QUEST Community Science Blog

Drawing of a Steller’s Sea Cow
circa mid 18th centuryWhen we think about kelp forests, we envision froclicking sea otters, kelp fronds, sea urchins and a suite of other nearshore marine organisms. And, until a few hundred years ago, a 30 foot-long dugong.

This isn’t a joke: Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) was a North Pacific relative of the South Pacific dugong, which are related to manatees (manatees and dugongs, in turns, are called sirenians), and once lived along the Pacific rim from California to Japan.

Hydrodamalis was more rotund than other sirenians; it had a notched fluke like other dugongs, thick elephantine skin, and it lacked fingers bones in front arms and instead had a boxing glove-shaped knob. What we know about Hydrodamalis is based solely on the account of one man, Georg Wilhelm Steller, a German naturalist, whose name has also been bestowed on jays, sea lions, and cormorants and other organisms. Steller served as ship’s naturalist on Vitus Bering’s Second Kamchatka Expedition in the mid 18th century. While returning from the Alaskan coast, in 1741, the crew shipwrecked on what is now known at Bering Island. Sick with scurvy, Bering died there, and while the crew overwintered waiting to be rescued, Steller documented the flora and fauna of the island, which included Hydrodamalis. Steller later died on the expedition, but his journal and descriptions returned to St. Petersburg, became published. Unfortunately, word of a tame, floating, giant mammal that could sustain several dozen sailors spread fast, and by 1768, less than 30 years after it was first discovered by Westerners, Russian fur-traders ate Hydrodamalis into extinction.

From Steller’s account, we can glean key pieces of information that suggest that Hydrodamalis was in fact an important member of the kelp forest community, just like sea otters and sea urchins. Skulls and skeletal material belonging to Hydrodamalis has been found in Pleistocene deposits from Monterey Bay to Japan, which also hints at the antiquity of Hydrodamalis in these communities. The emerging picture is that the westward Aleutian Islands were likely the last refuge for the sea cow, having been hunted by coastal indigenous populations and successively exterminated throughout its range. It’s not clear if human hunting is totally to blame: population sizes may never has been terribly large, and we don’t really know how changes in climate might have affected Hydrodamalis.

Hydrodamalis reminds us that our picture of marine biodiversity is a fundamentally biased one: what we imagine to be “natural” in nearshore communities is really based at the scale of a human lifetime. All modern marine communities evolved prior to human presence, and, as many have shown through midden records or ships journals, wherever humans have lived, they have altered community composition. Daniel Pauly, of the University of British Columbia, calls this situation a shifting baseline: our perception of what’s natural in marine communities is constantly being compared to population sizes that have long suffered at the hands of human-mediated depletion. These considerations are critical for conservation: we need to have a solid understanding of what was once “out there” if we want to any hope of saving the here and now.

Nick Pyenson is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, in the department of integrative biology and the museum of paleontology.

A typical, Earth-sized sunspot as seen by Hinode.
Credit: Hinode, National Astronomical Observtory of Japan (NAOJ)A new day has dawned– so to speak…

Last September, the Japanese space agency, JAXA, launched a new solar observatory satellite, originally designated as “Solar-B.” Upon its successful launch, the spacecraft was bestowed its nickname, Hinode (pronounced “heh NO day”), which means sunrise–a name selected through a student contest in Japan.

Though Hinode isn’t the first space borne solar observatory, it’s a significant step up in capability for this type of tool for understanding our Sun, and by extension other stars. If you want to see the kind of stunning imagery delivered to us by predecessor spacecraft, check out some of these websites: the European SOHO spacecraft, NASA’s TRACE spacecraft, and NASA’s newest, STEREO.

What’s the connection to the Bay Area, you might ask? Hinode, though a Japanese science mission, is an international collaboration between Japan, the UK, and the US through NASA. The package of scientific instruments created for the main Hinode telescope was designed and built by the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab in Palo Alto (also the lab that built TRACE, and some of the instrumentation for SOHO). Also, Chabot Space & Science Center conducts an educational and public outreach program for this mission– check out our own website .

The floodgates of Hinode’s stunning imagery will be opened some time in May, following the initial multi-month “commissioning phase” of the spacecraft, during which project scientists and engineers have activated and tested all of Hinode’s science and operational systems. You can see some “sneak peeks” at the NASA website.

What we’ve learned about the Sun through the vision of spacecraft like SOHO and TRACE, and Hinode’s X-ray telescope predecessor, Yohkoh, is fantastic. Not just a quietly shining ball of brightness peacefully supplying our planet with energy for all life, the Sun is a dynamic, stunningly beautiful and complex, and even violent object. It engages in intense and rhythmic cycles of magnetic mayhem, it regularly sets off superpyromaniacal explosions that make an h-bomb detonation look like a tiny spark, and routinely throws billions of tons of electrically charged gas outward through the solar system—activity that hammers Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere to cause radio interference, auroras, and storms of radiation that are potentially life threatening to astronauts.

Cheers, Hinode!

Benjamin Burress is a staff astronomer at The Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, CA.

For the past two decades, U.S. factories that put toxic chemicals into the air and water had to report them, in detail, to the federal government and the public. The Bush Administration recently lowered those requirements by rewriting Environmental Protection Agency rules. That means, in California alone, as much as 6-hundred thousand pounds of toxic chemicals could go under-reported this year. David Gorn reporting for QUEST radio has more.

You may listen to the “Relaxing the Rules on Toxic Reporting” Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.

Andrea Kissack is Senior Editor for QUEST at KQED Public Radio.

American Robin fledglingFor five years, I was the ZooCamp (www.oaklandzoo.org) director at the Oakland Zoo, a fantastic camp serving preschool to high school and offering campers a week of nature activities, animal observations, hands-on learning and fun. Along with our strategically planned activities always came those unplanned teaching moments that only nature can offer.

Like the time a whole group of kids stepped on a beehive. But we won’t go into that…

Let’s talk about the time that a bunch of campers found a baby bird on the ground under a tree during lunch time explorations. In they came, running and shouting about a lost and hurt and abandoned and sad and lonely and ABOUT TO DIE baby bird. Luckily, my camp staff was astoundingly educated and after observing the baby, found it to be a robin fledgling, in the middle of his flight training. The campers were directed to step way back and the staff created a barrier around the baby. The baby hopped about for a while. We observed the concerned parents squawking from the tree. Finally, down came mom and she hopped along with her baby, trying to teach him the ins and outs of flight.

The next day, baby bird was still there. And the next. And the next. The ZooCampers watched from a distance. Amazingly, the very next morning, a few staff and campers were able to witness our baby bird friend hop hop hop then fly off to a branch. Our notion to leave the baby bird and protect the area while he fledged was spot on. Hooray for nature knowledge and educational opportunities!

If you find a baby bird on the ground, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is the baby a FLEDGLING? Does if have feathers yet?

Feathered baby birds are fledglings and are likely to be in their flight training stage. Fledglings will normally jump or fall out of their nest. It may take a number of days for the mother to feed her baby on the ground and teach him to fly. The parents are probably around watching you and waiting for everyone to leave so they can return to their baby and their training job.

You can help by keeping pets and people away from the area and leaving the baby bird alone.

2. Is the baby a NESTLING? Is the baby mostly naked?
Nestlings stay in the nest and are warmed by and fed by the parents. A nestling out of the nest usually means it was pushed or fell. Sometimes the whole nest is on the ground, either in one piece or destroyed. Being pushed by a stronger sibling is a natural, survival of the fittest, bird behavior, by the way.

You can help by putting the baby bird back in the nest. It is not true that the mother will not accept the baby if they smell like stinky humans. They can’t smell very well. You should wash up after you touch the bird, however.

If the nest is down, you can place it in a strawberry basket, or another kind of basket, as long as there are spaces or holes for water drainage. Then wire it up in the tree as close to the original nest site as possible.

If the nest is destroyed, you can create one from a plastic butter tub or strawberry basket. If you use a tub, make holes in the bottom, line it with paper towels and place securely in tree. Do not line with collected feathers or grass, as these can get cold and wet. Always place nest out of direct sunlight and in a wind-protected spot.

Warm the babies in your hand before placing them in nest. You can watch the action from a far away spot with binoculars. It may take a while for the parents to trust the situation, but it is likely that you have just saved the day!

3. Are you sure the parents are GONE?

IF this is the case, your job is to keep the baby bird warm until you get to a licensed wildlife rehabilitation center.

Keep him warm and safe by putting him in a small box with holes in the lid. Baby birds like things dark and quiet. Warm him by putting the box on a very LOW heat pad or hot water bottle (NOT TOO HOT).

Do not give the baby bird any liquids or try to feed him. Do not sing to him, chirp to him or play him classical music. Keep him in his warm, dark box and get him to a specialist.

4. Where should I take the baby bird that DOES need a rescue?

One excellent place is Sulphur Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Hayward.: (www.haywardrec.org/sulphur_creek.html)
(510) 881-6747
1801 D Street, Hayward
sulphurcreek@haywardrec.org

Hours: 10:00 am to 4:30 pm

5. Can I keep him?

Nope. Sorry.

Amy Gotliffe is Conservation Manager at The Oakland Zoo.

QUEST TV talks with George Smoot, big bang researcher at UC Berkeley and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.

You may watch the George Smoot TV story online.

Sudden Oak Death and Science of Big Waves (episode #108), which also features this short story, airs tonight on QUEST at 7:30pm on KQED 9, and KQED HD, Comcast 709. (full schedule)

Josh Rosen is Series Producer for QUEST on KQED Television.

Devastating over 1 million oak trees across Northern California in the past 10 years, Sudden Oak Death is a killer with no cure. But biologists now are looking to the trees’ genetics for a solution.

You may also watch this story online in its entirety, and see additional photos in our flickr photo set.

Sudden Oak Death and Science of Big Waves (episode #108), airs tonight on QUEST at 7:30pm on KQED 9, and KQED HD, Comcast 709. (full schedule).

Amy Miller is a Coordinating Producer for television on QUEST, and is the producer seen on camera for this story.

A monster lurks just off the coast of Northern California. Known as “Maverick’s,” this surf break north of Half Moon Bay generates some of the biggest waves in the world, and draws the big wave surfers that live for them. But what makes these waves so big? QUEST talks with scientists who are getting to the bottom of it and the big wave surfers willing to take their lives in their hands for the ultimate thrill ride.

You may watch the “Science of Big Waves” TV story online, and view geotagged photos from this story on the KQED QUEST - Science of Big Waves photo set.

Sudden Oak Death and Science of Big Waves (episode #108), airs tonight on QUEST at 7:30pm on KQED 9, and KQED HD, Comcast 709. (full schedule)

Chris Bauer is a Segment Producer for television on QUEST, and is the producer for this story.

Half hour exposure of star trails
above the Keck Telescopes taken by yours trulyThe dark matter that I discussed in my last post is quite bizarre, but makes up only a small fraction of the universe. The dominant material in the universe actually appears to be some kind of “dark energy“.

Since no one has any idea what dark energy actually is, I can’t really write a whole lot about it. All I can say is that something is out there, and it’s really weird.

Dark energy presents itself to us as a mysterious force, counteracting gravity over enormous cosmological distances. The effects of this force were first observed through observations of very distant supernovae.

Given the right conditions (any idea what these conditions may be?), an old star can explode as a supernova. The explosion is so bright that it can be seen from across the universe. All of these explosions are very similar, enabling us to estimate the distance to the supernova from its apparent brightness.

Observations of supernovae are used to measure the rate at which space is expanding. Measurements show that supernovae are much fainter than expected. It appears that there must be a new force at work, caused by a previously unknown material. We call this material dark energy.

As this NASA chart indicates,
the dominant material in the universe is “dark energy”This week I’m actually observing supernovae (and dark energy) using the Keck Observatory on Hawai’i. We discovered a little over 30 of these supernovae in the last year using the Hubble Space Telescope. We use large ground-based telescopes to measure the speed at which they are moving away from us.

Combining the brightness from the Hubble data with the speed from the Keck data, we get a measure of this dark energy. But it’s not all fun and games there in the beautiful Hawaiian islands– I get to spend 16 hours a day in front of a computer screen watching data come while my girlfriend scuba dives nearby with a pod of dolphins. Well, you can’t have your poi and eat it too.

Kyle S. Dawson is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and
development of a proposed space-based telescope at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Getting ready for the summer? Want to be more comfortable and save some money? Then pay attention. A good percentage (up to 30% by some estimates) of energy for heating and cooling homes is lost through leaky ducts.

The California Energy Commission rightly figures that connecting a high efficiency furnace to leaky ducts is like ordering a diet drink along with an ice-cream sundae. It helps, but not much. So the commission in 2006 began requiring that contractors who install furnaces or air conditioners in homes check the home’s ducts first.

But what if you don’t want or need a new furnace or air conditioner and want to do what you can right now to save energy, money, and the Home Planet? Got a coat hanger and a garbage bag?

Many people in the building performance field know about a certain, easy-to-perform air flow test that involves common household items. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) began publicizing the Garbage Bag Air Flow test in the early ’90s and tested it in the field. One of the first uses of the garbage bag test was for someone in Canada who was getting no heat on the second floor in his new house. Several contractors tried to solve the problem with no success. The man’s furnace was oversized, as is true in most new housing, so there should have been no shortage of heat. The garbage bag test showed that only 2 of his 18 supply registers had flows greater than 10 cubic feet per (CFM); as my mother used to say, this is slower than molasses in January moving uphill in a snowstorm. The Canadian homeowner called a contractor to fix the problem and now his whole house is warm in the winter and cool in the summer and his utility bills are not outrageous.

Performing the Test

To perform the test, you’ll need:

• a garbage bag
• a wire coat hanger
• adhesive tape
• a watch

In its literature, CMHC specifies using a Glad 66 cm x 91 cm garbage bag. When your bag is laid out flat, it should approximate that bag’s dimensions: 26 inches by 36 inches (about 2 ft x 3 ft). Easy enough to measure, or even approximate.

Bend the coat hanger into a circle, square, or rectangle big enough to fit completely around the heating and cooling supply registers in your home. Fit the opening of the garbage bag around the coat hanger and tape it in place (you don’t have to make it tight, just so it stays on the hanger). Now you have the necessary technology. The biggest challenge is avoiding poking a hole in the garbage bag with the coat hanger. The blogger welcomes any tips regarding this point.

Now, test your duct system. Turn on your air conditioner or heater. Put the completely deflated garbage bag rig that you’ve created over a supply register. use the watch to time how long it takes for the bag to fully inflate. Or, put the fully inflated garbage bag rig over a return register and time how long it takes for the bag to deflate.

The visual nature of the test makes it easy to interpret. A 2-second inflation (75 CFM) is a healthy, robust flow. An inflation of less than 10 CFM (roughly 15 seconds) is almost comically slow, and you better call a contractor to diagnose your problem and fix it.

For the more precise among you, CMHC came up with a table that more accurately determines the flow rate at each register:

The relative performance of several supply registers is obvious even without a watch. You can get a good idea of the performance of all of the ducts in your house, usually within ten minutes. And you can keep one plastic garbage bag out of a landfill and give it green employment.

(And by the way, never use duct tape to seal your ducts. It tends to dry up and fall off over time. Use mastic or foil-based tape. But that’s another blog.)

Jim Gunshinan is Managing Editor of Home Energy Magazine. He holds an M.S. in Bioengineering from Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from University of Notre Dame.

Thirty-seven years after the first Earth Day, studies are still finding that people of color and low-income families have higher rates of exposure to hazardous waste sites and industrial polluters than the general population. A debate continues over why that is and just what to do about it. QUEST radio takes a look at the history of the environmental justice movement, and where it’s going.

You may listen to the “Earth Day Special: The History of Environmental Justice” Radio report online.

Amy Standen is a producer for QUEST at KQED Public Radio.