Part of a new public television series hosted by the "Science Guy," Bill Nye, the half-hour Eyes of Nye program focuses on transportation issues and solutions.

Stroh, who is deputy director of the lab's Institute for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Development, said his segment was taped in 2003.

Stroh said he was looking forward to seeing the final version, because the host kept trying to crack him up with his trademark crazy faces and zany remarks, while he was giving serious answers.

"He asked why the fuel cell research was important, and I told him the goal was to provide people with clean and abundant energy on the planet, regardless of where they lived," Stroh said.

"Nye made a face and asked, 'Gee, is that important?'"

Fuel cells are like self-charging batteries, using a catalyst to produce electricity and heat from oxygen and water as long as the fuel lasts.

The question of clean energy has become increasingly important, as pollution from transportation in the U.S. now exceeds pollution from factories and big industry, a point the program makes.

The President's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative had just been announced in January 2003, pledging $1.2 billion over five years to start a long-range program on how to develop hydrogen and fuel cell economies.

Stroh said the main points of his interview are still current.

"Fuel cells are functionally OK now for use in transportation, but still too expensive and not durable enough," he said. "That's what I told him then and it's still true."

He said progress has been made at LANL on the durability issue and that the continuing effort is on lowering costs and improving materials.

The first wave of hybrid cars that use both gasoline and electric storage devices, he said, has complicated the question of fuel cells, by increasing the efficiency of the old technology.

At the same time, he said, the electric drive and power management of hybrid cars could use fuel cells to make them more effective.

"We have more funding now than we ever had," said Stroh, adding that the hydrogen project will ultimately depend on whether there is enough political will to stick with the effort.

LANL researchers Mahlon S. Wilson, who is still on staff, and Ian Raistrick, made the key breakthrough in the late '80s that reduced the use of costly platinum in fuel cells by a factor of 20.

Subsequent research has involved a variant of that technology, while researchers look for the next breakthrough.

"That's hard to schedule," Stroh said.

Numerous fuel cell and hydrogen entrepreneurs have been seeking the "next big thing" for a couple of decades now, and there have already been several booms and busts on a smaller scale.

Stroh's joke was, "How do you make a small fortune in fuel cells?"

The answer is, "You start with a large fortune."

While it may take 20 years for this research to pay dividends, he said, "I haven't found anything that says this isn't going to work."

A former lab employee, Chris Barrett, will also appear on the program discussing the laboratory's TRANSIMS software that has been used by Dallas and Portland, Oregon to analyze traffic problems.

Show on Friday

The Eyes of Nye is a 13-part series on KNME-TV, channel 5.

The series airs on Friday with two half-hour shows, starting at 2:00 p.m.

The episode on transportation with LANL scientist Ken Stroh can be seen at 2:30 p.m. Friday.