New inventions

A person in a wingsuit flying

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Audio file

Transcript

Presenter: Welcome to Tech Today! This week it’s National Science and Engineering Week, so to celebrate we asked Jed our science correspondent to give us a round-up of new inventions.

Jed: Hi, yes, I’ve got some very interesting things to tell you about today, starting with a fun one: wingsuits, those suits that look like bats and allow people to fly, or glide, at least. They’re the ultimate in cool.

Presenter: But they’re not very new, are they?

Jed: Well, no, but the modern ones are better than ever and last October was the first ever world championship in China. The price is coming down, too. Now you can buy one for 600 to 2,000 dollars. It’s still too expensive for me, but I suppose it’ll keep coming down.

Presenter: OK, what about useful new inventions?

Jed: There are lots of those. There’s a new solar water distiller created by Gabriele Diamanti aimed at parts of the world where it’s hard to get clean drinking water. You pour in salty water and let the sun do the work for a few hours. Then, hey presto! You have clean water! It’s a very simple device and fairly cheap to produce.

Presenter: Can I hear some doubt in your voice?

Jed: Well, they still need help with investment to start producing the distiller properly. So if anyone out there has money to invest in a great product …?

Presenter: Absolutely. Get in touch with the designers.

Jed: Another useful invention which it would be good to see in production are ‘enable talk gloves’. These were invented by some Ukrainian students to allow people with speech and hearing impairments to communicate with people who don’t understand sign language. The gloves use sensors to translate sign language into text, then into spoken language using a smartphone. A brilliant invention!

Presenter: Yes, that could benefit thousands of people.

Jed: Another useful invention comes from a surprising source, James Cameron, the film director.

Presenter: The Titanic director?

Jed: The very same. Cameron was part of a team, headed by engineer Ron Allum, which designed the Deepsea Challenger Submarine, capable of descending to the lowest parts of the sea, 10 km down. Last year Cameron went down to the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the sea in the world. He was the first person to do a solo dive there, and he stayed for three hours, the longest time so far.

Presenter: That sounds impressive!

Jed: Yes. We know so little about what’s at the bottom of the ocean, and it’s important to find out more. OK, so now for something useful in a different way. You know that feeling when you’re trying to get tomato ketchup out of a bottle and it won’t come out, but you’re sure there’s lots more in there?

Presenter: Yeah, of course. It’s really annoying.

Jed: Well, a team of students at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have come up with a new product that you use to coat a glass or plastic bottle, and then what’s inside, hair gel or mustard, or whatever, comes out really easily.

Presenter: So, it saves hours of frustration trying to get stuff out of bottles?

Jed: Exactly. Right, now for my favourite invention. This is really silly, but I love it. It’s a way of producing clouds indoors.

Presenter: Clouds?

Jed: Yes. A Dutch artist has come up with a way of forming perfect, small, white clouds inside. They’re just beautiful. I don’t think you can do it yourself at home yet, though.

Presenter: I don’t think I’d want to.

Jed: Oh, you would if you’d seen the photos. They’re amazing.

Presenter: OK, Jed, thanks for that. We’ll leave you with your head in the clouds and see you again next week!

Discussion

Which of these new inventions would you most like to try out?

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Comments

Submitted by pomelo on Mon, 04/03/2023 - 15:01

I choose the wingsuit

Submitted by GBGBGBGB on Fri, 08/26/2022 - 14:59

I would like to try the Gabriele Diamanti’s invention, this because I would like to taste a cup of sea water without salt, and because I would know that that water has used solar energy and not other type of energy that pollute our ecosystem.

Submitted by Caner on Wed, 06/01/2022 - 08:27

new inventions have emerged to make life easier and improve

Submitted by nora503 on Mon, 11/15/2021 - 17:11

If I had to choose an invention from all those, I believe I would want to have the wingsuit. It would allow me to fly and I would be able to see the land from the sky without having to go ointo an airplane. I would also be free and have the choice of where I would like to go and not have the pilot of an airplane or helicopter decide for me where we would fly to.

Submitted by Modric on Wed, 11/13/2024 - 12:14

well i think you should have shosen cloud making machine beacause then you also get the same wiew as wen you wly with the wing suit but with the wingsuit you have to buy a trip to somewer pacause it cast money to hire a plane or a buss or a train so you save much money to get the same wiew by buying the cloud machine

In reply to by nora503

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Submitted by Elpro202 on Sat, 08/07/2021 - 00:10

I prefer the water distiller because it's really useful when we don't have drinking water near us.

Submitted by Lucas17 on Fri, 04/16/2021 - 08:43

If I had to choose an invention I would choose the wingsuit because it allows us to fly like a bird and it can also offer points of view we can not have land point and since I like the thrill activities I would like to do this one

Submitted by Sudipto on Fri, 04/09/2021 - 04:19

I will like full moon wing suit looks like a bat. I will be bat man (~ ̄▽ ̄)~. Well I liked it cause it looks cool I've always wanted to fly with a wing suit and it would be a great experience. Sudipto logging out. (⌐■_■)

Submitted by Roha on Tue, 04/06/2021 - 16:10

i would like to try out the clouds indoor, because i love clouds a lot. Let me share something with you guys. Once I had a dream, in the dream i saw that I was playing with the clouds. So that's why I would like to try out the clouds indoor to reach that dream. Thank you guys for reading my comment....

Submitted by abcd_ef on Sun, 04/04/2021 - 12:45

I would be really amazed to try out the wingsuits, which seems to be really fascinating. It would be a great experience for me to fly in the clouds using the wingsuits.

Submitted by Ahnaf_Ahmad on Sun, 04/04/2021 - 05:56

I would like to try out the wingsuit because I always wanted to fly from a high area and people always desired to fly. That's why they made aero planes. The wingsuit is cheaper and when we fly in it it feels like bird in my opinion, So, I would love to try the wingsuit at least once.

Submitted by A01280844 on Wed, 02/10/2021 - 23:38

I would really like to try out the solar water distiller because of this invention really works like they say it could really change the world for the better.

Submitted by Aguilar_tecnologico on Fri, 02/05/2021 - 00:17

I choose the wingsuit, because I think that being able to fly would be one of the best adventures, I just imagine what it would be like to be able to fly like a bird and be able to see everything from another perspective or like an airplane, in short. It would be crazy, also seeing the sky is another reason.

Submitted by a01286303 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:44

I would like to try on the gloves, because I would like to know and travel the world and be able to communicate with foreign people I would also like to try the swimsuit and parachute, I really like extreme things like sports

Submitted by CarlosB on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:42

I would like to use the submarine that James Cameron used, it will be amazing and I can learn more about the ocean.

Submitted by a01284839 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:41

I would love to try the wingsuit because when I was little i wanted to fly and I would also like to use the gloves to be able to communicate with deaf people

Submitted by a01198966_JB on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:39

Of the whole inventions, I would choose the machine of the time. This because I think is the most useful of all, you can travel through the time, rescue your problems of the future, visiting people that its not with you or doing things you never imagine there. It is so exciting just to imagine the invention is real and not part of fiction, because lot of issues you could change it with the powerful machine, before I talked about.

Submitted by a01177976 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:39

I would like to try the water distiller because I think that through the years the lack of water will be extremely on top of any problem, in the world we have 90% of water and the other % is land so we need that invention as soon as possible.

Submitted by BrunodelaF on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:38

I would try to do the digital running shoes because is more easy and is very useful to make workout and get fit.

Submitted by A01280844 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:38

- From all of these inventions I think that the one that I would like to try out might be the wingsuit because maybe for a little bit I’ll be able to fly by myself, and feel what it´s to fly, feel elsewhere, free and carefree.

Submitted by a01286106 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:37

The one that I would like to try the most would be the wingsuit since I have always liked the sky and being able to feel the air in my hair would be wonderful.

Submitted by adrianam on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:36

I would like to try the one with the clouds because it would be cool to have nice clouds inside and witness that incredible experience :) A01286281

Submitted by a01285458 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:33

I would personally like to try the wingsuits, because they seem fun. I could have choose any other invention but I think that I just really don't need the others. They are cool and will probably help thousens of lifes, but I don't need them so I will choose the funny wingsuit.

Submitted by A01286176 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:31

I would like to try de wingsuit but with all de security measures because try this could be dangerous

Submitted by Arturo on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:30

The wingsuit because with that I can fly very high and be able to see all things from above, technology can help us evolve to be able to work faster talking about companies and I think this can help a lot.

Submitted by a01285191 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:30

I would love to try out the to the indoor cloud-maker, my dream is to touch a cloud because that cloud are really soft and it'd feel amazing.

Submitted by a01285665 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:30

I would really like to try the creating clouds indoors, I’m so curious about how would it look like.

Submitted by Fatima on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:29

Hi, all of the inventions are really amazing, I want to try the wingsuits because sounds very funny and interesting but it's very scary too fly in the heaven but the gloves sounds great too and this invention would be of much help for made new friends :)

Submitted by A01285604 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:28

I think I would choose the wingsuits, I always wanted to be able to fly, i think it would be such an incredible experience because it will make you feel free and alive.

Submitted by A01286123 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:26

Maybe I would like to try the water distiller because I think that’s a very cool and also a very helpful invention if you get lost or maybe if you enjoy going camping or travelling, I would love to know how to use it in case some of this situations happens to me.

Submitted by SantiagoDario on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:24

The solar water distiller because is interesting and I think this could help the world too much
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Submitted by A01285619 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:22

I would choose the Sign language translation gloves, I think they are really useful.

Submitted by JohanaD on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:21

I know these inventions do not exist, but I would like to try the time travel machine or Bio-fabric clothing because I think it will be amazing and strange at the same time, other than that it would be a new thing that I have never tried before.

Submitted by A01284634 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 23:08

I would like to try the sign language translation gloves because I believe that it is something necessary to be able to communicate with the mute and that they do not feel excluded from the society in which we live

Submitted by bigjordi on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 21:44

The invention that I will like to try out is the wing suit, I would like to jump from an airplane to the ground using that invention, since it is getting cheaper it takes it easier for more people to try it.

Submitted by bigjordi on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 21:43

The invention that I will like to try out is the wing suit, I would like to jump from an airplane to the ground using that invention, since it is getting cheaper it takes it easier for more people to try it.

Submitted by A01285765 on Thu, 02/04/2021 - 21:22

One invention i would love to try out and to see other people have is the water distillation machine because that could solve a lot of problems, like when you are in an emergency and there's no water you could carry that device and be able to be safe or in countries that water distillation problems.

Submitted by yare8p on Sat, 05/16/2020 - 02:23

I would like to try the gloves, because i'd like to travel around the world and be able to communicate with foreing people

Submitted by Gaetan1604 on Fri, 04/24/2020 - 08:16

I would really like to try out the solar water distiller because if this invention really works like they say it could really change the world for the better.

Submitted by amartin on Wed, 04/15/2020 - 09:13

Well, I would relly want to try de wintg-suit and do parachute. I have tried lot of sports, but I haven't do this one yet.

Submitted by mg1208 on Sun, 04/05/2020 - 11:52

I'd most like to try out water distiller because I love chemistry and I'd like to know how it actually works. Second thing I'd like to try out are wing-suits because I've always wanted to take up an extreme sport and I still want but I don't have time for that.

Submitted by Lozovatka on Fri, 01/17/2020 - 15:01

The progress moves extremely fast, so very soon we could use wing suit as our own wings to reach any place. I'm also proud of my countrymen who have come up with an "enable talk gloves". Thank God, I live in the 21st century!

Submitted by KUZNETSWHAT on Tue, 09/17/2019 - 16:09

I'd like to try cloud-maker machine and hope that my wallpapers won't get peeled off ;D . The speech in this programme is prety simple and I understood most of it☻.

Submitted by Askar100 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 07:47

All these inventions are interesting and useful but I'd most like to try go down by submarine of James Cameron. That listening material was more difficult than previous one (e.g. Boy Bands, How to study, My hero etc). I listened to it many times and I understood about 80-90% of this material. Not bad. I didnt listen to it with transcript yet and when I do this, I think I understand whole material!!! Thank you for these Great materials to study!
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Submitted by bilko on Sat, 04/28/2018 - 18:26

For me, the most useful and interesting invention is "enable talk gloves". At the same time, I would like to invent a ship which is run with water. I know it would be very difficult but in my opinion, it can prevent global warming...
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Submitted by Elsa007 on Sun, 04/29/2018 - 03:33

Hi, may I ask how “ebable talk gloves” work?? And... I want the ship when your ship comes in! ;)

In reply to by bilko

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