The Lab With Brad

The Lab With Brad


Latest Episodes

Ep 310: Dreams and schemes in space
July 29, 2021

Dreams and schemes in space - For our last episode on space and space travel, we take a look at the private business based space programs. Here’s an article about the Mars One program. - Goodbye Mars

Ep 309: The Columbia’s last flight
July 22, 2021

The Columbia’s last flight - 17 years after the space shuttle Challenger broke up during launch, the space shuttle Columbia broke up during reentry. We take a look at what happened and why. Here’s an

Ep 308: The Challenger’s last flight
July 15, 2021

The Challenger’s last flight - In January of 1986, the space shuttle Challenger came apart 73 seconds after launch. We take a look at what happened and why. Here’s a sight on the first glide test of t

Ep 307: The space shuttle
June 24, 2021

The space shuttle - With 135 missions over a 30 year period, the STS was enormously successful. It will take another episode or two to cover, but we start with an overview of NASA’s space shuttle prog

Ep 287: Spider silk?
December 17, 2020

Spider silk? - Brother Phil and I were on the porch the other day, and the topic swung round to the amazing mechanical strength of spider web. He bumped into something about some piece of clothing that had been made from the stuff.

Ep 286: Say cheese!
December 10, 2020

Say cheese! - Today we look at the history of photography, and how the camera helped create the modern computer. Here’s a website with a thumbnail sketch of the history of photography. - Unraveling the History of Photography -

Ep 285: A lucky accident
December 03, 2020

A lucky accident - Around the 1950s, many labs were attempting to figure out how to manufacture transistors. Even more exciting was the idea that many electrical components, entire circuits could be put on one crystal.

Ep 284: Back up a bit
November 19, 2020

Back up a bit - A large percentage of the show’s staff all hurt their backs at once—the producer, the audio editor, founder, writer, research department head, and the host. Mind you, those are all the same guy so… We did manage to talk a little bit mo...

Ep 283: An early AI, and the birth of the transistor
November 05, 2020

An early AI, and the birth of the transistor - Vacuum tubes were all well and good, but they were bulky, hot, power hungry, and prone to failure. Early on, artificial neural networks showed promise, as even if tubes broke while it was running,

Ep 282: wires magnets and memory
October 22, 2020

wires magnets and memory - We spend some more time with some more vintage tech. This time we look at audio recorded on spools of wire, teletype equipment for input and output, and the magnetic core. Check out the links below to catch some nifty videos...