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Natural Luminescence Could Help Develop New Technologies; Aircraft Researchers Take Cue From Birds, Bugs; Flashy Answer to Parking Problems

Aired August 03, 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: Glow little glowfish, your luminescence could lead to the next generation of flat panel display screens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It allows multi-viewers to look at the same screen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Imagine gaming with a natural glow.

Aircraft researchers are learning a thing or two from the birds and the bugs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A butterfly or a hummingbird can turn on a dime, but a 747 takes like, you know, a mile to take a right turn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Their findings could lead to spy planes not much bigger than a fly on the wall.

And, take a spin in one of the most compact cars around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The roadster is basically a personal hot rod.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: A flashy answer to big city parking problems. All that, and more, on NEXT.

JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Hi, everybody, and welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm James Hattori, this week from the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. This aquariums represents the underwater environment of the Farelon (ph) islands, 25 miles off the coast of San Francisco. It's easy to be awestruck by the mystery and diversity of sea creatures living in the deep, dark depths. What secrets do they hold? Well, just south of here, off the coast, researchers are studying some of the denizens of that darkness, whose biology is shedding light on some remarkable new technologies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): From the waters along California's Monterey Bay comes research with a future so bright Steve Haddock has to lower his shades. In his darkened lab, Haddock is harvesting the natural glow from local sea creatures, like jellyfish.

STEVE HADDOCK, SCIENTIST, MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM RESEARCHER: When you go into the ocean, you can name pretty much any kind of organism, and there's going to be a bioluminescent member of that group.

HATTORI: Monterey Bay, with the deepest canyon in the continental U.S., is an ideal setting for Haddock and crew, operating the ocean's hippest rover, at depths of up to 10,000 feet.

HADDOCK: Those of us working in mid-water, we have a certain set of samplers that have been specially designed to be able to collect jellyfish, keeping them intact. We can either suck them in, if they're a little bit hardier, if we can actually suck them into a little suction sampler.

HATTORI: These jellyfish give researchers a double whammy of brightness. They have a protein that glows under external light sources. They're also bioluminescent, chemically generating their own light.

It's research that's helping manufacturers design a new generation of flat panel display screens, a prospect leading electronics makers to see green. For image and film giant Kodak, one of the most promising technologies is organic light-emitting diodes, or oleds, building on the jellyfish's glowing protein. Kodak researchers light up small organic molecules with electricity, producing a panel that is remarkably thinner, brighter and sharper than standard LCD, or liquid crystal displays, and viewable from almost any angle.

DAN D'ALMEIDA, VICE PRESIDENT, KODAK: It allows multi-viewers to look at the same screen. It allows you to view it in a situation where maybe you can't put the device directly in front of yourself.

HATTORI: Take a look at this Gameboy, modified with an oled panel, compared to the standard LCD using backlight. The drawback is that oleds are more fragile and, so far, many only have a limited range of colors.

HADDOCK: The development now is to find once that are stabile and produce this range of wave lengths that are required to produce a full color display.

HATTORI: Other companies are pitching in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Red was kind of the holy grail. HATTORI: BD Biosciences Clontech has isolated a red fluorescent protein from one particular kind of fish, but had to drastically mutate the molecule. The challenge is to replicate the protein inexpensively and lengthen the lifespan of the organic display.

D'ALMEIDA: We are making lots of progress, positive progress, quickly closing the gap between LCD and oled technology.

HATTORI: Kodak has already licensed this oled screen technology for use in cell phones. A new model is expected this fall. The Universal Display Corporation is developing a flexible oled panel that could be used as a bendable digital newspaper.

There is a homeland security benefit to this research. Bioflourescent molecules can be engineered to glow in the presence of certain toxins, which could make them useful for detecting biological weapons.

ABE CLAUSE, PRODUCT MANAGER, BIOSCIENCES CLONTECH: The September 11 and the idea of biological warfare becoming more of a threat that you may have the government spending more money and looking for more ways to detect these things.

HATTORI: A prospect that has Steve Haddock convinced more than ever, some of the brightest ideas can emerge from the deepest, darkest oceans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HATTORI: While creatures of the sea may be bringing us a new generation of display screens, creatures of the air may be inspiring the next wave of spy planes. They're called micro air vehicles, and, as Eric Horng tells us, they're causing a buzz among researchers.

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ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since the invention of powered flight, airplanes have steadily grown in size and speed. But now, a small group of pioneering researchers is looking at new ways of flying, but on a smaller scale.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We actually have to learn from nature.

HORNG: Yu-Chong Tai and Steve Ho have been developing so-called micro air vehicles -- tiny, remote-controlled aircraft with flapping wings, designed to mimic some of nature's most sophisticated fliers, and do what conventional fixed-wing aircraft can't.

STEVE HO, MECHANICAL ENGINEER, UCLA: A butterfly or a hummingbird can turn on a dime, but a 747 takes like, you know, a mile to take a right turn.

HORNG: To be that maneuverable, scientists say an aircraft needs to fly slowly and be very small.

(on camera): Here at Caltech, this is one of the latest prototypes they're working with. It has a wingspan of eight inches, and, because it's made of extremely lightweight materials, it weighs only 11 grams, less than the weight of two quarters.

(voice-over): The project is funded by the military, which hopes one day to use micro air vehicles for reconnaissance.

YU-CHONG TAI, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, CALTECH: They are thinking every soldier can have a tiny little aircraft -- very light, easy to carry, and then it can send it around, be their eyes, be their ears.

HORNG: The sky's the limit for civilian applications as well. Imagine a micro air vehicle searching for survivors in a collapsed building, or giving TV viewers a bird's-eye view of a home run.

Research is still in its infancy. Current models can only fly for a few minutes, but scientists say we're only a decade away before the proverbial fly on a wall becomes a reality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HATTORI: Jet travel eight times the speed of sound may become a reality, if a test in the Australian desert this week proves successful. A team, led by the University of Queensland, launched a so-called Scramjet engine aboard a rocket that took it into the upper atmosphere. The Scramjet was designed to ignite as it fell to earth. Scramjets carry only fuel, instead of fuel and oxygen like conventional rockets. They use the rush of oxygen in the air to ignite the fuel. It'll take a couple of weeks to analyze the test results, but the flight team is optimistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS RENDO, AUSTRALIAN DEFENSE FORCE: Well, we had a fairly normal trajectory, so it's the trajectory expected. Obviously, the weather is excellent for this launch today, and the rock went where it was supposed to go. The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) sights down range had confirmed that they picked up data, so we are confident that we will have success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HATTORI: Since Scramjets are lighter and faster than conventional rockets, they could make satellite launching cheaper, and they could reduce airline travel times. Scramjet developers say a trip from Sydney to London could someday take two hours.

A couple of weeks ago, we showed you the rollout of a jet that its makers say could also revolutionize air travel. Steve Young now with more on the world's cheapest jet.

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STEVE YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the world's biggest private aviation show, a New Mexico company is promising to deliver a jet at less than a quarter of the cost of the current cheapest model. That would be the Cessna Citation CJ1. Can be yours for around $4 million. But Eclipse says it will deliver its model 500 for only about $850,000.

SAM WESSELL, ORDERED ECLIPSE: The numbers are just unbelievable. And they -- it really is a complete new stride in air travel.

YOUNG: With delivery scheduled for 2004, Eclipse says most of its production for the first three years is sold out, so get online.

BLAIR MCDENDRICK, ORDERED ECLIPSE: I was on board almost two- and-a-half years ago, and I have position number 63.

YOUNG: Eclipse is using special welding to eliminate two-thirds of the rivets. Off the shelf computers for a control system rivaling a Boeing 777. And an 85-pound but powerful engine developed for cruise missiles. Combining all that technology could be risky.

THOMAS HAINES, "AOPA" MAGAZINE: If you really do your homework and partner with good companies, such as Williams, which is the manufacturer of the engine, you can reduce some of that risk.

YOUNG (on camera): The company says its plane will allow mid- level managers to use private jets the way CEOs do today, to stretch their working day, increase productivity, and slice security delays associated with commercial flying.

(voice-over): CEO Vern Raburn, who was Microsoft employee number 18, has bagged Bill Gates as one of his big investors in the still private company. Raburn talks jets the way Gates talked software.

VERN RABURN, CEO, ECLIPSE AVIATION: We expect to sell this aircraft at much higher volume than people are used to today. Hence the old adage, volume brings the price down.

YOUNG: A deal to sell 1,000 Eclipses to a Florida company for use as air taxies has fallen through, but Raburn expects to fill that gap.

(on camera): Are you saying that there are other people unannounced yet that will take that many?

RABURN: More.

YOUNG (voice-over): Cheap as it is, the price is still more than chump change.

MARY STEEL: Well, if I sold my house and my condo an my cottage and my four cars and my two jet skies and my and four ATVs, I'd still have to take a loan.

YOUNG: The company says the first test flight will take place in the next two weeks. To meet its deadline, Eclipse has just 18 months to win an air worthiness certificate from the government.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, find out why the Army Corps of Engineers spent years straightening out the Kissimmee River, and now is spending more years making it curvy again.

And, later in the show, would you change your workout routine if you knew your boss was counting every rep? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HATTORI: Here in the Academy of Sciences' ichthyology department are samples of about half the world's known fishes. Researchers here are planning an expedition to China to collect new fresh water species.

Here in the U.S., 50 years ago, it seemed like a great idea -- control floods by straightening out Florida's slow, winding Kissimmee River. But, turning the Kissimmee into an arrow-straight canal created a new set of problems, and now the Army Corps of Engineers is working to put things back the way they were. John Zarrella has the story.

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JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These days, when Lou Toth rides down the Kissimmee River in Central Florida, it reminds him a bit of what he's seen in pictures.

LOU TOTH: The river is well on the path to recovery.

ZARRELLA: Old pictures, taken before the 1960s. Back then, the Kissimmee meandered 103 miles from just south of Orlando to Lake Okeechobee, but for the past 40 years, the Kissimmee has been something less than a river.

TOTH: You couldn't call it a river. I mean, you see the signs out on the highway that says "Kissimmee River," and that really, really is not the case. It was a series of impounded reservoirs with a deep wide canal through the center of it.

ZARRELLA: To prevent annual flooding and allow development of the land, the Army Corps of Engineers cut a 35-foot-deep, 300-foot- wide canal right down the centerline of the river, and it did exactly what was intended. The Kissimmee was tamed, but the cost was high. Forty-five thousand acres of wetlands lost; 90 percent of the water fowl population disappeared. Five species of fish wiped out. And from the newly created farmlands, pesticides, waste and fertilizers poured into the river, and straight downstream into Lake Okeechobee.

Before the channelization of the Kissimmee was even completed, efforts began to restore it. For the past 20 years, Lou Toth has been part of the effort. Toth is the chief scientist on the Kissimmee River Project, the most ambitious river restoration project in history.

TOTH: The model river restoration project in the world today. Nothing like it has ever been attempted.

ZARRELLA: Sections of the canal are being backfilled and plugged to force the water to flow back into the old river. (on camera): This spot perfectly illustrates how the restoration project works. To my left, the historic old Kissimmee River; its flow restored once again. Behind me, the drainage canal, backfilled and already overgrown with native vegetation.

(voice-over): From the air, the contrast is dramatic. At this spot, the restored section of the Kissimmee, the remaining canal and backfilled canal all intersect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have 14 miles of meandering river channel that wind their way back and forth across the back-filled canal.

ZARRELLA: When it's finished in 2010, the half-a-billion-dollar project will have recovered nearly half of the old river.

TOTH: We're not restoring the river for one species of fish or for an endangered species, but rather for the entire system that used to occur here, historically.

ZARRELLA: Already on the reborn flood plane, you can hear the signs of rebirth.

To Lou Toth, it's been a long time coming, but well worth the wait.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HATTORI: Cambodia has taken a major step to protect one of its most precious natural areas. Gary Strieker has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a densely- populated region, where natural forests are disappearing fast, this Cambodian wilderness is a refuge for many threatened species of plants and animals, including Indochinese tigers, Malaysian sun bears and Asian elephants.

And now, Cambodia's government has given this area permanent protection, creating the Central Cardamoms Protected Forest, a centerpiece connecting two wildlife sanctuaries.

JAKE BRUNNER, CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL: The Central Cardamoms is the missing link between them. The center is about 400,000 hectors, about a million acres. And added to the existing wildlife sanctuaries, it creates a forest wilderness of about one million hectors, or about 2.2 million acres, the size of Yellowstone National Park.

STRIEKER: That makes it the largest tract of protected forest in mainland Southeast Asia.

Until recently, the Cardamoms were remote and inaccessible, the last stronghold of Khmer Rouge guerrillas, until fighting stopped four years ago. After that, much of the area was allocated to timber companies, who started building logging roads into the edge of the forest. Conservationists warned that logging would imperil not only wildlife, but also the watershed for many of Cambodia's largest rivers.

Under growing international pressure, the government suspended commercial logging in the Cardamoms two years ago, allowed a scientific survey of the forest, and then pledged to protect it. Prime Minister Hun Sen has now signed that protection into law.

BRUNNER: The government deserves a lot of credit for that commitment. Ensuring the protection and the continued protection of the Central Cardamoms is an important piece in the conservation jigsaw in Cambodia.

STRIEKER: But declaring protection is far easier than actually enforcing it. Illegal logging and wildlife poaching are still major threats to the Cardamoms.

BRUNNER: The military, or I should say, elements of the military are involved in the timber and wildlife trades. Therefore, an important component of our program has involved high-level dialogue with senior commanders, senior government officials to remove soldiers from the area.

STRIEKER: International conservation groups and donors will provide support for the management and protection of this wilderness. And the real test of the government's commitment still lies ahead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up next, charges that automakers are making it impossible for some mechanics to fix some cars. We'll tell you why.

And, later, researchers get to the heart of an earthquake fault.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HATTORI: Are computers critical components in today's automobiles, or devices to help ensure official dealers get your repair business? That's the debate over diagnostic codes, which are programmed into auto computers by the car makers. As Patty Davis reports, some charge those codes are being unfairly withheld from independent mechanics.

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PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It used to be the wrench, but today, an auto mechanic's most-used tool can be one of these.

PAT JONES, CAPITOL HILL GARAGE: You've got to use this tool to access the car's computer.

DAVIS: Plug it in, and newer cars can tell the mechanic what's wrong. But independent mechanics say there's a problem. Car makers won't give them the codes they need to diagnose and fix high-tech items, such as air bags, power steering and anti-lock brakes. JOHN FRANCIS JR., INDEPENDENT AUTO MECHANIC: If we can't access the codes, then we need to send them down the road to the dealership.

DAVIS: Independent repair shops say it's costing them $18 billion a year. It costs consumers, too, who have to foot often higher dealer repair bills.

JOHN NIELSEN, AAA: Eighty percent of consumers want to be able to choose where they take their vehicle. And they really would like to be able to choose someplace other than the dealer in 80 percent of the cases.

DAVIS (on camera): Legislation in Congress would require auto manufacturers to give independent repair shops the information they need.

SEN. PAUL WELLSTONE (D), MINNESOTA: You're with your family, you're taking a trip. You break down, and you're in a smaller town, and no one there can fix your car, because they don't have access to the code? It's outrageous.

DAVIS (voice-over): Automakers say they just want to protect trade secrets and want complicated repairs done right, in part to keep from getting sued.

GREG DANA, ALLIANCE OF AUTO MANUFACTURERS: Everything to us is quality, so if we can get our cars repaired properly at an independent shop, it's a benefit to us.

DAVIS: Twenty automakers have agreed to provide most computer codes by January, but Honda and Porsche haven't yet signed on, leaving independent mechanics and some car owners little choice but to turn to dealers for repairs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HATTORI: In today's economy, we're hearing a lot about downsizing, and most of what we hear isn't very pleasant. Well, a California car company is putting a new twist on that concept. Rusty Dornin reports on a roadster for the 21st century.

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RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What has three wheels, makes a Mini Cooper look like an SUV, can be parked in a motorcycle spot and looks like something built for Batman?

(on camera): What is this?

MIKE CORBIN, CORBIN MOTORS: The roadster is basically a personal hot rod. It's something you take out on Sunday afternoon and go cruising with your buddies and get wind on your nose and feel the fresh air and go out and have a good time.

DORNIN (voice-over): The Merlin Roadster, the latest three wheeled car from Corbin Motors. First, it was the Sparrow, an all electric three wheel car that apparently got folks thinking.

CORBIN: We go to the shows with the Sparrow, people said hey, Corbin, the Sparrow is cool but I'd like one without a top on it, with a motorcycle engine in it.

DORNIN: That's what they did and that's what give the roadster that distinctive rumble. And it gives it the gas to go 100 miles per hour. How about those problems with three wheelers tipping over? They say they've solved that.

CORBIN: The transmission and the engine are on the central line of the car. When you go around a turn, it wants to roll and so we have really long A arms. The tires sit way out here and the whole center twists.

DORNIN: One thousand Merlin roadsters are ordered. Ten are finished. None have officially hit the road.

(on camera): How much of an attractive selling point is the idea that you can park this in a motorcycle spot?

CORBIN: For me, when I'm in the city, it's a big selling point. Parking, motorcycle parking is easy. And even, it's even more fun when you're in San Francisco and you find half a spot. You ever -- you're out parallel parking, right, and you can't quite get your car in. These cars just back right in.

DORNIN (voice-over): At a sticker price of $23,900, hot rodding for one is not cheap, nor is it fantastically fuel efficient, 35 miles per gallon, about seven miles per gallon more than the average car and almost 30 miles per gallon less than the most efficient gas car. But there's always next year's model.

CORBIN: We have another model called the Merlin Coupe, which will have a smaller engine and that will get about 80 miles per gallon. And that should be out the end of next year.

DORNIN: Not everyone dreams of driving something out of a caped crusader cartoon. But most of us have the impossible dream of driving downtown and parking with no problem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HATTORI: Time for us to park it on the side of the road for a while. We're going to take a break, and then check on the latest headlines from the CNN newsroom. But, we've got plenty more for you. So we'll be back in a few minutes

ANNOUNCER: Still to come on NEXT@CNN, remains of a lion with opposable thumbs, and a pouch like a kangaroo.

Also ahead, gadgets worried spouses use to spy on their loved ones. Those stories and much more, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HATTORI: You never know what you're going to find in the back room of a museum. Take a look at this, a real treat for you prehistoric fish fans. This is a cylican (ph), thought to be extinct for the past 70 million years, until a fisherman pulled one up off the coast of South Africa back in the 1930s. Imagine the surprise on his face. Bet you he won the derby that year.

Anyway, some other news about rare animals. Ten Siberian tigers raised in a zoo were recently given a taste of the wild in northeast China. The big cats were released for three days into a large, fenced-in area to let them test their wilderness skills. Researchers wanted to see how the tigers would make out in the 40-acre pen before releasing them into the real wild. At first, the tigers weren't too sure about the idea. Some of them waited to be fed instead of hunting, and some returned to their cages. But overall, the cats seemed pleased with the experiment, and researchers said they were too. Siberian tigers are one of the world's most endangered species, with only 500 remaining in the wild.

The remains of a prehistoric lion are part of a find in Australia that scientists are calling amazing. Cave explorers found the fossils in deep sinkholes in the Australian outback. Paleontologists say it's an incredible collection of creatures that lived 1.5 million years ago. The lion was a marsupial, meaning it carried its young in a pouch, like modern kangaroos. It also had huge teeth and opposable thumbs. Other creatures found in the area included a pony-sized wombat and a 16-foot tall kangaroo. They're so well preserved that scientists can extract DNA to analyze.

Scientists are drilling a hole next to the San Andres fault in California in hopes of getting a close-up look at earthquakes. The project, led by the U.S. Geological Survey and Stanford University, will install instruments in the mile and a half deep hole to analyze what's going on as earthquakes develop.

Shawn Flynn from our affiliate KCOY has more.

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SHAWN FLYNN, KCOY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a town seemingly in the middle of nowhere, with the population of just 37, they're known for one thing, and that has researchers from all over the world coming here to Parkfield in southern Monterey County. What looks like just another oil rig operation is much more. This first of its kind project is drilling to find out why the ground shakes.

MARK ZOBACK, GEOPHYSICIST, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: For the first time, we will be inside an active fault, and be able to determine what happens before, during and after earthquakes.

FLYNN (on camera): Right now, we're walking on top of the San Andreas fault; about a mile away is where they're drilling the hole. Their plan is to drill about a mile and a half deep and then a mile and a half over, so in the end, there will be two and a half miles under this spot, right in the heart of the fault line. (voice-over): Drilling the mile and a half deep pilot hole began about a month ago. They're testing everything from the gases to the dirt. This hole will help guide them to their target.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By using an array of seismometers, we're going to precisely locate these earthquakes, so that in the safe pothole, we can drill this hole and actually steer them directly into the earthquake zone.

FLYNN: Parkfield was chosen because it's in a transition zone between where the fault is locked and where it's creeping. It gives researchers the best chance to catch both numerous amounts of small earthquakes, along with a fairly large one.

While this is a very complex, multimillion dollar project, they still may not be able to tell us when the big one is going to happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Next up, a cell phone that wants to do it all. That and more still ahead, as NEXT@CNN continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HATTORI: It's a cell phone, it's a PDA, it's a Web browser and it does e-mail. In this week's "Technofile," Ann Kellan looks at a gadget with a very split personality.

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ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If smaller is better, than Nokia's new phone has taken a step backwards. But don't let its exterior fool you; it's much more than just a phone. Like something straight out of James Bond, this new cell phone/PDA hybrid isn't called a communicator for nothing.

With the capability to be used as a cell phone, Web browser with e-mail and fax machine, the communicator is one of the most comprehensive portable devices on the market. But don't expect to be surfing the Web at blazing speeds. With the connection of only 14 kilobytes a second, accessing pages with large images and frames can be tedious.

The communicator is also an entertainment center and mobile office. You can download short movie clips and watch them with Real Player or type up a quick agenda or spreadsheet for the next meeting. The keyboard allows quick access to all of its important functions, and it's set up just like a computer keyboard.

All this comes in a package that's about the same size and weight as your home cordless phone. You don't have to be a secret agent to get your hands on this gadget, but a price tag of nearly $600, excluding service and activation fees, you do have to have some pretty deep pockets.

I'm Ann Kellan, and that's "Technofile." (END VIDEOTAPE)

HATTORI: Some cell phones can also be used as something else, a tracking device. The practice is apparently catching on in South Korea, as Sohn Jie-Ae reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): South Korean security agents protecting VIPs at the recent World Cup finals passed the latest in mobile tracking technology. Their compact phones installed with global positioning system or GPS technology that pinpointed their location to within 50 meters. CTF (ph), or Career Telecom Fretel (ph), developed the phones primarily for use by parents to track children, but found it had many other uses, and not all good.

Privacy issues are increasing as more and more of Korea's 30 million cell phone users make use of increasingly advanced technology. All South Korean mobile companies offer some type of tracking system. SK Telecom has recently introduced a full-featured mobile phone which allows GPS through the Internet. Can't give directions if your life depended on it? With this, you can send others a map of your exact location.

SHIN DONG-CHAN, SK TELECOM (through translator): The tracking service is used mostly by young couples. My wife uses it to find out where I am.

SOHN: LG Telecom offers a service that specifically targets this need. You can program the system to give you regular updates on the rough location of your girlfriend or boyfriend's mobile phone for one, two or three hours. No wonder it's called peace of mind.

But what if you don't want to be found? Mobile phones do offer options that can block traces and even provide a telephone number of the attempted tracer.

(on camera): Despite safeguards against unwanted surveillance, there are loopholes. One scenario: You can buy a cell phone, program this to respond to your cell phone's tracking system, and then put this in the trunk of the car you want to track.

WOO CHANG-JE, LG TELECOM (through translator): The location- based service can be used for both good and bad purposes, and it's our job to try to minimize the adverse effect and develop good uses for it.

SOHN (voice-over): But as the technology to track mobile phones, and thereby those carrying it, develops, phone companies are finding this increasingly difficult.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HATTORI: In Hong Kong, some people are turning to not cell phones but tiny spy cams to track down wayward spouses and unfaithful lovers. Kristie Lu Stout reports on the growing hoopla for hidden cameras.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Detective David Chung (ph) is the man to call for help in an all too common predicament, the wayward spouse. He hunts down Hong Kong's cheating husbands and wives, tackling up to 30 cases of infidelity a month with the help of some high end surveillance gear.

DAVID CHUNG: The phone tap and tracer are the ones most commonly used by private detectives. For cases that require higher technology, we use cordless transmitters and needlelike micro cameras.

LU STOUT (on camera): Some of David Chung's gadgets are straight out of 007, like wireless pinhole camera, the size and shape of a credit card.

(voice-over): And is spouses aren't enlisting the pros, they can do their own surveillance with the latest spy cameras from companies like Champion Technology.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These can also be used. And depending on the customer's requirements, we can source these for them and put them in places which are most unnoticed. For example, they could be inside a CD holder. They could be at the corner of a desk, which is unnoticed.

LU STOUT: Or in another often overlooked place, the humble desk clock. According to the "China Daily," tiny video cameras are hot sellers, priced at between $10 to $400 each. Worries about the camera have even reached the National People's Congress, where policymakers have called for an end to secret filming. The hidden cameras shot into public consciousness after one was used to expose Taiwan politician Chu Mei-feng having sex with a married man. The 40 minute video was allegedly filmed by her lover, who then released it to local media.

And as the devices get cheaper, more people are rushing out to buy their own spy gear, turning into wired peeping Toms.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People are so worried every minute, especially the few cases happening in Taiwan. You walk in a public toilet or in the dressing room of department store and you still can find a hidden camera there. So that's what's scary, very scary.

LU STOUT: Be it lechers of either sex or lovers tracking lovers, the latest in video high tech can turn anyone into a sleuth for sleaze. But for David Chung, high tech could never replace the high art of undercover investigation.

CHUNG: There are lots of micro cameras available on the market. But it's important to know how to set the camera up and shoot the right evidence.

LU STOUT: Premium quality snooping comes at a premium price. This pro charged $1,900 a day to track a wandering spouse. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a pod of whales, well-meaning volunteers, and a lesson for mother nature.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HATTORI: Mysterious and sad phenomenon of nature unfolded on the Massachusetts coast this week. Why would a pod of pilot whales beach not once, but several times before the whales died? As Bill Delaney reports from Cape Cod, it's a phenomenon going back hundreds of years.

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BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What all too briefly seemed good news, more than 20 pilot whales swimming at high tide Tuesday afternoon, after stranding for hours before that for a second day on a Cape Cod beach.

But soon, they again stranded, exhausted, disoriented. With some 20 other whales having already died earlier in the day, officials decided to euthanize the rest, injecting them with Phenobarbital, losing hope the creatures would ever find their way again to open sea.

(on camera): What's dangerous about a second day stranding?

A.J. CADY, CAPE COD STRANDING NETWORK: These animals are already incredibly stressed from the first day and so many more of them died just from shock and exposure or injuries that they've sustained that they just haven't had a chance to recover from.

DELANEY (voice-over): For hours, rescuers kept the whales moist in mud flats near Lieutenant's Island. A last chance to finally go north, though, out of Cape Cod Bay, lost.

Monday, more than 50 of the whales first stranded. Nine died that day in the searing sun. Forty-six, though, lovingly shoved back into the water at high tide.

(on camera): Nobody knows just why whales strand themselves. Scientists have theories. The pilot whales here on Cape Cod could have been chasing a school of fish and been lured into the suddenly and deceptively shallow waters near shore here. And pilot whales are particularly sociable and hierarchical animals. They could have been following an ill or confused leader.

(voice-over): The whales' final stranding near a marsh called Blackfish Creek, named for the 19th century name, blackfish, for pilot whales. Fifteen hundred stranded there in 1884. Smaller numbers this time. No measure of the sense of large loss on Cape Cod and beyond it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HATTORI: As the dog days of summer wear on, you might be making plans to cool off at the beach. But, how do you know if the water at your favorite sandy spot is safe? And will the beach even be there in years to come? Here is Ann Kellan.

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KELLAN (voice-over): With fewer shark attacks reported this year compared to last, you'd think it was safe to go into the water. But a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council indicates that increased water pollution is causing more beach closings.

SARAH CHASIS, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: The principal cause of these were elevated bacteria levels in the water, which are associated with the presence of human or animal waste.

KELLAN: NRDC reports 20 percent more closings last year compared to the previous year, meaning one of two things: Either the states are doing a better job monitoring the waters for pollution, or there is more pollution.

CHASIS: Until we have a comprehensive monitoring program around the country, that's consistent, year to year, community to community, it's very difficult to say whether the pollution problem is getting worse or better.

KELLAN: But she says it does exist and it can make you sick.

CHASIS: The symptoms of which could be fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, and those symptoms can be particularly severe in children and older folks.

KELLAN: Pollution from sewage and runoff is just one of the problems gripping U.S. beaches. Erosion is another.

While flooding and fierce storms wreak obvious and dramatic havoc to property on the coast, small changes and sifting sands and sea levels can also destroy valuable real estate along the shore.

An analysis by the Heinz (ph) Center for Science, Economics and the Environment found erosion could claim one in four houses within 500 feet of the shore over the next 60 years, about a half billion dollars of property loss a year.

That's why the U.S. Geological Survey is involved in mapping every nook and cranny of the U.S. coast. Once complete, it will provide a baseline, so slight changes along the coast can be monitored to determine erosion zones where builders and future home owners should avoid.

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ANNOUNCER: Coming up, technology that tells your boss how hard you work out at the health club. Is any place private any more? We'll be right back with that.

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HATTORI: We all know too well now that our bosses can read our work e-mail, and in some cases monitoring phone calls, but checking up on your workouts at the health club? Andrew Brown reports on another place where big brother is watching.

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ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.K.-based Fitness First club has been looking at a new technology that records who is going to the gym, what machines they use and how well they're performing. The data can be shared with companies itching to know whether executives who have signed up for fitness programs are becoming stronger and healthier.

MIKE LAMB, FITNESS FIRST: We can actually give them a report to show what their executives have been doing while they're in the gym.

BROWN: The system is based on a digital key. It fits in to the console of each exercise machine and monitors an individual's workout. It also tracks attendance, which is useful for companies paying for their employees to belong to a gym.

LAMB: I think they just want to see that the money that they're spending is well spent.

BROWN: Yet bosses requesting access to a gym's database are in a delicate position. Members have different views about whether in principle an employer has the right to this information.

(on camera): Do you think that will be an invasion of privacy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, because I'm the boss myself so.

BROWN (voice-over): Technogym, the Italian company behind the digital keys concept, says it can adapt its programs to comply with privacy laws in different jurisdictions. So far it says it has 800 customers worldwide. And according to Technogym, a number of multinationals, including Adidas, Goldman Sachs and GlaxoSmithKline, are using the system.

Fitness First stresses it's still evaluating the product and may not be able to make use of all its features.

LAMB: Maybe we just show what time you came to the gym and what time you left. And so if you spent 90 percent of it in the sauna, your boss -- your boss wouldn't know.

BROWN (on camera): On the other hand, you could just crank up that treadmill to make your boss think that you are a world class athlete.

(voice-over): After all, no one's going to know what you actually do at the gym.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HATTORI: No one knows, unless you put it on TV, right, Andrew?

Well, time for us to run. But first, here's a look at what's coming up next week.

Miss hearing the tunes on your old vinyl records? Well, we'll show you an easy way to turn them into MP3s.

And is the Bush administration good or bad for the environment? Depends on who you ask, and we'll cut through the rhetoric for a reality check.

That and a lot more coming up on NEXT. Until then, let us know you're out there, tell us how we're doing. You can e-mail us. Our address is next@cnn.com.

Thanks so much for joining us this week, and thanks to our friends here at the California Academy of Sciences. For all of us on the sci-tech beat, I'm James Hattori. We'll see you next time.

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