The suit thats helping paralyzed people walk again. Thats our team, now lets do some science. Hi guys, welcome to techknow. Im phil torres and im here with kosta and marita. Now, scientists are detecting millions of earthquakes around the world. What technology do you study to help mitigate them . Here is San Franciscos bay bridge. They absorb the areas of the earthquake while leaving the rest of the infrastructure intact. Really, really cool. Lets check it out. Rising from the San Francisco bay is the newest architectural jewel of northern california. The new bay bridge, which connects San Francisco and oakland, is now open for business. And what a sight it is to see roughly 280,000 vehicles travel the east and westbound lanes each day. Its now the widest bridge in direction. This is six years worth of round the clock time lapse video of the new 2. 2 mile east span. The project cost 6. 4 billion. This is earthquake country. The great San Francisco quake of 1906 wiped out 80 of the city. The old bay bridge opened in 1936. And it sits in the worst possible spot right between two major fault lines. The san andreas and the hayward faults. And the worstcase scenario happened october 17th, 1989. You may remember this scene from the loma prieta quake. A 220 ton section of the old bridge collapsed. Traffic came to a halt for over a month. How big of a danger zone is this . Its a major one. How close are we to one of these faults right now . We are very close. The hayward fault runs right along the hills. The bay bridge is a stunning engineering feat for another reason, something thats not visible at first glance. Crumble zone technology. Until now, crumple zones have been used by cars. They control deformations. The old bridge wont collapse even in a powerful quake, engineers say. Marwan was a engineer during the last quake. Being. If you want to be if a big quake hits . The safest place will be on the top of this bridge. It would be one heck of a joy ride but it would be a safe one. This is how nadir are describes this, the Engineering Community considers this be game changers. The first one is the sheer link beams, inside the 525 foot tower. The sheer link beam is the heart and soul of how we made the single tower work. Those link beams reduces the there fourses on the bridge. Everything is elastic. The four legs of the tower move independently. The beams take the energy by bending and deforming. The stiffer the structure, the more bridged it is the more forces are applied on it. The more flexible, the less stresses go into it. Watch your step, watch your pad. Things are sticking out. We are deep in the bridges bowels. To get there we have to walk and climb through a mini city of steel. You werent kidding, hmm . We are hundreds of feet under the bay but still under the traffic. Its basically a big steel dowel. We have one of those sacrificial elements. We are look at one of 20 hinge pipe beams strategically placed inside the bridge. In there were an earthquake this would move back and forth like an accordion. By designing sections of the bridge to fail that will protect the more structural elements. After an earthquake workers can go up, inspect them, determine if there is any damage. If there is, it can be cut out and replaced. Im tanning on another innovation, below me are piles, 800 feed in diameter and 300 feet long. There are 360 of them did buried underneath if bay. These are new to bridges but battered piles have long been used on oil rigs in the ocean. Think lay horizontally rather than up and down. Earthquake crumple technological. Shake table, it was invented right here at u. C. Berkeley and used in 1972. Essentially it plows us to recreate any allows us to recreate any earthquake that ever happened around the world. Its important because it plows researchers to test structures, bridges and equipment and see how they can withstand earthquake stress. At stanford university, greg credit dearpipeline went to japan to test structures. How does the rocking framework . It rocks. By rocking slightly, it can absorb some of the have force he without damage. Rocking are like the sear link beams in the bridge. Can you see the high strength post tension steel cables. The frames get rid of the energy by rock and deforming. Civil engineer david marr owns a company, that build the orinda, california if city hall. You can see how the rocking frames are built into the are foundation. These cables are the spring and at the base are the steel angle is that shosh the energy. They Work Together creating the dynamic system of the building. How safe is this building . Meant to be 25, this 30 stronger than an ordinary building. Safer than your own house . Yes, absolutely. So the future looks bright and safe in earthquake country. If they can build a safe bridge in the middle of two faults, the safe. Do you see a day when all New Buildings and structures would implement some of this new technology . We hope. You would think in cities when a big earthquake comes it would be an inconvenience, rather than a disaster and this rock frame is part of the technology. Very interesting. What about a place like bolivia where you come from and theres a lot of earthquake risk . This is a technology that is costly, fundamentally costly so we can easily apply the to a country like the United States but in a country where i group, in bolivia, its still pretty out of preach. If pl la paz was hit with a big earthquake, this is pretty incredible. Much of our infrastructure is tested and i know they are always iterating and testing technological because they have a lot of earthquakes. San francisco has had such serious damage thats cost real lives. Its the perfect spot for it phil. The bay bridge is sandwiched through two fault lines. As an entomologist, i do like to are work with insects but theres one insect, that i will swat, the mosquito. Kosta about. The mosquito repellent of the future. I hate them as much as you do. Well look at that coming up. Hey guys welcome back to techknow. Kosta, tell us the story that involves some of your favorite tiny friends. Not my favorite. Mosquitoes, they bother me, they bother a lot of people. This mosquito repellent is going to change all of that. It makes you invisible to the mosquitoes. Lets take a closer look. These bloodeating possesses have been called the most dangerous on earth. About 3 billion people are affected one way or the other by mosquitoborne diseases. Every 30 seconds a child is are dying from malaria. Dr. Michel brown has created an entirely new technology to battle this program. How can mosquitoes find us . They can use Carbon Dioxide as their belong sensing mechanism and skin odors to pinpoint your exact location. The running joke is if you want mosquitoes to bite you anymore, all you have to do is stop breathings. Not a popular option. So tell me a little bit about where we are right now. We are in fact really in a mosquito torture chamber. This entire laboratory was built by i. E. Crowd and serves as the epicenter of all our research are activities where Amazing Things are happening. Our Technology Makes humans invisible to mosquitoes. Creates an outer spatial screen around us. This is it. A patch, all i have to do is stick it on, im invisible to mosquitoes for 48 hours. With this machine were able to directly monitor the mosquitos response to different chemical formations. So this shows you how the mosquito feels about a certain compound. Exactly. Let me see if i got this. You got a mosquito slapped down to that slide. You have a needle in its brain. Through its eye, yes. Its sitting there screaming. Trying to confirm yes. But you have got him strapped down. Doublesided sticky taper. You introduce compounds through air. Uhhuh. We know how it works. But does it work . We want to show how good this technology really is. Right now my hand is untreated with any compound. So right now the mosquitoes are attracted to all the odors coming off my skin as well as some c 02 that is being emitted. They are probing on the unprotectmesh to try to get on my skin to draw blood. Right now my protected hand is in the cage and as you can see theyre virtually not able to locate my hand due to the compound. Dr. Mark fry is a professional at uclas department of integrated are biology, the Patch Technology is just one approach being developed as we gain a greater understanding of insects attraction to humans. This notion of a chemical cloak of some sort a more effective repellent, how feasible is it . Only as feasible we try it. Theres going to be glitches along the way. Does the cloak wear off . How effective is it . At what concentration . Do the animals adapt to it . There are solid answers. We are preparing for alarge field testing in uganda. We are really exciteabout this. 6. 7 million hours of the patch, with real people, one of three districts well be testing them, all of which have exceptionally high mal malaria rates, as well as mosquito born diseases. Ceo amra albana is responsible for this technology in order to get to people who need it most. Its very difficult to take new technologies and furnish them into tangible products that were ready for the marketplace. We are excited about it and the promise for the technology but we also knew we had a long way to actually get it ready. In the last 60 years, we havent really had any break through in technologies that could help in mosquitoborne diseeses diseases. Three and a half years ago we had the potential of saving many, many, many lives around the world. This one is definitely getting a lot of attention and so for that reason a lot of entomologists weve been kind of talking about it and we are a bit skeptical but also hopeful. Testing it in the lab is quite different than in the field. Im excited to hear what they get in uganda. They have rooms that simulate weather cons in every country. You upload a weather profile, all the different parameters for mosquito life and you can do a rea comprehensive test to see how this mosquito repellent works. The next story i did is a robot called the exo which is helping paralyzed people walk. Every sunday night, Al Jazeera America brings you conversations you wont find anywhere else. Youre listening because you wanna see what happen. Get your damn education. Talk to al jazeera only on Al Jazeera America oh my. Hey guys welcome back totech. Im phil torres and here with kosta and marita. Now guys this story i got to do is one of my favorites. Helping Technology Change peoples lives. This is a robot that paraplegic people can use to walk again. Lets take a look. Hi this dream happening today. These kids from a summer camp near aspen, colorado is if to give amanda a lifesaving gift. A gift she hasnt been able to do here since she was paralyzed in a horrific accident 21 years ago. Now i want to invite the kids to have at it and rip into it. It is a buy ontic robot called exo. A Battery Powered external skeleton that gives her body the power to do this are you ready . Three two one blast off whoa and this. Im walk, you guys and even this [ crying ] the technology is so cuttingedge that amanda is the first person in the United States to own one. The moment she stood up, i was just amazed because shes been sitting down for 21 years and that first feeling to stand up again, its just i would have been thrilled obe in that position. It was an emotional moment for these kids who spent the past year selling countless cups of legal owade and raising are money from generous people to make it happen. The first moment, when i stood up and i tried see the childrens faces, and some of them, the really little ones, they were just in awe and then to have that heart to heart hug. And i hugged in a wheelchair, theres a disconnect. I get heart to heart cugz when i stand up. Hugs when i stand up. Do you promise me a hug . Yes. Amanda took her. First steps to making that a reality in 2010. Thats when she got a call from the robots creators asking her to help them in their technology. She went to the San Francisco bay area and took it for a test run. How did it feel to be able to stand and look at people . First time i stood up, i went home, and i cried hard. In all honesty. These were emotions that i had been dreaming about for so long and i felt so good in my body. I slept hard. And i wasnt in pain. Total ending steps. 4850. 4850 so. This is exos headquarters where the magic is made and perfected. Giving people who are paralyzed a chance to do what they have been told was impossible. I feel like the luckiest man alive. Nathan is one of the robots inventers. Not build for the are meat feed but for the credit military field. Theres a huge problem in the field for soldiers carrying the large loads, in fact they want to carry more. We were helping to develop exoskeletons. To carry the persons weight and more as well. It can be powered by a small battery pack and then theres that whole walking thing. It takes over the function of the muscles in your legs. It can do that either completely, for a person whos completely paralyzed, or partially for someone who is rethroarng walk, like someone who credit relearning to walk, like someone who has just had a stroke. I put the device in walkmode and take the first right step and as i move my body the exo will move with me. If i dont move to the any next position the exo stops. Test pilots like Amanda Boxtel and jason geezer, how have they helped you advance this technology. They have helped tremendously. Everything is unpredictable once you introduce a human into the situation. 38 ph. D. Es had a different idea how to control something. Without people like amanda and jason we would be at a standstill because we couldnt test anything. The robot still has its limitations. Right now it can only be used in a rehabilitative setting with a trained physical therapist. Then theres the being cost. Between 110,000 and 130,000. They hope the food and Drug Administration can help. I dont get enough of these, heart to heart hugs. If you need another heart to heart, im your man. Thank you. The emotional impact of this is obvious. But are the there other associated Health Benefits with being able to walk . Absolutely. All the doctors and all the patients using this agree, standing up that much, helps how they digest, lowers their pain, and the amount of infections they get. Can it be used for stroke victims and other applications . Absolutely. Thats one of the approvals they put in for this technology. Its got variable use. One side may be stronger than the other which is perfect for stroke victims because they may have a weaker side and allows them to gradually increase the amount of control they have over it versus the robot. Get people on a solid track towards recovery. From earthquakes to mosquitoes to changing peoples lives, its been interesting. Join us next week on techknow when we give you more innovations in the field. Go deep behind the scenes at aljazeera. Com techknow. This is Al Jazeera America live from new york city. Im tony harris with a look at todays top stories. Ukraines president Viktor Yanukovych replaces the head of the army today. The move comes after 26 people died in clashes between protesters and riot police. A short time ago president obama said the United States condemns the ongoing violence in the strongest possible terms. National guardsmen in wisconsin has been suspended after posting a Controversial Photo on social media. The image depicts soldiers. Joking around an empty casket draped with an american flag. Threats against the soldier Wisconsin National guard specialist terry their son has taken steps to insure her safety but has removed her from her duty. President obama is in mexico with the north amercian leader summit. They are expected to discuss everything from a new International Trade agreement to immigration reform. And a suspected high ranking leader of alqaeda face as u. S. Military court. The 48yearold was one of alqaedas more skilled leaders and answered directly to osama bin laden. Spaceflight, medical diagnostics, and radical break thrust. Can we interface the brain with computers . I dont think any of this is dpobl. As the chair of singularity university. You are worried about quarterly returns, also worried about some kid in the garage coming up with technology that you werent expecting that puts you out of business