In a six-part series we meet Canadian innovators who are trying new ideas and making them work. Our first peek at the person behind an invention has nothing to do with machine cogs, robots or flashing lights. Inge Russell works more like a farmer making plant hybrids. She created a super alcohol producing strain of yeast by manipulating cells and crossing spores. She s from Toronto and works for Labatt s Breweries but the yeast strain is now used for making fuel alcohol.
Astronomers finally have one of the most powerful explosions in the universe on film.
On January 23, NASA s Compton Gamma Ray Observatory detected a powerful burst of gamma ray radiation from deep space. And astronomers were ready. A new telescope, tracking data received from the observatory caught the source of a gamma ray burst in action. Dr Carl Akerlof , a Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan, led the team that caught the burst. He explains that until recently astronomers haven t been able to point their regular telescopes quickly or accurately enough to find the fading light from the explosions.