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Science Friday > Archives > 1998 > October > October 30, 1998:

Hour Two: The ABC's of Telecommunications

	There are so many wonders in this technical age that we take for granted. (Need that document? I'll just fax it over. Gotten yourself lost? Just power up your Global Positioning System.) The bits, bytes, frequencies, cells, channels and satellites that govern our everyday activities toil along in obscurity. Though for most people, it's impossible to make it through the day without relying on some form of telecommunications acrobatics.
If you're reading this it means one of two things. Either you have connected to the internet using a computer, a modem, and a phone line, or there's a little purple man inside that box in front of you drawing these words and images. Most people tend to think it's the first option, but do you really understand what is going on behind the screen? Or inside the phone lines? Or, even more mystifying, in a cellular phone network?
	Also, a Halloween treat - a new look at possible science behind vampire legends: A Spanish neurologist has reported in a recent issue of Neurology that rabies virus may be the root of vampire legends. Juan Gomez-Alonzo, of the Xeral Hospital in Vigo, Spain, noted the eerie similarities (aversion to light and mirrors, and hypersexuality for example) between the mystic creatures of the night and those who suffer from a rabies infection. Not everyone thinks the study has teeth to it, though - we'll talk to someone who's not convinced.

This hour of Science Friday join guest host Paul Raeburn for telecommunications unplugged...and some spooky science.

Listen to this program in RealAudio!

Guests:
David Macaulay
Author and Illustrator
"The New Way Things Work", (Houghton Mifflin,1998)

Stuart Lipoff
Former President of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society
Vice President, Communications and Information Technology
Arthur D. Little
Cambridge, MA

Paul Barber
Author, "Vampires, Burial, and Death" (Yale University Press)
Research Associate, Fowler Museum of Cultural History
University of California at Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

Books/Articles Discussed:

"The New Way Things Work", (Houghton Mifflin,1998) by David Macaulay.

Related Links:
How Stuff Works (a great site to learn about gadgets!)
Internet Telephony
Federal Communications Commission
"How it Works" (from pagers to TV's to remote controls)

Vampires and Rabies Info from the Mining Co.

This segment produced by:
Charles Bergquist
Guest web producer:
Christopher Morrison