Television
Web Extra: Sights and Sounds of the Natural Bridges SB Tidepools
The intertidal rocks at Natural Bridges State Beach are covered in life: sea stars, seaweeds, urchins, and crabs are just some of the area's intertidal inhabitants. Visit them in their tidepool homes down in Santa Cruz, California.
Video on Feb 28, 2009 by Craig Rosa from QUEST Northern California
How do you use QUEST?
How do you use QUEST? Take our 10 minute online survey and be entered to win a $50 Amazon certificate.
Post on Feb 12, 2009 by Craig Rosa
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 by Gabriela Quirós from QUEST Northern California
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 by Gabriela Quirós
Inside an Explosion
What happens when something explodes? Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are now getting a first glimpse of the microscopic properties of an explosion.
Video on Nov 25, 2008 by Amy Miller from QUEST Northern California
Fido Fights Cancer
Humans and dogs have been partners for thousands of years. Now our canine friends are joining the fight against cancer. Researchers are training dogs to smell cancer in the breath samples of human patients. And by studying cancers in dogs, we may discover new treatments for cancer in human and canine cancer patients.
Video on Nov 25, 2008 by Chris Bauer from QUEST Northern California
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 by Gabriela Quirós from QUEST Northern California
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 by Gabriela Quirós
Producer's Notes: Inside an Explosion
We see or hear about explosions practically every day on TV, the movies and in the news, most people have no idea what an explosion really is.
Post on Nov 25, 2008 by Amy Miller
Producer's Notes: Fido Fights Cancer
I love my dog. For the past ten years, through thick and thin, Brodie has been my happy sidekick, trusted confidant, eager hiking partner and beloved friend. Most of all the kid makes me laugh. He is, I am prone to say, "a glorious twit!"
Post on Nov 25, 2008 by Chris Bauer
Your Photos on QUEST: John Albers-Mead
Foster City photographer and naturalist John Albers-Mead describes visiting the tide pools near Half Moon Bay as "a treasure hunt that changes by the minute." QUEST joins Albers-Mead on Moss Beach at low tide as he captures these sometimes-sunken treasures with his digital camera.
Video on Nov 18, 2008 by Amy Miller from QUEST Northern California
Producer's Notes: Geothermal Heats Up
When I first began researching this story for QUEST, I was surprised that I hadn't heard more about geothermal energy. It's never lumped into that renewable energy laundry list that's recited by politicians and journalists alike — you know, "…solar, wind, hydroelectric and biofuels". But it turns out that geothermal energy has really great potential.
Post on Nov 18, 2008 by Amy Miller
Super Ball Fission
As a physics professor at UC Berkeley, Richard Muller considers what his students would need to know — if one were elected president. In today's lesson, he demonstrates the principles of fission and the basics of a nuclear explosion — using super balls!
Video on Nov 12, 2008 by Chris Bauer from QUEST Northern California
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 by Gabriela Quirós from QUEST Northern California
Ice Age Bay Area
Imagine a vast grassy plain covered with herds of elephants, bison and camels stretching as far as the eye can see. Lions, tigers, wolves and later, humans, hunt the herds on their summer migration. Africa? No, the Bay Area. During the close of the last Ice Age. Take a trip back 20,000 years, to a time when San Francisco Bay was just a riverbed and local wildlife looked a whole lot different.
Video on Nov 12, 2008 by Chris Bauer from QUEST Northern California
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 by Gabriela Quirós
Producer's Notes: Ice Age Bay Area
The rocks, long known as the "Sunset Boulders", have attracted rock climbers for years. I've climbed these rocks before. But like so many other people, I had no idea I was touching history. During the Pleistocene, 10 to 20,000 years ago, this place was very different than it is today, inhabited by massive mega-fauna; bigger elephants, lions, bears and wolves, than we see today.
Post on Nov 10, 2008 by Chris Bauer
QUEST's Environmental Election Round-Up
Unless you're one of the undecided voters, still dithering over your pick for the presidency, it's time to think about some of the other stuff on the ballot: the measures and propositions related to science and the environment. This blog is a round-up of QUEST and KQED's coverage of environmental election issues.
Post on Oct 31, 2008 by Jennifer Skene
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 by Chris Bauer from QUEST Northern California
5 Things You Can Do to Help Science Education in the Bay Area
There are, of course, countless ways for concerned citizens to pitch in. As a former high school science teacher the five suggestions below are my personal recommendations – resources I wish I had known about when I was teaching and things I now give as someone who cares about students' understanding of science.
Post on Oct 21, 2008 by Jessica Neely
