Tag: "kqed"

Producer's Notes: Geothermal Heats Up

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.

 
Exoplanet Snapshots

Exoplanet Snapshots

Exoplanets are planets in other solar systems. Though astronomers have detected over 300 exoplanets since 1995, we only have visible-light images of one of them.

 
Plant a Tree, Invent the Future

Plant a Tree, Invent the Future

We planted several young trees at our home in October. I feel good that those new trees are sucking carbon out of the air as we speak. But a recent talk at Berkeley Labs, where Home Energy's offices are located, made me think much bigger.

 
Science In Action

Science In Action

Science in Action is metamorphosis of creating a "un-museum" through multi-media as well as a tie with the Academy's past. Today, Science in Action exists on the floor as a breaking news exhibit.

 
Science Event Pick: Wonderfest, The Bay Area Festival of Science

Science Event Pick: Wonderfest, The Bay Area Festival of Science

The first weekend of November brings one of my favorite hidden Bay Area gems: Wonderfest, the Bay Area Festival of Science.

 
QUEST's Environmental Election Round-Up

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.

 
A Wonderful Find in the Pelt Room

A Wonderful Find in the Pelt Room

It was studying the Snow Leopard that made me fall in love with the big cat family and set me on a course to learn about conservation.

 
Living Life To The Extreme

Living Life To The Extreme

Fish live in the below-freezing waters off Antarctica. How these beasts have adapted to their incredibly harsh environment? More specifically, what changes have happened in their DNA that allow them to live where no other animal could?

 
Green Sushi

Green Sushi

Modeled after the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s popular Seafood Watch Pocket Guide, the new sustainable sushi guide helps consumers make informed choices by categorizing seafood into three areas: Green (or best choice), Yellow (or good alternative) and Red (what to avoid). Just what kind of sushi you should avoid may surprise you.

 
Mercury MESSENGER: The View Is Great; Wish You Were Here

Mercury MESSENGER: The View Is Great; Wish You Were Here

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has made yet another swing past our Solar System's innermost planet, Mercury. But, like the traveler who just can't seem to get enough sightseeing in, this was another whirlwind flyby set to the furious tempo of a camera snapping pics–about 1200 in all…

 
5 Things You Can Do to Help Science Education in the Bay Area

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.

 
Producer's Notes for Make At Home: Tabletop Linear Accelerator

Producer's Notes for Make At Home: Tabletop Linear Accelerator

My favorite Make projects all seem to have something to do with things that other people might say "Don't try this at home." In this case we went out to the Make Magazine "Test Lab" to learn how to make a small steel ball fly across the room using magnets… good clean fun in my book.

 
Producer's Notes for Underwater Wilderness: Creating Marine Protected Areas

Producer's Notes for Underwater Wilderness: Creating Marine Protected Areas

Through the eyes of these scientists, we witness the undersea life in bloom. They clearly have one of the best offices to go to work to each day.

 
The Most Efficient Home Is One That's Built Already

The Most Efficient Home Is One That's Built Already

Making new homes more efficient is not enough. To solve our energy and environmental problems, we have to make our existing homes much more efficient.

 
The Building is Platinum

The Building is Platinum

The California Academy of Sciences is officially the greenest museum on the planet.

 
Producer's Notes for Artificial Intelligence: Thinking Big

Producer's Notes for Artificial Intelligence: Thinking Big

There's a term – Singularity" – that is being used to describe the moment when technological progress will leapfrog and herald the creation of computers that not only achieve human-like intelligence, but also give rise to a progeny of computers who will be smarter then their digital forbears.

 
Producer's Notes for Cool Critters: Fruit Bats

Producer's Notes for Cool Critters: Fruit Bats

In honor of Halloween this month, Quest offers up a short story on bats. But these are not your screeching, swarming, bloodsucking Hollywood movie bats.

 
Safer Prenatal Testing

Safer Prenatal Testing

A new study out from Stanford (yay Stanford!) promises to revolutionize prenatal testing. Instead of looking at a fetus’ cells, the test looks at mom’s blood. More specifically, it looks at the small amounts of fetal DNA found in her blood.

 
Reporter's Notes for HIV Research: Beyond the Vaccine

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.

 
Reporter's Notes: The Hayward Fault

Reporter's Notes: The Hayward Fault

A lesser known cousin of the San Andreas, the Hayward fault is a creeper. Basically, it moves, slowly, along the surface but deep inside… it's locked until tension builds up and and it slips.