http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog Science, Environment, and Nature in the SF Bay Area Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:02:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The view from the control room of Chabot's planetarium during the live LCROSS lunar impact eventIt's official: NASA's LCROSS mission found water on the Moon, no bones about it. Though NASA is still analyzing all the data they reaped from the LCROSS impact event on October 9th, and ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/20/lunar-ice-smack-down-a-success/ 37.8148 -122.178 Geek Out by taking the Mars Survival Challenge Forget the challenging landscapes of the Arctic or Everest; if you want a true survival test, how about Mars? Our red neighbor has inspired thousands of intrepid explorers (and a number of awful movies) to formulate colonization plans. With a little help from ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/18/science-event-pick-geek-out-surviving-on-mars/ 37.880081 -122.2461563 Electron microscope image of a hole embedded within a sheet of graphene. The corners of the green hexagons are carbon atoms which form graphene’s crystal structure. Image courtesy of the Zettl Research Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley. Acquiring a sample of graphene is almost comically ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/16/unlocking-the-mysteries-of-graphene/ 37.8768 -122.251 As the high-speed rail inches toward reality, it's encountering a thicket of NIMBYism. We'd been wanting to do an update on the California high speed rail project for months now. (Here's David Gorn's HSR Quest Radio piece from 9/08.) Luckily, there's no bad time to cover high speed rail. The project ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/13/reporters-notes-a-bumpy-ride-for-high-speed-rail/ 37.4418834 -122.1430195 The former Vice President Al Gore was a speaker at this year's Greenbuild International Conference and Expo. It took me about six hours to travel from my bed in Walnut Creek to the Phoenix Convention Center, the location of this year’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, sponsored by the U.S. ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/13/dispatches-from-greenbuild-2009-in-phoenix-arizona/ 33.4497426 -112.070436 Could the cosmetics in your purse be harmful to your health? Image from Wikimedia Commons. / CC BY-NC 3.0 Each October, within Breast Cancer Awareness Month, my friends and I get into a flurry organizing and putting on Beats for Boobs. Beats for Boobs is an annual fundraiser started ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/12/whats-in-your-purse/ 37.7749295 -122.4194155 What would it take you to change your shower to a low-flow shower head? Do you love a long, hot and powerful shower? What would it take you to change your shower to a low-flow shower head? Be honest. A. I understood the environmental impact that it would have B. I have ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/11/fostering-sustainable-behavior-%e2%80%93-a-powerful-new-perspective/ 37.7749295 -122.4194155 "Mysteries of DNA" image courtesy Mark H. Adams. Full-size version. As anyone who follows this blog knows, I recently took a 23andMe genetic test and have been blogging about it ever since. Today I thought I would focus on one of the fun parts of the service: traits. Lots of our ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/09/trick-or-trait/ 37.7749295 -122.4194155 To go solar or not to go solar? Homeowners looking to save money on their energy bills have a number of factor to consider. It's easy to get excited about installing solar panels on your house - particularly when you find out that state and federal rebates can cut the ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/06/reporters-notes-getting-paid-to-go-solar/ 37.5629917 -122.3255254 Oakland Unified teachers assembling Galileoscopes at ChabotWhat was it like for Galileo, the first time he put an eye to his telescope to see things in the heavens as never before seen? As anyone who has seen a planet or a star cluster or a nebula—or the Moon—through even a ... http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/11/06/oakland-teachers-scope-out-what-galileo-saw/ 37.8148 -122.178