QUEST Community Science Blog
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
Creek by Creek
When you’re feeling gloomy about the state of the planet and all the environmental challenges we face, there’s no better medicine than to spend a day outside with kids, planting native plants. That’s what I did two weeks ago, when I tagged along with our Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed (STRAW) Project staff and [...]
Post on Mar 08, 2007 by Ann Dickinson
Mysterious hot springs, green flashes in the shadow of Mt. Tam
It all started when I met a member of Earth First! in an AOL chat room back around 1993. (And no, they weren’t recruiting me to chain myself to bulldozers and firebomb humvee dealerships). We were discussing Newt Gingrich's "Contract on America," and how they were trying to wipe out so much environmental progress. She [...]
Post on Mar 07, 2007 by Donovan Rittenbach
Making babies without a dad
Wouldn’t it be great if same-sex couples didn’t need a sperm donor? Or an egg donor? Or if men or women didn't have to wait for that special someone to have a child? Well, if we were anything like Komodo dragons, women at least could have babies without men. Not two women together, but one [...]
Post on Mar 06, 2007 by Dr. Barry Starr
Water Water, Everywhere
Light-colored mineral deposits in Candor Chasma that may be evidence of past underground fluid flows on Mars. Credit: NASA/Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.One of the most profound, and as yet unanswered questions about our universe is, does life exist elsewhere than on Earth? To attempt to answer this question, scientists are looking to places within the reach [...]
Post on Mar 02, 2007 by Ben Burress
Discuss the "America's Last Whaling Station" radio and TV story
This month, gray whales are beginning their 12,000-mile spring migration from calving grounds in Baja, Mexico, back up north to feeding grounds off Alaska. Just a generation ago, these waters were hunting grounds for commercial whalers. In fact, Richmond, California was home to America’s last commercial station. It closed in 1972. Nanotechnology Takes Off and [...]
Post on Mar 01, 2007 by Amy Standen
Mammoths, Spears, and Marty Stouffer
Woolly MammothTwo years ago, the skeleton of a mammoth was discovered and excavated right near the San Jose airport. That may not change your world, but consider that when that mammoth was alive, there was no San Francisco Bay– global sea level was lower because of massive glaciers that covered the Northern Hemisphere. This time [...]
Post on Mar 01, 2007 by Nick Pyenson
Seafood choices? You, too, can use this cool tool
Last summer, while visiting family in Charlevoix, Michigan, I found myself with a crew of relatives at a stylish seafood restaurant on the lake. I was craving fresh seafood, so I pulled out my handy Seafood Watch Card (www.seafoodwatch.org) from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and prepared to order. "What’s that? What are you doing?" asked [...]
Post on Feb 28, 2007 by Amy Gotliffe from QUEST Northern California
Discuss the "Ladybug Pajama Party" TV story
Ladybug Ladybug Fly Away Home! Each year Ladybugs fly in by the millions to winter in the East Bay's Redwood Regional Park. We meet naturalist Linda Yemoto who explains this phenomenon. But how these beetles know where to go is still one of nature’s mysteries. Green Burials and California’s High Speed Rail (episode #104), which [...]
Post on Feb 27, 2007 by Chris Bauer
Discuss the "California's High Speed Rail" TV story
A little-known state agency is drawing up a plan to radically reshape California's transportation system by constructing a 700-mile long high-speed rail system that would send sleek bullet trains whizzing at speeds of up to 220 mph from San Francisco to Los Angeles within a decade. The $37 billion idea is to stay ahead of [...]
Post on Feb 27, 2007 by Chris Bauer
Discuss the "Green Burials" TV story
Concerned about toxic embalming fluid, caskets made of rainforest hardwood, and bodies encased in vaults that never decompose, a small but growing number of undertakers is driving a new movement: green burials. We visit cemeteries in Marin and Sebastopol offering green burials, in which bodies are laid to rest in a simple pine casket or [...]
Post on Feb 27, 2007 by Gabriela Quirós
