Archive for 2007
Seeing the Invisible
Overlay of the profile of the Bullet Cluster measured using three different techniques. The light orange, round galaxies that make up the cluster are seen clearly in the image taken from optical telescopes. Overlaid is the distribution of gas measured from X-ray observations in red and the distribution of dark matter in blue. Composite Credit: [...]
Post on Jun 18, 2007 by Kyle S. Dawson
Does This House Come With a Prius?
One of the benefits of being on the staff of a nonprofit that is a guest at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is rubbing elbows with great scientists and researchers like Tom Wenzel in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division. I first met Tom after a talk he gave years ago about improving auto fuel economy without [...]
Post on Jun 15, 2007 by Jim Gunshinan
Wifi Revolution
Silicon Valley is planning what will be the country's biggest wireless network, serving 40 cities and 2.4 million people. It's just one of dozens of municipal wireless projects being launched across the country, many of which will be run by for-profit companies. Is wireless the next public utility? If so, who should control it, and [...]
Post on Jun 14, 2007 by Amy Standen
Window on the Bay, Part I
Bay pipefish (Syngnathus leptorhynchus)Our usual view of the Bay doesn't even scratch the surface. Literally. As we admire that beautiful expanse of water, how often do we stop to wonder what’s going on underneath it all? The Bay below the surface is a rich ecosystem of worms, snails, anemones, sea stars, clams, shrimp, crabs, and [...]
Post on Jun 14, 2007 by Ann Dickinson
Ray's 50-year love affair with 'dem bones
Photo Dong Lin, California Academy of SciencesWhat would you do if you saw an old guy, with a weather-beaten face and white hair, carving the flesh off the skulls of a dead seal lying in the sand on Ocean Beach, in San Francisco? Would you call the police? If you did, they probably wouldn't care, [...]
Post on Jun 13, 2007 by Donovan Rittenbach
The real Davy Jones locker
Laboratory photo of one of the newly discovered bone-eating worms, Osedax frankpressi, which has been removed from a whale bone On the heels of two humpbacks leaving the Sacramento River for the ocean, you may have seen this other news report on a rotting gray whale carcass on waterfront property at Point Richmond. (There's a [...]
Post on Jun 12, 2007 by Nick Pyenson
Turning skin cells into embryonic stem cells
Last blog I talked about how I may have to be cloned to get my own embryonic stem (ES) cells. I was willing to deal with all of the associated ethical baggage because these sorts of cells would be so useful. They'll help cure many of my future ailments without my body rejecting these ES [...]
Post on Jun 11, 2007 by Dr. Barry Starr
Titan: It's a Small World After All
A comparison of one of Titan's 'seas'(left) and Lake Superior. Credit: NASA/Cassini.Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has always held my imagination in a tight grip. Even back in my childhood (we're talking the 60's, before any interplanetary probe had even crossed the Asteroid Belt just beyond Mars), when we knew little more about Titan than its [...]
Post on Jun 08, 2007 by Ben Burress
Cleaning up Hunters Point
The Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard bears traces of a toxic — and historic– military legacy. It could also be the site of the new 49ers stadium. But cleaning up this 500 acre Superfund site is costly and time consuming. QUEST looks at how the site got that way, and how the Navy is cleaning it [...]
Post on Jun 07, 2007 by Amy Standen
Good Vibrations
How does an elephant know to avoid a hungry lion pride to the west from miles and miles away? They have friends who call them with the 411, dialing direct to their feet. According to expert Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, Elephants use their voices to create sounds, which transfer into waves through the ground. The elephants receive [...]
Post on Jun 06, 2007 by Amy Gotliffe
What is Invisible?
Some forces, like the electromagnetic force, are very easy to detect using small children in the laboratory. Others aren't so easy. I finished off my last post with mention of some recent dark matter press coverage. I'm going to take this opportunity to delve into this subject with a little more detail. I realize I've [...]
Post on Jun 04, 2007 by Kyle S. Dawson
Putting Our Greenbacks Into Green
The Whirlpool Duet clothes washer is among the most energy- and water-efficient washers out thereWell, we finally did it. After 16 months of looking, my wife Michele and I bought a house! We move in at the end of this month. It seems fitting that the family we are buying the house from is moving [...]
Post on Jun 01, 2007 by Jim Gunshinan
Abandoned Boats
Abandoned boats in the San Francisco Bay do more than take up space in marinas and harbors – they're a potential threat to public health. The boats, left to deteriorate, can become a wellspring of pollutants, including leaking battery acid, oil, fuel, and lead from paint. But what do you do with these rusting relics? [...]
Post on May 31, 2007 by Andrea Kissack
Keep focus on the Delta… with or without whales
When a humpback whale and her calf took a wrong turn at the Golden Gate Bridge and headed to Sacramento, it drew a lot of eyes (and news media) to the Delta. But while thousands focused on the plight of the whales, another story was emerging from the Delta– a story that was, as an [...]
Post on May 31, 2007 by Ann Dickinson
Green Irony
Our Executive Director, here at the California Academy of Sciences, recently informed the staff that we are not to provide guests with disposable bottles of water, because it's not sustainable. This simple, but challenging, edict got me thinking about the irony of being green. After all, the Earth has been green for billions of years. [...]
Post on May 30, 2007 by Donovan Rittenbach
My Own Stem Cells
Unlike this cat, my future clone won’t grow beyond a few hundred cells. Last blog I talked about lucky IVF kids who will get to have their own personalized embryonic stem (ES) cells one day. So in the future they'll have cells to help treat their diabetes. Or Alzheimer's. Or Parkinson's. Or… And all of [...]
Post on May 29, 2007 by Dr. Barry Starr
Stem Cell Gold Rush
California's landmark stem cell research program made headlines nationally, but what's the latest story behind the science? QUEST investigates the potential for medical breakthroughs in the next decade and how the Bay Area is leading the way. Leave your comment or question below for Series Producer Josh Rosen on this story. San Francisco Bay Invaders [...]
Post on May 29, 2007 by Josh Rosen
San Francisco Bay Invaders
Scoop a handful of critters out of the San Francisco Bay and you’ll find tourists from far away shores. Invasive kinds of mussels, fish and more are choking out native species, challenging experts around the state to change the human behavior that brings them here. You may view the the "San Francisco Bay Invaders" TV [...]
Post on May 29, 2007 by Amy Miller
Lands End Facelift
The land north of the Cliff House near the old Sutro Baths is getting a multi-million-dollar face life by the National Park Service and local philanthropists. The area, rich in history, and in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge will get new trails, catwalks and other features, making it more accessible to millions of [...]
Post on May 29, 2007 by Craig Rosa
Whalesong and underwater noise pollution
Humpback in Sacramento River. Image source: U.S. Coast GuardFor the past 12 days, residents of the Bay Area have been following the day-to-day saga of two humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) swimming far up to Sacramento River delta. Of course, we don't expect fully ocean-going, marine mammals to wander this far up a freshwater river system, [...]
Post on May 25, 2007 by Nick Pyenson
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