Scientists and engineers have long realized that mother nature is the world’s most talented designer. Join host Joe Penna as he explores how designers are using Manta Rays to change the way we explore the ocean’s depths. He’ll fly a mechanical bird whose design is helping factories become more ef...

In 2050, the workplace will look far different than it does now, and one reason is robots. Join host Joe Penna as he talks to astronauts, designers and factory workers as they describe how the robotic revolution is affecting the way we work. One robot is designed to work side by side with humans,...

There will be two BILLION more people on Earth in 2050 and keeping them fed is a challenge not only for governments, but for scientists and futurists. Soon food will be grown in high rise buildings in major cities. Host Joe Penna talks to the people who are creating the foods of the future and sa...

The dreams of generations of science fiction writers are now a reality. Man and machine are meeting in strange—and productive—ways. Join host Joe Penna as he discovers a search and rescue robot that doubles as a tank, cuddles a therapy robot designed to look, and act, like an actual pet, and test...

By the year 2050, cops and robbers won’t look anything like it did in the past. Host Joe Penna talks to designers who’ve created a robotic security guard. He’ll work with a Harvard scientist who has developed a softball sized set of eyes and ears that allow crime fighters to see danger long befor...

Some of the biggest breakthroughs in the run up to 2050 are happening in medicine. Host Joe Penna examines electronic skin that keeps tabs of your vital functions and warns of trouble. He’ll discover implanted devices powered by our own bodies. And he’ll test out a simulator that shows him how ro...

Even before 2050, man and machine are meeting in ways only dreamed of by the most ambitious science fiction writers. Join host Joe Penna as meets a colorblind man who, thanks to a revolutionary piece of technology, has become a well-known visual artist who ‘hears’ colors. Joe also tries out a mac...

The future is coming to where you live. Join host Joe Penna as he visits a neighborhood that runs on solar power. In 2050 we’ll be living underwater, and plans are underway to live in caves on the Moon’s surface. Even parking garages are being converted into homes for future city dwellers. Yes...

By 2050 mankind will be living on the moon, and perhaps even Mars. Join host Joe Penna as he talks to pioneers in the future of space. Soon tourists will be traveling the solar system. Asteroids will be mined for precious materials we’re running out of on Earth---including water. And Space e...

The car is arguably the most influential invention in history. Join host Joe Penna as he discovers where this invention is headed in the run-up to 2050. Robotic cars, predicted 80 years ago, will be on roadways in a decade. Joe goes to a neighborhood where almost everyone drives an electric car. ...

What would happen if many of the products we use every day were made in our homes and not factories? 3D printing could make it happen. Join host Joe Penna as he meets pioneers in the field of 3D printing.Thanks to 3D printers, the billions of plastic bottles we use each year are being recycled a...

Oceans cover three quarters of the Earth’s surface, yet are less explored than the Moon. Join host Joe Penna as he visits with developers who are turning to the ocean as a renewable source of power. By 2050, we could be creating floating islands, big enough to support cities.

Entertainment isn’t just fun and games. It’s a big, multi-billion dollar industry and it’s changing quickly as we approach the year 2050. Join host Joe Penna as he visits with people creating operas—with robots. Virtual reality games are virtual no more---and when simulated environments become re...

More people are moving to cities than ever before. And that’s changing the way millions of people live. Join host Chuck Pell as he explores modern apartments built on assembly lines. He’ll try the high tech furniture that makes the best use of limited space. And he’ll take a tour of house bar...

Chuck Pell goes to New York’s fashion district to try the latest…in electric clothes. He’ll also wear a new piece of wearable technology that uses his own energy to charge his phone. And he’ll hit the treadmill in the ultimate shoe: the sneaker of the future.

In the future farms are moving from the countryside into the city, and they’re going straight up. Welcome to the vertical farm. Join host Chuck Pell as he eats a salad grown on the rooftop of a Boston high-rise. And the world’s busiest airport is also home to a bee colony that produces pounds hon...

Host Danni Washington presents the amazing world of Bio-Hybrid science, where sea slugs become robots, spinach plants prevent explosions and jellyfish could help prevent heart failure.

Mother Nature is the ultimate design innovator. Host Chuck Pell sees how humpback whales are showing designers how to save millions in energy costs. In the Florida Keys scientists are using the birds and the bees to wipe out killer mosquitos. And man’s best friend is being trained to sniff out...

Military planners are turning to technology to win battles of the future. Join host Chuck Pell as he plays videos games that are shaping modern battle plans. He’ll fly drones that are carrying a lot more than weapons. And he will visit scientists who have found a way to make tomorrow’s army invi...

Host Danni Washington presents the latest robots, inspired by nature. In this new age of robotics, machines slither like snakes, robots with wings fly like birds and squishy mechanical creatures inch along like worms.

Drones. They’re the piece of future tech that everyone’s talking about. The sky is the limit as host Chuck Pell discovers how drone technology is saving the lives of thousands in disaster sites around the world. He’ll see how drones are being used to get vital medicines to isolated communitie...

Cops and robbers isn’t what it used to be, especially since law enforcement started employing new technology to catch bad guys. Host Chuck Pell experiences a forger’s nightmare when his handwriting is analyzed with the latest computer software. He’ll visit scientists who can tell police what a v...

Future tech is allowing us to look into the ancient past like never before. Host Chuck Pell sees how archeologists are using satellite imaging and 3D sensing to map ancient native American cities. Anthropologists use new techniques to get prehistoric bones to yield information about our shared h...

With an expected nine billion mouths to feed by 2050 and the threat of climate change we will need to change our traditional methods of growing food in order to survive. Host Chuck Pell introduces us to developments going on in labs, research farms, plant genetics and something called aquaponics ...

Water is something we can no longer take for granted. Host Chuck Pell explores how drought stricken southern California is using millions of plastic balls to conserve water. He’ll talk to engineers who are figuring out ways for astronauts to survive on Mars---where there’s no drinkable water. And...

You may not have a robot in your home now, but odds are you will have one, or more, within the next decade. Chuck Pell gets introduced to a 200 pound robot that’s almost as graceful as a dancer. He’ll walk the halls with a robot that makes deliveries in large office buildings. And he cuddles u...

Robots are no longer science fiction, they are a fact of science.  Through events like the FIRST Robotics Competition kids are designing and building working robots.  Host Chuck Pell also pays a visit to a shop that builds customized robots.  We’ll stop by a lab that University of Pennsylvania th...

Nature is inspiring all sorts of futuristic designs. And some of those designs are having real benefits for the animal kingdom. Host Chuck Pell goes to abandoned areas of Detroit where dog lovers are tracking thousands of strays…with drones. He’ll visit a crippled dog that’s now walking—all thank...

As society advances new technologies are applied to what we learn and the ways we learn it. What will learning look like in 2050? Host Chuck Pell shows us a place that’s taking a hands-on approach to learning with robotic creatures. Can video games teach us anything?  You bet they can. Specialty ...

We don’t often think about what things are made of, but the materials that go into our vehicles, homes, and appliances are undergoing a revolution. Host Chuck Pell will see how industrial diamonds are transforming manufacturing. He will experiment with a type of metal that gives new meaning to ‘w...

Sound - you don’t think much about it, but futurists and entrepreneurs do. Chuck Pell catches up with two college-age inventors who’ve created a fire extinguisher that puts out fires - with sound waves.  Another inventor has created a ‘sound cloaking’ device that could make submarines invisible t...

High tech is revolutionizing the way kids learn AND the way teachers teach.   Join host Chuck Pell as he gets elbow deep in the ‘sandbox of the future’---and 3D topographical sandbox that allows young students to test earth science theories with their own hands---in real time. 3D printing is also...

Humans have always used their best technology to save lives, and new tech, and even some OLD tech, is now being employed by doctors the world over. Chuck Pell meets a designer who uses old car parts to help 3rd world doctors keep babies from getting jaundice.  He takes a stroll in a wheelchair th...

Green technology is radically changing the way people get around. Host Chuck Pell will take to the road in a hybrid between a solar powered car and an old fashioned tricycle, that has no carbon footprint. He’ll visit the factory where electric powered buses are changing the daily commute for mill...

If you want to see some of the world’s most famous treasures, you often have to travel thousands of miles. Now, as host Chuck Pell saw for himself, high tech is bringing fossils, artwork and historical artifacts to classrooms around the world. And virtual reality is changing the way teachers lea...

Inventors are up to some crazy things. We’ll see a mirror that records your reflection, from all sorts of angles, and downloads all those images to your cell phone. Host Chuck Pell will demonstrate a bulletproof material made of a new kind of foam. And a New York City hotel has a new employee: a ...

Doctors and botanists have come together to GROW medicine. Host Chuck Pell visits a lab where vaccines are developed inside of plants and then processed into pills, a development that could save millions of lives in the developing world. Drones are being used to deliver medicine not only across t...

Humans have always been interested in the workings of planet Earth and high tech is giving them all sorts of new insights. Did you know that Earth’s magnetic poles have shifted dozens of times during the planet’s history? Host Chuck Pell visits scientists who’ve created a huge device that shows h...

Movies and video games have been creating simulated environments for years but now the military is creating physical environments that simulate rain forests, deserts, combat situations, and even the surface of Mars. Chuck Pell goes to a lab where he’s in a blistering desert one minute and a tropi...

Environmental bad guys beware! Trees are now safer thanks to new satellite imagery giving us a view of our planet like we’ve never had before. We now know how many trees are on Earth and, almost in real-time, can tell who’s cutting them down. Chuck Pell samples a new kind of tree, one that’s bu...

New sources of power are transforming people’s lives, particularly in developing countries. Host Chuck Pell meets two young entrepreneurs who’ve invented a portable light that’s virtually indestructible and runs on sunlight. And, believe it not, sewage is being used to create clean drinking wat...

High-tech is a serious business, but it’s also fun and games. Chuck Pell gets in the virtual cockpit for a new kind of drone racing that’s going international. He’ll watch as robots compete in the world’s most futuristic soccer match. And a new football ‘dummy’ isn’t as dumb as he seems.

New tech is allowing all of us to become inventors. Welcome to the Maker Movement, a worldwide phenomenon designed to get everyone making all sorts of strange and unusual gadgets. Chuck Pell visits a Makers Faire for some hands-on experience in how young and old alike are creating the future.

Weather is Mother Nature’s way to remind us how beautiful and fickle she can be. Chuck Pell visits a local TV station to see how supercomputers are used to predict future weather events. We see drones that fly right into tornadoes. And we’re introduced to three college students who’ve created a w...

High tech is revolutionizing the way art is being created. Is Artificial Intelligence intelligent enough to make art?  Host Chuck Pell find out when sees works of art produced solely by computers. And he learns how ‘Creative Re-use’ takes what was once garbage and turns it into raw material for a...

Plastic is one of mankind’s most revolutionary inventions. It’s everywhere, in your home, in your car, in your clothes. It’s also fouling your environment.  Host Chuck Pell visits the world of plastic recycling, where used plastic is converted into lumber, clothing, works of art, car parts and ev...

A child born in 2000 will most likely see people living on the moon and maybe even Mars. Host Chuck Pell visits training facilities for these future colonies. He talks to people living on the side in a habitat designed to simulate life on Mars, that’s built on the side of a Hawaii volcano. And di...

DNA. we all have it, and it’s being used for a lot more than solving crimes. Could we get DNA from dinosaurs?  Host Chuck Pell visits a lab where they’ve discovered fossilized proteins that are coming awfully close. DNA is even being used to help people find the perfect mate. And do you want to k...

We tend to think of robots as boxy, hard, and a little awkward. Well, those days are over. Chuck Pell discovers the new world of soft robotics, where robots are so human-like they can actually feel things. 3D printers are being used to make robots with remarkable similarities to our bodies. And j...

The STEM initiative, which is designed to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Math to the nation’s schoolchildren, is getting a big boost from both the private, and public, sectors. Chuck Pell visits an event, sponsored by the Navy League, which puts thousands of future inventors in touc...

New technology is capable of things not thought possible a generation ago. Host Chuck Pell has a conversation in real-time with a hologram of a holocaust survivor. Thanks to new tech these survivors will be able to personally relate their experiences, forever. And we visit a futuristic deep-freez...

Future tech is changing the basics of human existence, including our five senses. Chuck Pell experiences a future robotic hand that will transform our sense of touch. He sees the biggest ‘ear’ on planet Earth. And talks to a scientist who smells a great future for products that can make our noses...

Sustainability is a word you’re going to hear a lot more of on the road to 2050. Why waste when you can turn that waste into useable, environmentally friendly products? Chuck Pell meets inventors who are literally creating shoes out of thin air. Yes, they’re taking carbon dioxide out of the atmos...

Artificial Intelligence, or ‘AI’, is all the rage among futurists. Is it good, bad, something to be worried about, or something to be embraced? Chuck Pell talks to leaders in the field of AI. They discuss Deep Blue, the IBM computer that beat the best chess player in the world, and show how game...

Solar power is the fastest growing power source in the world; in fact, it’s a new industry creating tens of thousands of jobs. Host Chuck Pell learns how the eyes of moths are being used to create more efficient solar energy. And he visits a giant ‘farm,’ where thousands of solar panels produce ...

Future tech is bringing the past alive. Join host Chuck Pell as Virtual Reality technology recreates ancient cities. And laser scanning and video animation give new life to old fossils.