About
Gabriela Quirós is a TV Producer for KQED Science & Environment. She started her journalism career in 1993 as a newspaper reporter in Costa Rica, where she grew up. She won two national reporting awards there for series on C-sections and organic agriculture, and developed a life-long interest in health reporting. She moved to the Bay Area in 1996 to study documentary filmmaking at the University of California-Berkeley, where she received master’s degrees in journalism and Latin American studies. She joined KQED as a TV producer when QUEST started in 2006 and has covered everything from Alzheimer’s to bee die-offs to dark energy. She has shared two regional Emmys, and three of her stories have been nominated for the award as well. Independent from her work on QUEST, she is producing an hour-long documentary for PBS about the surprising story of how Costa Rica became the only country in the world to outlaw in-vitro fertilization.
All Contributions by Gabriela:
Producer's Notes – Youth Speaks Green: Simone Crew
Through Youth Speaks Green, we’ll explore how young people in the Bay Area view the challenges of becoming green. We’ll be looking beyond clean fuels, efficient vehicles and solar panel rebates and delving instead into the personal.
Post on Sep 22, 2009
Producer's Notes: Algae Power
Before becoming the CEO of Aurora Biofuels, Bob Walsh worked at the oil company Shell for 25 years. Here’s an excerpt of QUEST’s March, 2009, interview with Walsh, most of which didn't make it into the TV segment.
Post on Sep 15, 2009
QUEST Quiz: Algae
Which algae are most efficient at producing oil? What other uses have algae been given throughout history? Take the QUEST Quiz to find out.
Video on Sep 01, 2009
Algae Power
In a co-production with NOVA scienceNow, QUEST explores the potential of algae—once considered nothing more than pond scum—to become the fuel of the future. Entrepreneurs from the Bay Area to LA are working to create the next generation of biofuels from algae. But will you ever be able to run your car off it?
Video on Sep 01, 2009
Producer's Notes: Asthma
Researchers are still very much working to figure out what, besides changes in the way asthma is diagnosed, might account for the 160 percent rise in the rate of asthma in children younger than five.
Post on May 19, 2009
Asthma: What Brought on the Epidemic?
The rates of childhood asthma in the United States rose 160 percent from 1980 to 1994 and have remained high ever since, making this chronic lung illness the country's third most common pediatric disease. QUEST meets Bay Area researchers who are investigating possible environmental and social culprits.
Video on May 19, 2009
Web Extra: Can We Prevent Asthma?
Can parents do anything to help prevent their kids from getting asthma? QUEST takes a look at some leading hypotheses.
Video on May 19, 2009
The World's Most Powerful Microscope
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab recently turned on a $27 million electron microscope. Its ability to make images to a resolution half the width of a hydrogen atom made it the most powerful microscope in the world.
Video on Mar 31, 2009
Producer's Notes: World's Most Powerful Microscope
Today QUEST takes you behind the scenes to see the most powerful microscope in the world, which happens to be in our very own backyard in Berkeley.
Post on Mar 30, 2009
Chasing Beetles, Finding Darwin
It's been 150 years since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. Yet his ideas remain as central to scientific exploration as ever. QUEST follows entomologist David Kavanaugh, who predicted that a new beetle species would be found on the Trinity Alps. Find out if his prediction came true…
Video on Feb 10, 2009
Producer's Notes: Chasing Beetles, Finding Darwin
Today QUEST TV broadcasts its half-hour documentary "Chasing Beetles, Finding Darwin," which tells the story of California Academy of Sciences beetle expert David Kavanaugh's unusual prediction that a new species of beetle would be found in Northern California's Trinity Alps.
Post on Feb 10, 2009
Reporter's Notes: The Graying of HIV
Some 30 researchers from the University of California-San Francisco and the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology have come together to investigate why HIV-positive patients, who are now living longer lives thanks to anti-retroviral drugs, seem to be aging faster than their uninfected peers.
Post on Nov 26, 2008
Waiting for the Electric Car
If you're looking to buy an all-electric car you can drive on the freeway, your options are limited. $100,000 will buy you an electric sports car from Tesla. But an affordable all-electric vehicle remains elusive, due to the difficulty in making a battery that is powerful, long-lasting, and cheap. QUEST visits a local battery laboratory and investigates the odds of a breakthrough.
Video on Nov 25, 2008
Producer's Notes: Waiting for the Electric Car
General Motors, Chrysler and Ford face an uncertain future. They have been lobbying Congress for a $25 billion bailout, which representatives seem reluctant to grant them. It seems like an odd time to be talking about technological breakthroughs in the automotive industry.
Post on Nov 25, 2008
Eclipse Chasers
Meet the Bay Area's eclipse chasers – adventurers who travel the world to witness and document solar eclipses. In these rare moments, the moon covers the sun for a few minutes, leaving only its fiery atmosphere visible. Watch the China 2008 eclipse and learn about an invention that helped researchers photograph the sun's atmosphere in breathtaking detail.
Video on Nov 12, 2008
Producer's Notes: Eclipse Chasers
QUEST tells the story of two Bay Area eclipse chasers – people so entranced by the sight of the moon completely covering the sun that they travel around the world to get a firsthand view of the phenomenon.
Post on Nov 10, 2008
Under the Microscope: Science Struggles in Schools
California ranks second-lowest in the U.S. in fourth and eighth grade science achievement, according to a recent study. Since a large part of California's economy is devoted to technology, it is vital that California get its students up to speed. How bad is the problem? And what are schools and informal science education organizations doing to fill the gap?
Video on Oct 28, 2008
HIV Research: Beyond the Vaccine
Over the past 15 years, the number of people who die of AIDS each year in the United States has dropped by 70 percent. But AIDS remains a serious public health crisis among low-income African-Americans, particularly women. QUEST meets two Bay Area research groups studying innovative approaches that could lead to new treatments and possibly a cure.
Video on Oct 14, 2008
Reporter's Notes for HIV Research: Beyond the Vaccine
Although African Americans represent one eighth of the U.S. population, they make up half of the people living with HIV in the country, according to the Los Angeles-based Black AIDS Institute.
Post on Oct 14, 2008
Your Photos on QUEST: Cris Benton
Join QUEST in our latest photography feature about viewers like you who love documenting science, environment and nature here in the Bay Area. Meet architect and photographer Cris Benton. To document the rich colors of the south San Francisco Bay's salt ponds, he places his camera in a very unique position: suspended from a kite.
Video on Sep 30, 2008
