QUEST Community Science Blog
One Fish, Two Fish: The Science of Protecting Sea Life
This fall, fishing was banned or sharply limited in 18 percent of California's ocean waters from Half Moon Bay to Santa Barbara under a landmark state plan. But that was only the first part. Now, scientists need to see how fast sea life recovers. QUEST finds out: how do you count the fish in the [...]
Post on Oct 19, 2007 by Andrea Kissack
Roll over you bears! (Part 1)
Grizzly bears are iconic Californian mammals — they're on our state flag; many creeks, hills and passes are named after them; and they're the mascot of many UC schools — but you won't ever see one out in your backyard or anywhere else in California. Unlike black bears, which are relatively common in the state, [...]
Post on Oct 16, 2007 by Nick Pyenson
Grow a Backbone
Did we get our backbones from animals like this?Lately I have been reading a book by Jeffrey Schwartz called Sudden Origins. In it Dr. Schwartz talks about the idea that species are not made gradually but instead just suddenly appear (in geological time anyway). Reading the book was a bit like panning for gold. It [...]
Post on Oct 15, 2007 by Dr. Barry Starr
Geothermal Heats Up
When it comes to alternative energy, most people think of solar or wind. But the hills just north of Sonoma wine country are a world leader in another kind of clean power, and under an ambitious new project, they are about to produce even more. You may listen to the "Geothermal Heats up" radio report [...]
Post on Oct 11, 2007 by Amy Standen
Blasars, magic telescopes and quantum foam
Speed of What? An artist's concept of a "blasar"–a black hole emitting jets and flares of superhot gas. Credit: NASA/Chandra X-ray Observatory/M. WeissWe all know what it is: 186,300 miles per second, a.k.a. the Speed of Light, the maximum speed limit in the Universe, and an absolute constant speed that all light must travel at [...]
Post on Oct 11, 2007 by Ben Burress
Wild Birds Gone Wild
Or rather, Wild Birds who Tried to Go Wild but Were Instead Captured for the Pet Industry. Brock, a Yellow Naped Amazon Parrot recused by the USDAWould you like a baby kinkajou? How about a little cougar cub or maybe a herd of giraffe? All is possible with the help of the internet and the [...]
Post on Oct 10, 2007 by Amy Gotliffe from QUEST Northern California
Creating artificial stars to see through the soup
Here is a picture I took during a night of observing on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The laser from inside the dome at the Keck telescope creates an artificial star in the upper atmosphere that is used for adaptive optics. I mentioned before that there is one major obstacle that prevents us [...]
Post on Oct 08, 2007 by Kyle S. Dawson
The Shipping News
I hope some of our QUEST blog readers were able to attend the West Coast Green conference held September 19-22 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Home Energy magazine is a media sponsor for the event and our staff handed out well over 1,000 magazines, pressed a lot of flesh, and were [...]
Post on Oct 05, 2007 by Jim Gunshinan
What's for Lunch
We've all heard the latest health advice: Avoid transfats. Eat more fruits and vegetables. You may notice those changes on grocery store shelves, but for many school children, their cafeteria lunch menus haven't caught up. This year, an effort to get healthy foods to the school lunch table is tied up in a much larger [...]
Post on Oct 04, 2007 by Lauren Sommer
Simple things YOU can do to help the Bay
If you're like me, when you’re doing the dinner dishes you normally aren't thinking about the fate of the delta smelt, the little native fish that is one of several in steep decline and facing extinction. And yet for millions of Bay Area residents the two things–dishwashing and delta smelt–are connected. In fact, choices we [...]
Post on Oct 04, 2007 by Ann Dickinson
Coral reefs- rain forests of the sea
Coral reefs, often referred to as underwater rainforests, are the most diverse aquatic ecosystem on the planet. Often mistaken as underwater plants, coral are actually animals related to anemones and jellyfish. A reef can be made up of many different types of coral colonies and be thousands of years old. Each branch or part of [...]
Post on Oct 03, 2007 by Cat
To catch a sneak
Would a gene doper get an asterisk?The last few blogs I have been talking about people adding genes to their DNA to make them better athletes. The reason they're considering this sort of gene doping instead of just taking a designer steroid or two is that a DNA change will supposedly be more permanent, safer, [...]
Post on Oct 01, 2007 by Dr. Barry Starr
Champion divers of the deep-sea
Photo Credit: John CalambokidisChances are, if you've ever been swimming, you understand that it's hard to dive deep. But marine mammals do it all the time — and they dive to depths beyond our imagination. Sperm whales, beaked whales, elephant seals all have an amazing ability for deep-diving, and along with that, fascinating specializations to [...]
Post on Sep 28, 2007 by Nick Pyenson
The Unaided Eye
The Andromeda Galaxy, the most distant object visible to the unaided eye. Credit: Conrad JungVery often, the term "naked eye" is used to describe what can be seen with human eyes alone, unaided by tools like telescopes, microscopes, infrared cameras, ultraviolet detectors, and so on. Back in the mid 20th Century, then director of Chabot [...]
Post on Sep 28, 2007 by Ben Burress
Oysters on the Outs
At Point Reyes National Seashore, environmental ideology has run into hard science, with a tug-of-war for management of an estuary coming down to the question of what is the most ecologically healthy thing to do. On its face, it's a legal battle between the National Park Service, which owns the land, and an oyster farmer, [...]
Post on Sep 27, 2007 by Charlie Foster
Bird brains (a eulogy of sorts)
Image from Wikipedia, originally from socialfiction.orgI'm in mourning: In early September, Alex the African grey parrot mysteriously died. I never met Alex personally, but I've heard him speak. Yes, he spoke. He also counted. And he could tell you which of a pair of keys was the bigger one, or the yellow one. He was [...]
Post on Sep 27, 2007 by Robin Marks
Rascal Rabbits
What is soft, furry, clean, and curious and actually makes a decent pet? A rabbit. Yep, rabbits are one of the few species that we take on our Oakland Zoo ZooMobile outings and feel it is ok to choose as pets, with proper care and preparations, of course (not so much for the hedgehogs). While [...]
Post on Sep 26, 2007 by Amy Gotliffe
Producer's Notes for Big Avatar on Campus
It's a virtual world, but the transactions are real. Go inside Second Life, an online game where millions of people are creating digital personalities called avatars and are living virtual lives– meeting other avatars, going to events, and even buying property with real money. You may view the "Second Life: Big Avatar on Campus" TV [...]
Post on Sep 25, 2007 by Sheraz Sadiq
Do-it-Yourself Science: The Maker Faire
It's been called "Burning Man for science geeks." The annual Maker Faire attracts thousands of amateur inventors and scientists, displaying their home-made prototypes and gadget hacks. In a world where the technological race is speeding up, the Maker movement has revealed that the do-it-yourself culture is in no danger of dying out. You may view [...]
Post on Sep 25, 2007 by Josh Rosen
Into the Inferno: The Science of Fire
In dry years, fires in California cost billions of dollars and often result in lost lives. QUEST goes inside the fire season, looking at how the history of forest management could be feeding today's flames. You may view the "Into the Inferno: The Science of Fire" TV story online, as well as find additional links [...]
Post on Sep 25, 2007 by Chris Bauer
