Summary:
Listen to Jack describe his predictions for the future and consider these questions:
Captions:
Music
Jeff Stanger: What do you think will be the technologies that will redefine society for the next generation?
Dr Jack Bacon: There's several technologies coming along that I like to point to, one of the most interesting
is something called printed electronics, you're probably aware that the barcode that we scan on most
products in the grocery store is being replaced by something called a radio frequency identifier and the
great part about that is that you can basically ask, walk into the grocery store as the manager and say 'How many cans of soup do I have?' and all nineteen cans of tomato soup will answer back
and say 'Here I am and I expire in another month and a half, so you ought to drop my price'.
That kind of interaction with the label of the product is something that is coming.
What is making it so inexpensive to compete with the, just printing of a barcode is that the electronic circuits necessary to create all that logic to know what the can of soup is and when it was manufactured.
It's trivially produced with printed inks now that the semiconductors and the conductors, electronic components can now be produced with ink, that's new since 2000,
the Nobel Prize was awarded in 2000 for that work and it will very shortly revolutionise your cereal box, the prize will no longer be in the box, the prize will be the computer on the box.
Medical packets of pills can keep track of when you've popped the pill out of the packet and whether you took it on time or whether you took you know,
two instead of one every other day, if you took two on one day it would know that and report it back to the doctor.
So, that if you had problems with your medicine that kind of intelligence is coming to everything in our physical world.
So, that adds to the information, that flow of ideas and communication about the physical world that we live in.
I think that will be a big jump.
The Internet and the Web of course are huge, it's absolutely fascinating to me that the Web was never
patented and was never designed to be a profit making venture and yet it's been one of the most influential
things on the human existence that it's got us in touch with each other on such a short scale.
Summary:
As you watch the video, think about these questions:
Captions:
Jeff Stanger: What direction do you think science will take for the next hundred years?
Jack Bacon: Well, I think there's no limit to what science will ultimately find.
There's an interesting case to be made that we maybe reaching the bottom of science, in that we have
consistent models of the universe that apply from the smallest known theoretical scales all the way up to the physical size of the universe.
There's a great effort going on right now to finally unify the last little bits, it turns out to be mathematically
very difficult to do but this so called theory of everything, super string theory is, it's got the attention of most
of the world, physical community and could actually tie together everything we know about the universe.
I think you're going to find a lot more focus on engineering application, you know science understands
how things work and engineering concentrates on using that understanding to create a new lifestyle for ourselves.
I think that you'll see science and engineering blending a lot more to where pursuit of a particular piece of
knowledge is necessary to create the next little gadget and you'll see less of a distinction between scientists
and engineers in the future, I think we're already seeing that.
Summary:
As you watch the video, consider these points:
Captions:
Jeff Stanger: As a scientist what do you think your impact is on society?
Jack Bacon: Well, you know it's, being an engineer it's sort of a mixed kind of feeling because you know that you're changing the world.
Everybody that I know is trying to do something positive about the world and yet they don't make movies about the lives of engineers.
For one thing it does take a lot of study, it takes focus, it takes dedication to actually comprehend the problem
and know all of the trades of what you could do to solve it.
It doesn't communicate well to a movie.
Movies like a lot of action, they like a lot of adrenalin, a lot of danger, but the engineering profession is more
of a life long kind of fulfilment, very, very rewarding to see that the work that you've done has changed the
pollution levels in the country or understanding of cancer or creation of new thermal insulating blankets or better
paints or whatever it is that makes life better.
Each person in the engineering field makes a contribution but it's a challenge to name three movies about the life of an engineer.
It's a very, very rewarding thing, it pays well, it has a great level of communication, a great level of
accomplishment, you make measurable steps throughout your life but it's not something that's going
to leave you on an adrenalin high everyday.
But, that's what sports are for you know you can go out and play a good game of rugby or go surfing and get
that adrenalin rush and then go back to the office and change the world.
So, it's been a very rewarding life.
Summary:
As you watch the video, think about:
Captions:
Jeff Stanger: What advice can you give to students who have an interest in science and technology?
Jack Bacon: I think the key question to keep asking yourself is 'How?' not necessarily 'Why?' or 'When' but 'How?'.
That's sort of the fundamental driver of all engineering and science is trying to figure out how something works and how you can make it better.
And to the extent that you ask that question even before your scientific or engineering training is done it
will get you in the frame of mind to be receptive for the teachers that bring you the little pieces of the puzzle.
Ultimately you'll find that you are answering the question 'How?' on your own and once you can see how physical
processes in the world work today when a new problem comes along and you are immediately pressed with the
question of 'How could I make it better?' you'll find it's instinctive.
Certainly, there's a lot that can be said for the formal education process, but really the, the real part of
it comes from right here, it comes from up here, it comes from you personally wanting to make a difference
and not waiting for somebody to give you the answer but going and getting it yourself and that always starts with a question 'How?'
Jeff: Well, it's been a privilege Jack and a pleasure to meet you and thank you for giving up your time.
Jack: It's my pleasure as well, anything that I can do to help young generation coming along find the real
joy of engineering and science, it's time well spent. Thank you very much.