WSU engineering professor Cynthia Bir teams with ESPN to air special Sport Science "Moments"

DETROIT- ESPN has begun airing short Sport Science segments and will do so throughout the current season, including during the Winter X-Games, which are Jan. 28 to 31.

The popular series that brought together professional sports stars and scientists explaining athletic achievements completed its second season last year on Fox Sports Net. It has now morphed into these special Sport Science moments, says Wayne State University Professor of Biomedical Engineering Cynthia Bir, lead scientist in the series. Two segments were aired during the BCS bowl games earlier this month.

Bir recently participated with Base Productions to film a segment in Breckenridge, Colo. on free skiing to be aired during ESPN's Winter X Games, an event featuring extreme sports. ESPN plans to air the shorts - about three minutes each - at different times corresponding to special sporting events. A half-hour show is being filmed to run in conjunction with the Super Bowl in Miami on Feb. 7. Additional half-hour Sport Science specials are also planned, Bir said.

Sport Science, along with Fight Science, the original concept using martial artists at the top of their game, was developed and produced by Base Productions and distributed to cable television companies including Fox Sports Net and the National Geographic Channel. Their contract with ESPN runs for one year.

Meanwhile, the National Geographic Channel will air brand new Fight Science episodes on Thursdays at 9 p.m. beginning Feb. 4. Bir will be involved in five new segments - Special Forces, Law Enforcement, Fight Like an Animal, Stealth and Human Weapons.

Sport Science has led to interest and new ideas by production companies elsewhere. One United Kingdom company has contracted with Bir to help them examine the dynamics of a staged "survivable" 727 jetliner "failed landing." Bir will take her expertise along with three crash dummies to Mexicali, Mexico next month. Two pilots will guide the plane, flaps down, into a descent before ejecting. "It should be interesting," said Bir.

Bir's participation in TV shows, beginning with Fight Science, has been a great experience, she says, and interesting for her husband and four children. But it's not a role she ever imagined. She is a hard scientist through and through, studying the effects of blast injuries caused by incendiary bombs such as those used by insurgents in Iraq.

And for Bir, the most important thing about her cable TV role has nothing to do with showbiz. "The shows are appreciated by a lot of different audiences, different age groups and backgrounds. In all the shows, we've applied the tools developed in the lab to record, measure and map the speed, force and range of the human body, specifically the athlete. The final product is not only entertaining, but educational."

Click here to read ESPN's press release on the football-themed Sport Science special that will kick off Super Bowl weekend.