WBEZ's Tech Shift

The nonprofit organization Sunlight Foundation has been keeping track of the tweets politicians didn't want you to see anymore. The site, called Politwoops, saved the tweets deleted by lawmakers. For the past three years, it tracked thousands of blunders and position changes. It also helped track how Twitter was being used for political discourse. But last week, Twitter suspended Sunlight's access to its information, shutting down Politwoops. The move raises questions about how the social network balances privacy with the public's right to know what their politicians are up to online. WBEZ web producer Chris Hagan tells us more.

The tiny bombardier beetle is explosive. Literally. To fight off predators, it creates explosions inside its abdomen that allows it spray a stream of chemicals at its foes. Now scientists are studying this phenomenon in more detail to see if the bug's defense mechanism might have practical applications for things like body armor and crash helmets. Dr. Wah-Keat Lee worked on this at Argonne National Laboratory in the south suburbs. He's now a scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.

In 2014 microbes collected from our favorite Chicago dinosaur, that would be the Field Museum's Sue the T-Rex , were launched into space. It was part of an effort to send microbes from all kinds of earth environments into space to see how they grow. The point? To learn how microbes associated with everyday human life react in a closed, limited-gravity environment and what implications this may have for humans during long-term space travel. Now, the results are in. Dr. David Coil, Project MERCCURI researcher and a Project Scientist in the Microbiology Lab of Jonathan Eisen at the University of California at Davis, joins us with details on the experiment.

Thousands of people across the country are taking part in the third annual National Day of Civic Hacking. Groups in more than 100 cities will meet to design apps, websites and services to try to solve problems in their communities. Chicago is hosting four events in 2015, with goals from improving neighborhoods to creating more sustainable fisheries. Christopher Whitaker, the Chicago Brigade Captain for Code for America, and Steven Philpott, a Social Ventures Fellow at the Center for Neighborhood Technology, join us along with Kelly Borden, the Citizen Science Education Lead at Adler Planetarium, to fill us in on this year's event.

The FCC proposes subsidizing broadband access for the poor; Google introduces some pretty fantastic technology; and the latest supercomputing news. Those are just a few stories we explore on our Tech Shift Week in Review. We're joined by Argonne's Deputy Director for its leadership computing facility, Susan Coghlan, as well as our WBEZ super digital guy, Tim Akimoff.

All week on Tech Shift we're talking about opportunities for kids to boost their STEM skills over the summer. WBEZ digital producer and co-host of the Nerdette podcast, Tricia Bobeda, joins us in studio with some science, engineering, technology and math resources Chicago once school lets out.

All this week on Tech Shift we're looking at summer camp options for kids that focus on science, math or technology. With dozens of camps out there - and some with tuition that costs about $1,000 a week - how do you know which one is worth the price? We thought we'd turn to the people at Chicago Tech Academy for some advice. They sift through many of these programs for their high school students. Principal Linnea Garrett joins us, along with one of her school's programming language teachers, Kevin Musiorski.

Now that the Memorial Day weekend is over, students around Chicago are counting down to the end of the school year. And for some, that means coding camp is right around the corner. All this week on Tech Shift, we're looking at different options kids have to explore science, technology, engineering and math over the summer. We examine a new program from the civic tech group Smart Chicago called Youth-led Tech. Its goal is to introduce students on the South and West sides to coding, and to teach them how to translate their new-found programming skills into a job. Joining us to talk about that is Smart Chicago Executive Director Dan O'Neil, and Dr. Toni Irving, Executive Director of Get In Chicago, a violence prevention and reduction program.

Questions about 1871's success - a big win for local company Everpurse - and Washington's working on helping modernize health care technology. It's Tech Shift Week in review.

It's a Robot revolution! At least at the Museum of Science and Industry. We took a field trip to the museum to see the exhibit aimed at introducing the public to the future of robotics. “Robot Revolution” starts here in Chicago then goes on a national tour. It runs at the MSI May 21 through January 3.

When it comes to medical emergencies, time is precious. But we've all seen ambulances or fire trucks stuck in traffic, sometimes barely inching along. One organization is trying to change that. United Hatzalah is a free emergency service that uses “ambucycles” or a motorcycle ambulance, to navigate the busy city streets of Jerusalem. It also uses an Uber-like app to send the nearest emergency medical professional to the person in need. Eli Beer, founder of United Hatzalah and inventor of the “ambucycle,” explains.

Ever since Bitcoin was created in 2008 it has gotten a lot of buzz. Wall Street, whole governments and even presidential candidates have expressed interest in the viability of the digital currency. But it hasn't exactly changed the world yet. Could it? New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper has a new book out, Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money. He joins us to dig into the secretive history of Bitcoin.

Suzanne Muchin leads Mind + Matter Studio in Chicago. She and Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision, were tired of the trend pieces and think pieces about the problem of women being underrepresented in tech businesses that didn't focus enough on tangible solutions. So they published a list of the five things they're dedicated to actually doing to help boost women in the workplace. Suzanne joins us in studio to explain the piece in detail.

Washington tries to strike a balance between privacy and security, Reddit wants its users to stop harassing each other, and move over, Raspberry Pi! Now there's Chip, the $9 computer. Those are a few headlines we're talking about today on Tech Shift Week in Review. Our panelists are Jayna Cooke, CEO of EVENTup and Jen Myers, Founder of Code and Cupcakes Chicago and the director of Open Source Curriculum at Pluralsight.

Improvements in virtual reality may offer doctors a chance for advanced training in ways never before possible. Mary Spio is President and Founder of Next Galaxy. It focuses on developing consumer virtual reality technology. Next Galaxy recently partnered with Miami Children's Hospital to work on this kind of virtual reality application. Mary joins us to discuss what this new technology could mean for the future of surgery.

Many of us have opened news articles through Facebook's app, and know it can sometimes take a while for the article to load on the mobile web. Well, Facebook is launching an instant articles feature, which allows stories to load more quickly on Facebook's app. Casey Newton is the Silicon Valley Editor at tech news site The Verge and he joins us with details on this new feature.

After much fanfare, Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute is open. After winning a $70 million federal grant back in 2014 for advanced manufacturing, the UI Labs tech hub is up and running. UI Labs chairman Warren Holtsberg gives us the details.

Chicago has gotten a lot of attention for its open data efforts, but cities around the region are also getting into the space. Evanston launched its open data portal in February and is starting to see how citizens are using the information and where to go next. Luke Stowe, Digital Services Coordinator for the city of Evanston, joins us with more.

Uber is in the market for a new mapping system and sets sights on Nokia's digital mapping service. Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants a universal taxi app for Chicago cabbies to compete with ridesharing services like Uber. We discuss some of the week's biggest tech stories with Justin Massa of Food Genius and Wailin Wong, editor and writer for The Distance.

Lightning storms look cool - a brilliant flash of light in the dark, a massive bolt suddenly streaks across the sky. For the most part, we understand lightning. But what about thunder? Scientists from Southwest Research Institute have been conducting experiments to literally get a better picture of how thunder works. Dr. Maher Dayeh is a Space Physicist in the Space Science & Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute and he joins us with details on the team's experiment.

Physicists around the world are theorizing that reality as we know it may just be one big hologram. That means, the 3-D objects you see around you aren't actually 3-dimensional. At the moment, this is just an idea. But a team of physicists and researchers at Fermilab are conducting an experiment to try to find evidence that such a theory is possible. Joining us to explain is Craig Hogan, Director of the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics and professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.

The University of Illinois is launching a new online MBA program using massive open online courses, or MOOCs. U of I is no stranger to MOOCs. They already offer dozens of courses through Coursera, the largest provider of MOOC education. Coursera representatives say this program would be the first MBA program of its kind. Joining us with more on this new program is Carl Straumsheim, a technology reporter for Inside Higher Ed.

Over the past decade many governments, including Chicago's, have put the spotlight on open data. But how do citizens really feel about these initiatives? A new study from the Pew Research Center found big splits in the public's awareness of open data and its value for users. John Horrigan, a Senior Researcher at Pew and one of the authors of that report joins us to explain.