble. I got Tiger Woods on the run.
WOODS: Come on. Oh, you lose.
MOOS: So I lost.
WOODS: Lost by one.
MOOS (voice over): That's par for the course.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Well, we've played our 18 holes, but before we go here's a look at what we've got coming up. As the government sponsored hunts last year, only 13 wolves are left in the wild in Norway. What might that mean for the country's ecosystem?
Also, our Bruce Burkhardt ties one on to test some do-it-yourself breathalyzers. Find out if you can rely on these devices to keep you out of trouble, that and more coming on NEXT. Until then, let us hear from you. You can e-mail us at next@cnn.com. Thanks so much for joining us this week. For all of us on the sci tech beat, I'm James Hattori. See you next time.
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