Professor Gordon Frankie of UC Berkeley was an early adopter of urban beekeeping. A couple years ago, it was all the rage in the science news world: Colony collapse disorder. Bee populations declined upwards of 30% here in California, a decline that has continued without much fanfare into 2009. While scientists continue to find new clues in the mysterious affliction, a new trend in beekeeping is emerging, which QUEST recently covered in a radio piece: urban bee farming to build biodiversity and catalog native species.

Professor Gordon Frankie of UC Berkeley was an early adopter of urban beekeeping. In the late 1990s, he started the Urban Bee Project, an experimental project to document bee populations in the Bay Area. Gordon used this data to plant a bee garden right in downtown Berkeley (how he managed to get approval of that is mystery to me). The project has catalogued over 80 species of native bees, a number expected to grow well over 100. Gordon has even used the research to create a bee-friendly garden builder.

Gordon will discuss the Urban Bee Project at the next East Bay Science Café. In addition, there are a whole host of local beekeeping organizations that offer educational events.

Native Bees: A rich natural resource in urban California gardens

When: Wednesday, September 2^nd 2009

Where: East Bay Science Café, La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley

Cost: FREE

Local Beekeeping Organizations

• Alameda County Beekeepers Association
• Santa Clara Valley Beekeepers Guild
• Santa Cruz Guild for Beekeepers
• Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association
• Sonoma County Beekeepers
• San Francisco Beekeepers Association
• San Mateo Bee Guild
• Marin County Beekeepers

Also, you can watch QUEST's TV story "Better Bees: Super Bee and Wild Bee" below:

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

David Lindberg, Professor of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley, and Steve Croft, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Astronomy at UC Berkeley2009 marks the double whammy for science historians and lovers:  The celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo first pointing the new invention of the telescope at the sky and the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.

How do you connect seemingly separate historical events? Team an astrophysicist and an evolutionary biologist of course. David Lindberg, Professor of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley, and Steve Croft, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Astronomy at UC Berkeley will tie these great anniversaries in a unique lecture this weekend.

Starting 14 billion years ago with the Big Bang, Steve will trace the evolution of the universe, from scorching hot gas forming galaxies to the continued birth and death of new stars. David will step in and discuss how the history of our special little planet is inexorably tied to material raining down from space. The water in our oceans, the formation of some organic molecules, and even mass extinctions on this planet have largely been determined by extraterrestrial events. And let's not forget Area 51 (that's a joke!).

Astronomy and Evolution: From the Death of the Dinosaurs to the Stardust in your Bones

When: Saturday, August 15^th 11AM – 12 PM

Where: 100 Genetics & Plant Biology Building, UC Berkeley Campus

Cost: Free

Go Bears! is more than a cheer, but a mantra to live life by…as long as you're a Berkeley alum like myself. On Saturday April 18^th, the University opens up to the public…lectures, interactive events, tours, all of the campus museums (most of which aren't usually open to the public)… and it's all free.

Many programs are geared for incoming students and their families. However, there are a few gems designed for everyone. This year's highlights feature hands on physics, discussions on energy & environmental issues, with the search for extra terrestrial life sprinkled in. For a complete listing of events, check out the Cal Day website. Here are my picks:

Darwin, Dover, and Intelligent Design: What's Next for Anti-Evolutionists?

10-11 am, 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building

Hear a national expert on evolution discuss the conflicts between evolution and creationism, and where this debate is headed.

Mobile Millennium: The System That Keeps Traffic Moving

10-11 am, Sibley Auditorium

This traffic-monitoring system collects data and sends it to your cell phone to help you take the best routes. Be an early adopter of this developing technology; learn how following the lecture or from 1:30 to 3 pm outside McCone Hall.

Are We Wired for Good?

11 am-noon, 145 Dwinelle Hall

Is the capacity for compassion, gratitude, and other positive emotions built into our nervous systems? Are such emotions the path to happiness? The founder of Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center has some answers.

What Is the Large Hadron Collider?

11 am-noon, 4 LeConte Hall

It's the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Hear how it works and discover the exciting things it might reveal about our amazing universe.

Will Water Be the Oil of the 21st Century? A Quest for Sustainable Water Management

11 am-noon, 502 Davis Hall

Water is a limited natural resource, and its importance can be compared to that of oil. Examine the parallels between these two resources, and the future of water sustainability.

How Global Climate Change Will Affect the Oceans

Noon-1 pm, 141 McCone Hall

Warmer surface waters, rising sea levels, more storms, and increased carbon dioxide – all will have an impact on marine ecosystems, coasts, islands, estuaries, and wetlands.

The Dark Side of the Universe

Noon-1 pm, 100 Genetics & Plant Biology Building

The universe is mostly made up of "dark matter" – what evidence do we have that it exists? Hear how we're searching for this mysterious component of the universe.

Genes in a Bottle

Noon-2 pm, Latimer Hall

Learn how DNA is chemically extracted from organisms for research applications. Then extract DNA from your own cheek cells, and take it home in a fashionable necklace!

How Do Cars Fit Into a Clean-Energy Future?

1-2 pm, 105 Stanley Hall

Can car lovers also be planet lovers? How will our favorite vehicle evolve as the need to manage global warming intensifies? Energy and Resources Group Professor Dan Kammen

Is Anybody Out There?

1-2 pm, 3 LeConte Hall

Hear about Berkeley's SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program at the world's largest telescope, the Allen array. Volunteers have a small but captivating chance that their computer will detect the first signal from a civilization beyond Earth.

Today QUEST takes you behind the scenes to see the most powerful microscope in the world, which happens to be in our very own backyard in Berkeley. This transmission electron microscope lives at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. The microscope can produce images of things that are the size of half an atom of hydrogen. And hydrogen has the smallest atoms of any element – so that's pretty small.

The microscope is so big that it was hauled into the Center on a crane. It's housed in its own room, which is insulated to maintain an ideal temperature, and it's mounted on springs to isolate it from vibrations that make images blurry.

The TEAM 0.5, as the microscope is called, excels at producing clear images of atoms sitting side by side. This makes it very useful for the scientists who investigate the properties of the materials that we use to build everyday objects like computers and airplanes. In fact, the images they produce with the microscope may one day help build stronger, lighter airplanes, and smaller, faster computers.

Watch the World's Most Powerful Microscope television story online.

Editor's note: This week we welcome guest blogger Judy Scotchmoor, Assistant Director (Education and Public Programs) at the University of California Museum of Paleontology, and co-founder of the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS).

The start of each new year is a good time to reflect and look forward. Each year, I begin that process at the ocean's edge with breakfast at the beach on January 1 now a long-standing tradition. For me, this particular year, 2009, has additional excitement. Not only is there a great sense of hope with a change in the administration, but there is a renewed sense of optimism for science. Yes, we expect science to be treated more kindly by President Obama, but long before we knew he would be a candidate, members of the scientific community began examining ways to raise awareness and appreciation for science in the eyes of the public. As a result, two key projects that I have been working on and am very excited about have emerged and both launch in 2009: UC Berkeley's Understanding Science website and the Year of Science 2009 (YoS09) initiative.

The first is a response to an apparent lack of clarity in our students of how science really works and thus confusions as to what is and is not science. Understanding Science provides a wealth of resources for K-16 science teachers to help correct these confusions and to portray science as the creative, dynamic, and often unpredictable process that it really is! The second, YoS09, has a similar goal but focuses on increasing the public's appreciation of and engagement in science with a yearlong celebration of science – who scientists are, why they enjoy their work, and how we all benefit from their enjoyment!

I just returned from the national launch of both of these initiatives that was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society for Comparative and Integrative Biology in Boston. Ira Flatow gave the keynote address to set the tone, and the scientific program typical of a SICB meeting was expanded to include a session on the new website and a symposium on communicating science to the public. It was extremely exciting to witness the enthusiasm for engaging the public and to learn about how much is already going on in different institutions throughout the U.S.

Just as the fever of the election captured the energies of our citizenry and in particular of those who campaigned for their preferred candidate, so have these two projects energized those of us who have stepped beyond our usual professional roles and found new ways to do what we deeply care about – promoting science! And why wouldn't we? Have you ever met a scientist who doesn't love his/her work? Have you ever thought of what a day would be like without science? Has a day gone by that has not been enriched by wondering or learning? Does not our natural world arouse a natural curiosity and a sense of awe? Plus getting involved in projects like these just feels good! I seldom set New Year's resolutions, but this year I plan to celebrate science every chance I get!

For more information on Understanding Science, visit www.understandingscience.org and for details on the national efforts around Year of Science 2009, visit www.yearofscience2009.org. For Bay Area Year of Science 2009 events and activities visit www.bayareascience.org.

Image source: Michael PatrickMany Bay Area cities are trying to clean up their acts by putting in place new green initiatives. But from San Jose to Berkeley, some city leaders are finding out it's not always so easy to turn over a new leaf. QUEST looks at the challenges municipalities face with budget constraints, legal restrictions and reluctance, on the part of some residents, to change. Marjorie Sun reports.


You may listen to the "It's Not Easy Going Green" Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.

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

Don't Sweat the Switch from Analog to Digital TV Broadcasting. The Government Will Rescue Your Old TV. Mostly.

What does this have to do with energy conservation? Read on.

Every old TV will be new again–for about $10.
Photo credit: Human Productivity Lab,
licensed through Creative Commons.When I was still new to the Bay Area, I lived in a one-room apartment near the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley. I was working at Black Oak Books and spent many a late night after work winding down by watching reruns of NewsRadio, about the best TV comedy series to come along in the 1990s. I miss Bill McNeal, the character played by the late comedian Phil Hartman. And I had a big crush on the Lisa Miller character, played by ER's Maura Tierney. Now that I have cable, I can watch 3 PBS stations and the Discovery Channel, but back in the day, if I nailed my rabbit ear antenna high up on the wall and turned it just right, I could get NewsRadio, a lifesaver.

If you still have one of those old rabbit ear antennas, or have one on your roof, hold on to it.

As of February 17, 2009, when all the major TV broadcasters will begin to transmit using a digital signal, no one with an analog, rabbit-eared television set will be able to get anything without a digital-to-analog converter box. If you have a digital TV, or pay for cable or satellite TV service, you're good– you don't have to do anything. But if you have an old analog set, you'll need to buy a converter box costing about $50.

But don't fret, because your government has come to the rescue-with coupons worth $40.

Between January 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009, all U.S. households will be able to request up to two coupons, worth $40 each, for the purchase of eligible digital-to-analog converter boxes. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is administering the coupon program, and has a list of eligible converter boxes as well as information about getting coupons.

The entry of perhaps millions of digital-to-analog TV converters could add yet another widely used electronic device to strain the U.S. power grid, add to carbon emissions, increase our dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuels, and so on-you know the drill. But thanks to the efforts of folks at the Natural Resources Defense Council, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, and other energy efficiency advocates, those converter boxes will run on as little energy as possible, especially during the 20 or so hours a day when no one is watching TV. The Department of Commerce has issued a ruling that eligible devices can use no more than two watts while in "sleep" mode, and that the devices will automatically go into sleep mode after four hours of inactivity. The four-hour delay will be set as the default mode at the factory, but users can adjust the delay time at home or disable the automatic switching to sleep mode.

So don't throw away your old TV sets. You'll be able to use them after February 17, 2009, but it will cost you about $10, plus the free coupon from the feds. And you'll probably be burning a lot less electricity with your old TV and converter box than with one of those new monster plasma screen TVs.

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.

Cosmic microwave background and the infant universe.
From the WMAP science team.It was on the UC Berkeley astronomy website this morning that I was reminded of something I had wanted to post for QUEST. About a month ago, Cal publicly announced the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics. This was quite a big deal for the Physics and Astronomy departments at Berkeley.

The center was founded by George Smoot, who won the Nobel Prize in 2006 and was the focus of a QUEST TV segment. As described in our press release, George donated the bulk of his prize money to the founding of this new center. His donation seeded the center which now has an endowment exceeding $8 million in little more than a year of fund-raising. After watching my girlfriend raise funds for non-profits around SF, I can say that is quite impressive.

The center and endowment ensure that Berkeley remains competitive for years to come in the field of cosmology research. It helps Cal recruit excellent researchers by providing funds for postdoctoral researchers and students. The people supported by the Center can choose any project in the department, projects that I have covered in several of my QUEST articles. It also gives new post-docs the freedom to explore the department before starting on a specific project. This differs from the usual postdoctoral researcher who is recruited by a specific faculty member for a specific project.

The center will also sponsor researchers' visits to Berkeley from other institutions, educational outreach to K-12 science teachers and several collaborative international workshops on cosmology each year.

Berkeley is actually both one of the first and one of the latest institutions to establish a center for cosmology research. In the '90s, we had the Center for Particle Astrophysics, which was funded for 10 years by NSF. I think this was one of the first of its kind.

In the last few years, a philanthropist named Fred Kavli has funded quite a few cosmology centers all around the world. I just learned that the Kavli foundation also funds centers in other fields, like nanoscience research at my alma mater. The foundation funds 15 centers in all, including ones at Caltech, UC San Diego, Stanford, and UC Santa Barbara in California.

If you're a big fan of MASH or Alan Alda, you'll be a big fan of Kavli foundation. I just looked at their web page and see that they have made him the narrator for their astrophysics, neuroscience, and nanoscience initiatives. Maybe we can recruit Donald Sutherland to promote the movie version of the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics.

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: 37.8768, longitude: -122.251