Archive for March, 2007
Discuss the "Devil's Slide" Radio report
The coast between Pacifica and Montara is unsurpassed in scenic beauty. Carved out of the steep cliff sides, Route 1 hugs the coastline for much of the distance between these two towns. In one part, the road crosses the aptly named Devil's Slide region, a steep, unstable geological formation. This section of road has a [...]
Post on Mar 30, 2007 by Amy Standen
Colors of Night
Double star Albireo, at the head of Cygnus the Swan. Credit: Conrad Jung, through Chabot’s 8-inch telescope, Leah.I occasionally get an email or a phone call from someone wanting to know what that strange, dazzling light was they saw in the sky that looked too unusual to be a star, or a planet, and was [...]
Post on Mar 30, 2007 by Ben Burress
Discuss the "Journey into Darkness" TV story
The Orientation Center for the Blind, in Albany, educates adults who are becoming blind. How do you prepare someone for their journey into darkness? What are the current causes of adult blindness? Our QUEST story follows Regina, who is becoming blind, as she develops skills such as walking with a white cane and talks about [...]
Post on Mar 27, 2007 by Gabriela Quirós
Discuss the "Nanotechnology Takes Off" TV story
Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating things atom-by-atom to produce the smallest human-made objects. It is among the hottest new research fields in the world, and the Bay Area is a center for its study. Within 15 years, experts predict, it will drive progress in virtually every field, from computing to medicine, manufacturing, energy and [...]
Post on Mar 27, 2007 by Josh Rosen
A Summer at the South Pole
Much like bumper cars, galaxies fly about the center and smash into one another. As a demonstration, the large blue galaxyon the left, nicknamed the guitar galaxy,is torn apart as it collides with another member of the cluster.*In the last two posts, I talked about solar systems and galaxies, you know, the really small stuff. [...]
Post on Mar 26, 2007 by Kyle S. Dawson
Who controls your thermostat?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star program has promoted programmable thermostats since 1995, estimating that consumers will save 10%-30% on their heating and cooling energy bills. Consumers who can accurately predict when they will be home, and who find it difficult to remember to set up their thermostat in the summer or set [...]
Post on Mar 23, 2007 by Jim Gunshinan
Discuss the "Watching for Floods on the American River" Radio report
It’s been a fairly dry winter so far in California. One group who could really use some rain is a team of scientists trying to unlock the secrets of how storms work. What they find out has critical implications for people living in flood-prone areas like Sacramento, where information is the best defense. A new [...]
Post on Mar 22, 2007 by Amy Standen
A Giant's Eye View
This past week I stopped into one of my favorite (indoor) places on the Estuary: the San Francisco Bay Model in Sausalito. Built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s, the model was used up until 2000 to simulate the effects of changes to the Estuary. It let engineers study the impacts of [...]
Post on Mar 22, 2007 by Ann Dickinson
JAWS along our Coast
Benchley's book and Spielberg's classic film Jaws might well have been set off San Francisco, in that although shark attacks are rare events, the fear and publicity associated with sharks off central California is on most everyone's mind. The White shark (Carcharodon carcharias), also known as the Great White Shark, requires no hyperbole. It is [...]
Post on Mar 21, 2007 by John E. McCosker
Discuss the "Super Microscope" TV story
Cutting-edge microscopes at UC-San Francisco are helping scientists create three-dimensional images of cells, and may help lead to new medical breakthroughs, including a treatment for Type 1 diabetes. Eco-Architecture and Elk Return to the Bay Area (episode #105), in which this short segment also appears, airs tonight on QUEST at 7:30pm on KQED 9, and [...]
Post on Mar 20, 2007 by Gabriela Quirós
Discuss the "Elk Return to the Bay Area" TV story
For thousands of years, massive herds of Tule Elk ranged across California like bison roaming the great plains. Weighing more than 500 pounds and able to run as fast as a racehorse, they were among the most majestic animals in the west. There were once a half a million native tule elk found in the [...]
Post on Mar 20, 2007 by Chris Bauer
Discuss the "Green Building Revolution" TV story
In Menlo Park, the headquarters of a multi-billion-dollar foundation is cooled with melting ice instead of air conditioning. In San Jose, a computer company linked its irrigation systems to local weather stations so they automatically adjust as the weather changes. In Los Gatos, a nuns' retreat center uses compacted straw for walls, recycled newspaper for [...]
Post on Mar 19, 2007 by Amy Miller
Distrust of Science
"They're lying." "Who are they working for?" "What a bunch of gibberish." This is the sort of stuff I sometimes overhear when a scientist comes on TV. And I'm not the only one who is hearing this sort of thing. Many studies over the years have chronicled an increasing distrust of the scientist. Where does [...]
Post on Mar 19, 2007 by Dr. Barry Starr
Bay Area herpetology: salamanders, part 1
California newt (Taricha torosa)It is about the time of year when, on a hike pretty much anywhere in the Bay Area, you can turn over a rock or a log and find a salamander. Like frogs, the breeding habits of salamanders coincide with the seasonally wet weather of the spring time; and as amphibians, water [...]
Post on Mar 16, 2007 by Nick Pyenson
Planets by the Hundreds
False-colored infrared picture of the first ever directly imaged exoplanet (fainter) and its parent star (a brown dwarf—brighter). Credit: European Southern Observatory. Exo-planet: it sounds like something the starship Enterprise should be visiting– and though they have been taken for granted in science fiction for a long time, prior to about fifteen years ago the [...]
Post on Mar 16, 2007 by Ben Burress
Discuss the "Bringing Back Urban Bees" radio story
Spring may be in the air, but the bees that pollinate our fruit and flowers may not be. The number of bees in the U.S. has declined, especially in urban areas. The traditional way to increase bee numbers is with hives of European honeybees — but setbacks in keeping city beehives means that a different, [...]
Post on Mar 16, 2007 by David Gorn
Cue the Pacific Tree Frog
Ahh… summer (well it seems like summer)… a time for lemonade, swimming in lakes and listening to the croak of frogs and catching them down by the creek. Wait! Is the lemonade organic? Is the lake protected? And most importantly, are you catching that frog in a jar, rather than with your hands, and putting [...]
Post on Mar 14, 2007 by Amy Gotliffe
Galaxies: All that and a can of SPAM
Deep image from the Hubble Space Telescope known as the Hubble Deep Field. A few bright round objects, i.e. the bright white object left of center, are stars. All other objects are galaxies, some as far as 12 billion light years away.To be perfectly honest, although my last posting focused on stars and extrasolar planets, [...]
Post on Mar 13, 2007 by Kyle S. Dawson
Horsing Around for the Home Planet
A friend who is an aficionado of classical music described rock and roll as "a man who got on his horse and rode off in all directions. In my version of the saying, about climate change and our dependence on fossil fuels, I think we all need to get on our horses and ride off [...]
Post on Mar 09, 2007 by Jim Gunshinan
Discuss the "Video Games – Access for All" Radio report
Video games are becoming so popular that last year’s sales in the U.S. surpassed movie ticket revenue. And as their popularity increases, the almost 50 million people that are living with a disability in the U.S. are wanting a voice in how the games are designed. At the San Francisco Game Developers Conference, developers are [...]
Post on Mar 09, 2007 by Amy Standen
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