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www.engineerguy.com

Public Radio Sites
• National Public Radio
• Public Radio International
• This American Life
• WUIS/WIPA Springfield/Pittsfield Illinois
• WILL-AM FM TV Urbana, Illinois
• WIUM (Tri-States Radio)
• WSIU- FM Carbondale, Illinois

Current Work: October 2007

Two of my pieces appeared on Marketplace the week of October 1st. On Monday I did a piece on the "standards wars" for DVDs, and then on Thursday a commentary reflecting on Sputnik's anniversary.

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Most recently I've been doing interviews for public radio's Afternoon Magazine. Of most interest to visitors of this web site is an interview I did with John Tyler Bonner - a biologist at Princeton. He's written a wonderful book entitled Why Size Matters. Its about how size affects the biological shape, form and function of living beings. You can heard the interview at this link. Also, I interviewed P.D. Smith about his fortcoming book The Doomsday Bomb: The Real Story of Doctor Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon. You can listen to this interview on-line.

I have also been doing regular commentaries for Marketplace. You can hear some of the most recent at these links: Nanotechnology and on the Pentagon's New Map (about how technology and globalization are changing the military). I should be on the week of September 24th talking about the HD-DVD format wars.

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The Ice Hotel Podcast (November 16, 2006)

Each week the Nature Conservancy presents a Nature Stories audio podcast. They feature stories that bring listeners interesting and unexpected tales of people's connections with the natural world.

This week they are featuring a rarely heard public radio piece I produced about my visit to the Ice Hotel in the arctic circle of Sweden. In this 20 minute piece I investigate every aspect of the hotel from its construction to why anyone would build it. You can download the free podcast at www.nature.org/podcasts. Note: It is the November 15, 2006 piece. There is also a direct link to the audio. It is the Enjoy!

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I'm back on the air! (October 3, 2006)

As many of you know I left the airwaves for a year to serve in the State Department as a science adviser. After traveling from Vienna to Vietnam and living in DC I've returned to public radio.

Recently I created a commentary about YouTube (the Internet video phenomenon) for American Public Radio's Marketplace. You can read it or listen to it at the Marketplace website.

Also, I spent the last two weeks guest hosting public radio's Afternoon Magazine. Two interviews will likely be of interest to engineerguy.com readers: The Box: How the Shipping Container made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger and Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence. Click to get podcasts. (Of course, you might well be interested in other topics from those two weeks: Shakespeare, Television with David Bianculli, Orson Welles, the Arctic, Mirrors, or the reason things fail!) Enjoy!

Copyright 2006 William S. Hammack Enterprises

Recognition for engineerguy.com

Bill has received the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award. He has also received the IEEE Award for Literary Contributions Furthering the Public Understanding of the Profession. He's been recognized by the American Chemical Society's Grady-Stack Award; the American Society for Engineering Education's President's Award, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters Silver Reel for National News & Commentary, the National Association of Science Writers Science-in-Society Award; the Church Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Service to Society Award. Most recently, Bill served as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the Department of State.