QUEST Community Science Blog

The original Oakland Observatory in the 1880’s,
at Lafayette Square in Oakland. Credit: Chabot Space
& Science Center archives.This year marks an anniversary for the astronomical heritage of Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area: Chabot Observatory turns 125!

Originally established as the Oakland Observatory in 1883, the facility was a unique creature from the very beginning. Conceived by then Oakland Public Schools Superintendent Jewett Gilson, who was inspired by a school observatory he saw in Philadelphia, the observatory was created for use by Oakland schools and the general public at large.

Gilson looked for, and eventually found, a donor to fund the observatory project: Anthony Chabot, a wealthy entrepreneur and philanthropist who made his fortune building municipal water systems in the Bay Area– including Lake Temescal and Lake Chabot. Anthony Chabot stipulated as part of his original $3,000 gift that the telescope shall forever be available for public observation at not cost– a tradition that continues today.

Chabot didn’t want the observatory to be named for him, so in its earliest years it was called the Oakland Observatory. The public, as the story goes, insisted on calling it Chabot Observatory in gratitude for the gift– and eventually the name was made official.

The original location for the observatory and its 8-inch Alvan Clarke and Sons telescope (”Leah”) was close to downtown Oakland in Lafayette Square– which today remains a square block of parkland, at 10th and 11th Streets and Martin Luther King Junior Way and Jefferson Street. In those days, 10 or so visitors on any given night would climb the tower-like structure to the telescope dome and peer at the heavens through the high quality instrument. Reservations had to be made in advance– sometimes as long as a month or two.

As Oakland grew, and particularly as it converted its street lighting from gas-powered lamps to electric lights, the necessity of moving the observatory to a darker spot grew. The observatory’s first director, Charles Burckhalter (who is said to have been the first person in Oakland with an astronomical telescope, set up in a backyard observatory at his home on Chester Street), arranged for the relocation. A number of different sites were considered– including a spot near Redwood Peak, the current location of the observatory– but a small hill next to the Mills College campus was finally adopted.

In 1915, Chabot Observatory opened at its new site, along with a new 20-inch Warner and Swasey telescope (”Rachel”), and continued to wow the public with the astronomical vistas it conveyed. In 1923 the directorship passed to Earle Linsley, a Mills College professor, who expanded the reach of the observatory to the public through outreach to schools and the establishment of an amateur astronomy group (today the Eastbay Astronomical Society).

Having visited this Chabot Observatory as a child in the 1960s, I now appreciate how long and distinguished a career those two telescopes spanned. At the time, I had no idea that Leah, even in 1968, was 85 years old-older than my grandparents! Then the observatory was run by the beloved Kingsley Wightman — “Mr. Science” to a generation or two.

It took the moving Earth to relocate the observatory a second time– literally. Because of Chabot Observatory’s location almost directly on top of the Hayward Fault, and the fact that the aging buildings were not quake– safe in the first place, another site had to be found: the present location of Chabot Space & Science Center, adjacent to Redwood Peak.

Happy 125th to Oakland’s special connection with the stars!

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

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California recently became the first state in the country to phase out a toxic chemical used in dry cleaning called perchloroethylene, or perc. The timing is such that cleaners will be able to wait until their current machines need to replaced (the normal lifespan of a perc machine is about 15 years) but it still leaves a lot of questions about what technology comes next – and how environmentally friendly it is.

Working on this story, one thing that became clear to me is how critical this decision is to dry cleaners. It’s not like trying to green-ify Walmart: The vast majority of California’s dry cleaners are family-owned businesses. Working in a dry cleaning shop requires a limited range of conversation, which has made dry cleaning an attractive option for recent immigrants. These are not big businesses with matching profit margins, they’re mom and pop shops whose survival depends on reputation. A ruined wedding dress could practically knock a small dry cleaning shop out of business.

This Google map features dedicated wet cleaners in the Bay Area (meaning that’s the only technology they use). So far about 100 cleaners have switched to what seems to be the most affordable, environmentally-friendly technology, wet cleaning. That number is growing all the time, partly as a result of workshops being held around the state by a scientist from Occidental College named Peter Sinsheimer who’s on a mission to steer cleaners toward wet cleaning. This story begins at one of those workshops, held at Nature’s Best (formerly “Delight”) Cleaners in Sunnyvale. You can see photos from that event – and learn more perc and wet cleaning machines.

Oh and about this map: If it’s been a while since this story aired on 2/29/08, you should check out Occidental’s regularly-updated list of wet cleaners, searchable by zip code.

You may listen to “The Toxic Business of Dry Cleaning” Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.

Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.

Run down

Recent news headlines have been full of Chinook salmon, but sadly the same cannot be said of Central Valley waterways. This fall, only about 90,000 Central Valley Chinook salmon returned to their home rivers and streams to spawn, down from more than 800,000 just a few years ago.

Like most salmon, Central Valley Chinook are anadromous, spending the bulk of their lives in the ocean but hatching and returning to reproduce in freshwater. The journey from the Valley through the Delta and San Francisco Bay to the Pacific, and back again, has always been a long and arduous one. In the past half century it has become even more difficult as the fish have increasingly faced an obstacle course of dams, pumps, and dewatered rivers and creekbeds.

Central Valley Chinook salmon populations include four runs-winter, spring, fall, and late fall-with each spawning not only at different times of the year but in different parts of the watershed. The dawning of the age of dams hit the winter and spring runs the hardest, cutting the fish off from their historic spawning grounds in the upper reaches of the watershed. Both runs are now listed under federal and state Endangered Species Acts.

The fall run, which spawns lower in the watershed, was less impacted by dam construction. In recent decades it has numbered more than 10x all the other runs combined and has been the mainstay of the California coastal salmon fishery. Now, even it appears to be in serious trouble: The count of 90,000 salmon this year was the second lowest on record and well below the minimum conservation target of 122,000 set by the Pacific Fishery Management Council. Also alarming is that the number of 2-year-old “jacks” returning was just 2,000, down from a typical count of 40,000. Since most spawners are 3-year-olds, these early returners are considered a good predictor of the size of next year’s run.

Ocean conditions are one factor in the salmon decline, with rising water temperatures and more unpredictable upwellings-possibly resulting from global warming. But scientists are also pointing to overexploitation of our rivers and Delta-the “highway” for migrating salmon. The abrupt decline in the salmon population comes concurrently with the collapse of other fish species dependent on the Delta ecosystem, including delta smelt and longfin smelt. The salmon returning to spawn this year would have been juveniles headed to the ocean in 2005, the year Delta water exports hit a record high.

Between unfriendly ocean conditions and the degraded condition of the watershed, the salmon are facing a double whammy. But, as Bay Institute Senior Scientist Tina Swanson points out, “Apart from rolling back global warming, we can’t really control ocean conditions. What we can do is drastically improve conditions within the watershed so that more adults can spawn successfully and more juveniles survive the journey to the ocean.”

Ann Dickinson is Communications Manager for The Bay Institute (www.bay.org), a nonprofit research, education, and advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and restoring San Francisco Bay and its watershed, “from the Sierra to the sea.”

A Northern Elephant Seal at Ano Nuevo State Park.On a sunny Tuesday, our education staff quietly slipped out the zoo door and headed south for an off-site enrichment day: a day to learn and be inspired by nature, in order to teach and inspire others.

We headed west, then south down the coast to the site of the largest mainland breeding colony of the massive Northern Elephant Seal: Ano Nuevo State Reserve.

The Northern Elephant Seal is named for the large, protruding nose, or proboscis on the male of the species. Like elephants, they are also gigantic. The bulls can grow up to 16 feet long and weigh up to 5000 lbs, while the females are much smaller.

On a hike guided by a knowledgeable naturalist volunteer, Scott, our staff spent 1.5 hours traipsing over the dunes to see the winter breeding action of this charismatic pinniped. Getting respectfully close, we first saw what they referred to as “Loser Males”. Though this term felt a bit un-PC (how about “mating-challenged?”), the idea is that these males are not old enough or savvy enough to be an alpha or beta male. They are simply not in the competition this year, so they lounge away from the females, thermo-regulating by flipping sand on themselves and holding fins up into the ocean breeze.

We then came upon a pile of weaners. This is another fine term used to describe the young pups that are newly weaned from Mom. These co-ed pods spend time losing some of their 300 lbs of milk fat while they learn to swim in the rain water pools. Born at 70 lbs, pups are nursed for a month or so before they gain weight and take on their new role as weaners. Some pups nurse from two or three females and gain up to 600 lbs. These are then dubbed Super Weaners. The weaners are the last to leave the site, waiting until the adults have gone to take their time swimming away in the salty waves.

Towards the shore the real show was on; Females (cows) gathered in harams, some nursing pups. Males (bulls) fought other males, or at least postured, in order to establish dominance and control of the harams. In one case, a masculine fellow came after another male, blubbering up towards him with full barks, only to then claim his seawater puddle. The fights between males are usually short, but very dramatic and violent. According to Scott, an Alpha Male Elephant Seal in mating-mode has more testosterone than any other mammal.

Our staff left feeling like weaners ourselves; happy and exhausted, but not as exhausted as Scott, whom I am sure has never fielded as many questions as he did for our staff!

Breeding Season at Ano Nuevo is December 15-March 31. In spring and summer, the elephant seals return to molt.

The Ano Nuevo Interpretive Program is excellent and popular. Book a guided tour and check out the dominance displays!

After your tour, visit the gift shop at the site. On your way home, I recommend the town of Pescadero for artichoke bread at Arc Angel Grocery Company & Bakery or the San Gregorio General Store.

Amy Gotliffe is Conservation Manager at The Oakland Zoo.

latitude: 37.1266, longitude: -122.3344

47 Tucunae

My research group has temporarily stepped away from the distant universe to focus on the stars that are actually inside our galaxy. We’re looking at these stars because they are so bright and so well understood that we can use them to test the calibration of the telescopes we use to study the most distant supernovae. The other day my co-worker showed the results of the analysis and my jaw dropped. I had forgotten how amazing certain observations of nearby stars can be.

We are looking at stars in a very specific environment known as a globular cluster. For those of you lucky enough to find yourself in Chile or Australia, this particular globular cluster is visible to the naked eye. It is known as 47 Tucanae. The stars in this and all globular clusters formed at roughly the same time and under the same conditions. All the known globular clusters in our galaxy are more than 10 billion years old, almost as old as the galaxy and the Universe.

Pleiades

Similar to globular clusters are groups of stars known as open clusters. Probably the best known open cluster is the Pleiades. The Pleiades are extremely close–the brightest stars are discernible to the naked eye and inspired the logo of the Subaru motor company. These stars are so bright because they are blue, massive, and most importantly–young. Pleiades was giving birth to its first stars just as our Earthling dinosaurs were bracing themselves for the killer asteroid!

There are several differences between globular clusters and open clusters, but the most important is the difference in density and mass. Globular clusters form in much denser environments and remain gravitationally bound. It is very rare for a star to escape from a globular cluster. Open clusters are not nearly as dense and are not gravitationally bound. Stars escape much more quickly from open clusters than they do from globular clusters.

Because globular clusters and open clusters are so spectacular and bright, they are some of the best targets for viewing with smaller telescopes available to the public. If you are interested in seeing a few for yourself, you should ping my fellow QUEST astronomy blogger, Ben Burress. I’m sure he or another astronomer can point the Chabot telescope at some of the best looking clusters in the Bay Area sky.

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.

latitude: 37.8769, longitude: -122.247

Low winter light over the town of Iqaluit,
the capitol of Nunavut,Canada. Photo by Bill Semple,
architect and senior researcher at the Canada Mortgage
and Housing Corporation.I recently heard Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist, speak at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab about his soon to be published new book, Green: The New Red, White and Blue. I can’t say much about his book because it hasn’t yet been published, and he only offered an outline. He did conclude his talk by emphasizing the need to take a systematic approach to solving our energy problems. “We need clean electrons traveling though an efficient distribution system into smart homes.” Amen to that! By the way, I’ll probably be shelling out some cash for Tom’s book, even though I hardly ever buy the hardback version.

Among home performance professionals, we also call the systemic approach, the whole house approach. For example, we think it is best to retrofit your home to make it more energy efficient before you invest in an expensive solar electric, or PV, system. You can buy a smaller PV system that way, and draw less energy from the electric grid. We think you should switch to CFL bulbs right now, buy Energy Star appliances when you need new appliances, and before the next hot summer have a home performance professional air seal your attic and add insulation. Make sure the contractor checks to see if you have proper ventilation in your home after air sealing-otherwise your gas appliances may back draft nasty things like carbon monoxide into your living spaces. Don’t go out and buy new windows, no matter what the advertisers tell you, until your old windows are worn out. In other words, do it all, but when the time is right.

There is a debate going on in our country about how to solve our energy and environmental problems. Some say corn ethanol is the answer; others say it’s cellulosic ethanol. Some say wind energy and some say solar energy; some say more government regulation is the answer and some say let the free market decide. These either/or approaches are wrong in my book. The more we are divided in our passion to solve our problems, the less likely we are able to solve them. The best-built homes are the ones in which all the parts-building site, building envelope, walls, foundation, attic, roof, HVAC system, appliances, lighting, and people-work in harmony and are most adaptable to change.

Tom Friedman also said in his talk at Berkeley Lab that writing in blogs about solving our energy problems is not enough. In our March/April 2008 issue of Home Energy we will publish a story about home building in the far north of Canada, within the Arctic Circle. The Inuit people who live there are already building to adapt to the climate change that is already occurring, as well as preparing for more climate change in the future. They are building homes that are culturally appropriate. They are also building in a way that will reduce as much as possible the emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. Amen to that! Amen to the systematic approach!

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.

photo courtesy of the San Francisco Public Utilities CommissionWe’d had “aging infrastructure” on our story lists for some time when we first heard about the sewage spills in Mill Valley. When news came in that not just one, but two sewage spills had poured five million gallons of partially treated wastewater into Richardson Bay, we decided to move that story to the top of the list.

Those spills got a lot of coverage, including by KQED, so our question was a little broader. Were those spills an anomaly? (Answer: No, they were big, but not unusual.) And how does this happen in as eco-conscious a place as the Bay Area? What would it take to stop it?

The two Mill Valley spills seem to have resulted from a few different problems: overwhelmed capacity, failed alarms, operator error, and probably other factors, too. But the underlying cause is the same, and it’s true of many sewage systems in the Bay Area: These systems — the pipes, the digesters, the pumps – are reaching the end of their useful lives. (Some of the older clay pipes were built in the 1850s!) Few cities are jumping to do the necessary upgrades, and who can blame them? What’s less sexy than an expensive, disruptive construction project that takes place mostly underground, out of sight?

Still, as we say in the piece, we’ve done it before. Those who lived in the Bay Area before the 1970s may remember the stench of raw sewage drifting up through the car window as they crossed the Bay. Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Bay is vastly cleaner than it used to be and there are far less spills.

So what will it take to get cities to pony up the cash this time around? Baykeeper is taking the issue to the courts – you can read more about their Sick of Sewage campaign here: http://www.baykeeper.org/

You may listen to the “Sewage Happens” Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.

Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.

America might be on the pinnacle of a great change–namely having the first black President of the United States. The democratic primary race is still competitive between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I was just in Washington, DC, over the President’s Day weekend and it was truly inspiring to see the support for Mr. Obama amongst people who before were apathetic to the political system. One friend felt that for the first time she was “not just voting for the lesser of two evils.” Yet, inspiring change is not uncommon in African American history. In continuance of the Famous African American Scientists blog in January, below are three more noteworthy and prominent African American pioneers in science and technology. Although their names might not be famous, their work continues to mold the way we live our lives today.

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1856 – 1931)
Physician
Williams was born in Pennsylvania. He helped support his family after his father died when he was nine. At first, he worked as a shoemaker’s apprentice. Then as a teenager, he learned to cut hair and became a barber. While working as a barber, he met Dr. Henry Palmer, who later became the Surgeon General of Wisconsin. Dr. Palmer took Daniel on as a medical apprentice; and helped him gain acceptance to medical school. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams graduated with his medical degree in 1883. Disillusioned with the second-class care for African Americans, he founded the Provident Hospital in Chicago in 1891, the first African American-owned hospital in the United States. He made history at Provident Hospital by performing the first successful open heart surgery in 1893. His patient James Cornish, injured from a knife wound, fully recovered and lived for another twenty years.

Percy L. Julian (1899 – 1975)
Chemist
Alabama-born Julian held a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University. He was unable to procure a chemistry Ph.D. from Harvard University because of discrimination, and left after receiving a master’s degree. He later received a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 1931. He became a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He gained over 130 chemical patents in his lifetime. The most notable patent was for the production of cortisone. For his contributions to medicine, he became the fist African American chemist inducted in the National Academy of Sciences.

Elijah McCoy (1844 – 1929)
Inventor
The son of escaped slaves from Kentucky, McCoy was born in Canada and educated in Scotland. Settling in Detroit, Michigan, he invented a lubricator for steam engines. It was patented in 1872. Lubricators were a boon for railroads. Trains could run faster with less need to stop for lubrication and maintenance, thus improving profit lines. McCoy improved on the lubricator design over his lifetime as well as amassing over 50 other patents. Lacking the revenue to manufacture his own lubricators, he sold the patents to employers until 1920 when he was able to open Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company. It is still disputed today if the phrase “The real McCoy” was derived to compare McCoy lubricators to generic and inferior copies.

Cat Aboudara is the Special Projects Manager at California Academy of Sciences and works in the public programs division. The Academy is a wonderful fit for her because of her curiosity about the natural world and her experience in working with native California wildlife.

latitude: 37.7734, longitude: -122.454

Today, Quest launches a new part of our blog, “Quest Picks.”

We scour the web and serve up the best of science, environment and nature content–from the Bay area and beyond–right to our readers.

Today’s pick is from YouTube.

National Geographic, via YouTube, brings us the tale of Australia’s water-holding frog. This plucky amphibian rarely sees rain, so when it does, it slurps enough liquid to double its weight. Then it digs a hole and hides in a shell made of its own shed skin. It can hibernate for up to two years, until the rainy season comes ’round again and it’s time to look for a mate.Supposedly aboriginals even dig up the frogs when they need a drink–just squeeze and you’ve got fresh water!Check out the video of this amphibious camel for more on its amazing adaptations:

Amber Dance is the Quest Intern and a science communication student at UC Santa Cruz.

Guest blogger Lisa Croel of The Tech Museum in San Jose, CA sits in for Dr. Barry Starr this week.

I remember loving science class as a kid. The paper-maché messes, the bubbling baking soda, all of the wonderful experiments… I loved it all. Now, many grammar school kids are lucky to get 15 minutes of science education a week. Hardly enough time to get them imagining future careers as scientists, engineers and inventors.

Between the lack of time given to science education, and the structure imposed by curriculum standards, museums need to be part of the education equation. My boss has a saying: “Give random a chance.” I love this quote because it speaks to the role informal educational resources like science museums need to be playing. By exposing young people to the experiences and programs in a museum, who knows what might really resonate and inspire?

For over 20 years, The Tech’s Tech Challenge program has presented kids with an open-ended problem for which there is no one right answer. It forces participants to use their knowledge and ingenuity to solve the problem. For example, this year the Challenge (called Water Works) is all about moving water from a stream up to a village without electricity. There is no one right answer, and there are lots of ways to solve this problem.

Participants are 5^th to 12^th graders who will work in teams of 2-6 to explore solutions to solving this real world problem. Along the way, they will hit some roadblocks and come up with some duds. And that’s OK because it is here that kids will learn that failure is an important part of problem solving. We have a great quote etched into a wall on the outside of The Tech from Intel co-founder and philanthropist Gordon Moore that says, “If everything you try works, you are not trying hard enough.” Through failure, many of the Tech Challenge teams will come up with a far superior solution.

This year we’re going international for the first time by partnering with the City of San Jose’s Sister City program. On the final event day, where all of the teams come together to present and demonstrate their solutions, we’ll be webcasting in teams from far-away locations, and look forward to seeing and hearing how kids from other countries have tackled the challenge. Hopefully the involvement of other cultures will drive home how important it is to be inclusive to come up with better ways to solve problems.

I just looked at the U.S. Census Bureau web site for the latest world population number, and today there are 6,650,846,379 people on Planet Earth. One in five people on Earth don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water, which means that 1.3 billion people are suffering from lack of water. As this year’s Tech Challenge participants work on solutions to a global water problem, I hope they get excited (or more excited) about science and remain engaged, even they don’t get to study it much in the classroom.

Lisa Croel is the Marketing Director at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, Calif.