New Software Aims to Prevent Runway Collisions, Windows That Wash Themselves, Saving California's Sea Otter Population
NATALIE PAWELSKI, HOST: New software for air traffic controllers: Can it prevent runway collisions? Also, windows that wash themselves. And rescuing sick and orphaned sea otters could help the species survive. Those stories and more are just ahead on SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WEEK. Hello and welcome. I'm Natalie Pawelski, in for Ann Kellan. White-knuckled fliers may worry about planes running into each other in midair, but collisions between airplanes on the ground can also be deadly. Two U.S. airports have just started using a new software system that's designed to make runways safer. Patty Davis reports.</s>PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The runway at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, April 1, 1999.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop!</s>DAVIS: An air traffic controller tries to prevent a collision between two 747 jumbo jets after one mistakenly taxis onto an active runway. A Korean Air 747, speeds toward takeoff, forced to lift off early and banks to the left to avoid a collision. The FAA says incursions, or close calls on runways, are on the rise nationwide, now averaging more than one a day. The FAA's answer, a software system called AMASS, or Airport Movement Area Safety System. It uses radar to alert controllers to potential collisions and has just gone on-line at San Francisco International Airport.</s>SCOTT SPEER, ASSISTANT AIR TRAFFIC MANAGER, SAN FRANCISCO: It's the first surface detection equipment that really gives an alert to the controller and allows the controller to prevent a collision.</s>DAVIS: Only San Francisco and Detroit have the technology so far. Thirty-two of the nation's biggest airports are next. But a federal transportation watchdog told a House panel AMASS is too little, too late.</s>REP. WILLIAM LIPINSKI (D), ILLINOIS: Mr. Mead, do you have confidence that the AMASS will work and that controllers will use the system?</s>KENNETH MEAD, INSPECTOR GENERAL, TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT: No.</s>DAVIS: Six years overdue and tens of millions of dollars over budget, the system has been plagued by false alerts. While the FAA is focusing on helping controllers prevent accidents, the Transportation Department's inspector general and the National Transportation Safety Board say more needs to be done to prevent pilot error, which accounts for 60 percent of runway incidents.</s>CAROL CARMODY, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION AND SAFETY BOARD: Unless much is done, more is done soon to prevent runway incursions, it's just a matter of time before we have a disastrous runway collision.</s>DAVIS: Even the FAA agrees the AMASS system isn't the complete answer. (on camera): Some of its fixes include improved marking and lighting for runways and more training for airport workers as the government tries to reverse the troubling rise in runway incursions. Patty Davis, CNN, at Reagan National Airport.</s>PAWELSKI: Starting this fall, New Yorkers who are driving are going to have to hang up their cell phones. New York state this week became the first state to outlaw talking on hand-held cell phones while driving. For the first month after the law takes effect, violators will get warnings. Then, the fines kick in, up to $500 for three-time offenders. The law makes an exception for emergency calls, and hands-free phones are permitted. At least 23 countries around the world already have laws against using cell phones while driving. California is not the only place where people are worried about power shortages this summer. New York's Long Island also faces the possibility of blackouts. Officials came up with a plan to lay cable and import power from Connecticut, but the proposal hit a snag in Long Island Sound. Brooks Jackson explains.</s>BROOKS JACKSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The new electric cable would have run from here: New Haven, Connecticut out through the harbor 24 miles under Long Island Sound to Long Island, New York.</s>BERT CUNNINGHAM, LONG ISLAND POWER AUTHORITY: Long Island needs power from Connecticut or from New England because we are an island. And we don't have enough power on Long Island to meet all of our demands.</s>JACKSON: New generating plants are being built in Connecticut, but Long Island fears California-style blackouts could hit as early as this summer. The answer: a cable.</s>RITA BOWLBY, CONSULTANT: It would probably reduce the risk of blackouts by about 50 percent.</s>JACKSON: But, for now, the cable project has been stopped. Connecticut officials said no. (on camera): When local opposition kills a project like this, it's often a case of "not in my backyard." This time, it's a matter of "not in my oyster bed."</s>LARRY WILLIAMS, CONNECTICUT SEAFOOD COUNCIL: I was instantly opposed to the project -- and still am.</s>JACKSON (voice-over): Larry Williams dredges oysters from the Sound. He and other commercial fishermen said they feared the project would stir up too much silt, harming seedling oysters.</s>WILLIAMS: There has to be an alternative to disrupting very sensitive and very valuable shellfish beds.</s>JACKSON: The cable company says there would have been very little harm to oysters.</s>BRIAN REINHART, ENGINEER: The only area that we're really looking at any oyster beds in is the New Haven Harbor area.</s>JACKSON: The company says the cable would be buried using a machine that would stir up no more silt than a bad storm, along a path only 4 feet wide, a total area of only one-tenth of 1 acre. But the opposition was unmoved and uncompromising.</s>WILLIAMS: Whether or not you're talking about one-tenth of an acre or 1,000 acres of loss, we cannot afford to lose the valuable ground that we have in Connecticut.</s>JACKSON: The Connecticut Siting Council denied permission to build the cable, saying: "We believe the applicant underestimated the potential impact on oysters in the harbor." But it also cited another reason -- quote -- "The proposed project would have substantial benefit to Long Island, but it would at best provide only incremental benefits to Connecticut." The decision was criticized in President Bush's energy report, which said "Connecticut did not recognize the need for electricity on Long Island." The president's energy plan calls for new federal legislation to clear the way for transmission lines. It was the historic 1965 blackout of New York that prompted more regional cooperation in sharing power. Connecticut's action shows how little one state will suffer to help a neighbor. The battle continues. The company is about to propose a slightly different route.</s>BOWLBY: We've learned a lesson. We've listened. And I think this time we're going to be in a better position</s>JACKSON: And the opposition: still adamant.</s>WILLIAMS: We're in it for the long haul. It's not over. There could be a very acceptable route to a lot of the concerns, a lot of the environmental concerns. I haven't seen that.</s>JACKSON: For SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WEEK, I'm Brooks Jackson.</s>PAWELSKI: Later in the show, eight copies of the same cow. And just ahead, what makes fireflies flash? We'll be right back.</s>PAWELSKI: Wildlife workers in Australia are said to be devastated about a mistake that led to the deaths of dozens of penguins. The workers were burning off thick grass last weekend on Montague Island, off Australia's east coast. When they left, they thought the fire was out, but it wasn't, and it spread to the habitat of some of the island's fairy penguins. Forty-two penguins were killed out of the island's colony of 12,000. Wildlife officials are investigating the accident. Researchers in Massachusetts gave it their best shot, but they had to abandon efforts to rescue an injured whale 100 miles off Cape Cod. The Northern Right Whale was spotted about three weeks ago, with a heavy plastic fishing line embedded in its upper jaw. The wound became infected, and the line interfered with the whale's ability to eat. Veterinarians working from a small boat were able to remove some of the line, but most of it remained stuck, and efforts to sedate the whale for the operation didn't work at all. Scientists will try to keep tracking the whale, but they say it's not likely to survive. There are only about 320 Northern Right Whales left in the wild. Fireflies are a welcome summer sight. But to scientists, they are more than that. New research on how fireflies flash could lead to better understanding of the human nervous system. David George reports.</s>DAVID GEORGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Can you spot the fireflies in this picture? One of the fascinating things about fireflies is their sheer mystery. We know one reason they blink on and off like they do is to attract mates. It's all about sex. But how do they control the blinking? In a study published in the journal "Science," researchers trace the answer to the nerve cells leading to the firefly's lantern and the presence of an enzyme that makes the gas nitric oxide.</s>BARRY TRIMMER, TUFTS UNIVERSITY: So, we asked the question, can nitric oxide actually make the animals glow? And the answer is, yes.</s>GEORGE: The nitric oxide works by throwing a biological switch that keeps oxygen from escaping from the cells inside the lantern. The result is sort of like what happens when you blow air on a dying fire.</s>TRIMMER: They'll flash a few times, and then they won't.</s>GEORGE: In these experiments in a laboratory at Tufts University, fireflies' lanterns glowed steadily when exposed to increased levels of nitric oxide. In the wild, the process works intermittently, with the firefly controlling the flashes. There are over 200 species of fireflies in the United States.</s>TRIMMER: Each firefly has a species-specific flash. So they control it, so they know exactly who's who, and they can find their mates.</s>GEORGE: So, ultimately it is sex that lights a firefly's fire. And lady lightning bugs have a murderous little trick. They can mimic the flash patterns of females from other firefly species.</s>SARA LEWIS, TUFTS UNIVERSITY: And by mimicking these females they're able to lure in prey, males, jump on them and eat them.</s>GEORGE: Who would have thought that about fireflies? The Tufts Researchers say their new findings may prove important to human medicine. After all, they say, the nervous systems of insects and mammals really aren't that different.</s>TRIMMER: So when we look for things in insect brains, they are helping to tell us about the way things work in human brains as well.</s>GEORGE: Small world, isn't it? For SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WEEK, I'm David George.</s>PAWELSKI: Coming up, a ray of hope for people whose windows are too dirty to let in any other kind of rays. We'll be right back.</s>PAWELSKI: If you think of electric cars as slow and unspectacular, here's something that might change your mind. This is Kaz, an electric-powered limousine invented at Japan's Keio University. It has a 580-horsepower engine, and can reach a top speed of 311 kilometers per hour. That's 193 miles an hour. Its lithium- ion batteries can be recharged in just one hour with a special power outlet or four hours with a regular home power source. The inventors are hoping to have it on the market by 2005 and plan to charge at least as much as a Rolls-Royce limo. What's your least favorite housecleaning chore? If you just don't do windows, you may take a shine to this report from Jeanne Moos.</s>JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chances are, at this very moment, there's a dirty window near you.</s>CHUCK KAPLANK, FLORAL GLASS CO.: Probably 80, 90 percent of windows never get cleaned, ever -- ever.</s>MOOS: Even editors at a door and window magazine called "Fenestration" and at "Glass Digest" confess...</s>MORGAN O'ROURKE, "FENESTRATION": I don't want to take the time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's just lazy.</s>O'ROURKE: Yeah, I'm lazy. That's why I don't clean my windows. It's pure laziness.</s>MOOS: Wouldn't it be wonderful if all those windows could just clean themselves? Introducing...</s>JIM GILDEA, PILKINGTON NORTH AMERICA: ... the world's first solar-powered self-cleaning glass.</s>MOOS: You may not do windows, but active glass does. In the words of Pilkington North America's president, Rick Karcher...</s>RICK KARCHER, PRESIDENT, PILKINGTON NORTH AMERICA: This is kind of the Holy Grail of windows.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think you're all going to be pretty amazed at what you see.</s>MOOS: A coating on the glass reacts to UV rays from the sun to dissolve dirt. To demonstrate, they speeded up the process using sun lamps. Glass that was this dirty came out this clean.</s>STEVE JENSON, PACETTER WINDOWS: It was amazing, actually. We were a little skeptical. At first we thought, well, this was too good to be true.</s>MOOS: The new coating on your left, also causes rain to wash off in sheets, as opposed to the usual droplets you see on your right.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost like a squeegee, like an invisible squeegee.</s>MOOS (on camera): Self-cleaning windows will also clean you out, at least a bit. It's estimated they cost about 20 percent more than the ones you have to clean yourself. (voice-over): As you can see from this handout video, Pilkington is targeting the residential market first. The product launch was held atop the World Trade Center, where windows are cleaned by an automated device that goes up and down on tracks. The new self- cleaning glass removes only organic substances. (on camera): I don't know if that's organic or nonorganic. (voice-over): But most dirt is organic, as opposed to substances like paint. Could this mean never having to clean windows again?</s>GILDEA: We won't say "never," but will say considerably less often.</s>MOOS: They still provide instructions on how to hand clean the self cleaning glass. It's guaranteed for 10 years. If it works on windows, why not self-cleaning dishes?</s>KARCHER: If you want to leave your dishes out in the sun where they can get the UV rays, that would be great.</s>MOOS (on camera): It's organic, right?</s>KARCHER: It's organic, absolutely.</s>MOOS: Will self-cleaning glass leave window-washers washed up?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.</s>MOOS: ... their competitions obsolete? Nah. Before you throw in the towel, you still have to do the inside. For SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WEEK, I'm Jeanne Moos.</s>PAWELSKI: We'd like to hear what you think about our show. You can e-mail us at SciTechWeek@cnn.com. We can't promise to answer every e-mail, but we definitely read them all, and thanks for all your comments so far. Coming up, what's killing California's sea otters may be a warning sign of bigger problems. We'll be right back.</s>PAWELSKI: Researchers have come up with a new technique for cloning animals that increases the success rate. These eight calves are all clones, identical to each other and to a donor cow at the University of Georgia. Cells from the donor animal were given a special treatment before the cloning process. They were treated with a chemical, which scientists plan to patent, that made the cells more uniform. With other techniques, one out of 20 embryos produces a live calf. With this one, the success rate rises to one in seven. The calves will be sent to breeding stations for more study. And a success for a dolphin breeding program. Ocean park in Hong Kong released this video of the birth of a baby dolphin, one of two born at the park in May after the mothers were artificially inseminated. The researchers say it's the first time that technique has worked with captive dolphins. The breakthrough came from research on using ultrasound to decide exactly when to inseminate the females. Scientists say the success will make it much easier to maintain genetic diversity in captive dolphin populations. Scientists in California want to know why so many sea otters are getting sick with mysterious diseases. The answers may tell them something about the health of the whole coastal ecosystem. Ann Kellan has the story.</s>ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Diver Karl Mayer is giving this sea otter pup a lesson in survival, how to live in the ocean. This four-month-old was found somewhere along the California coast, orphaned. It is being raised by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.</s>KARL MAYER, MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM: What I'm going to try to do out there is essentially give it exposure to the natural environment. I'll be diving, mimicking sea otter behavior as much as I can. We want them gradually to become more independent as they get older.</s>KELLAN: The goal: To release this pup back into the wild. It's part of a program to help keep this endangered species from extinction. The Southern Sea Otter is found along the California coast between Half Moon Bay and Santa Barbara and is one of three subspecies of sea otters. Their fur is the densest of any mammal. Where the human head has 100,000 hairs, otters have about a million hairs per square inch. That's the main reason why they were hunted to near extinction in the 1800s. They've been making a feeble comeback ever since.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, I haven't seen her in a month. She's just grooming. The other one is being lazy and sleeping.</s>KELLAN: Every year researchers survey the otter population, and since many of those treated and released by the aquarium wear radio transmitters, they're easier to trace.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... four, five, six, seven.</s>KELLAN: The latest tally conducted earlier this year shows just over 2,000 Southern Sea Otters left. These days it's not hunting that gets them as much as disease.</s>DR. MIKE MURRAY, VETERINARIAN: It basically tells us that this population is not healthy. They were either suffering from inadequate food supplies, improper food supplies, is something going on that we're increasing the infectious disease agents that are present in this coastal ecosystem? Are we having problems with the immune system?</s>KELLAN: Researchers also take in and treat sick otters. This one contracted a parasite that eats holes in its intestines. Another parasite, toxoplasma, is known to live in cats and in their feces is somehow infecting otters, causing serious brain damage.</s>MICHELLE STAEDLER, MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM: In some cases, a lot of the sick or disease that the animals are getting is human-caused. And I think we owe that to the animals to help them overcome these diseases and care for them, and then try and return them back to the wild. We also need to clean up our act on our end so that these problems don't continue to happen to the animals.</s>KELLAN: Part of studying otters is learning their behavior and lifestyle. This is mostly a group of young bachelors.</s>STAEDLER: A group of otters together is called a raft.</s>KELLAN: Older adults tend to live alone, cute maybe, but otters can be nasty.</s>MURRAY: The adult ones definitely are a very dangerous animal, and you don't want to mess with them unless you absolutely have to.</s>KELLAN: They share similar traits to their relatives the ferret, and wolverine. Otters, believed to be the last mammal species to return to the water, haven't quite made the evolutionary transition. They have the back flippers of a sea dweller and the front claws of a land mammal. They don't have the insulating layers of fat to cope with frigid Pacific Waters that whales or dolphins have. That's why when otters aren't sleeping, they're constantly moving and fluffing up their thick fur. Without air flowing through it for added warmth, they would die.</s>STAEDLER: Good girl.</s>KELLAN: And can they eat. These aquarium otters have it easy. A 50-pound otter will chow down about 12 pounds of shellfish a day that they crack open with their powerful jaws or bang open with rocks. That's what Mayer is trying to teach this pup to do. Today, all she wants to do is play.</s>STAEDLER: The animals tend to bond to humans, and that's one of the drawbacks for us because we have animals that we've released, and they can forage, they can make it on their own. But when they see somebody out there in a kayak or sometimes a wetsuit, they go towards the person.</s>KELLAN: That's why now, caretakers don't show their faces like this anymore, around the pups. They wear disguises and don't talk around them, hoping to reduce the pup's attachment to humans. (on camera): Since the program began in 1984, they've taken in more than 100 pups. Of those 100 pups, 50 have been released in the wild, and more than 25 have survived more than a year.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hmmm -- oh, there's another one! They are eating.</s>STAEDLER: They're sort of like little ambassadors to the ocean.</s>KELLAN (voice-over): Even though they're a crowd favorite, no one can say whether these photogenic creatures can be saved from extinction or whether efforts to treat the sick and save abandoned pups will help. But people who work with them say it's worth a try.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good, Haley.</s>MURRAY: It's more than just a cute fuzzy thing that everyone likes to look at. It really is our canary in the coal mine. So if we have this predator at the top of the food chain that is having problems, it really is Mother Nature's tap on our shoulder that we should look a little bit more carefully at what is happening in these coastal waters.</s>KELLAN: For SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WEEK, this is Ann Kellan.</s>PAWELSKI: Thanks for joining us. I'm Natalie Pawelski in for Ann Kellan. Next week, coastal marshes are dotted with small islands called hammocks. Some landowners' plans for the hammocks could put the marshes in danger. That's coming up on the next SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY week. We'll see you then. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com