Tag: "kqed"
Producer's Notes: Ugo Conti's Spider Boat
I first met Ugo Conti a number of years ago when we discussed an inflatable boat he had designed to sail from the San Francisco Bay to Hawaii. This adventure was born from Conti's passion for the sea and was somewhat of a follow up to the round-the-world sailing adventures he took with his young [...]
Post on May 12, 2008 by Chris Bauer
Producer's Notes: Nature Deficit Disorder
I'm the third from left to right.I'm in my late teens in this undated photo. I'm the third from left to right. It's very likely one of the last times I went camping as a member of the Girl Guide and Boy Scout Association of Costa Rica, which I joined when I was 11. I [...]
Post on May 12, 2008 by Gabriela Quirós
Chromosome Fusion: Chance or Design?
Human and chimpanzee chromosomes are very similar. Note that human chromosome 2 is very similar to a fusion of two chimpanzee chromosomes. For the last few weeks I have been corresponding with someone about intelligent design (ID). More specifically, we have been chatting about why humans have 46 chromosomes and most of the great apes [...]
Post on May 12, 2008 by Dr. Barry Starr
Reporter's Notes: Bike to Work
Image Source: luxomediaSan Francisco's got lofty plans to improve safety and convenience for cyclists. And with gas prices rising, parking a headache, and a desire to reduce their carbon footprint, more and more San Franciscans are cycling in the city to work and to do errands. Cycling rose 15% between 2006 and 2007, and injuries [...]
Post on May 09, 2008 by Andrea Kissack
Probing the Martian Pole
Mockup of Phoenix (top) and 'Robinson Crusoe on Mars' (bottom)—both set in Death Valley National Park… Credit: NASA (top), Paramount Pictures (bottom)It's that time of the Martian year again: when a flying saucer from Earth appears in the skies of Mars. Imagine if there actually were Martians up there: what's science fiction here on Earth [...]
Post on May 09, 2008 by Ben Burress
Mittens for Bears and Other Tales
Why do Moon Bears need you to knit? Once upon a time in the far away land of Hong Kong, a woman named Jill Robinson discovered that beautiful moon bears where being held captive in tiny cages in China and farmed (through their bellies) as a living source for bear bile, which is used in [...]
Post on May 07, 2008 by Amy Gotliffe
Producer's Notes: Disappearing Frogs
A Pacific Chorus FrogWhen I was growing up in the Bay Area the chirping croaks of native tree frogs often serenaded us to sleep. The sound of those little Pacific Chorus frogs calling to each other was always familiar background music to long summer nights. Those were days of catching pollywogs down at the creek [...]
Post on May 06, 2008 by Chris Bauer
Have sewage, will travel
Unless our sewage happens to end up in the Bay and in the headlines, most of us probably never give a second thought to where our wastewater is headed each time we run the tap or flush the toilet. To learn more about the travels of sewage, I took a tour of the Las Gallinas [...]
Post on May 06, 2008 by Ann Dickinson
Mountain-top telescopes and stars that don't twinkle
Infrared image of a zebra from the London Zoo. Credit: Steve Lowe Right now I am very excited about the possibility of working on a new small telescope in southern Utah. This telescope was funded by a private donation and will be run by the University of Utah. We even found a mountain top in [...]
Post on May 05, 2008 by Kyle S. Dawson
Reporter's Notes: Moving Day
Nobody likes moving. The packing, taping, lifting, shipping… it can be major hassle. But nobody's experience compares to what's going on at the California Academy of Sciences. They're moving to their new 400,000 square-foot building in Golden Gate Park after three years in downtown San Francisco. But they've got a lot more to move than [...]
Post on May 02, 2008 by Lauren Sommer
Mapping Our Carbon Footprints
Your house may not be your biggest contributer to global warming. Credit: Jim Gunshinan. My focus in this blog had been on green homes, but there are other areas of our lives that account for our total carbon footprint–how much carbon we are responsible for adding to the atmosphere–a measure of our contribution to global [...]
Post on May 02, 2008 by Jim Gunshinan
Designing a Penguin Wetsuit
A "penguin suit" doesn't just refer to a tuxedo anymore. Why does Pierre, the Academy's 25-year-old penguin need a wetsuit?Thanks to an innovative treatment at the California Academy of Sciences. Pierre, the Academy's 25-year-old penguin was recently fitted with a wetsuit! Pierre's feathers were thinning and not growing back. Because penguins rely on their feathers [...]
Post on May 01, 2008 by Cat
Future History: Plastic Water Bottles – take our poll
What does our use of bottled water say about us? View our 2-minute TV short "Future History: Plastic Water Bottles" to take a look from the perspective of an anthropologist from the distant future, and the take our poll below: "Do you plan to change your bottled water habits?" ( polls) Josh Rosen is Series [...]
Post on Apr 29, 2008 by Josh Rosen
Producer's Notes: Emotions Revealed
Is your face giving you away? QUEST met renowned psychologist Paul Ekman who has spent his life studying how our facial muscles involuntarily reveal emotions like sadness and anger.
Post on Apr 29, 2008 by Jenny Oh
Producer's Notes: Amateur Astronomers
In 1968, John Dobson started the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers with the help of two boys who loved astronomy but couldn’t join an amateur astronomy club in the city because they were too young. So the trio created their own club, carting two homemade telescopes onto Jackson and Broderick Streets and inviting curious passersby to [...]
Post on Apr 29, 2008 by Sheraz Sadiq
Fish and SNPs: What fish are teaching us about human skin color
These fish can tell us a lot about ourselves. Species often end up a different color when their environment changes. And humans are no exception. When people moved out of Africa tens of thousands of years ago, they were dark-skinned. Now when we look around Northern Europe or parts of Asia, we see much lighter [...]
Post on Apr 28, 2008 by Dr. Barry Starr
Reporter's Notes: Mercury in the Bay – Part 2
Last week on QUEST, we took a look at the history of the San Francisco Bay's most dangerous toxin: mercury. This week, now that the mercury is here in the bay, how is it affecting us? The obvious place to go was the Berkeley Marina, one of the bay's most popular fishing spots. On the [...]
Post on Apr 25, 2008 by Amy Standen
Cassini Martini: Add Water, Ammonia, Methane; Mix Well
Artist concept of a geyser erupting on Enceladus. Credit: David Seal.Back when I was young…okay, a previous generation might have ended that sentence with, "…I’d walk forty miles through the snow to get to school…" But I'm not exaggerating when I say, when I was young we knew next to nothing about faraway places in [...]
Post on Apr 25, 2008 by Ben Burress
Should Nemo Be Found?
And live in an aquarium in my living room? A fish tank calms my nerves. A fish tank connects me to the sea. A fish tank brings peacefulness into my hectic world. These are the words of marine aquarium owners. The lure of a tropical fish tank is clear: they are mesmerizing and colorful, they [...]
Post on Apr 23, 2008 by Amy Gotliffe
Pixels are so 20th century – say hello to 'spaxels'
Making Every Photon Count Last week I went to a talk given by the leader of the Supernova Factory collaboration at LBNL. What is SN factory? This is an ambitious project to study supernovae like never before. I mentioned this project briefly in a previous post , now that they are so close to releasing [...]
Post on Apr 23, 2008 by Kyle S. Dawson
