The Lab Beat
Oct. 13, 2026
AI and Drones
Peter Burke won the Guinness World Record for furthest distance to operate a drone — from halfway across the world at 11,440 miles from the tiny island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Now he's integrating that drone with AI so that users can command the drone to act without any writing programs.
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Sept. 10, 2026
The Punch of a Mantis Shrimp
The fists of mantis shrimp are faster than a speeding bullet. The architecture of its dactyl clubs give it a powerful punch that can dismember crabs. That helicoid structure has inspired lighter and more resilient materials for hockey sticks, airplanes, wind turbines and more.
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August 5, 2026
The Female Heart
The female heart has been vastly understudied. Naomi Chesler is a leader in researching the female heart, right heart failure, and how sex hormones like estrogen affect the heart's function. Her research is helping prevent heart failure in women and men.
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June 18, 2026
Self-healing Cement
Mo Li is out to transform the cement industry which creates 8% of the world's carbon emissions. Li has created concrete that can heal itself and a process to produce cement with clean energy. Find out more about her concrete innovations in this episode.
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April 23, 2026
Revolutionizing Gyroscopes
Andrei Shkel revolutionized the production of gyroscopes by miniaturizing them and using a glassblowing technology he observed from glass artists in Barcelona, Spain. Step into one of the most high precision gyroscope labs in the world and learn about how they're helping firefighters in this episode.
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March 12, 2026
Curing the Brain
Dion Khodagholy is trying to cure epilepsy by implanting a neural interface on the brain. Khodagholy has created the NeuroGrid which maps the brain's activity once it is placed on it. Listen to the sound of the brain and learn why the NeuroGrid is such an effective neural electronic for the brain in this episode.
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January 15, 2026
Methalox Rockets
The UCI Rocket Project Liquids team is one of the few undergraduate teams that have launched a methalox rocket. Methalox is the leading-edge fuel companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are using to get to Mars. Join this visit to the rocket lab as they prepare to launch their next methalox rocket.
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December 19, 2025
Becoming Invisible
Alon Gorodetsky is creating materials that mimic the camouflage capabilities of squids that can change color, transparency and temperature. Learn how he figured out the secret of their skin and how it can be used for medicine, the military, smart fabrics and more.
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December 12, 2025
Hydrogen Fueling the Future
Can hydrogen energy change the world? UCI Clean Energy Institute Director Jack Brouwer thinks so. His institute is creating sustainable hydrocarbon fuels for aviation and shipping. Listen as he shares his vision for how hydrogen energy can bring more equity and peace to the world.
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November 25, 2025
Can a Robot Love?
Top roboticist Magnus Egerstedt explores whether robots can love in the UCI Robot Ecology Lab, where his altruistic robots take cues from animals. Egerstedt is the creator of the SlothBot, RaccoonBot and the Robotarium, a swarm robot lab which has been used by over 7,000 researchers.
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November 12, 2025
The Power of Glowing Color
Stacy Copp's lab is using glowing light and color to see deep inside human tissues which could replace the need for X-rays. Listen to Copp, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, share her inspirations and ground breaking work at her UCI lab.
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October 31, 2025
National Fuel Cell Center
National Fuel Cell Research Center Director Iryna Zenyuk is striving to enable clean hydrogen to power everything from Olympic buses, trucks, the cement industry and more. A former chess champion, Zenyuk is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UC Irvine.
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October 22, 2025
Upcycling EV batteries
Diran Apelian found a way to recycle EV batteries and co-founded the billion-dollar company Ascend Elements, one of TIME'S America's Top Ten Green Tech companies of 2024. Find out about the cutting-edge technology his lab uses to upcycle metal at UC Irvine's Samueli School of Engineering.
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September 25, 2025
The 100 Year Starship Project
Ronke Olabisi is healing wounds without scars and making bone grow from seashells as she works on the 100 Year Starship Project which aims to enable travel beyond our solar system. Learn how Olabisi is helping humans stay healthier in space and on Earth.
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September 25, 2025
From Flush to Future
David Kisailus is turning urine into medical-grade material for bone and teeth implants and water purification. Learn how Kisailus is making dental and bone implants more affordable through this new process of producing calcium phosphate from urea.
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September 25, 2025
3D Stem Cell Engineering
Quinton Smith's 3D approach to stem cell engineering could revolutionize how we test drugs and do organ transplants. Learn about his innovative organs and vessels-on-a-chip and why Popular Science named him a top 10 scientist on "the cusp of changing the world" in 2023.
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