Areas where the oil spread after the spill. See this map and others.
November is the month when thousands of migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway make their stop in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's also the month when herring arrive in the Bay in gigantic schools – tons and tons of the tiny fish. It's the month when salmon make their way into the bay, on their way to spawn upriver.

And November's the month last year when the Cosco Busan crashed, leaking 53,000 gallons of black goo into San Francisco Bay.

So biologists will be particularly attentive this November, one year after the oil spill, to see if there's a noticeable dip in the numbers of herring in the Bay, or the number of migratory birds that alight here.

The number of birds harmed by the oil spill is not really known. More than 2,000 birds were killed – but those are simply the birds that were identified, not the total number. Since many dead birds in remote areas were never found, and since predators took away many of the hurt birds, the estimate for the total number of birds harmed by the spill is many times higher than that. So researchers are conducting experiments to determine a provable, scientific estimate of the number of birds killed or harmed by the oil spill.

According to California Fish and Game scientist Julie Yamomoto, it only takes a spot of oil the size of a nickel to harm a bird. It's not just uncomfortable, she says, it's actually lethal – because the oil is like a hole in a wetsuit, and birds that have been oiled become hypothermic. And they also lose buoyancy, so birds can actually sink and drown in the ocean.

All the experiments and data on habitats, fish, birds and other wildlife will be compiled into something called the Natural Resource Damage Assessment.

It's nicknamed NRDA (pronounced "nerd-a") and that's pretty apt. It's a little wonky, to say the least. The data is supposed to be completed by the end of next year, and then the NRDA report is expected to be compiled and submitted sometime in 2010.

Listen to the Oil Spill Anniversary radio report online.

Image: Google Maps.We welcome Kishore Hari, QUEST's newest blogger. His bi-monthly blog post will keep you current on Bay Area science events. Kishore is the founder of Down to a Science, a science cafe in San Francisco, where local scientists share their research with the community.

One of the reasons I love the Bay Area is the variety of events every week. Just in the last month, I've been to the opening of the new Cal Academy of Sciences, Fleet Week, even the Red Bull Soap Box Race.

The first weekend of November brings one of my favorite hidden Bay Area gems: Wonderfest, the Bay Area Festival of Science. This year, the two day festival takes place at Stanford on Saturday November 1, and at UC Berkeley on Sunday November 2. The core of Wonderfest is a series of public discussions on provocative topics.

Last year was my first time to the festival. I was skeptical of dragging myself to a series of boring lectures, especially in a stodgy lecture hall. The first hour was a quick discussion on a professor using DNA as an inspiration for composing music. I spent my 2nd hour learning about those "superbugs" that may bring about a new health pandemic. Finally, there was a discussion on the development of new drugs, focusing on the corruption associated with the approval of Merck's Vioxx drug that absolutely BLEW my mind.

I was hooked. There were hardly any crowds, I had access to some of the top scientific minds in the Bay Area, and there was none of the awful foods that inhabit other festivals (I shudder at the thought of deep fried oreos).

This year brings more great treats, a panel discussion on our energy future moderated by Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, stand-up comedy inspired by science, and the annual Mind Duel – a science trivia competition between high schoolers and university professors.

Hey if garlic has a festival, why can't science?

Credit: California High Speed Rail AuthorityUnless 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.

Starting with California's state-wide propositions, we have Proposition 1A: Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act. The proposed train would zip from San Francisco to LA in a mere two and a half hours, if voters approve a $10 billion bond. QUEST did a TV story on the science and politics of the high-speed rail last year, and updated it in a web-only video for this year's election. Check out High-Speed Rail on the Ballot. And listen to QUEST's radio story, Fast Trains.

Next, Proposition 2: Standards For Confining Farm Animals. If passed, this proposition would require bigger crates for certain farm animals. It is mostly about animal cruelty, but has implications for human health – and California's egg industry. Listen to The California Report's coverage of the pros and cons of Proposition 2.

Proposition 7: Renewable Energy Generation, would require utilities to get 50% of their power from renewable sources. It sounds straightforward, but actually this one is controversial. Things are explained in this QUEST radio story, Big Solar on the Ballot.

Then we have Proposition 10: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy, which combines funding for solar and wind energy research with consumer incentives to encourage the use of clean fuels. There is controversy, because the proposition gives extra bonus points to some alternative fuels, but not others. Check out the coverage by the California Report.

There are three measures across the Bay Area concerning open space: Measure WW in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, Measure P in Napa county and Measure T in Solano county. Listen to a discussion of these measures with the executive director of The Greenbelt Alliance, in this KQED Radio News story.

And in San Francisco, Proposition H lets voters decide whether the electric utilities should be publicly owned. This would give the city flexibility in terms of obtaining power from renewable energy sources, but it's hard to say how it would affect the price of electricity. Reporter Cy Musiker and Craig Miller, senior editor for KQED's Climate Watch series, debate Prop H in this segment from KQED Radio News.

Figure out your opinions on these science and environment issues – and check KQED's Election 2008 page, for additional election coverage. Then voice your opinions, with your vote, and your comments to this blog!

Snow leopardRecently I had to return several bird specimens to the Ornithology and Mammalogy department at the Academy. This project afforded me an opportunity to go into the pelt and bird room. The room, essentially a large refrigerator, was a brisk 58 degrees and packed with all sorts of wonderful specimens. Birds of all kinds stood picturesque on shelves while pelts of lions, tigers, bears among other mammals lined the walls several feet deep.

Specimens were sorted into taxonomical groups with relation to each other. Some specimens were a century old if not older, including an elephant skin shot in Africa by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1908. As mammals are my greatest love in natural history, I was in awe of the great variety of specimens. One specimen in particular took my breath away. Buried below the pelts of tigers with their massive paws was the smaller and more elusive Uncia uncia better known as the Snow Leopard. The first thing that struck me about the pelt was the length of the tail. For balance on the slippery climes of mountainous central and South Asia, snow leopards use incredibly long tails for balancing while stalking their prey of mountain goats, wild sheep, and small mammals. They will traverse up and down perilous cliffs in pursuit of prey and do so with an extraordinary balance. Watching Planet Earth recently, I was enthralled watching live footage of an actual hunt on a cliff. The speed and agility of these animals is incredible.

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. I had to give a report in fifth grade about the cat and I still can remember drawing the body out on the board to show that the tail was usually the same length as the cat's body. I was so nervous during the talk that my lips trembled giving me a horrible stutter through out. Yet, that was the first time I became really passionate about an animal and ultimately conservation. I remember thinking "This leopard could become extinct in my lifetime…"

This is still a very likely scenario, although they are now on the "Red List" of endangered species. There are only about 7,500 Snow Leopards in the wild and fewer than 700 in zoos around the world. This animal is a perfect example of an animal's needs and habitat battling against the needs of a local people and economy. Protection of the Snow Leopard includes research and tracking. It also includes education and empowering the villagers that share a habitat with them to protect them as well. Poaching of Snow Leopards has been one of the main causes for their demise. Historically they have been hunted for their thick fur and killed as a pest because in lean years they kill the goats and sheep of local villages. Conservation groups like the Snow Leopard Trust understand that conservation is not only about research but creating economical and educational opportunities for local people who live with these animals. I am hoping conservation endeavors will continue to protect animals living in the wild. It would be a shame if in my lifetime Snow Leopards were only noted as pelts hanging in museums like the Academy.

Having extra copies of certain genes helps fish live in AntarcticaI've always loved weird creatures. Bacteria that can live in boiling mudpots. Weird tubeworms huddled around deep sea hydrothermal vents. Fish that live in below freezing water.

What I like is learning 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.

In this blog I'll focus on those poor fish living in the waters off Antarctica. These waters are icy cold and the fish aren't warm blooded. Which means their body temperature is the same as the water around them.

Most biological processes do terribly under these conditions. Proteins don't fold right, enzymes work incredibly slowly, fats glob up. It is astonishing that these fish survive at all.

Scientists figured out back in the 70's that these fish evolved a special antifreeze protein to keep their blood from freezing. Since then they've done other experiments that show other adaptations to the cold too.

In a new study, scientists from the University of Illinois and the Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to take a look at as many genes and as much of the DNA of these fish as they could. What they found was that lots of genes are turned up in these fish compared to relatives that live in warmer waters. And that many of these genes are turned on higher because the Antarctic fish have extra copies of them.

The genes they found that were different made sense. For example, there are a bunch of genes that make proteins called chaperones. Chaperones help other proteins fold up right. In this cold, proteins need all the help they can get!

Also they found that there were more of the proteins that scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) in these fish. This makes sense because colder water has more oxygen.

O2 is a pretty nasty molecule that tends to create even nastier chemicals (ROS) that beat up on DNA and proteins. We all have proteins whose job it is to defuse these chemicals. These fish make more of these proteins.

A few years ago it would have been surprising to find that the way these genes made more proteins was by duplicating themselves. Not anymore.

As we look closely at the DNA of various creatures, we are finding that gene duplications (and deletions) happen a lot. Even in people.

For example, people from cultures that eat a lot of starch have extra amylase genes. (This gene makes amylase, a protein that helps breakdown starch.) Some people are resistant to HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) because they have extra copies of the CCL3L1 gene. And so on.

Our DNA is much less stable than we thought. Which is one way we can better adapt to our surroundings. I can't wait to see what they learn about those tubeworms!

Stacy Morrow, who teaches fourth grade at Fair Oaks Elementary School in Redwood City did not need to tell me about her students' enthusiasm for science. It was obvious. Working in teams with a FOSS kit on magnetism and electricity, they could barely contain their excitement at powering a light bulb with a simple electrical circuit.

Like a quarter of California school children, most of Morrow's students are native Spanish speakers. From time to time I'd hear the odd Spanish phrase – along with new English ones, like "serial circuits" and "D-cell batteries" — drift across the room. Morrow believes that as ESL students, her kids are asked to work much harder than other fourth-graders, mastering a second language along with all the other academic demands of elementary school. It must be a relief, I thought, to engage in a subject where teamwork and experimentation are more important than getting all the words right.

Fair Oaks is a "program improvement school," which means it's been identified by federal No Child Left Behind program as falling below target in certain subjects. (Here's an SF Chronicle article about the "stigma" of Program Improvement status). Morrow says test scores at Fair Oaks are on the rise, but, as this recent New York Times article describes, those standards can be tough to meet even for some of the most improved schools.

Given those demands, it's impressive that Morrow and other teachers at Fair Oaks find as much time for science lessons as they do – (it's also rare, as this study showed). Morrow credits this to the FOSS kits and a supportive administration. But she deserves a lot of the credit, for taking the time to educate herself. The Lawrence Berkeley study also showed that many elementary teachers simply don't feel qualified to teach science. That problem is compounded in economic boom times, when high-paying tech jobs make the pool of science-qualified teachers even smaller. It's fortunate that some of the same industries that compete for workers are also helping train more K12 teachers. Our QUEST education team has put together a page of science education resources, which we invite you to check out.

Finally, a disclaimer: We're barely scratching the surface here. I hope everyone watches QUEST's excellent TV story on science literacy, which goes into far more detail than our six-minute radio slot allowed.

Listen to the Closing the Science Gap radio report online.

This sushi is good enough to eat.
Photo credit: Andrea Kissack.If you are a sushi lover, they can make your mouth water just thinking about them, bite sized pieces of Hamachi (yellow tail tuna), Ebi (shrimp), red snapper and Toro (Bluefin tuna) over vinegar sweetened rice. Can’t you just taste the raw fish delicacies right now? But, not so fast, these popular sushi items may not be the best thing you could do for yourself or the sea. They are either over-fished, farmed with aquaculture methods that pollute the ocean, are caught using methods that destroy ocean habitats or they are likely to contain contaminants, such as PCBs and Mercury, that can harm human health.

There is a new trend in town. Sustainable sushi. The Monterey Bay Aquarium, and two other ocean conservation groups (Blue Ocean Institute and Environmental Defense Fund), have come out with new advice for making better sushi choices. 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. Until now, Unagi (bbq eel with avocado), seemed pretty harmless and a good choice for reluctant sushi eaters. Well, Unagi is farmed, freshwater juvenile eel so that definitely gets a red light from the Seafood Watch folks. You can try a sustainable alternative to Unagi at Tataki Sushi Bar in San Francisco. It may be the only restaurant of it’s kind in the country. The owners of the all sustainable sushi restaurant say they don’t want to become a niche as much as they want to influence the rest of the industry to change its’ practices. And with sushi a growing multibillion dollar industry, consumer preferences can have a big impact.

So how do you green your sushi? Try Pacific Halibut, farmed scallop or North American Albacore. Monterey Bay Aquarium biologists consider these among the “best” seafood because they come from abundant, well-managed fisheries or are raised using sustainable aquaculture methods.

MESSENGER's color filter imaging capability reveals variations
in color on Mercury too subtle for the human eye.
Photo credit: NASA/MESSENGERLike a snow-bird relative vacationing in warmer climate localities and sending back picture postcards of their trip, 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…

Did MESSENGER find anything new, since its first flyby back in January? Here are a few highlights:

• Prominent "ejecta" rays streaking out from several large craters–previously revealed only by radar imaging from Earth, now photographed for the first time.

• 30% more of Mercury's largely unexplored surface than had been revealed by the Mariner 10 flybys in the 70's and MESSEGNER's own first flyby last January (spacecraft–namely Mariner 10 and MESSENGER–have now imaged 95% of Mercury's surface).

• "Hyper-color" (my own word) imaging of surface features that reveal variations in color too subtle for the human eye to notice, providing information on soil and rock composition.

I'm a planet junkie–and Mercury has always had a special place in my imagination. One might think of Mercury as the least interesting planet, in our Solar System as well as among dozens of "exoplanet" systems yet discovered. After all, it's a small, dry, cratered, and airless lump of rock and dust, resembling for the most part Earth's Moon. Consider, however, the point of view of someone who's favorite place on Earth is dry, dusty Death Valley, and my enamorment might not come as such a surprise.

In my imagination I see towering cliffs, enormous, deep crevasses, wide, flat dusty plains, bright brights in sunlit patches and dark darks in shadow….

But it's really its differences from Earth that make Mercury such an appealing exotic vision. Being where it is, 36 million miles from the Sun (about a third the Earth-Sun distance), the sunlight striking the Mercurian landscape is six times brighter–imagine that! And not just the visible light spectrum, but all the wavelengths of light the Sun puts out are free to impact Mercury's surface, unimpeded by an atmosphere: infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, and potent burst of gamma rays rain down intensely on the planet's plains, mountains, and craters.

Speaking of the Sun, its behavior in Mercury's skies is, to say the least, zany. Mercury orbits the Sun in about 88 days (Earth days), but rotates so slowly that a single Mercurian day (the time from one high noon to the next) is about 115 Earth days. Not only does that mean sun-up to sun-down lasts roughly a couple of months, but that Mercury's orbital motion has a greater effect than its rotation on the Sun's apparent motion through its sky. The complicated relationship between Mercury's year and its day also causes the Sun to go "retrograde" at times–that is, periodically halt its progress from one horizon to the other and temporarily go in the opposite direction.

So, our prodigal vacationer MESSENGER has its itinerary straight: a climate with the brightest, warmest sunlight, pristine landscapes, long sunny days, and big skies that perform tricks for its amusement. Now, if only there was a beach…

As many of us are aware, science education in California is in trouble. However, many of us also know there are amazing people and organizations working to improve the situation. The annual California Science Education Conference put on by the California Science Teachers' Association begins next week in San Jose. Science teachers from around the state will come together to learn from each other and experts in the field. Most will take personal time off from their teaching and pay conference registration and travel expenses out of their own pockets. Their dedication to improving science teaching and learning exemplifies what is going right and the sacrifices they have to make are a stark reminder of what is not working.

It is in honor of this annual gathering that QUEST takes time away from fact-based science stories to cover California's science future in a different way. In our upcoming broadcast of Science Under the Microscope: Science Struggles in Schools, QUEST Television looks at the severity of the science education problem, what schools are doing to fill the gap, meets innovative teachers and discovers creative methods being employed to get kids caught up. And I, the QUEST Education Producer, take a bit of time away from creating media-related science resources for educators to write this blog post.

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.

Money

There are numerous websites now being developed that allow individuals to make contributions towards the needs of specific teachers. Sites like Digital Wish and DonorsChoose provide a means for teachers to register for particular items for their classroom (similar to a baby or wedding registry). The public can search these sites for schools and teachers in their area or for certain subject area needs (i.e. search for "science") to which they'd like to contribute.

Stuff

Want to be environmentally responsible and help science teachers at the same time? Donate items to organizations like Resource Area for Teachers (RAFT) in San Jose, the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland, or Scroungers' Center for Reusable Art Parts (SCRAP) in San Francisco. Teachers are able to shop for a wide variety of items at discounted prices to use in their classrooms.

Time

Do you have a background or career in science? Find out if your local school district or county office of education has a science specialist and connect with them to offer your time or expertise. They will be able to put you in touch with teachers and schools in need of guest lecturers, tutors, or speakers for career day presentations.

Voice

Attend school board meetings, write articles, contribute to blogs, talk to friends about the state of science education.

Vote

Enough said.

Now it is your turn. What other ideas do you have for assisting our schools with science education? Science educators, what additional needs do you see as easy places for the public to get involved and what has worked in your districts, schools, classrooms, etc.? Clearly we need major reforms in our entire education system, but often it is the smaller contributions of individuals that make the most immediate change.

Watch the Under the Microscope: Science Struggles in Schools television story report online.

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. This Make project called "Gauss Rifle" by Simon Quellen Field is actually a really good way to demonstrate the transfer of kinetic energy from one object to another. When each nickel-plated steel ball hits one of the lined up magnets, its kinetic energy is passed on to the next ball in the line, making it move to the next magnet. The energy builds up with each collision until the last ball bearing is shot across the room. I keep thinking about when my brother and I played croquet in our backyard growing up and I'd send his croquet ball flying across the yard.

Probably the hardest thing to get your hands on for this project will be the four gold-plated neodymium-iron-boron magnets. Not something you usually find at the local 5-And-Dime. (Or maybe I was just looking in the wrong aisle.) But I'm sure Make Magazine can point you where to get them. Once you do, here's a safety tip: The magnets are very powerful, so make sure they are securely taped down or they might slam together and shatter. Then you'll have to go out and find more gold-plated neodymium-iron-boron magnets.

Do try this at home. But be careful out there. Adult supervision is always a good idea. And make sure to aim your Tabletop Linear Accelerator away from your little brother.

Download Instructions for the Tabletop Linear Accelerator (419.3 KB .pdf)

Watch the Make At Home Tabletop Linear Accelerator television story report online.