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"slug": "grizzly-bears-are-everywhere-in-california-but-the-woods",
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"content": "\u003cp>Who says the grizzly bear has vanished from California? On the contrary, it’s nearly ubiquitous in the Golden State—on everything from the state flag to T-shirts and coffee mugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the bears themselves have been absent for nearly a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the Gold Rush, the best guess is there were probably 10,000 grizzlies in California. But in the space of about 75 years, they were trapped and hunted into extinction. Though no one can say with certainty when the last bear expired, by 1930 even unconfirmed sightings had winked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can be brought back,” insists Noah Greenwald, conservation director for the Arizona-based \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>. In 2014, it \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/grizzly_bear/pdfs/Grizzly_Recovery_Plan_Petition_.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">petitioned\u003c/a> the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to expand areas for grizzly recovery into California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-663467 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport.jpg\" alt=\"The Gold Rush and repeating rifle proved to be the undoing of the California Grizzly. By the mid 1920s, they had been trapped and hunted into extinction.\" width=\"750\" height=\"557\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport-400x297.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Gold Rush and repeating rifle proved to be the undoing of the California Grizzly. By the mid 1920s, they had been trapped and hunted into extinction. \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That petition was denied. The agency said it didn’t want to divert resources from its efforts to rebuild the brown bears’ populations elsewhere \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141130-grizzly-reintroduction-cascades-national-park-environment/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the Lower 48\u003c/a>. Currently wildlife officials estimate there are no more than 2,000 grizzlies spread across Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington (with a much larger population in Alaska).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Certainly in Yellowstone National Park, which gets more than three million visitors a year, grizzly bears are a tremendous draw there and a real source of joy,” observes Greenwald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, they can be a source of danger. A female grizzly with cubs killed a hiker in Yellowstone last year—but bear attacks are exceedingly rare. So the Center for Biological Diversity is betting on taking its case directly to the public. It’s gathered about 13,000 signatures on an online petition, and is about to launch the next phase of a \u003ca href=\"http://bringbackthebears.org/#home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">web and social media campaign\u003c/a> under the banner, “Bring Back the Bear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 465px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-663472\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-800x450.jpg\" alt='The \"Bring Back the Bear\" campaign features a bearless state flag.' width=\"465\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Bring Back the Bear” campaign features a bearless state flag. \u003ccite>(Gyro/Center for Biological Diversity)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I do think it’s something—with some education and with further study—something that people could and will rally around,” Greenwald speculates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollywood hasn’t exactly advanced the cause, doing for Grizzlies more or less what “Jaws” did for sharks—last year’s \u003ca href=\"http://oscar.go.com/news/winners/the-revenant-wins-3-2016-oscars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oscar nominee\u003c/a> for best picture being only the latest example. Leonardo DiCaprio’s violent encounter with a mama grizzly was likely the most talked-about scene in “The Revenant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There Are Bears—And Then There Are Grizzlies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, the only encounter possible with a native California grizzly, is at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiamuseum.org/bear-mind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Museum\u003c/a> in Sacramento, where Monarch, the bear that served as a model for the state flag, stands stuffed behind glass walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearly some prefer their grizzlies that way and they’re not alone. State wildlife officials are, to say the least, skeptical of the bid to reestablish the bears in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Listen to the Story:\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nhttp://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2016/04/WEBGrizzlyBearsMiller160502.mp3\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Yellowstone grizzly recording by Bernie Krause/\u003ca href=\"http://www.wildsanctuary.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wild Sanctuary\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marc Kenyon is a bear biologist; a big, bearded bear of a guy himself, Kenyon heads the state’s Human-Wildlife Conflict Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That grizzly would turn this thing into a tin can in a hurry,” says Kenyon, showing me the trailers his agency uses to trap and transport injured or wayward black bears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenyon’s agency puts the number of black bears in California at somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000—but clearly black bears are not grizzlies, which can easily be twice the size, a thousand pounds or more. And even though the bears would be placed in remote areas, there’s no guarantee they would stay put.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thing I can tell you about bears is that bears roam,” says Kenyon. “And they’ll roam a long distance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Center for Biological Diversity has identified nearly 8,000 square miles of potential habitat in the remote Sierra Nevada, with a smaller area near the Oregon border. Kenyon’s not sure it’s enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can only imagine how far a grizzly bear in California might roam,” he says, “in search for food, in search for mates, in search for its own habitat, its own territory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_665058\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-665058\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Grizzly_Mobile.jpg\" alt=\"Source: Center for Biological Diversity\" width=\"750\" height=\"1135\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-medium-up\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-665057\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Grizzly_Desktop.jpg\" alt=\"Source: Center for Biological Diversity (Teodros Hailye/KQED)\" width=\"100%\"> Source: Center for Biological Diversity (Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Even advocates, like nature journalist Jason Mark, concede that this wouldn’t be an easy lift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to at all underestimate the challenge of something ambitious like this,” says Mark, author of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Satellites-High-Country-Searching-Wild/dp/1610915801\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the hardest part might be “changing the way that we think of what wild nature is good for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it good, for us, just as a place to go recreate and watch and look at, or does wild nature have some intrinsic rights of its own?” he asks. “And in that sense the bear does have a right to return to what was once its homeland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark says the large carnivores could have ecological benefits, aiding in seed dispersal and balancing populations of smaller prey animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kenyon isn’t convinced that it’s the best thing for species like California’s declining deer population, or even for the bears themselves at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a stable grizzly bear population, we’re looking in excess of 200 animals—that can find each other,” says Kenyon. By comparison, the Yellowstone \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151001-grizzly-bears-animals-science-conservation-nation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grizzly population\u003c/a> numbers about 700.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you get down to a density where the animals can’t find each other, you’re lessening the chance for them to breed,” he says, “and then you’re lessening the chance for the species to survive in the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663468\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-663468\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat.jpg\" alt=\"C. Hart Merriam's hand-colored map shows grizzlies in widely varied habitats across California. He also identified several subspecies.\" width=\"750\" height=\"952\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat-400x508.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">C. Hart Merriam’s hand-colored map shows grizzlies in widely varied habitats across California. He also identified six subspecies. \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Grizzlies … in Oakland?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to the Oakland Zoo, where construction crews have started work on its \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiatrail.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Trail\u003c/a> project. The exhibit will feature the state’s iconic critters from big cats to condors, and the centerpiece will be a three-acre grizzly “habitat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, unfortunately they tell sort of the sad history of humans and wildlife here in California,” says Colleen Kinzley, who directs animal care, conservation and research at the zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want people to be aware of that,” she says. “I mean, despite the fact that the grizzly bear is on our flag and our state seal, many people don’t know that grizzlies existed in California and are really a part of this habitat and environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”tNDxIqCQ6OM8KhFUGLYNbB9Hg9p1oQ7s”]The zoo is preparing for its first bears-in-residence sometime next year. And Kinzley says the best way to “bring back the bears” in the wild would be to let them come back on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t just plop a large predator into a location and say, ‘Alright, everybody just get along,'” she says. “The bear will lose if you don’t have complete buy-in from all the different constituencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be a long shot, to be sure, but it’s theoretically possible that, say, the tiny population of \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141130-grizzly-reintroduction-cascades-national-park-environment/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grizzlies in the Washington Cascades\u003c/a> might work their way down into California, much as wolves have \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2015/08/20/gray-wolf-pups-found-in-california-first-in-nearly-a-century/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drifted down\u003c/a> from Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be a long way off but I think probably easier than getting everyone to agree to bring bears from somewhere and put them in California,” says Kinzley. Kenyon agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In any case, it’s likely that for a long time to come, the only way to see live grizzlies in California will be with a big fence around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Featured art by Laura Cunningham, author of \u003ca href=\"https://heydaybooks.com/book/a-state-of-change/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A State of Change\u003c/a> and co-founder of the desert conservation group \u003ca href=\"http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Basin and Range Watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Who says the grizzly bear has vanished from California? On the contrary, it’s nearly ubiquitous in the Golden State—on everything from the state flag to T-shirts and coffee mugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the bears themselves have been absent for nearly a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the Gold Rush, the best guess is there were probably 10,000 grizzlies in California. But in the space of about 75 years, they were trapped and hunted into extinction. Though no one can say with certainty when the last bear expired, by 1930 even unconfirmed sightings had winked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can be brought back,” insists Noah Greenwald, conservation director for the Arizona-based \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>. In 2014, it \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/grizzly_bear/pdfs/Grizzly_Recovery_Plan_Petition_.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">petitioned\u003c/a> the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to expand areas for grizzly recovery into California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-663467 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport.jpg\" alt=\"The Gold Rush and repeating rifle proved to be the undoing of the California Grizzly. By the mid 1920s, they had been trapped and hunted into extinction.\" width=\"750\" height=\"557\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport-400x297.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Gold Rush and repeating rifle proved to be the undoing of the California Grizzly. By the mid 1920s, they had been trapped and hunted into extinction. \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That petition was denied. The agency said it didn’t want to divert resources from its efforts to rebuild the brown bears’ populations elsewhere \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141130-grizzly-reintroduction-cascades-national-park-environment/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the Lower 48\u003c/a>. Currently wildlife officials estimate there are no more than 2,000 grizzlies spread across Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington (with a much larger population in Alaska).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Certainly in Yellowstone National Park, which gets more than three million visitors a year, grizzly bears are a tremendous draw there and a real source of joy,” observes Greenwald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, they can be a source of danger. A female grizzly with cubs killed a hiker in Yellowstone last year—but bear attacks are exceedingly rare. So the Center for Biological Diversity is betting on taking its case directly to the public. It’s gathered about 13,000 signatures on an online petition, and is about to launch the next phase of a \u003ca href=\"http://bringbackthebears.org/#home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">web and social media campaign\u003c/a> under the banner, “Bring Back the Bear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 465px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-663472\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-800x450.jpg\" alt='The \"Bring Back the Bear\" campaign features a bearless state flag.' width=\"465\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Bring Back the Bear” campaign features a bearless state flag. \u003ccite>(Gyro/Center for Biological Diversity)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I do think it’s something—with some education and with further study—something that people could and will rally around,” Greenwald speculates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollywood hasn’t exactly advanced the cause, doing for Grizzlies more or less what “Jaws” did for sharks—last year’s \u003ca href=\"http://oscar.go.com/news/winners/the-revenant-wins-3-2016-oscars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oscar nominee\u003c/a> for best picture being only the latest example. Leonardo DiCaprio’s violent encounter with a mama grizzly was likely the most talked-about scene in “The Revenant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There Are Bears—And Then There Are Grizzlies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, the only encounter possible with a native California grizzly, is at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiamuseum.org/bear-mind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Museum\u003c/a> in Sacramento, where Monarch, the bear that served as a model for the state flag, stands stuffed behind glass walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearly some prefer their grizzlies that way and they’re not alone. State wildlife officials are, to say the least, skeptical of the bid to reestablish the bears in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Listen to the Story:\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nhttp://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2016/04/WEBGrizzlyBearsMiller160502.mp3\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Yellowstone grizzly recording by Bernie Krause/\u003ca href=\"http://www.wildsanctuary.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wild Sanctuary\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marc Kenyon is a bear biologist; a big, bearded bear of a guy himself, Kenyon heads the state’s Human-Wildlife Conflict Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That grizzly would turn this thing into a tin can in a hurry,” says Kenyon, showing me the trailers his agency uses to trap and transport injured or wayward black bears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenyon’s agency puts the number of black bears in California at somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000—but clearly black bears are not grizzlies, which can easily be twice the size, a thousand pounds or more. And even though the bears would be placed in remote areas, there’s no guarantee they would stay put.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thing I can tell you about bears is that bears roam,” says Kenyon. “And they’ll roam a long distance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Center for Biological Diversity has identified nearly 8,000 square miles of potential habitat in the remote Sierra Nevada, with a smaller area near the Oregon border. Kenyon’s not sure it’s enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can only imagine how far a grizzly bear in California might roam,” he says, “in search for food, in search for mates, in search for its own habitat, its own territory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_665058\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-665058\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Grizzly_Mobile.jpg\" alt=\"Source: Center for Biological Diversity\" width=\"750\" height=\"1135\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-medium-up\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-665057\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Grizzly_Desktop.jpg\" alt=\"Source: Center for Biological Diversity (Teodros Hailye/KQED)\" width=\"100%\"> Source: Center for Biological Diversity (Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Even advocates, like nature journalist Jason Mark, concede that this wouldn’t be an easy lift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to at all underestimate the challenge of something ambitious like this,” says Mark, author of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Satellites-High-Country-Searching-Wild/dp/1610915801\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the hardest part might be “changing the way that we think of what wild nature is good for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it good, for us, just as a place to go recreate and watch and look at, or does wild nature have some intrinsic rights of its own?” he asks. “And in that sense the bear does have a right to return to what was once its homeland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark says the large carnivores could have ecological benefits, aiding in seed dispersal and balancing populations of smaller prey animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kenyon isn’t convinced that it’s the best thing for species like California’s declining deer population, or even for the bears themselves at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a stable grizzly bear population, we’re looking in excess of 200 animals—that can find each other,” says Kenyon. By comparison, the Yellowstone \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151001-grizzly-bears-animals-science-conservation-nation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grizzly population\u003c/a> numbers about 700.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you get down to a density where the animals can’t find each other, you’re lessening the chance for them to breed,” he says, “and then you’re lessening the chance for the species to survive in the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663468\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-663468\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat.jpg\" alt=\"C. Hart Merriam's hand-colored map shows grizzlies in widely varied habitats across California. He also identified several subspecies.\" width=\"750\" height=\"952\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat-400x508.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">C. Hart Merriam’s hand-colored map shows grizzlies in widely varied habitats across California. He also identified six subspecies. \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Grizzlies … in Oakland?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to the Oakland Zoo, where construction crews have started work on its \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiatrail.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Trail\u003c/a> project. The exhibit will feature the state’s iconic critters from big cats to condors, and the centerpiece will be a three-acre grizzly “habitat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, unfortunately they tell sort of the sad history of humans and wildlife here in California,” says Colleen Kinzley, who directs animal care, conservation and research at the zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want people to be aware of that,” she says. “I mean, despite the fact that the grizzly bear is on our flag and our state seal, many people don’t know that grizzlies existed in California and are really a part of this habitat and environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>The zoo is preparing for its first bears-in-residence sometime next year. And Kinzley says the best way to “bring back the bears” in the wild would be to let them come back on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t just plop a large predator into a location and say, ‘Alright, everybody just get along,'” she says. “The bear will lose if you don’t have complete buy-in from all the different constituencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be a long shot, to be sure, but it’s theoretically possible that, say, the tiny population of \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141130-grizzly-reintroduction-cascades-national-park-environment/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grizzlies in the Washington Cascades\u003c/a> might work their way down into California, much as wolves have \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2015/08/20/gray-wolf-pups-found-in-california-first-in-nearly-a-century/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drifted down\u003c/a> from Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be a long way off but I think probably easier than getting everyone to agree to bring bears from somewhere and put them in California,” says Kinzley. Kenyon agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In any case, it’s likely that for a long time to come, the only way to see live grizzlies in California will be with a big fence around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Featured art by Laura Cunningham, author of \u003ca href=\"https://heydaybooks.com/book/a-state-of-change/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A State of Change\u003c/a> and co-founder of the desert conservation group \u003ca href=\"http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Basin and Range Watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In the mid-19th century, there were as many as 10,000 brown bears in California — a greater population density than in Alaska today. The last documented sighting was in 1924. Now all that remains is the profile of the powerful bruin on the state flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No doubt some people will freak out at the prospect of the Lower 48’s biggest predator haunting the woods. But there are good reasons to return the animal to the Bear Flag Republic. Grizzly reintroduction would have clear ecological benefits. And it would have cultural benefits, too, by prompting us to rethink what nature is “good for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is already crawling with predators. We have mountain lions in Los Angeles — where the Internet-famous “\u003ca href=\"http://www.urbancarnivores.com/p22-the-hollywood-lion/\">Hollywood Lion\u003c/a>” stalks mule dear in Griffith Park — and one in San Francisco, too, where \u003ca href=\"http://www.businessinsider.com/r-mountain-lion-spotted-roaming-around-san-francisco-2015-7\">a cougar was captured on a security camera\u003c/a> last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The reappearance of mountain lions is an example of what conservation biologists call “rewilding.” In some instances, like that of the mountain lion, the wild animals find their way back on their own. In other cases, state or federal agencies have made determined efforts to bring back animals hunted and trapped to oblivion or pushed out by development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reintroduction of gray wolves to the Northern Rockies in the late 1990s is the best-known rewilding story. Twenty-one years after wolves were returned to Yellowstone National Park, there is an established population and some have migrated as far as Northern California, where, in August, a pack was confirmed in the state for the first time since 1924.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The return of the gray wolf to the rural West has been hugely controversial, marked by serial court cases, Capitol Hill maneuverings, vigilantism (in the form of poaching animals listed as endangered) and fiery debates that have scorched western communities. For many ranchers and hunters, the return of the wolf represents a dangerous surrendering of human control over the landscape. To supporters of rewilding, the success of the wolf is a kind of ecological restorative justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_654142\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-654142\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA.jpg\" alt=\"Grizzlies appear to have loved California's varied habitats--but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back?\" width=\"750\" height=\"1020\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA-400x544.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzlies appear to have loved California’s varied habitats–but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back? \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bringing back grizzly bears to California is the latest rewilding idea. Last year, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>, an Arizona-based conservation group, filed a petition with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fws.gov/\">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service\u003c/a> to consider reintroducing the grizzly in the Southwest and California. The agency denied the request, and now the organization plans to petition the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/\">California Department of Fish and Wildlife\u003c/a> to bring back the bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grizzly bears were a common part of the California landscape and had been there for eons, and we wiped them out,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/about/staff/index.html#noah\">Noah Greenwald\u003c/a>, the endangered species coordinator at the Center for Biological Diversity. “By bringing them back we would be righting a historic wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663460\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 689px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-663460\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful.\" width=\"689\" height=\"856\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy.jpg 689w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy-400x497.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 689px) 100vw, 689px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful. \u003ccite>(Laura Cunningham/Basin and Range Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Returning grizzlies to California would have real ecological advantages. Wildlife biologists have shown that restoring large predators to a landscape can have consequences that ripple across an ecosystem. This phenomenon is called “trophic cascades.” Imagine: a wolf reappears on the scene. Suddenly, the elk and deer have to be alert. Their newly cautious behavior gives aspen and willow a chance to thrive, which provide fresh habitat for beaver and songbirds.\u003ca href=\"https://environment.yale.edu/profile/david-mattson/\"> David Mattson\u003c/a>, a lecturer at the \u003ca href=\"http://environment.yale.edu/\">Yale School of Forestry\u003c/a>, says grizzlies would have “demonstrable ecosystem effects” were they reintroduced to California. Brown bears would assist with seed dispersal and soil aeration as they tear into the ground hunting for gophers and voles. Coastal grizzly would move nutrients upstream and inland via their consumption of spawning salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state wildlife officials are cool on the idea. “Grizzly bears traditionally would roam oak woodlands and even beaches and eat whale carcasses and whatnot,” says California Fish and Wildlife spokesperson \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-traverso-895208a\">Jordan Traverso\u003c/a>. “So you’d be introducing them in places where people are now, not the typical black bear habitat. So we are not supportive of that proposal, even a little bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_654222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-654222 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale.jpeg\" alt=\"Grizzly bears feeding on a beached whale carcass, as imagined by artist Laura Cunningham.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-400x256.jpeg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-800x512.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-768x492.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1440x922.jpeg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1920x1230.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1180x756.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-960x615.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzly bears feeding on a beached whale carcass, as imagined by artist Laura Cunningham. \u003ccite>(Laura Cunningham/Basin and Range Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, the idea is not as outlandish as it might sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study of Europe published in the journal Science found that large carnivores are successfully sharing landscapes with people. Some 17,000 brown bears (\u003cem>Ursus arctos\u003c/em>, essentially the same species as the North American grizzly) live in 22 European countries, making the bear the most abundant large carnivore on the continent. Europe is also home to 12,000 wolves, twice as many as in the United States, despite the continent having twice the population density. The study found that large carnivores “have shown an ability to recolonize areas with moderate human densities if they are allowed, and to persist in highly human-dominated landscapes and in the proximity of urban areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://web.stanford.edu/~mwlewis/\">Martin Lewis\u003c/a>, a geographer at \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/\">Stanford\u003c/a> who has studied the politics of rewilding, says the problem with grizzly reintroduction is not a lack of suitable habitat. But, he says, “there are questions about coexistence. People can learn to live with them, but there will be trade-offs. There will be encounters, and some of those encounters will be negative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”yXiMJJ9nodz2h61dfgro0bCts8PBMEwe”]Let’s face it. Wolves eat cattle and prized game like elk. Grizzlies sometimes attack backpackers. Mountain lions sometimes go after hikers. Acknowledging such dangers is not being callous toward human life, but recognizes that the lives of these animals, and the role they play in the environment, also matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The risks are worth it. The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us, and that wild animals and wild places have their own interests. Can we cohabitate with wild animals though they might pose a threat to us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such coexistence will require us to rethink some of our assumptions about wild nature. Do we want nature to always conform neatly to human desires — a garden to be tended by our hands, or an idyllic retreat imagined by the Romantics? Or are we willing to live with a nature that is wilder? A nature that is uncontrolled, unpredictable, and possibly dangerous. One where you could end up as lunch if you’re not careful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To accept the return of large carnivores will demand a selflessness to which, as a species, we are unaccustomed. It will also require a measure of courage. After all, it’s easy to love a nature that just looks pretty. It’s a much more difficult task to live with a nature that can be threatening — a wolf pack in the pasture, a lion on the prowl under streetlights and, yes, grizzlies in the woods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jason Mark is the author of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.islandpress.org/book/satellites-in-the-high-country\">Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man\u003c/a>” and editor of Sierra magazine.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Featured art by Laura Cunningham, author of \u003ca href=\"https://heydaybooks.com/book/a-state-of-change/\">A State of Change\u003c/a> and co-founder of the desert conservation group \u003ca href=\"http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/\">Basin and Range Watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"nprByline": "\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/authors/jason-mark\" target=\"_blank\">Jason Mark\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra\" target=\"_blank\">Sierra Magazine\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the mid-19th century, there were as many as 10,000 brown bears in California — a greater population density than in Alaska today. The last documented sighting was in 1924. Now all that remains is the profile of the powerful bruin on the state flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No doubt some people will freak out at the prospect of the Lower 48’s biggest predator haunting the woods. But there are good reasons to return the animal to the Bear Flag Republic. Grizzly reintroduction would have clear ecological benefits. And it would have cultural benefits, too, by prompting us to rethink what nature is “good for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is already crawling with predators. We have mountain lions in Los Angeles — where the Internet-famous “\u003ca href=\"http://www.urbancarnivores.com/p22-the-hollywood-lion/\">Hollywood Lion\u003c/a>” stalks mule dear in Griffith Park — and one in San Francisco, too, where \u003ca href=\"http://www.businessinsider.com/r-mountain-lion-spotted-roaming-around-san-francisco-2015-7\">a cougar was captured on a security camera\u003c/a> last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The reappearance of mountain lions is an example of what conservation biologists call “rewilding.” In some instances, like that of the mountain lion, the wild animals find their way back on their own. In other cases, state or federal agencies have made determined efforts to bring back animals hunted and trapped to oblivion or pushed out by development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reintroduction of gray wolves to the Northern Rockies in the late 1990s is the best-known rewilding story. Twenty-one years after wolves were returned to Yellowstone National Park, there is an established population and some have migrated as far as Northern California, where, in August, a pack was confirmed in the state for the first time since 1924.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The return of the gray wolf to the rural West has been hugely controversial, marked by serial court cases, Capitol Hill maneuverings, vigilantism (in the form of poaching animals listed as endangered) and fiery debates that have scorched western communities. For many ranchers and hunters, the return of the wolf represents a dangerous surrendering of human control over the landscape. To supporters of rewilding, the success of the wolf is a kind of ecological restorative justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_654142\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-654142\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA.jpg\" alt=\"Grizzlies appear to have loved California's varied habitats--but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back?\" width=\"750\" height=\"1020\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA-400x544.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzlies appear to have loved California’s varied habitats–but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back? \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bringing back grizzly bears to California is the latest rewilding idea. Last year, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>, an Arizona-based conservation group, filed a petition with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fws.gov/\">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service\u003c/a> to consider reintroducing the grizzly in the Southwest and California. The agency denied the request, and now the organization plans to petition the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/\">California Department of Fish and Wildlife\u003c/a> to bring back the bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grizzly bears were a common part of the California landscape and had been there for eons, and we wiped them out,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/about/staff/index.html#noah\">Noah Greenwald\u003c/a>, the endangered species coordinator at the Center for Biological Diversity. “By bringing them back we would be righting a historic wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663460\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 689px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-663460\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful.\" width=\"689\" height=\"856\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy.jpg 689w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy-400x497.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 689px) 100vw, 689px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful. \u003ccite>(Laura Cunningham/Basin and Range Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Returning grizzlies to California would have real ecological advantages. Wildlife biologists have shown that restoring large predators to a landscape can have consequences that ripple across an ecosystem. This phenomenon is called “trophic cascades.” Imagine: a wolf reappears on the scene. Suddenly, the elk and deer have to be alert. Their newly cautious behavior gives aspen and willow a chance to thrive, which provide fresh habitat for beaver and songbirds.\u003ca href=\"https://environment.yale.edu/profile/david-mattson/\"> David Mattson\u003c/a>, a lecturer at the \u003ca href=\"http://environment.yale.edu/\">Yale School of Forestry\u003c/a>, says grizzlies would have “demonstrable ecosystem effects” were they reintroduced to California. Brown bears would assist with seed dispersal and soil aeration as they tear into the ground hunting for gophers and voles. Coastal grizzly would move nutrients upstream and inland via their consumption of spawning salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state wildlife officials are cool on the idea. “Grizzly bears traditionally would roam oak woodlands and even beaches and eat whale carcasses and whatnot,” says California Fish and Wildlife spokesperson \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-traverso-895208a\">Jordan Traverso\u003c/a>. “So you’d be introducing them in places where people are now, not the typical black bear habitat. So we are not supportive of that proposal, even a little bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_654222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-654222 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale.jpeg\" alt=\"Grizzly bears feeding on a beached whale carcass, as imagined by artist Laura Cunningham.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-400x256.jpeg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-800x512.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-768x492.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1440x922.jpeg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1920x1230.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1180x756.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-960x615.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzly bears feeding on a beached whale carcass, as imagined by artist Laura Cunningham. \u003ccite>(Laura Cunningham/Basin and Range Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, the idea is not as outlandish as it might sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study of Europe published in the journal Science found that large carnivores are successfully sharing landscapes with people. Some 17,000 brown bears (\u003cem>Ursus arctos\u003c/em>, essentially the same species as the North American grizzly) live in 22 European countries, making the bear the most abundant large carnivore on the continent. Europe is also home to 12,000 wolves, twice as many as in the United States, despite the continent having twice the population density. The study found that large carnivores “have shown an ability to recolonize areas with moderate human densities if they are allowed, and to persist in highly human-dominated landscapes and in the proximity of urban areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://web.stanford.edu/~mwlewis/\">Martin Lewis\u003c/a>, a geographer at \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/\">Stanford\u003c/a> who has studied the politics of rewilding, says the problem with grizzly reintroduction is not a lack of suitable habitat. But, he says, “there are questions about coexistence. People can learn to live with them, but there will be trade-offs. There will be encounters, and some of those encounters will be negative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Let’s face it. Wolves eat cattle and prized game like elk. Grizzlies sometimes attack backpackers. Mountain lions sometimes go after hikers. Acknowledging such dangers is not being callous toward human life, but recognizes that the lives of these animals, and the role they play in the environment, also matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The risks are worth it. The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us, and that wild animals and wild places have their own interests. Can we cohabitate with wild animals though they might pose a threat to us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such coexistence will require us to rethink some of our assumptions about wild nature. Do we want nature to always conform neatly to human desires — a garden to be tended by our hands, or an idyllic retreat imagined by the Romantics? Or are we willing to live with a nature that is wilder? A nature that is uncontrolled, unpredictable, and possibly dangerous. One where you could end up as lunch if you’re not careful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To accept the return of large carnivores will demand a selflessness to which, as a species, we are unaccustomed. It will also require a measure of courage. After all, it’s easy to love a nature that just looks pretty. It’s a much more difficult task to live with a nature that can be threatening — a wolf pack in the pasture, a lion on the prowl under streetlights and, yes, grizzlies in the woods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jason Mark is the author of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.islandpress.org/book/satellites-in-the-high-country\">Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man\u003c/a>” and editor of Sierra magazine.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Featured art by Laura Cunningham, author of \u003ca href=\"https://heydaybooks.com/book/a-state-of-change/\">A State of Change\u003c/a> and co-founder of the desert conservation group \u003ca href=\"http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/\">Basin and Range Watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "this-pulsating-slime-mold-comes-in-peace",
"title": "This Pulsating Slime Mold Comes in Peace",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]Flip over a rotting log and chances are you’ll see a goopy streak stuck to the wood. If you were to film this goop and play the video back in high speed, you’d see something that might remind you of the 1950s sci-fi classic \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdUsyXQ8Wrs\">“The Blob”\u003c/a>—a jelly-like creature pulsating in a strange way, a little bit forward, a little bit back, spreading and searching for something to devour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_635530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_SPREADS_4_500.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-635530\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-635530\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_SPREADS_4_500.gif\" alt=\"A slime mold pulsates across a log. \" width=\"500\" height=\"280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A slime mold pulsates across a log. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But this creature isn’t intent on world domination. It’s a slime mold, a very simple organism that is neither plant, nor animal, nor fungus. Unlike the cells of other living beings, which have only one nucleus that carries their genetic information, slime molds can organize into something like a cell with thousands of nuclei. Slime molds may move slowly, but they excite scientists by their ability to get a lot done with very little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_635517\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-635517\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-635517\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Even though they’re not fungi or plants, slime molds can act like them. This honeycomb coral slime mold on a redwood log in Oakland has produced fruiting bodies that will eventually open up and spread spores. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Even though they’re not fungi or plants, slime molds can act like them. This honeycomb coral slime mold on a redwood log in Oakland has produced fruiting bodies that will eventually open up and spread spores. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Researchers at UC San Diego and UC Davis have been focusing their attention on how slime molds get around, in the hope of inspiring a new generation of soft-bodied robots with medical applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slime molds don’t have legs or any appendages. They eat bacteria and tiny fungi. And they move just by changing their shape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s intriguing to understand how they can move when they’re softer than the environment,” said UC San Diego aerospace engineer \u003ca href=\"http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/faculty/faculty_bios/index.sfe?fmp_recid=289\">Juan Carlos del Álamo\u003c/a>. “The absence of limbs makes it a difficult problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slime mold’s locomotion is triggered by a chemical reaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_635532\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_PIECE_MOVES_500.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-635532\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-635532 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_PIECE_MOVES_500.gif\" alt=\"Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, put a piece of slime mold under a microscope to study its movement. The walls of the slime mold contract around the middle as the result of a chemical reaction. Some of the circles visible inside the slime mold are its nuclei.\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers at the UC San Diego, put a piece of slime mold under a microscope to study its movement. The walls of the slime mold contract around the middle as the result of a chemical reaction. Some of the circles visible inside the slime mold are its nuclei. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the lab, del Álamo and his colleagues cut off small pieces of a bright yellow slime mold called \u003cem>Physarum polycephalum\u003c/em> and put them under a microscope. They watched each piece squeeze itself. This contraction is triggered by tiny calcium ions flowing inside it. The slime mold contracts its wall, then sloshes to move the calcium ions back so that they can trigger another contraction—at least that’s the researchers’ hypothesis. Under the microscope, the piece of slime mold looks like a pulsating water balloon. It contracts every minute or so and can glide over different surfaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s similar to what happens in our muscles when they contract,” said del Álamo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Believe it or not, slime molds and humans are both made up of similar proteins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Del Álamo doesn’t build robots, but his hope is that his team’s work on slime mold locomotion will inspire the creation of a kind of robotic goo that could squeeze into the narrowest parts of our body and help us stay healthy by say, unclogging our arteries or performing eye surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_635533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_SPREADS_3_500.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-635533\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-635533\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_SPREADS_3_500.gif\" alt=\"A slime mold pulsates on a log. \" width=\"500\" height=\"280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A slime mold pulsates on a log. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nothing like this exists yet, said del Álamo. But his research is part of a broad interest in “active soft matter”—the search of how to harness materials at the boundary of solid and fluid that can generate their own movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This isn’t going to happen next year,” laughed del Álamo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the time being, he’s having fun imagining a sci-fi blob that might one day replace today’s catheter in your heart or laser surgery on your eyes.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Flip over a rotting log and chances are you’ll see a goopy streak stuck to the wood. If you were to film this goop and play the video back in high speed, you’d see something that might remind you of the 1950s sci-fi classic \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdUsyXQ8Wrs\">“The Blob”\u003c/a>—a jelly-like creature pulsating in a strange way, a little bit forward, a little bit back, spreading and searching for something to devour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_635530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_SPREADS_4_500.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-635530\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-635530\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_SPREADS_4_500.gif\" alt=\"A slime mold pulsates across a log. \" width=\"500\" height=\"280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A slime mold pulsates across a log. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But this creature isn’t intent on world domination. It’s a slime mold, a very simple organism that is neither plant, nor animal, nor fungus. Unlike the cells of other living beings, which have only one nucleus that carries their genetic information, slime molds can organize into something like a cell with thousands of nuclei. Slime molds may move slowly, but they excite scientists by their ability to get a lot done with very little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_635517\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-635517\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-635517\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Even though they’re not fungi or plants, slime molds can act like them. This honeycomb coral slime mold on a redwood log in Oakland has produced fruiting bodies that will eventually open up and spread spores. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_HONEYCOMB_CORAL_SLIME_MOLD2-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Even though they’re not fungi or plants, slime molds can act like them. This honeycomb coral slime mold on a redwood log in Oakland has produced fruiting bodies that will eventually open up and spread spores. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Researchers at UC San Diego and UC Davis have been focusing their attention on how slime molds get around, in the hope of inspiring a new generation of soft-bodied robots with medical applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slime molds don’t have legs or any appendages. They eat bacteria and tiny fungi. And they move just by changing their shape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s intriguing to understand how they can move when they’re softer than the environment,” said UC San Diego aerospace engineer \u003ca href=\"http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/faculty/faculty_bios/index.sfe?fmp_recid=289\">Juan Carlos del Álamo\u003c/a>. “The absence of limbs makes it a difficult problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slime mold’s locomotion is triggered by a chemical reaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_635532\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_PIECE_MOVES_500.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-635532\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-635532 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_PIECE_MOVES_500.gif\" alt=\"Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, put a piece of slime mold under a microscope to study its movement. The walls of the slime mold contract around the middle as the result of a chemical reaction. Some of the circles visible inside the slime mold are its nuclei.\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers at the UC San Diego, put a piece of slime mold under a microscope to study its movement. The walls of the slime mold contract around the middle as the result of a chemical reaction. Some of the circles visible inside the slime mold are its nuclei. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the lab, del Álamo and his colleagues cut off small pieces of a bright yellow slime mold called \u003cem>Physarum polycephalum\u003c/em> and put them under a microscope. They watched each piece squeeze itself. This contraction is triggered by tiny calcium ions flowing inside it. The slime mold contracts its wall, then sloshes to move the calcium ions back so that they can trigger another contraction—at least that’s the researchers’ hypothesis. Under the microscope, the piece of slime mold looks like a pulsating water balloon. It contracts every minute or so and can glide over different surfaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s similar to what happens in our muscles when they contract,” said del Álamo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Believe it or not, slime molds and humans are both made up of similar proteins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Del Álamo doesn’t build robots, but his hope is that his team’s work on slime mold locomotion will inspire the creation of a kind of robotic goo that could squeeze into the narrowest parts of our body and help us stay healthy by say, unclogging our arteries or performing eye surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_635533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_SPREADS_3_500.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-635533\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-635533\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/DL_307SlimeMolds_SLIME_MOLD_SPREADS_3_500.gif\" alt=\"A slime mold pulsates on a log. \" width=\"500\" height=\"280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A slime mold pulsates on a log. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nothing like this exists yet, said del Álamo. But his research is part of a broad interest in “active soft matter”—the search of how to harness materials at the boundary of solid and fluid that can generate their own movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This isn’t going to happen next year,” laughed del Álamo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the time being, he’s having fun imagining a sci-fi blob that might one day replace today’s catheter in your heart or laser surgery on your eyes.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Conservationists Use Microphones and Big Data to Count Disappearing Frogs",
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"content": "\u003cp>The sun has just set at the Watsonville Slough. Biologist Gary Kittleson and I are putting on headlamps and waders. We are searching for California red-legged frogs. Kittleson is an expert on the species. He’s working with a young tech company that is using sound to find out how many of the frogs remain in the slough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This red-legged frog has had more than it’s “15 minutes” of fame. Many believe it was the amphibian in Mark Twain’s first breakthrough short story,\u003ca href=\"http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/price/frog.htm\"> “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”\u003c/a> Today, it’s listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and its population numbers \u003ca href=\"http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/136113/0\">continue to decline\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You’re going to start having cameras, acoustic sensors, and satellites trained on these important parts of the world.’ \u003ccite>Matthew McKown, CEO of Conservation Metrics\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cdfgnews.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/california-red-legged-frog-named-state-amphibian/\">Red-legged frogs \u003c/a>are the state amphibian and once abounded in California. But in the 19th and 20th centuries they were over-hunted — it seems that people loved to eat their legs. Today these amphibians are losing habitat and are threatened by invasive species like the American bullfrog. Few California red-legged frogs remain. Some years Kittleson says he’d be ecstatic to see just one or two in the slough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.landtrustsantacruz.org/watsonville-slough-farm/\">The Watsonville Slough \u003c/a>in Santa Cruz County provides vital marshland habitat for California red-legged frogs. To get an accurate count of the dwindling population here, scientists like Kittleson are trying something new. They are teaming up with \u003ca href=\"http://conservationmetrics.com/\">Conservation Metrics\u003c/a>, a tech company that specializes in big data and sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/ZZ/20141109/NEWS/141104235\">Kittleson\u003c/a>, a consulting biologist with a private practice, is the expert on the ground for the project. Over the years he has identified a piece of old farmland in the Watsonville Slough as a hotspot for red-legged frogs. They seem to be drawn to some low-lying ponds once used to raise pigs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.landtrustsantacruz.org/\">The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County\u003c/a> owns this piece of land. It is working to save the frogs here by doing things like putting mesh wire around their eggs to protect them from predators. The Land Trust hired Kittleson to do population counts, to see if conservation efforts are working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_637841\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-637841\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Conservation Metrics uses song meters to record red-legged frog calls all night.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-1920x1439.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conservation Metrics uses song meters to record red-legged frog calls all night. \u003ccite>(Conservation Metrics)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kittleson spends a few hours out here at a time, wading through swamp water, peering into brush, and listening for red-legged frogs. Picking out their low calls is no easy task.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The slough is rife with chorus frogs, which make repeated, loud, high-pitched calls. The sound is deafening. Kittleson and I have stopped at the edge of a small pool of water. The chorus is all I can hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kittleson begins explaining the history of the pond to me, and then abruptly stops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a red-legged frog,” he says. We listen. I hear nothing. “It probably won’t call again because we are talking,” Kittleson says. His ears are so finely tuned, he can hear red-legged frogs even while he talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/259317553″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sorting Out the Soundscape\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field observation like this is the old way of counting animals. At best Kittleson says you only get a tiny slice of good data — a sample of a sample of a sample. That’s why the Land Trust is partnering with Conservation Metrics. The company has put up \u003ca href=\"http://www.wildlifeacoustics.com/\">song meters\u003c/a>, which continuously record the nighttime soundscape. Near the edge of the pond, Kittleson points out one of the recording devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s the song meter, mounted on fence posts,” he says, “It’s recording us now.” The green box has microphones protruding from each side. They’re like little ears, capturing everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far Conservation Metrics has gathered 1,630 hours of recordings, which translates into 241 gigabytes of data. Down at its office in Santa Cruz, the company turns the recordings into images called spectrograms. Employee Jeff Schlueter writes algorithms so the computer can sift through hours and hours of audio in the spectrograms and isolate the red-legged frog calls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_633578\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-633578\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Spectrogram-inspection-e1460423793529.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Schlueter writes algorithms to sort through hours and hours of recordings.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Schlueter (at left) writes algorithms to sort through hours and hours of recordings. \u003ccite>(Sam Harnett/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Conservation Metrics the red-legged frog survey is a relatively small project, more of a pilot program to show its approach can be helpful with a variety of species. Up until now Conservation Metrics has worked mostly with song birds. This year, the company is running 42 projects in 15 countries, and it is handling about 50 terabytes of data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using algorithms, one person with a computer can sort through the data for each project and get a population count that would normally take a whole team of field biologists. Matthew McKown founded Conservation Metrics about three years ago after seeing the potential of big data in conservation when he was a graduate student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our whole point is to make conservation better,” McKown says, “so we’re trying to make it as cheap as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McKown is capitalizing on the rapidly plummeting cost of gathering and crunching data. He says the conservation world has just recently entered the big data era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_637753\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-637753\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The top band on this spectrogram shows sound made my chorus frogs, the red-legged calls are hiding down at the bottom.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The top band on this spectrogram shows sound made by chorus frogs, the red-legged calls are hiding down at the bottom. \u003ccite>(Conservation Metrics)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists are now collecting and analyzing audio, video, satellite imagery, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/supercomputers-map-out-super-endangered-species-in-3-d/\">GPS data from all kinds of animals\u003c/a> like the California condor and the dugong, a threatened relative of the manatee. McKown says surveillance and big data are going to start playing a bigger role in protecting endangered species and threatened habitats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you’re going to start having is cameras, acoustic sensors, and satellites trained on these important parts of the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the marsh near Watsonville, Kittleson says he hopes better data will give us clues about how to save the California red-legged frog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are now waist-deep in swamp water, sweeping the pond with our headlamps, looking for the glare of frog eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then Kittleson finally spots one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The frog is sitting on a tiny log, floating by the water’s edge. Kittleson is not optimistic about the future of the species. It’s habitat, which once covered most of California, \u003ca href=\"https://ecos.fws.gov/tess_public/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=D02D\">continues to shrink \u003c/a>and its population continues to decline. But Kittleson says getting good data on the number of frogs that remain is the only chance we have to start moving in the right direction.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The sun has just set at the Watsonville Slough. Biologist Gary Kittleson and I are putting on headlamps and waders. We are searching for California red-legged frogs. Kittleson is an expert on the species. He’s working with a young tech company that is using sound to find out how many of the frogs remain in the slough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This red-legged frog has had more than it’s “15 minutes” of fame. Many believe it was the amphibian in Mark Twain’s first breakthrough short story,\u003ca href=\"http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/price/frog.htm\"> “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”\u003c/a> Today, it’s listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and its population numbers \u003ca href=\"http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/136113/0\">continue to decline\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You’re going to start having cameras, acoustic sensors, and satellites trained on these important parts of the world.’ \u003ccite>Matthew McKown, CEO of Conservation Metrics\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cdfgnews.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/california-red-legged-frog-named-state-amphibian/\">Red-legged frogs \u003c/a>are the state amphibian and once abounded in California. But in the 19th and 20th centuries they were over-hunted — it seems that people loved to eat their legs. Today these amphibians are losing habitat and are threatened by invasive species like the American bullfrog. Few California red-legged frogs remain. Some years Kittleson says he’d be ecstatic to see just one or two in the slough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.landtrustsantacruz.org/watsonville-slough-farm/\">The Watsonville Slough \u003c/a>in Santa Cruz County provides vital marshland habitat for California red-legged frogs. To get an accurate count of the dwindling population here, scientists like Kittleson are trying something new. They are teaming up with \u003ca href=\"http://conservationmetrics.com/\">Conservation Metrics\u003c/a>, a tech company that specializes in big data and sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/ZZ/20141109/NEWS/141104235\">Kittleson\u003c/a>, a consulting biologist with a private practice, is the expert on the ground for the project. Over the years he has identified a piece of old farmland in the Watsonville Slough as a hotspot for red-legged frogs. They seem to be drawn to some low-lying ponds once used to raise pigs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.landtrustsantacruz.org/\">The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County\u003c/a> owns this piece of land. It is working to save the frogs here by doing things like putting mesh wire around their eggs to protect them from predators. The Land Trust hired Kittleson to do population counts, to see if conservation efforts are working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_637841\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-637841\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Conservation Metrics uses song meters to record red-legged frog calls all night.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-1920x1439.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CMI_Songmeter_Watsonville-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conservation Metrics uses song meters to record red-legged frog calls all night. \u003ccite>(Conservation Metrics)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kittleson spends a few hours out here at a time, wading through swamp water, peering into brush, and listening for red-legged frogs. Picking out their low calls is no easy task.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The slough is rife with chorus frogs, which make repeated, loud, high-pitched calls. The sound is deafening. Kittleson and I have stopped at the edge of a small pool of water. The chorus is all I can hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kittleson begins explaining the history of the pond to me, and then abruptly stops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a red-legged frog,” he says. We listen. I hear nothing. “It probably won’t call again because we are talking,” Kittleson says. His ears are so finely tuned, he can hear red-legged frogs even while he talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/259317553″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/259317553″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sorting Out the Soundscape\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field observation like this is the old way of counting animals. At best Kittleson says you only get a tiny slice of good data — a sample of a sample of a sample. That’s why the Land Trust is partnering with Conservation Metrics. The company has put up \u003ca href=\"http://www.wildlifeacoustics.com/\">song meters\u003c/a>, which continuously record the nighttime soundscape. Near the edge of the pond, Kittleson points out one of the recording devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s the song meter, mounted on fence posts,” he says, “It’s recording us now.” The green box has microphones protruding from each side. They’re like little ears, capturing everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far Conservation Metrics has gathered 1,630 hours of recordings, which translates into 241 gigabytes of data. Down at its office in Santa Cruz, the company turns the recordings into images called spectrograms. Employee Jeff Schlueter writes algorithms so the computer can sift through hours and hours of audio in the spectrograms and isolate the red-legged frog calls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_633578\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-633578\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Spectrogram-inspection-e1460423793529.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Schlueter writes algorithms to sort through hours and hours of recordings.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Schlueter (at left) writes algorithms to sort through hours and hours of recordings. \u003ccite>(Sam Harnett/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Conservation Metrics the red-legged frog survey is a relatively small project, more of a pilot program to show its approach can be helpful with a variety of species. Up until now Conservation Metrics has worked mostly with song birds. This year, the company is running 42 projects in 15 countries, and it is handling about 50 terabytes of data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using algorithms, one person with a computer can sort through the data for each project and get a population count that would normally take a whole team of field biologists. Matthew McKown founded Conservation Metrics about three years ago after seeing the potential of big data in conservation when he was a graduate student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our whole point is to make conservation better,” McKown says, “so we’re trying to make it as cheap as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McKown is capitalizing on the rapidly plummeting cost of gathering and crunching data. He says the conservation world has just recently entered the big data era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_637753\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-637753\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The top band on this spectrogram shows sound made my chorus frogs, the red-legged calls are hiding down at the bottom.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/RLF01_RLF01_0_20160218_182000_000_startsec_2287_label_5.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The top band on this spectrogram shows sound made by chorus frogs, the red-legged calls are hiding down at the bottom. \u003ccite>(Conservation Metrics)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists are now collecting and analyzing audio, video, satellite imagery, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/supercomputers-map-out-super-endangered-species-in-3-d/\">GPS data from all kinds of animals\u003c/a> like the California condor and the dugong, a threatened relative of the manatee. McKown says surveillance and big data are going to start playing a bigger role in protecting endangered species and threatened habitats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you’re going to start having is cameras, acoustic sensors, and satellites trained on these important parts of the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the marsh near Watsonville, Kittleson says he hopes better data will give us clues about how to save the California red-legged frog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are now waist-deep in swamp water, sweeping the pond with our headlamps, looking for the glare of frog eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then Kittleson finally spots one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The frog is sitting on a tiny log, floating by the water’s edge. Kittleson is not optimistic about the future of the species. It’s habitat, which once covered most of California, \u003ca href=\"https://ecos.fws.gov/tess_public/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=D02D\">continues to shrink \u003c/a>and its population continues to decline. But Kittleson says getting good data on the number of frogs that remain is the only chance we have to start moving in the right direction.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Meet the Dust Mites, Tiny Roommates That Feast on Your Skin",
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"headTitle": "Meet the Dust Mites, Tiny Roommates That Feast on Your Skin | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]With the warming weather it’s the season for spring cleaning. But before you reach for the broom and mop, take a moment to look at who else is sharing your home with you. The number of uninvited guests you find in your dustpan may surprise you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study published in the journal \u003ca href=\"https://peerj.com/articles/1582/\">PeerJ\u003c/a> took up the challenge of cataloging the large numbers of tiny animals that live in human dwellings. The researchers found that the average home contains roughly 100 different species of arthropods, including familiar types like flies, spiders and ants, but also some kinds that are less well known like gall wasps and book lice. And no matter how much human residents may clean, there will always be a considerable number of mini-roommates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607106\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607106\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"A Cheyletid mite searches for prey in the weave of a carpet\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Cheyletid mite searches for prey in the weave of a carpet \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Even as entomologists we were really surprised. We live in our houses all the time, so we thought we’d be more familiar with the kind of things we’d come across. There was a surprising level of biodiversity,” said Michelle Trautwein, assistant curator of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607110\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607110\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Flies (Diptera) made up about 25% of the types of arthropods found in the homes sampled\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flies (Diptera) made up about 25% of the types of arthropods found in the homes sampled \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Trautwein lead the research team that donned headlamps and knee pads and unsheathed forceps before scouring residences in North Carolina for arthropods — creatures that have exoskeletons, multiple appendages and segmented bodies. The researchers collected dust from corners, flies from windowsills and spiders from under sinks. They also sampled the dust in people’s carpets and rugs using a handheld vacuum cleaner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607111\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607111\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Michelle Trautwein searches a kitchen windowsill, a common location to find arthropods that filtered in from the surrounding environment.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Trautwein searches a kitchen windowsill, a common location to find arthropods that filtered in from the surrounding environment. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The samples were painstaking analyzed by a team of entomologists using both genetic analysis and traditional visual microscope identification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study found that homes with kids and pets had a greater number of different types of these diminutive lodgers. They also found that there are more species on lower floors of a building than higher floors. Common rooms, carpeted rooms and rooms with more windows and doors to the outside also had a greater diversity of guests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the animals found were not pests but simply creatures that filtered in from outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The vast majority of things we found don’t bite or sting or feed on our food. Most of them have no effect on our daily lives,” said Trautwein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607114\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607114\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607114\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"A book louse crawls among grains of uncooked rice. Book lice are nearly ubiquitous in human homes where they largely go unnoticed.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A book louse crawls among grains of uncooked rice. Book lice are nearly ubiquitous in human homes where they largely go unnoticed. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was the advent of agriculture that resulted in humans creating permanent housing which presented a new ecosystem for other animals as well. Many of those roommates live in house dust, a collection of dirt, lint, pollen, hair and pet fur. A large amount of house dust is actually comprised of dead skin that constantly rains down as it’s shed by humans and pets. That skin is a constant source of food for one of the most common tiny bugs found in our homes — house dust mites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607194\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607194\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Smaller than a grain of sand, this house dust mite (Pyroglyphidae) is barely visible without the use of magnification.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smaller than a grain of sand, this house dust mite (Pyroglyphidae) is barely visible without the use of magnification. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dust mites are arachnids, relatives of spiders. They’re tiny. Five can fit in 1 millimeter on a ruler. They are barely visible by the naked eye. They look like little translucent jelly beans with legs that they use to crawl around among the dust. They don’t hunt, instead munching on the dead skin flakes that we unknowingly feed them every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dead skin is mainly composed of keratin, a tough structural protein that also gives shape to nails and hair. It’s not a particularly nutritious food, but it is abundant. Dust mites use powerful enzymes to break it down and digest it. After that dust mites produce waste pellets at a prodigious rate. In addition to feces, dust mites shed their exoskeletons as they grow. These two appealing materials contribute to the overall bulk of dust in our homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607195\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607195\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607195\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Humans constantly shed skin flakes like this which feeds a hidden indoor ecosystem. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Humans constantly shed skin flakes like this which feeds a hidden indoor ecosystem. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some of this has effects on people. When dust gets kicked up, people breath in the droppings and the enzymes within them can cause an allergic reaction in the lungs. Those enzymes that are left over in the dust mite’s droppings have been found to be a major causes of allergic reactions and are associated with \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8542107\">childhood asthma\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But dust mites didn’t always live in our homes. Researchers at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/21279-genetic-study-of-house-dust-mites-demonstrates-reversible-evolution\">University of Michigan\u003c/a> found evidence that the ancestors one type of dust mite that can be found in human homes once made its living as a parasite that lived on birds. At some point, the mite spread to also live in bird’s nests and found the conditions there quite acceptable. Nests are kept warm and humid by birds and dander and feathers from molting nestlings provide nourishment. They’re an unusual animal because dust mites were able to go from free roaming to parasitic before returning to the free living lifestyle they have today, an example of reversible evolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those who are less welcoming of these unexpected guests, you can ditch the wall-to-wall carpets, vacuum and mop often and reduce humidity, because dust mites are not usually found in dry climates. Regardless, it’s practically impossible to rid a home of all of arthropod visitors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are very much a part of the natural world and even our homes that may seem more sterile are not exempt from that, ” said Trautwein. “When we think about wild areas, it’s exciting to think that even our homes are still these unexplored areas waiting for more discoveries to be made.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "You may think that you've got the house to yourself, but chances are you have about 100 different types of animals living with you.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>With the warming weather it’s the season for spring cleaning. But before you reach for the broom and mop, take a moment to look at who else is sharing your home with you. The number of uninvited guests you find in your dustpan may surprise you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study published in the journal \u003ca href=\"https://peerj.com/articles/1582/\">PeerJ\u003c/a> took up the challenge of cataloging the large numbers of tiny animals that live in human dwellings. The researchers found that the average home contains roughly 100 different species of arthropods, including familiar types like flies, spiders and ants, but also some kinds that are less well known like gall wasps and book lice. And no matter how much human residents may clean, there will always be a considerable number of mini-roommates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607106\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607106\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"A Cheyletid mite searches for prey in the weave of a carpet\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Predatory-Mite-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Cheyletid mite searches for prey in the weave of a carpet \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Even as entomologists we were really surprised. We live in our houses all the time, so we thought we’d be more familiar with the kind of things we’d come across. There was a surprising level of biodiversity,” said Michelle Trautwein, assistant curator of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607110\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607110\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Flies (Diptera) made up about 25% of the types of arthropods found in the homes sampled\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dead-fly-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flies (Diptera) made up about 25% of the types of arthropods found in the homes sampled \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Trautwein lead the research team that donned headlamps and knee pads and unsheathed forceps before scouring residences in North Carolina for arthropods — creatures that have exoskeletons, multiple appendages and segmented bodies. The researchers collected dust from corners, flies from windowsills and spiders from under sinks. They also sampled the dust in people’s carpets and rugs using a handheld vacuum cleaner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607111\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607111\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Michelle Trautwein searches a kitchen windowsill, a common location to find arthropods that filtered in from the surrounding environment.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-Michelle-Trautwein-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Trautwein searches a kitchen windowsill, a common location to find arthropods that filtered in from the surrounding environment. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The samples were painstaking analyzed by a team of entomologists using both genetic analysis and traditional visual microscope identification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study found that homes with kids and pets had a greater number of different types of these diminutive lodgers. They also found that there are more species on lower floors of a building than higher floors. Common rooms, carpeted rooms and rooms with more windows and doors to the outside also had a greater diversity of guests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the animals found were not pests but simply creatures that filtered in from outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The vast majority of things we found don’t bite or sting or feed on our food. Most of them have no effect on our daily lives,” said Trautwein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607114\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607114\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607114\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"A book louse crawls among grains of uncooked rice. Book lice are nearly ubiquitous in human homes where they largely go unnoticed.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-book-louse-on-rice-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A book louse crawls among grains of uncooked rice. Book lice are nearly ubiquitous in human homes where they largely go unnoticed. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was the advent of agriculture that resulted in humans creating permanent housing which presented a new ecosystem for other animals as well. Many of those roommates live in house dust, a collection of dirt, lint, pollen, hair and pet fur. A large amount of house dust is actually comprised of dead skin that constantly rains down as it’s shed by humans and pets. That skin is a constant source of food for one of the most common tiny bugs found in our homes — house dust mites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607194\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607194\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Smaller than a grain of sand, this house dust mite (Pyroglyphidae) is barely visible without the use of magnification.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-dust-mite-in-sand-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smaller than a grain of sand, this house dust mite (Pyroglyphidae) is barely visible without the use of magnification. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dust mites are arachnids, relatives of spiders. They’re tiny. Five can fit in 1 millimeter on a ruler. They are barely visible by the naked eye. They look like little translucent jelly beans with legs that they use to crawl around among the dust. They don’t hunt, instead munching on the dead skin flakes that we unknowingly feed them every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dead skin is mainly composed of keratin, a tough structural protein that also gives shape to nails and hair. It’s not a particularly nutritious food, but it is abundant. Dust mites use powerful enzymes to break it down and digest it. After that dust mites produce waste pellets at a prodigious rate. In addition to feces, dust mites shed their exoskeletons as they grow. These two appealing materials contribute to the overall bulk of dust in our homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_607195\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-607195\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607195\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Humans constantly shed skin flakes like this which feeds a hidden indoor ecosystem. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/DL306-skin-flake-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Humans constantly shed skin flakes like this which feeds a hidden indoor ecosystem. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some of this has effects on people. When dust gets kicked up, people breath in the droppings and the enzymes within them can cause an allergic reaction in the lungs. Those enzymes that are left over in the dust mite’s droppings have been found to be a major causes of allergic reactions and are associated with \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8542107\">childhood asthma\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But dust mites didn’t always live in our homes. Researchers at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/21279-genetic-study-of-house-dust-mites-demonstrates-reversible-evolution\">University of Michigan\u003c/a> found evidence that the ancestors one type of dust mite that can be found in human homes once made its living as a parasite that lived on birds. At some point, the mite spread to also live in bird’s nests and found the conditions there quite acceptable. Nests are kept warm and humid by birds and dander and feathers from molting nestlings provide nourishment. They’re an unusual animal because dust mites were able to go from free roaming to parasitic before returning to the free living lifestyle they have today, an example of reversible evolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those who are less welcoming of these unexpected guests, you can ditch the wall-to-wall carpets, vacuum and mop often and reduce humidity, because dust mites are not usually found in dry climates. Regardless, it’s practically impossible to rid a home of all of arthropod visitors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are very much a part of the natural world and even our homes that may seem more sterile are not exempt from that, ” said Trautwein. “When we think about wild areas, it’s exciting to think that even our homes are still these unexplored areas waiting for more discoveries to be made.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-bombardier-beetle-and-its-crazy-chemical-cannon",
"title": "The Bombardier Beetle And Its Crazy Chemical Cannon",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]The bombardier beetle, named for soldiers who once operated artillery cannons, has a surprising secret weapon to use on potential predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When attacked, the beetle mixes a cocktail of compounds inside its body that produces a rapid chemical reaction. The reaction heats the mix to the boiling point, then propels it through a narrow abdominal opening with explosive force. By turning the end of its abdomen on an assailant, the beetle can even aim the spray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536763\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 721px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_bigpop_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536763\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536763\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_bigpop_720.gif\" alt=\"The bombardier beetle has an explosive defense mechanism.\" width=\"721\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bombardier beetle has an explosive defense mechanism. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The formidable liquid, composed of three main ingredients, both burns and stings the attacker. It can kill a small adversary, such as an ant, and send larger foes, like spiders, frogs, and birds, fleeing in confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If the beetle’s explosion chamber were the size of the inside of a car,” said Eric Arndt, a doctoral student who has studied bombardiers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “the blast would release about the same energy as about two pounds of TNT.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536765\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_3rdpop_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536765\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536765\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_3rdpop_720.gif\" alt=\"The bombardier beetle packs quite a punch.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bombardier beetle packs quite a punch. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are more than 500 species of bombardier beetles. They live on every continent except Antarctica. In Northern California, they are commonly found near streams, rivers and lakes. \u003c/span>Their exceptional chemical defense has given the bombardier beetle not only its name but a central role in decades of dispute between creationists and scientists about the origins of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the scientific consensus on evolution is unanimous, creationists have made the bombardier a poster-child of what they call “irreducible complexity,” the notion that some structures in nature seem to defy explanation by Darwinian theory.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536766\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_bettleoverhead_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536766\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536766\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_bettleoverhead_720.gif\" alt='For creationists, the bombardier beetle is a poster child of so-called \"intelligent design.\"' width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For creationists, the bombardier beetle is a poster child of so-called “intelligent design.” \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the liquid components of the beetle’s defense are so dangerous in combination, they ask, wouldn’t earlier beetles have blown themselves up, and the species gone extinct long ago? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, the argument goes, the extreme delicacy of the mechanism suggests the work of an intelligent creator. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fascination with the bombardier beetle goes back to Charles Darwin himself, the author of evolutionary theory and an avid beetle collector. Darwin once wrote to a friend about how he tried to hold a bombardier between his teeth while reaching for another specimen in the field. To his chagrin, the beetle promptly fired its “acid” in his mouth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536771\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_archival_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536771\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536771\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_archival_720.gif\" alt=\"Generations of scientists have been fascinated by the beetle's unique biochemistry.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Generations of scientists have been fascinated by the beetle’s unique biochemistry. \u003ccite>(MIT Museum)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists have pointed out that the beetle’s evolution is entirely plausible if you look at the chemical level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The two main ingredients of its toxic spray — hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide — do not explode when combined on their own. The reaction needs a third ingredient, an enzyme, to go off.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enzymes, which are derived from our DNA, have long been known to evolve, becoming increasingly specialized over time. In theory, scientists assert, an early relative of today’s bombardier beetle might have possessed a less potent version of the enzyme, all part of the gradual emergence of the system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536768\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_animation_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536768\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536768\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_animation_720.gif\" alt=\"In the bombardier's defensive chemistry, the enzyme (red) is the critical spark.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the bombardier’s defensive chemistry, the enzyme (red) is the critical spark. \u003ccite>(Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This fall, the National Science Foundation awarded $1.4 million in funding to a team of researchers from the \u003ca href=\"https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/people/kipling-kip-will\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of California-Berkeley\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.tanyarenner.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Diego State University\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.moorearthropods.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of Arizona in Tucson\u003c/a>, and the \u003ca href=\"http://web.stevens.edu/research/faculty_profile.php?faculty_id=390\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stevens Institute of Technology\u003c/a>, who will dig even deeper into the beetle’s biochemistry. Their three-year study will examine the beetles’ family tree at the molecular level to determine how the production of its chemical brew might have arisen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The use of these chemicals isn’t that unusual in the beetle family tree,” said Kipling Will, the director of UC Berkeley’s Essig Museum of Entomology, and one of the grant researchers. “There are at least four major sub-families of beetles that produce the same kinds of compounds. The bombardier isn’t some weird, unique thing.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536770\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_waxmounted_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536770\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536770\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_waxmounted_720.gif\" alt=\"Researchers will soon test the theory that the bombardier's defense is related to how it makes its shell, or carapace.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers will soon test the theory that the bombardier’s defense is related to how it makes its shell, or carapace. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One theory the study will test is how the production of the bombardier’s defensive arsenal relates to the way it makes its shell, or carapace. The carapaces of all beetle species are already known to contain hydroquinones. The beetle may have pivoted shell production into a defensive mechanism.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In evolutionary biology, the term “exaptation” describes how animals sometimes repurpose raw materials.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether or not the carapace theory proves correct, the study will help scientists better understand its evolutionary origins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We want to see where the evolution is happening, the interplay between the genes and the chemicals,” said Will. “This is all part of the story of how they produce and deploy their defense.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536764\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_spider_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536764\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536764\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_spider_720.gif\" alt=\"The beetle's boiling hot, caustic spray can repel a much larger predator.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The beetle’s boiling hot, caustic spray can repel a much larger predator. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of the 500 known species in the bombardier beetle family worldwide, nine live in California. They are easy to spot under leaves in moist conditions. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But take the hint from Darwin: Don’t put one in your mouth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The bombardier beetle, named for soldiers who once operated artillery cannons, has a surprising secret weapon to use on potential predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When attacked, the beetle mixes a cocktail of compounds inside its body that produces a rapid chemical reaction. The reaction heats the mix to the boiling point, then propels it through a narrow abdominal opening with explosive force. By turning the end of its abdomen on an assailant, the beetle can even aim the spray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536763\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 721px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_bigpop_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536763\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536763\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_bigpop_720.gif\" alt=\"The bombardier beetle has an explosive defense mechanism.\" width=\"721\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bombardier beetle has an explosive defense mechanism. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The formidable liquid, composed of three main ingredients, both burns and stings the attacker. It can kill a small adversary, such as an ant, and send larger foes, like spiders, frogs, and birds, fleeing in confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If the beetle’s explosion chamber were the size of the inside of a car,” said Eric Arndt, a doctoral student who has studied bombardiers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “the blast would release about the same energy as about two pounds of TNT.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536765\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_3rdpop_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536765\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536765\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_3rdpop_720.gif\" alt=\"The bombardier beetle packs quite a punch.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bombardier beetle packs quite a punch. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are more than 500 species of bombardier beetles. They live on every continent except Antarctica. In Northern California, they are commonly found near streams, rivers and lakes. \u003c/span>Their exceptional chemical defense has given the bombardier beetle not only its name but a central role in decades of dispute between creationists and scientists about the origins of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the scientific consensus on evolution is unanimous, creationists have made the bombardier a poster-child of what they call “irreducible complexity,” the notion that some structures in nature seem to defy explanation by Darwinian theory.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536766\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_bettleoverhead_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536766\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536766\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_bettleoverhead_720.gif\" alt='For creationists, the bombardier beetle is a poster child of so-called \"intelligent design.\"' width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For creationists, the bombardier beetle is a poster child of so-called “intelligent design.” \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the liquid components of the beetle’s defense are so dangerous in combination, they ask, wouldn’t earlier beetles have blown themselves up, and the species gone extinct long ago? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, the argument goes, the extreme delicacy of the mechanism suggests the work of an intelligent creator. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fascination with the bombardier beetle goes back to Charles Darwin himself, the author of evolutionary theory and an avid beetle collector. Darwin once wrote to a friend about how he tried to hold a bombardier between his teeth while reaching for another specimen in the field. To his chagrin, the beetle promptly fired its “acid” in his mouth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536771\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_archival_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536771\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536771\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_archival_720.gif\" alt=\"Generations of scientists have been fascinated by the beetle's unique biochemistry.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Generations of scientists have been fascinated by the beetle’s unique biochemistry. \u003ccite>(MIT Museum)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists have pointed out that the beetle’s evolution is entirely plausible if you look at the chemical level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The two main ingredients of its toxic spray — hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide — do not explode when combined on their own. The reaction needs a third ingredient, an enzyme, to go off.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enzymes, which are derived from our DNA, have long been known to evolve, becoming increasingly specialized over time. In theory, scientists assert, an early relative of today’s bombardier beetle might have possessed a less potent version of the enzyme, all part of the gradual emergence of the system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536768\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_animation_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536768\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536768\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_animation_720.gif\" alt=\"In the bombardier's defensive chemistry, the enzyme (red) is the critical spark.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the bombardier’s defensive chemistry, the enzyme (red) is the critical spark. \u003ccite>(Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This fall, the National Science Foundation awarded $1.4 million in funding to a team of researchers from the \u003ca href=\"https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/people/kipling-kip-will\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of California-Berkeley\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.tanyarenner.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Diego State University\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.moorearthropods.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of Arizona in Tucson\u003c/a>, and the \u003ca href=\"http://web.stevens.edu/research/faculty_profile.php?faculty_id=390\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stevens Institute of Technology\u003c/a>, who will dig even deeper into the beetle’s biochemistry. Their three-year study will examine the beetles’ family tree at the molecular level to determine how the production of its chemical brew might have arisen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The use of these chemicals isn’t that unusual in the beetle family tree,” said Kipling Will, the director of UC Berkeley’s Essig Museum of Entomology, and one of the grant researchers. “There are at least four major sub-families of beetles that produce the same kinds of compounds. The bombardier isn’t some weird, unique thing.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536770\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_waxmounted_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536770\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536770\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_waxmounted_720.gif\" alt=\"Researchers will soon test the theory that the bombardier's defense is related to how it makes its shell, or carapace.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers will soon test the theory that the bombardier’s defense is related to how it makes its shell, or carapace. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One theory the study will test is how the production of the bombardier’s defensive arsenal relates to the way it makes its shell, or carapace. The carapaces of all beetle species are already known to contain hydroquinones. The beetle may have pivoted shell production into a defensive mechanism.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In evolutionary biology, the term “exaptation” describes how animals sometimes repurpose raw materials.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether or not the carapace theory proves correct, the study will help scientists better understand its evolutionary origins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We want to see where the evolution is happening, the interplay between the genes and the chemicals,” said Will. “This is all part of the story of how they produce and deploy their defense.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_536764\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_spider_720.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-536764\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-536764\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL305_bombardier_spider_720.gif\" alt=\"The beetle's boiling hot, caustic spray can repel a much larger predator.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The beetle’s boiling hot, caustic spray can repel a much larger predator. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of the 500 known species in the bombardier beetle family worldwide, nine live in California. They are easy to spot under leaves in moist conditions. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But take the hint from Darwin: Don’t put one in your mouth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "What Californians Need to Know About Zika Virus",
"headTitle": "What Californians Need to Know About Zika Virus | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>You’ve seen a burst of headlines in Bay Area news since January about Zika virus in California. This year, state health officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Pages/Zika.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have confirmed\u003c/a> 11 cases, three of them recently in the Bay Area. The good news is, all of those people contracted the bug while traveling abroad. The question now is whether that could change.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Zika virus presents a pregnant woman’s worst possible nightmare.’\u003ccite>Kirsten Salmeen, UCSF\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Not likely, say most public health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the headline could be: Here in California, we are privileged that we don’t have the conditions for transmission of Zika,” says UCSF epidemiologist Jaime Sepulveda, who spoke recently at a Zika symposium hosted by the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before we elaborate on why he says you don’t need to worry about the disease, let’s review a few basics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Zika?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zika was discovered in 1947, and until now human outbreaks were contained and infrequent. It’s found in the same family as yellow fever, chikungunya, and dengue and is now spreading rapidly in Central and South America and the Caribbean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_585629\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 451px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/ZikaFinalGraphic.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-585629\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-585629\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/ZikaFinalGraphic.jpg\" alt=\"SOURCE: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION \" width=\"451\" height=\"803\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/ZikaFinalGraphic.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/ZikaFinalGraphic-400x711.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 451px) 100vw, 451px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SOURCE: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION \u003ccite>(Graphics by Teodros Hailye/KQED Science)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Until last fall, Zika was thought to be a mild tropical disease that caused flu-like symptoms like a rash or red eyes, maybe a fever. It’s generally so mild people often don’t know they have it; 80 percent of Zika patients don’t have any symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Does It Spread?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disease is spread primarily by \u003ci>Aedes aegypti\u003c/i> or \u003ci>Aedes albopictus \u003c/i>mosquitoes, when one bites an infected human and then bites another human.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/zika/transmission/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says\u003c/a> there are three secondary ways people can get Zika: it can be transmitted by a blood transfusion, a man can pass it along during sex, or a woman can pass it to her fetus. You can’t get Zika through smooching or casual touch such as shaking hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Are We Having an Outbreak Now?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, an unusual number of babies in Brazil and other countries were born with a neurological condition called microcephaly, a rare disease causing an infant’s head to be abnormally small.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The link between microcephaly and Zika is not scientifically proven yet, but the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909%2816%2900106-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">evidence\u003c/a> is mounting. The rate of babies born with the condition is 30 times higher right now in Brazil than previous years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On February 1, the World Health Organization declared Zika virus a public health emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Zika virus presents a pregnant woman’s worst possible nightmare,” says Kirsten Salmeen, a perinatologist at UCSF medical center. “She might not know if she was infected. She might not be able to avoid infection. And, if there is an impact on her fetus it might not be diagnosed until the late third trimester.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health officials are warning pregnant women to avoid traveling to more than three dozen \u003ca href=\"http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-information\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">countries\u003c/a>, and if they \u003cem>do\u003c/em> visit, the recommended protocol is to lather on bug spray and wear long sleeves. There’s no vaccine for Zika virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists also recently discovered Zika in the blood of 42 people suffering from \u003ca href=\"http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/gbs/detail_gbs.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Guillain-Barré syndrome\u003c/a> — an autoimmune disorder that causes nerve damage and often severe, if impermanent, paralysis.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nHere’s Where Zika Mosquitoes Are Likely Found in California\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"520\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://kqednews.cartodb.com/viz/a482a6ba-39a1-11e6-8dd6-0e674067d321/embed_map\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Map from\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/06/30/map-where-zika-mosquitoes-are-likely-found-in-california/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> KQED State of Health\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zika Mosquitoes Are Different\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The non-native insects look different from California mosquitoes, and don’t behave the same way. The Zika carriers bite people during the day, and they don’t travel; they’ll stay within about a quarter mile of where they’re born. They might spend their whole life behind your bedroom curtain, or in your closet, if they were able to get there in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really need to be spread by human activity,” says Megan Caldwell, spokesperson for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.smcmvcd.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Mateo County Mosquito Vector Control District\u003c/a>\u003cb>.\u003ci>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts think the Zika mosquitoes hitched a ride to California on a shipping container from Asia in 2011. They thrive in tropical weather, and have spread mostly in southern California. But, there are a few isolated pockets in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_583928\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-583928\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Entomologist Nayer Zahiri points to mosquito larvae under a microscope at the San Mateo County Mosquito and Vector Control District's lab. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Entomologist Nayer Zahiri points to mosquito larvae under a microscope at the San Mateo County Mosquito and Vector Control District’s lab. \u003ccite>(Lesley McClurg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“To date it’s only been found in San Mateo county in a small area of Menlo Park and Atherton,” Caldwell says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she emphasizes that eradication efforts are working. The county hasn’t found an \u003ci>Aedes aegypti\u003c/i> or \u003ci>Aedes albopictus\u003c/i> since May of 2015. Vector Control District officials will consider the mosquito eradicated in the county if they go a full two years without spotting one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How to Keep the Pests Away\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vector ecologists advise homeowners to remove all standing water from their yards. Every drop of it. The Zika mosquito can develop in as little as a millimeter of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, scrub \u003cem>and dry\u003c/em> buckets every week, tighten screens on rain barrels, and check for leaky faucets. Don’t let water stand in plant saucers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Officials Are Doing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eradication programs include house-to-house inspections, mosquito population surveillance, and elimination of standing water where mosquitoes may breed. Officials are setting traps anywhere Zika mosquitoes have been found. The traps can be as simple as a wooden tongue depressor wrapped in a coffee filter and then placed in a cup filled with water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_583929\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-583929\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A simple trap to attract mosquitoes. The lure is a tongue depressor wrapped in a coffee filter. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A simple trap to attract mosquitoes. The lure is a tongue depressor wrapped in a coffee filter. \u003ccite>(Lesley McClurg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Will Zika Spread Here?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California winters ordinarily get cold enough to kill off the non-native insects, but the last few years have been unusually warm. Health officials warn hotter weather could bring more mosquito-borne diseases to California. But scientists add that many factors influence whether and when diseases like Zika could break out here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think globalization and the movement of people and the movement of cargo is probably more of the story,” says Chris Barker, an entomologist at UC Davis. “So any effects of climate change are going to be very difficult to tease out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barker says even if this summer is unusually hot he doesn’t predict a large mosquito-triggered outbreak in California because most people have either window screens or air conditioning. Plus, he says the state’s pest control is one of the best in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_583562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-583562\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-800x530.png\" alt=\"Many U.S. cities face potential risk in summer of low, moderate, or high populations of the mosquito species that transmits Zika virus (colored circles). The mosquito has been observed in parts of the United States (shaded portion of map) and can establish populations in additional cities because of favorable summertime meteorological conditions. In addition, Zika risk may be elevated in cities with more air travelers arriving from Latin America and the Caribbean (larger circles).\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-800x530.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-400x265.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-768x508.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-1440x953.png 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-1180x781.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-960x636.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500.png 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many U.S. cities face potential risk in summer of low, moderate, or high populations of the mosquito species that transmits Zika virus (colored circles). The mosquito has been observed in parts of the United States (shaded portion of map) and can establish populations in additional cities because of favorable summertime meteorological conditions. In addition, Zika risk may be elevated in cities with more air travelers arriving from Latin America and the Caribbean (larger circles). \u003ccite>(Image based on data mapped by Olga Wilhelmi, NCAR GIS program)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Californians have gotten Zika only while traveling abroad, say public health officials, but there's plenty else to know about prevention.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You’ve seen a burst of headlines in Bay Area news since January about Zika virus in California. This year, state health officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Pages/Zika.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have confirmed\u003c/a> 11 cases, three of them recently in the Bay Area. The good news is, all of those people contracted the bug while traveling abroad. The question now is whether that could change.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Zika virus presents a pregnant woman’s worst possible nightmare.’\u003ccite>Kirsten Salmeen, UCSF\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Not likely, say most public health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the headline could be: Here in California, we are privileged that we don’t have the conditions for transmission of Zika,” says UCSF epidemiologist Jaime Sepulveda, who spoke recently at a Zika symposium hosted by the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before we elaborate on why he says you don’t need to worry about the disease, let’s review a few basics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Zika?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zika was discovered in 1947, and until now human outbreaks were contained and infrequent. It’s found in the same family as yellow fever, chikungunya, and dengue and is now spreading rapidly in Central and South America and the Caribbean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_585629\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 451px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/ZikaFinalGraphic.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-585629\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-585629\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/ZikaFinalGraphic.jpg\" alt=\"SOURCE: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION \" width=\"451\" height=\"803\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/ZikaFinalGraphic.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/ZikaFinalGraphic-400x711.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 451px) 100vw, 451px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SOURCE: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION \u003ccite>(Graphics by Teodros Hailye/KQED Science)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Until last fall, Zika was thought to be a mild tropical disease that caused flu-like symptoms like a rash or red eyes, maybe a fever. It’s generally so mild people often don’t know they have it; 80 percent of Zika patients don’t have any symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Does It Spread?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disease is spread primarily by \u003ci>Aedes aegypti\u003c/i> or \u003ci>Aedes albopictus \u003c/i>mosquitoes, when one bites an infected human and then bites another human.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/zika/transmission/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says\u003c/a> there are three secondary ways people can get Zika: it can be transmitted by a blood transfusion, a man can pass it along during sex, or a woman can pass it to her fetus. You can’t get Zika through smooching or casual touch such as shaking hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Are We Having an Outbreak Now?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, an unusual number of babies in Brazil and other countries were born with a neurological condition called microcephaly, a rare disease causing an infant’s head to be abnormally small.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The link between microcephaly and Zika is not scientifically proven yet, but the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909%2816%2900106-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">evidence\u003c/a> is mounting. The rate of babies born with the condition is 30 times higher right now in Brazil than previous years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On February 1, the World Health Organization declared Zika virus a public health emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Zika virus presents a pregnant woman’s worst possible nightmare,” says Kirsten Salmeen, a perinatologist at UCSF medical center. “She might not know if she was infected. She might not be able to avoid infection. And, if there is an impact on her fetus it might not be diagnosed until the late third trimester.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health officials are warning pregnant women to avoid traveling to more than three dozen \u003ca href=\"http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-information\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">countries\u003c/a>, and if they \u003cem>do\u003c/em> visit, the recommended protocol is to lather on bug spray and wear long sleeves. There’s no vaccine for Zika virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists also recently discovered Zika in the blood of 42 people suffering from \u003ca href=\"http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/gbs/detail_gbs.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Guillain-Barré syndrome\u003c/a> — an autoimmune disorder that causes nerve damage and often severe, if impermanent, paralysis.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nHere’s Where Zika Mosquitoes Are Likely Found in California\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"520\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://kqednews.cartodb.com/viz/a482a6ba-39a1-11e6-8dd6-0e674067d321/embed_map\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Map from\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/06/30/map-where-zika-mosquitoes-are-likely-found-in-california/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> KQED State of Health\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zika Mosquitoes Are Different\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The non-native insects look different from California mosquitoes, and don’t behave the same way. The Zika carriers bite people during the day, and they don’t travel; they’ll stay within about a quarter mile of where they’re born. They might spend their whole life behind your bedroom curtain, or in your closet, if they were able to get there in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really need to be spread by human activity,” says Megan Caldwell, spokesperson for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.smcmvcd.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Mateo County Mosquito Vector Control District\u003c/a>\u003cb>.\u003ci>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts think the Zika mosquitoes hitched a ride to California on a shipping container from Asia in 2011. They thrive in tropical weather, and have spread mostly in southern California. But, there are a few isolated pockets in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_583928\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-583928\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Entomologist Nayer Zahiri points to mosquito larvae under a microscope at the San Mateo County Mosquito and Vector Control District's lab. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18808_IMG_0032.JPG-qut-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Entomologist Nayer Zahiri points to mosquito larvae under a microscope at the San Mateo County Mosquito and Vector Control District’s lab. \u003ccite>(Lesley McClurg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“To date it’s only been found in San Mateo county in a small area of Menlo Park and Atherton,” Caldwell says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she emphasizes that eradication efforts are working. The county hasn’t found an \u003ci>Aedes aegypti\u003c/i> or \u003ci>Aedes albopictus\u003c/i> since May of 2015. Vector Control District officials will consider the mosquito eradicated in the county if they go a full two years without spotting one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How to Keep the Pests Away\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vector ecologists advise homeowners to remove all standing water from their yards. Every drop of it. The Zika mosquito can develop in as little as a millimeter of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, scrub \u003cem>and dry\u003c/em> buckets every week, tighten screens on rain barrels, and check for leaky faucets. Don’t let water stand in plant saucers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Officials Are Doing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eradication programs include house-to-house inspections, mosquito population surveillance, and elimination of standing water where mosquitoes may breed. Officials are setting traps anywhere Zika mosquitoes have been found. The traps can be as simple as a wooden tongue depressor wrapped in a coffee filter and then placed in a cup filled with water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_583929\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-583929\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A simple trap to attract mosquitoes. The lure is a tongue depressor wrapped in a coffee filter. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18812_IMG_0055.JPG-qut-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A simple trap to attract mosquitoes. The lure is a tongue depressor wrapped in a coffee filter. \u003ccite>(Lesley McClurg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Will Zika Spread Here?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California winters ordinarily get cold enough to kill off the non-native insects, but the last few years have been unusually warm. Health officials warn hotter weather could bring more mosquito-borne diseases to California. But scientists add that many factors influence whether and when diseases like Zika could break out here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think globalization and the movement of people and the movement of cargo is probably more of the story,” says Chris Barker, an entomologist at UC Davis. “So any effects of climate change are going to be very difficult to tease out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barker says even if this summer is unusually hot he doesn’t predict a large mosquito-triggered outbreak in California because most people have either window screens or air conditioning. Plus, he says the state’s pest control is one of the best in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_583562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-583562\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-800x530.png\" alt=\"Many U.S. cities face potential risk in summer of low, moderate, or high populations of the mosquito species that transmits Zika virus (colored circles). The mosquito has been observed in parts of the United States (shaded portion of map) and can establish populations in additional cities because of favorable summertime meteorological conditions. In addition, Zika risk may be elevated in cities with more air travelers arriving from Latin America and the Caribbean (larger circles).\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-800x530.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-400x265.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-768x508.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-1440x953.png 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-1180x781.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500-960x636.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/zika_riskmap_US_ncar_ucar2016_1500.png 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many U.S. cities face potential risk in summer of low, moderate, or high populations of the mosquito species that transmits Zika virus (colored circles). The mosquito has been observed in parts of the United States (shaded portion of map) and can establish populations in additional cities because of favorable summertime meteorological conditions. In addition, Zika risk may be elevated in cities with more air travelers arriving from Latin America and the Caribbean (larger circles). \u003ccite>(Image based on data mapped by Olga Wilhelmi, NCAR GIS program)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "BioDesign Studio Lets You Tinker With Biology to Make Something New",
"headTitle": "BioDesign Studio Lets You Tinker With Biology to Make Something New | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Imagine living in a mushroom. Not like a Smurf’s colorful toadstool abode, but a house built from bricks made of a mushroom’s underground root-like fibers, called mycelium. No need for screws and nails: the mycelium bricks send roots into each other to weld themselves together. To fix a hole, just add water and wait until it patches itself up.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s cool to treat biology as computer science and programming, but sometimes it ignores the real power of biology.’\u003ccite>Romie Littrell,\u003cbr>The Tech Museum of Innovation\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the wild, mycelium creeps through the soil to form vast underground networks of tendrils. Biodesign engineers are using mycelium’s natural talents to come up with sustainable packaging materials, furniture, even living bricks that could form the walls of your house one day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose opens a new exhibit today called BioDesign Studio where visitors of all ages can wander through a hands-on series of labs. Visitors can design new patterns of fur, create the genome of a virtual creature, mix DNA to engineer colorful bacteria, and grow their own mushroom bricks in a hands-on biotinkering lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Biology is a tinkering science,” says Romie Littrell, curator and director for health and biotech projects at the museum. “You can tinker with it to make new discoveries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a patterning station, visitors see how nature’s designs emerge from the information held by millions of tiny cells. Littrell demonstrates how it works by dragging his finger across a touch screen, making small changes in virtual fur cells. As the cells grow, intricate patterns of colorful spots emerge across a real-world bear sculpture. Once you program the information, nature takes over and builds on itself in ways you can’t always predict, a lesson Littrell hopes visitors take away from the exhibit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_585872\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-585872\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Living bricks made from mycelium sit on display in the the biotinkering lab, part of the new BioDesign Studio at The Tech Museum of Innovation. They were made by the Silicon Valley-based company Mycoworks. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-585872\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Living bricks made from mycelium sit on display in the the biotinkering lab, part of the new BioDesign Studio at The Tech Museum of Innovation. They were made by the Silicon Valley-based company Mycoworks \u003ccite>(Lisa Marie Potter/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You’re planting something that will become more complex than you design,” he said. “It’s cool to treat biology as computer science and programming, but sometimes it ignores the real power of biology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exhibit’s biggest hit is the Creature Creation Station where visitors design the genes of a virtual critter, then let it loose into a virtual world filled with other museum-created creatures. The visitors act like bioengineers to build a 3-D model of their critter’s genome. The pieces are stand-ins for DNA, proteins and other molecular machinery that sense and respond to changes in the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workbench is littered with gray tubes of flexible electronics, each labeled with ‘genetic instructions’ that the creature has to follow: the “When,” the “What” and the “How much.” For example, say you put together the following pieces — when near strangers, spew blue, a lot of it — your creature will emit blue light when it bumps into an unknown creature. Visitors watch their critters interact in a virtual world on a 30-foot screen covered in hundreds of organisms of all shapes, sizes and colors bumping into each other, sticking together, spewing colors, and nearly endless combinations of other behaviors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The model lets you really be creative,” said Anja Scholze, biotech experience designer at the museum. “The design possibilities you can create are so massive, it’s inspiring.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_585870\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-585870\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Anja Scholze, biotech experience designer at The Tech Museum of Innovation, builds the genome of her own virtual creature at the new exhibit, BioDesign Studio. The critter gets released into a virtual world where it interacts with other museum-created organisms.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-585870\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anja Scholze, biotech experience designer at The Tech Museum of Innovation, builds the genome of her own virtual creature. The critter gets released into a virtual world where it interacts with other museum-created organisms. \u003ccite>(Lisa Marie Potter/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the disparities between tech and biology is that biology is a lot slower. (Yes, even slower than a system upgrade.) Visitors can see s-l-o-w in action when they engineer the genomes of real E. coli bacteria to glow with color. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You mix the bacteria with DNA strands that are genetically coded to grow green, blue, and red under ultraviolet light. But not just plain green, blue and red — the blend of colors and the precise hue will be different every time — maybe olive green, indigo or magenta. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get the DNA into the bacteria cell (you didn’t think the E. coli just opened up and swallowed it on its own, did you?) you heat the mixture. The heat thins the bacterial membrane so one piece of DNA can pass through. A few days later, you can search for you petri dish online to see what color came up. Meanwhile, you can take a look at the dishes other visitors left before you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The designers hope the exhibit gives visitors the confidence to believe that they can make biological designs to address the world’s problems. They provide real world examples, such as genetically engineered mosquitoes that stop the spread of disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a place where visitors can play with biotechnology and be inspired,” Littrell says. “Especially for some students, having a creative capacity to redesign creatures might be an inspiration that they will build on in their school or work life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or maybe someday they’ll build your mushroom dream house.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "How does a leopard get its spots? A new exhibit at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose has some clues about that.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Imagine living in a mushroom. Not like a Smurf’s colorful toadstool abode, but a house built from bricks made of a mushroom’s underground root-like fibers, called mycelium. No need for screws and nails: the mycelium bricks send roots into each other to weld themselves together. To fix a hole, just add water and wait until it patches itself up.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s cool to treat biology as computer science and programming, but sometimes it ignores the real power of biology.’\u003ccite>Romie Littrell,\u003cbr>The Tech Museum of Innovation\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the wild, mycelium creeps through the soil to form vast underground networks of tendrils. Biodesign engineers are using mycelium’s natural talents to come up with sustainable packaging materials, furniture, even living bricks that could form the walls of your house one day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose opens a new exhibit today called BioDesign Studio where visitors of all ages can wander through a hands-on series of labs. Visitors can design new patterns of fur, create the genome of a virtual creature, mix DNA to engineer colorful bacteria, and grow their own mushroom bricks in a hands-on biotinkering lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Biology is a tinkering science,” says Romie Littrell, curator and director for health and biotech projects at the museum. “You can tinker with it to make new discoveries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a patterning station, visitors see how nature’s designs emerge from the information held by millions of tiny cells. Littrell demonstrates how it works by dragging his finger across a touch screen, making small changes in virtual fur cells. As the cells grow, intricate patterns of colorful spots emerge across a real-world bear sculpture. Once you program the information, nature takes over and builds on itself in ways you can’t always predict, a lesson Littrell hopes visitors take away from the exhibit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_585872\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-585872\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Living bricks made from mycelium sit on display in the the biotinkering lab, part of the new BioDesign Studio at The Tech Museum of Innovation. They were made by the Silicon Valley-based company Mycoworks. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-585872\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18823_MycoWorks-qut-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Living bricks made from mycelium sit on display in the the biotinkering lab, part of the new BioDesign Studio at The Tech Museum of Innovation. They were made by the Silicon Valley-based company Mycoworks \u003ccite>(Lisa Marie Potter/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You’re planting something that will become more complex than you design,” he said. “It’s cool to treat biology as computer science and programming, but sometimes it ignores the real power of biology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exhibit’s biggest hit is the Creature Creation Station where visitors design the genes of a virtual critter, then let it loose into a virtual world filled with other museum-created creatures. The visitors act like bioengineers to build a 3-D model of their critter’s genome. The pieces are stand-ins for DNA, proteins and other molecular machinery that sense and respond to changes in the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workbench is littered with gray tubes of flexible electronics, each labeled with ‘genetic instructions’ that the creature has to follow: the “When,” the “What” and the “How much.” For example, say you put together the following pieces — when near strangers, spew blue, a lot of it — your creature will emit blue light when it bumps into an unknown creature. Visitors watch their critters interact in a virtual world on a 30-foot screen covered in hundreds of organisms of all shapes, sizes and colors bumping into each other, sticking together, spewing colors, and nearly endless combinations of other behaviors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The model lets you really be creative,” said Anja Scholze, biotech experience designer at the museum. “The design possibilities you can create are so massive, it’s inspiring.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_585870\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-585870\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Anja Scholze, biotech experience designer at The Tech Museum of Innovation, builds the genome of her own virtual creature at the new exhibit, BioDesign Studio. The critter gets released into a virtual world where it interacts with other museum-created organisms.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-585870\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/03/RS18822_AnjaScholzeCreature-qut-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anja Scholze, biotech experience designer at The Tech Museum of Innovation, builds the genome of her own virtual creature. The critter gets released into a virtual world where it interacts with other museum-created organisms. \u003ccite>(Lisa Marie Potter/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the disparities between tech and biology is that biology is a lot slower. (Yes, even slower than a system upgrade.) Visitors can see s-l-o-w in action when they engineer the genomes of real E. coli bacteria to glow with color. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You mix the bacteria with DNA strands that are genetically coded to grow green, blue, and red under ultraviolet light. But not just plain green, blue and red — the blend of colors and the precise hue will be different every time — maybe olive green, indigo or magenta. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get the DNA into the bacteria cell (you didn’t think the E. coli just opened up and swallowed it on its own, did you?) you heat the mixture. The heat thins the bacterial membrane so one piece of DNA can pass through. A few days later, you can search for you petri dish online to see what color came up. Meanwhile, you can take a look at the dishes other visitors left before you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The designers hope the exhibit gives visitors the confidence to believe that they can make biological designs to address the world’s problems. They provide real world examples, such as genetically engineered mosquitoes that stop the spread of disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a place where visitors can play with biotechnology and be inspired,” Littrell says. “Especially for some students, having a creative capacity to redesign creatures might be an inspiration that they will build on in their school or work life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or maybe someday they’ll build your mushroom dream house.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]There’s a chemical arms race underway in the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border. But rather than pitting two armies, it’s a showdown between a highly venomous scorpion and a particularly ferocious mouse. Research into how the scorpion’s sting became so powerful, and how the mouse tolerates it, may one day change the way that doctors treat pain in people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518351\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/2-AZ-bark-scorpion-on-log-face-down_JCassidy-e1454976494604.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518351\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-518351\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/2-AZ-bark-scorpion-on-log-face-down_JCassidy-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"The Arizona bark scorpion’s preference for hanging to the underside of objects makes dangerous encounters with humans more likely.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Arizona bark scorpion’s preference for hanging to the underside of objects makes dangerous encounters with humans more likely. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Commonly found in the Sonoran Desert, the Arizona bark scorpion (\u003cem>Centruroides sculpturatus\u003c/em>) is the most dangerous scorpion in the continental United States. According to Keith Boesen, Director of the Arizona Poison & Drug Information Center, about 15,000 Americans report being stung by scorpions every year in the U.S. The worst stings, about 200 annually, are attributed to this one species. Its sting can cause sharp pain along with tingling, swelling, numbness, dizziness, shortness of breath, muscular convulsions, involuntary eye movements, coughing and vomiting. Children under two years old are especially vulnerable. Since 2000, three human deaths have been attributed to the Arizona bark scorpion in the United States, all within Arizona.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518355\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/milking-az-bark-scorpion_JCassidy-e1454976624716.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518355\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-518355\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/milking-az-bark-scorpion_JCassidy-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"A piece of wax paper is used to coax an Arizona bark scorpion into stinging\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A piece of wax paper is used to coax an Arizona bark scorpion into stinging \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/press/releases/academy-welcomes-newest-curator-appoints-new-schlinger-chair-of-arachnology\">Lauren Esposito\u003c/a>, assistant curator and chair of arachnology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, is studying the genes responsible for the scorpion’s powerful sting. Scorpions are predators, using their pincers to grasp their prey—typically insects and other invertebrates—while the stinger incapacitates them. The sting does double duty as a painful deterrent to other predators that would like to eat the scorpion. To deal with a variety of targets, the scorpion produces a cocktail of toxins made to harm a wide range of animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518357\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/az-bark-scorpion-stinger-in-forceps_JCassidy-e1454976873394.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518357\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-518357\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/az-bark-scorpion-stinger-in-forceps_JCassidy-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Cells in the Arizona bark scorpion’s stinger activate after stinging to produce fresh venom.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cells in the Arizona bark scorpion’s stinger activate after stinging to produce fresh venom. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Esposito’s first step to studying how the the scorpion produces such potent venom is to “milk” the scorpions by carefully coaxing them to sting a piece of wax paper in the lab. Every time the scorpion stings a target, genes in the stinger activate to induce the production of more venom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know a single scorpion can carry the genes for more than 200 unique venoms in its DNA,” said Esposito. “Studying how this venom diversity evolved helps us understand how one creature can evolve the ability to strike hundreds of specific targets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there is one unlikely creature that appears unimpressed. While it may not look the part, the Southern grasshopper mouse (\u003cem>Onychomys torridus\u003c/em>) is an extremely capable hunter. It fearlessly stalks and devours any beetles or grasshoppers that have the misfortune to cross its path. But this mouse has a particular taste for scorpions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Michigan State University, Ashlee Rowe studies this evolutionary \u003ca href=\"http://venomevolution.zoology.msu.edu/\">predator-prey relationship\u003c/a>, particularly the way the mice can come away unharmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are resistant to the toxins,” said Rowe, an assistant professor of neuroscience and biology. “That’s how they’ve evolved to make their living in the desert.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518441\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/southern-grasshopper-mouse-stalks-scorpion_LayneCameronMSU-e1454976985664.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518441\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-518441\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/southern-grasshopper-mouse-stalks-scorpion_LayneCameronMSU-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"A Southern grasshopper stalks its prey.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Southern grasshopper stalks its prey. \u003ccite>(Layne Cameron/Michigan State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rowe’s lab studies the mouse’s hunting technique and the way the scorpion venom acts within the mouse. Rowe and her team filmed grasshopper mice hunting the scorpions in a controlled setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you see them attack, they are incredibly aggressive, especially if they’re hungry,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scorpion venom contains neurotoxins that target sodium and potassium ion channels, proteins embedded within the surface of the nerve and muscle cells that play an important role in regulating the sensation of pain. Activating these channels sends signals down the nerves to the brain. That’s what causes the excruciating pain that human victims have described as the feeling like getting jabbed with a hot needle. Others compare the pain to an electric shock. But the grasshopper mouse has an entirely different reaction when stung.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the mouse, a special protein in one of the sodium ion channels binds to the scorpion’s neurotoxin. Once bound, the neurotoxin is unable to activate the sodium ion channel and send the pain signal. Instead it has the entirely opposite effect. It shuts down the channel, keeping it from sending any signals, which has a numbing effect for the mouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you block those electrical signals you block pain,” Rowe said. “The mouse actually feels less pain after it’s stung. As far as we know this is unique to grasshopper mice”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518442\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518442\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-518442 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"he Southern grasshopper mouse, seen here with eyes closed for protection, is able to withstand repeated scorpion stings while subduing its prey\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Southern grasshopper mouse, seen here with eyes closed for protection, is able to withstand repeated scorpion stings while subduing its prey. \u003ccite>(Layne Cameron/Michigan State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And that is what makes the grasshopper mouse such an interesting research subject, she said. The hope is that unlocking the grasshopper mouse’s mechanisms of tolerating the scorpion’s venom might one day help scientists learn to make more precise forms of painkillers for humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Medicines could be developed to interact with a single sodium channel in humans,” said Rowe. “Analgesics could be developed to alleviate pain without side effects.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>There’s a chemical arms race underway in the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border. But rather than pitting two armies, it’s a showdown between a highly venomous scorpion and a particularly ferocious mouse. Research into how the scorpion’s sting became so powerful, and how the mouse tolerates it, may one day change the way that doctors treat pain in people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518351\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/2-AZ-bark-scorpion-on-log-face-down_JCassidy-e1454976494604.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518351\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-518351\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/2-AZ-bark-scorpion-on-log-face-down_JCassidy-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"The Arizona bark scorpion’s preference for hanging to the underside of objects makes dangerous encounters with humans more likely.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Arizona bark scorpion’s preference for hanging to the underside of objects makes dangerous encounters with humans more likely. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Commonly found in the Sonoran Desert, the Arizona bark scorpion (\u003cem>Centruroides sculpturatus\u003c/em>) is the most dangerous scorpion in the continental United States. According to Keith Boesen, Director of the Arizona Poison & Drug Information Center, about 15,000 Americans report being stung by scorpions every year in the U.S. The worst stings, about 200 annually, are attributed to this one species. Its sting can cause sharp pain along with tingling, swelling, numbness, dizziness, shortness of breath, muscular convulsions, involuntary eye movements, coughing and vomiting. Children under two years old are especially vulnerable. Since 2000, three human deaths have been attributed to the Arizona bark scorpion in the United States, all within Arizona.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518355\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/milking-az-bark-scorpion_JCassidy-e1454976624716.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518355\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-518355\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/milking-az-bark-scorpion_JCassidy-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"A piece of wax paper is used to coax an Arizona bark scorpion into stinging\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A piece of wax paper is used to coax an Arizona bark scorpion into stinging \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/press/releases/academy-welcomes-newest-curator-appoints-new-schlinger-chair-of-arachnology\">Lauren Esposito\u003c/a>, assistant curator and chair of arachnology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, is studying the genes responsible for the scorpion’s powerful sting. Scorpions are predators, using their pincers to grasp their prey—typically insects and other invertebrates—while the stinger incapacitates them. The sting does double duty as a painful deterrent to other predators that would like to eat the scorpion. To deal with a variety of targets, the scorpion produces a cocktail of toxins made to harm a wide range of animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518357\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/az-bark-scorpion-stinger-in-forceps_JCassidy-e1454976873394.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518357\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-518357\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/az-bark-scorpion-stinger-in-forceps_JCassidy-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Cells in the Arizona bark scorpion’s stinger activate after stinging to produce fresh venom.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cells in the Arizona bark scorpion’s stinger activate after stinging to produce fresh venom. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Esposito’s first step to studying how the the scorpion produces such potent venom is to “milk” the scorpions by carefully coaxing them to sting a piece of wax paper in the lab. Every time the scorpion stings a target, genes in the stinger activate to induce the production of more venom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know a single scorpion can carry the genes for more than 200 unique venoms in its DNA,” said Esposito. “Studying how this venom diversity evolved helps us understand how one creature can evolve the ability to strike hundreds of specific targets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there is one unlikely creature that appears unimpressed. While it may not look the part, the Southern grasshopper mouse (\u003cem>Onychomys torridus\u003c/em>) is an extremely capable hunter. It fearlessly stalks and devours any beetles or grasshoppers that have the misfortune to cross its path. But this mouse has a particular taste for scorpions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Michigan State University, Ashlee Rowe studies this evolutionary \u003ca href=\"http://venomevolution.zoology.msu.edu/\">predator-prey relationship\u003c/a>, particularly the way the mice can come away unharmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are resistant to the toxins,” said Rowe, an assistant professor of neuroscience and biology. “That’s how they’ve evolved to make their living in the desert.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518441\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/southern-grasshopper-mouse-stalks-scorpion_LayneCameronMSU-e1454976985664.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518441\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-518441\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/southern-grasshopper-mouse-stalks-scorpion_LayneCameronMSU-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"A Southern grasshopper stalks its prey.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Southern grasshopper stalks its prey. \u003ccite>(Layne Cameron/Michigan State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rowe’s lab studies the mouse’s hunting technique and the way the scorpion venom acts within the mouse. Rowe and her team filmed grasshopper mice hunting the scorpions in a controlled setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you see them attack, they are incredibly aggressive, especially if they’re hungry,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scorpion venom contains neurotoxins that target sodium and potassium ion channels, proteins embedded within the surface of the nerve and muscle cells that play an important role in regulating the sensation of pain. Activating these channels sends signals down the nerves to the brain. That’s what causes the excruciating pain that human victims have described as the feeling like getting jabbed with a hot needle. Others compare the pain to an electric shock. But the grasshopper mouse has an entirely different reaction when stung.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the mouse, a special protein in one of the sodium ion channels binds to the scorpion’s neurotoxin. Once bound, the neurotoxin is unable to activate the sodium ion channel and send the pain signal. Instead it has the entirely opposite effect. It shuts down the channel, keeping it from sending any signals, which has a numbing effect for the mouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you block those electrical signals you block pain,” Rowe said. “The mouse actually feels less pain after it’s stung. As far as we know this is unique to grasshopper mice”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_518442\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-518442\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-518442 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"he Southern grasshopper mouse, seen here with eyes closed for protection, is able to withstand repeated scorpion stings while subduing its prey\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/mouse-fights-scorpion-2-Layne-CameronMSU-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Southern grasshopper mouse, seen here with eyes closed for protection, is able to withstand repeated scorpion stings while subduing its prey. \u003ccite>(Layne Cameron/Michigan State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And that is what makes the grasshopper mouse such an interesting research subject, she said. The hope is that unlocking the grasshopper mouse’s mechanisms of tolerating the scorpion’s venom might one day help scientists learn to make more precise forms of painkillers for humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Medicines could be developed to interact with a single sodium channel in humans,” said Rowe. “Analgesics could be developed to alleviate pain without side effects.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "this-mushroom-starts-killing-you-before-you-even-realize-it",
"title": "This Mushroom Starts Killing You Before You Even Realize It",
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"headTitle": "This Mushroom Starts Killing You Before You Even Realize It | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]Donna Davis thought she had hit the jackpot with the two bags of mushrooms she collected in the woods of Sonoma County’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=453\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salt Point State Park\u003c/a>. Instead, she ended up in the hospital, facing the possibility of a liver transplant, after mistakenly eating a poisonous mushroom known as the death cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2010 and 2015, five people died in California and 57 became sick after eating the unassuming greenish mushrooms, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calpoison.org/\">California Poison Control System\u003c/a>. One mushroom cap is enough to kill a human being, and they’re also poisonous to dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Dogs die in droves,” said Debbie Viess, of the \u003ca href=\"http://bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/amanita_phalloides.html\">Bay Area Mycological Society\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With this year’s mushroom foraging season well underway, health workers and experts are warning aficionados to be careful of death caps, which are abundant in California and can easily be confused for other edible mushrooms, growing mainly under coast live oaks. And it’s not just amateurs who mistake death caps for edible mushrooms like \u003ca href=\"http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/coccora.html\">coccora\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"http://nrcmushroom.org/mushroomprofile/Paddy_Straw_Mushroom/paddy_straw_mushroom.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paddy straws\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524117\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524117\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524117\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Mature death caps in West Marin’s Point Reyes National Seashore in December.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mature death caps in West Marin’s Point Reyes National Seashore in December. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen expert mycologists arguing good-naturedly about whether a mushroom they were looking at was the deadly one,” said Dr. Kent Olson, co-medical director of the San Francisco Division of the California Poison Control System. “At certain stages of development the mushrooms can be confused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what happened to Donna Davis, a 55-year-old life coach from San Francisco. On a misty December day in 2014, she and her boyfriend, Kent Anderson, headed into Salt Point State Park to collect mushrooms they could cook and eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The forest was just damp and perfect,” said Davis. “You could smell the dirt, you could smell the mushrooms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524114\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524114\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524114\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Donna Davis, of San Francisco, was poisoned in 2014 after eating a death cap mushroom by mistake.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donna Davis, of San Francisco, was poisoned in 2014 after eating a death cap mushroom by mistake. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Davis filled two cloth bags with chanterelles, matsutakes and hedgehog mushrooms, all sought-after edible species. Later, she and Anderson, a more experienced mushroom forager than Davis, spread the mushrooms out on newspaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We went through all of the mushrooms. And Kent found a couple of pieces that didn’t look right and he threw them out,” said Davis. “But I felt confident that the rest were all fine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In hindsight, Davis thinks that she picked some young death cap mushrooms, which have a rounded yellowish-green cap, instead of picking hedgehog mushrooms, which are yellow and rounded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really believe that my mistake was picking the mushroom before it was fully formed,” said Davis. “It’s much more difficult to identify it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524111\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524111\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Young death cap mushrooms at Point Reyes National Seashore, in West Marin, California. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Young death cap mushrooms at Point Reyes National Seashore, in West Marin, California. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hedgehog and death cap mushrooms are fairly different-looking. While hedgehogs don’t have any gills—ribs under the mushroom cap—death caps do have gills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is easy for folks to make ID mistakes,” said Viess, “which is why I encourage strong caution for beginners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mature \u003ca href=\"http://www.amanitaceae.org/?Amanita%20phalloides\">death cap mushrooms\u003c/a> are “big, smooth and an olive green color,” said Cat Adams, a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley who studies the mushrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you pull the adult mushroom out of the ground, it has “a cute little cup that holds it up,” said Adams. “And it definitely smells like food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524110\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524110\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Death caps and mushrooms related to them have a piece of cup-shaped tissue at the bottom called a volva. This sac only becomes visible after the mushroom is completely pulled out of the soil. The volva can be wrapped tightly around the bottom of the mushroom, as in this photo, or hang more loosely.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death caps and mushrooms related to them have a piece of cup-shaped tissue at the bottom called a volva. This sac only becomes visible after the mushroom is completely pulled out of the soil. The volva can be wrapped tightly around the bottom of the mushroom, as in this photo, or hang more loosely. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524109\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524109\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524109\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A piece of tissue called the annulus helps identify the death cap mushroom. The annulus can be shaped like a little skirt, or like a ring, as in this photo.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A piece of tissue called the annulus helps identify the death cap mushroom. The annulus can be shaped like a little skirt, or like a ring, as in this photo. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524116\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524116\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524116\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Death cap mushrooms have gills from which they launch spores in order to reproduce.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death cap mushrooms have gills from which they launch spores in order to reproduce. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After her foraging trip in Sonoma, Davis made two pots of mushroom soup for herself, her boyfriend and a group of their friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was amazingly delicious,” Davis said. So good, in fact, that she had two bowls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olson, of California Poison Control, said that for the first six to 12 hours after they eat the mushroom, victims of the death cap feel fine. During that time, a toxin in the mushroom is quietly injuring their liver cells. Patients then develop severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can become very rapidly dehydrated from the fluid losses,” said Olson. Dehydration can cause kidney failure, which compounds the damage to the liver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The afternoon after she ate the mushroom soup contaminated with death caps, Davis felt exhausted and started throwing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I slept for three days,” said Davis. “I was kind of in and out of it, just drinking water and not being able to really hold anything down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she dragged herself to a mirror and saw she had turned yellow. That’s when she decided she should go to the hospital right away. Doctors put her on intravenous fluids. They also pumped her stomach full of activated charcoal to help absorb the poison out of her body, although some doctors question the usefulness of this treatment when many hours have elapsed since the poisoning occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the most severe cases, the only way to save the patient is a liver transplant, said Olson. Davis didn’t end up needing one and went home before Christmas. But two people died from death cap poisoning in California in 2014. Last year, nine poisonings were reported to the California Poison Control System and all the victims survived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Todd Mitchell, at Dominican Hospital, in Santa Cruz, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT00915681\">conducting tests of the drug silibinin\u003c/a> to treat death cap poisoning. The drug, which is made out of common milk thistle and delivered intravenously, can protect a patient’s liver and make a transplant unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mitchell said he has treated 78 patients since 2007 and hopes to receive approval for silibinin from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fda.gov/\">Food and Drug Administration\u003c/a> by 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After temporarily losing her taste for mushrooms, Davis is looking forward to foraging again. But she said she’ll be much more cautious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t need to collect all that I see,” she said. “I’m good with just, you know, a handful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524115\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524115\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"University of Wisconsin, Madison, biologist Anne Pringle took samples of death cap mushrooms at Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California, in December. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">University of Wisconsin, Madison, biologist Anne Pringle took samples of death cap mushrooms at Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California, in December. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524108\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524108\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Biologist Anne Pringle, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, put slices of death cap mushrooms into a test tube at Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Biologist Anne Pringle, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, put slices of death cap mushrooms into a test tube at Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Experts advise that even experienced mushroom foragers proceed with caution. Death caps are spreading in California, but not on the East Coast, said biologist \u003ca href=\"http://www.botany.wisc.edu/pringlelab/\">Anne Pringle\u003c/a>, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. This could spell trouble for visitors to California who aren’t familiar with the deadly mushrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Assume nothing, and learn for several seasons before you eat any wild mushrooms,” said Viess, of the Bay Area Mycological Society. “Use good, regional books, find a mentor, and have your initial IDs checked by more knowledgeable and trusted identifiers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2015, German authorities reported \u003ca href=\"http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/29/germany-attributes-mushroom-poisonings-foraging-refugees\">the death of a 16-year-old refugee\u003c/a>, one of 40 to become sick after eating death cap mushrooms they had foraged in Germany.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, scientists have found that the death cap has been spreading throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pringle discovered that the mushroom arrived in California from Europe by genetically testing death cap samples collected in the 1930s and 40s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first Californian collections that we confirmed as \u003cem>Amanita phalloides\u003c/em>,” said Pringle, using the mushroom’s scientific name, “were made from the Del Monte Hotel—now the Naval Postgraduate School—in Monterey, and on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938 and in 1945.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pringle said that death caps likely snuck into California from Europe attached to the roots of imported plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524113\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524113\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Under the microscope, white filaments of death cap fungus are seen wrapped around a tree’s thin, pink root tips. In California, death cap fungi feed on the sugars of coast live oaks and pines and give them nutrients in exchange.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Under the microscope, white filaments of death cap fungus are seen wrapped around a tree’s thin, pink root tips. In California, death cap fungi feed on the sugars of coast live oaks and pines and give them nutrients in exchange. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As many fungi do, death caps live off of trees, in what’s called a mycorrhizal relationship. They send filaments deep down to the trees’ roots, where they attach to the very thin root tips. The fungi absorb sugars from the trees and give them nutrients in exchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re mutually dependent,” said Viess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, death caps have established a very successful relationship with coast live oaks, said Pringle. Death caps have also been found under pines, and in Yosemite Valley under black oaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through genetic testing, Pringle is trying to determine how long death caps live. If she finds that they’re short-lived, then it might be enough to pluck the mushrooms to prevent them from spreading their spores through the air and reproducing. This would eventually kill off the fungus filaments underground as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’d have to do it intensively and do it when they’re young,” said Pringle. “It could be easy for someone’s backyard or a daycare center.” In fact, death caps can be found year-round in gardens that are regularly irrigated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524112\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524112\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524112\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Death caps under a tree at the University of California Botanical Garden, in Berkeley, California. Death caps are popping up in California year-round in irrigated areas like gardens. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death caps under a tree at the University of California Botanical Garden, in Berkeley, California. Death caps are popping up in California year-round in irrigated areas like gardens. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One thing scientists don’t know much about is why death caps have evolved to be so poisonous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are they trying to poison?” asked biologist Tom Bruns, from the University of California, Berkeley. “We don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cat Adams, who is studying for her PhD in Bruns’ lab, is testing out a hypothesis. She thinks that the death cap’s toxins might help it stay free of tiny deadly fungi that would destroy its cap before it had a chance to release spores and reproduce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fungi protecting itself from other fungi,” said Adams.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Donna Davis thought she had hit the jackpot with the two bags of mushrooms she collected in the woods of Sonoma County’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=453\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salt Point State Park\u003c/a>. Instead, she ended up in the hospital, facing the possibility of a liver transplant, after mistakenly eating a poisonous mushroom known as the death cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2010 and 2015, five people died in California and 57 became sick after eating the unassuming greenish mushrooms, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calpoison.org/\">California Poison Control System\u003c/a>. One mushroom cap is enough to kill a human being, and they’re also poisonous to dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Dogs die in droves,” said Debbie Viess, of the \u003ca href=\"http://bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/amanita_phalloides.html\">Bay Area Mycological Society\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With this year’s mushroom foraging season well underway, health workers and experts are warning aficionados to be careful of death caps, which are abundant in California and can easily be confused for other edible mushrooms, growing mainly under coast live oaks. And it’s not just amateurs who mistake death caps for edible mushrooms like \u003ca href=\"http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/coccora.html\">coccora\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"http://nrcmushroom.org/mushroomprofile/Paddy_Straw_Mushroom/paddy_straw_mushroom.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paddy straws\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524117\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524117\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524117\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Mature death caps in West Marin’s Point Reyes National Seashore in December.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_mushrooms_mature-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mature death caps in West Marin’s Point Reyes National Seashore in December. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen expert mycologists arguing good-naturedly about whether a mushroom they were looking at was the deadly one,” said Dr. Kent Olson, co-medical director of the San Francisco Division of the California Poison Control System. “At certain stages of development the mushrooms can be confused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what happened to Donna Davis, a 55-year-old life coach from San Francisco. On a misty December day in 2014, she and her boyfriend, Kent Anderson, headed into Salt Point State Park to collect mushrooms they could cook and eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The forest was just damp and perfect,” said Davis. “You could smell the dirt, you could smell the mushrooms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524114\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524114\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524114\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Donna Davis, of San Francisco, was poisoned in 2014 after eating a death cap mushroom by mistake.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Donna_Davis-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Donna Davis, of San Francisco, was poisoned in 2014 after eating a death cap mushroom by mistake. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Davis filled two cloth bags with chanterelles, matsutakes and hedgehog mushrooms, all sought-after edible species. Later, she and Anderson, a more experienced mushroom forager than Davis, spread the mushrooms out on newspaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We went through all of the mushrooms. And Kent found a couple of pieces that didn’t look right and he threw them out,” said Davis. “But I felt confident that the rest were all fine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In hindsight, Davis thinks that she picked some young death cap mushrooms, which have a rounded yellowish-green cap, instead of picking hedgehog mushrooms, which are yellow and rounded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really believe that my mistake was picking the mushroom before it was fully formed,” said Davis. “It’s much more difficult to identify it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524111\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524111\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Young death cap mushrooms at Point Reyes National Seashore, in West Marin, California. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAPS_YOUNG-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Young death cap mushrooms at Point Reyes National Seashore, in West Marin, California. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hedgehog and death cap mushrooms are fairly different-looking. While hedgehogs don’t have any gills—ribs under the mushroom cap—death caps do have gills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is easy for folks to make ID mistakes,” said Viess, “which is why I encourage strong caution for beginners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mature \u003ca href=\"http://www.amanitaceae.org/?Amanita%20phalloides\">death cap mushrooms\u003c/a> are “big, smooth and an olive green color,” said Cat Adams, a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley who studies the mushrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you pull the adult mushroom out of the ground, it has “a cute little cup that holds it up,” said Adams. “And it definitely smells like food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524110\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524110\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524110\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Death caps and mushrooms related to them have a piece of cup-shaped tissue at the bottom called a volva. This sac only becomes visible after the mushroom is completely pulled out of the soil. The volva can be wrapped tightly around the bottom of the mushroom, as in this photo, or hang more loosely.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_VOLVA-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death caps and mushrooms related to them have a piece of cup-shaped tissue at the bottom called a volva. This sac only becomes visible after the mushroom is completely pulled out of the soil. The volva can be wrapped tightly around the bottom of the mushroom, as in this photo, or hang more loosely. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524109\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524109\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524109\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A piece of tissue called the annulus helps identify the death cap mushroom. The annulus can be shaped like a little skirt, or like a ring, as in this photo.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_DEATH_CAP_ANNULUS-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A piece of tissue called the annulus helps identify the death cap mushroom. The annulus can be shaped like a little skirt, or like a ring, as in this photo. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524116\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524116\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524116\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Death cap mushrooms have gills from which they launch spores in order to reproduce.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_cap_gills-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death cap mushrooms have gills from which they launch spores in order to reproduce. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After her foraging trip in Sonoma, Davis made two pots of mushroom soup for herself, her boyfriend and a group of their friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was amazingly delicious,” Davis said. So good, in fact, that she had two bowls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olson, of California Poison Control, said that for the first six to 12 hours after they eat the mushroom, victims of the death cap feel fine. During that time, a toxin in the mushroom is quietly injuring their liver cells. Patients then develop severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can become very rapidly dehydrated from the fluid losses,” said Olson. Dehydration can cause kidney failure, which compounds the damage to the liver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The afternoon after she ate the mushroom soup contaminated with death caps, Davis felt exhausted and started throwing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I slept for three days,” said Davis. “I was kind of in and out of it, just drinking water and not being able to really hold anything down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she dragged herself to a mirror and saw she had turned yellow. That’s when she decided she should go to the hospital right away. Doctors put her on intravenous fluids. They also pumped her stomach full of activated charcoal to help absorb the poison out of her body, although some doctors question the usefulness of this treatment when many hours have elapsed since the poisoning occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the most severe cases, the only way to save the patient is a liver transplant, said Olson. Davis didn’t end up needing one and went home before Christmas. But two people died from death cap poisoning in California in 2014. Last year, nine poisonings were reported to the California Poison Control System and all the victims survived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Todd Mitchell, at Dominican Hospital, in Santa Cruz, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT00915681\">conducting tests of the drug silibinin\u003c/a> to treat death cap poisoning. The drug, which is made out of common milk thistle and delivered intravenously, can protect a patient’s liver and make a transplant unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mitchell said he has treated 78 patients since 2007 and hopes to receive approval for silibinin from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fda.gov/\">Food and Drug Administration\u003c/a> by 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After temporarily losing her taste for mushrooms, Davis is looking forward to foraging again. But she said she’ll be much more cautious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t need to collect all that I see,” she said. “I’m good with just, you know, a handful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524115\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524115\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"University of Wisconsin, Madison, biologist Anne Pringle took samples of death cap mushrooms at Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California, in December. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Anne_Pringle_02-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">University of Wisconsin, Madison, biologist Anne Pringle took samples of death cap mushrooms at Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California, in December. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524108\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524108\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Biologist Anne Pringle, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, put slices of death cap mushrooms into a test tube at Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/Death_caps_in_test_tube-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Biologist Anne Pringle, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, put slices of death cap mushrooms into a test tube at Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Experts advise that even experienced mushroom foragers proceed with caution. Death caps are spreading in California, but not on the East Coast, said biologist \u003ca href=\"http://www.botany.wisc.edu/pringlelab/\">Anne Pringle\u003c/a>, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. This could spell trouble for visitors to California who aren’t familiar with the deadly mushrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Assume nothing, and learn for several seasons before you eat any wild mushrooms,” said Viess, of the Bay Area Mycological Society. “Use good, regional books, find a mentor, and have your initial IDs checked by more knowledgeable and trusted identifiers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2015, German authorities reported \u003ca href=\"http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/29/germany-attributes-mushroom-poisonings-foraging-refugees\">the death of a 16-year-old refugee\u003c/a>, one of 40 to become sick after eating death cap mushrooms they had foraged in Germany.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, scientists have found that the death cap has been spreading throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pringle discovered that the mushroom arrived in California from Europe by genetically testing death cap samples collected in the 1930s and 40s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first Californian collections that we confirmed as \u003cem>Amanita phalloides\u003c/em>,” said Pringle, using the mushroom’s scientific name, “were made from the Del Monte Hotel—now the Naval Postgraduate School—in Monterey, and on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938 and in 1945.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pringle said that death caps likely snuck into California from Europe attached to the roots of imported plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524113\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524113\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Under the microscope, white filaments of death cap fungus are seen wrapped around a tree’s thin, pink root tips. In California, death cap fungi feed on the sugars of coast live oaks and pines and give them nutrients in exchange.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_WHITE_FUNGUS_ENVELOPS_PINK_ROOT_TIPS-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Under the microscope, white filaments of death cap fungus are seen wrapped around a tree’s thin, pink root tips. In California, death cap fungi feed on the sugars of coast live oaks and pines and give them nutrients in exchange. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As many fungi do, death caps live off of trees, in what’s called a mycorrhizal relationship. They send filaments deep down to the trees’ roots, where they attach to the very thin root tips. The fungi absorb sugars from the trees and give them nutrients in exchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re mutually dependent,” said Viess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, death caps have established a very successful relationship with coast live oaks, said Pringle. Death caps have also been found under pines, and in Yosemite Valley under black oaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through genetic testing, Pringle is trying to determine how long death caps live. If she finds that they’re short-lived, then it might be enough to pluck the mushrooms to prevent them from spreading their spores through the air and reproducing. This would eventually kill off the fungus filaments underground as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’d have to do it intensively and do it when they’re young,” said Pringle. “It could be easy for someone’s backyard or a daycare center.” In fact, death caps can be found year-round in gardens that are regularly irrigated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_524112\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-524112\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-524112\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Death caps under a tree at the University of California Botanical Garden, in Berkeley, California. Death caps are popping up in California year-round in irrigated areas like gardens. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/DL304Deadly_Mushroom_TWO_DEATH_CAPS-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death caps under a tree at the University of California Botanical Garden, in Berkeley, California. Death caps are popping up in California year-round in irrigated areas like gardens. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One thing scientists don’t know much about is why death caps have evolved to be so poisonous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are they trying to poison?” asked biologist Tom Bruns, from the University of California, Berkeley. “We don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cat Adams, who is studying for her PhD in Bruns’ lab, is testing out a hypothesis. She thinks that the death cap’s toxins might help it stay free of tiny deadly fungi that would destroy its cap before it had a chance to release spores and reproduce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fungi protecting itself from other fungi,” said Adams.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-once-in-a-lifetime-ladybug-love-in",
"title": "The Ladybug Love-In: A Valentine's Special",
"publishDate": 1455026457,
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"headTitle": "The Ladybug Love-In: A Valentine’s Special | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With their charming spots and bright red bodies, ladybugs are pretty hard to miss. We’re used to seeing them alone, picking off sap-sucking aphids in the garden. But at certain times of year, ladybugs head for the hills to assemble in huge groups, called aggregations, clumping together in layers several bodies thick.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468682\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-468682\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-468682\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Ladybugs find safety in numbers, broadcasting their warning red color to predators.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ladybugs find safety in numbers, broadcasting their warning red color to predators. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This arresting, almost uncanny sight—roiling masses of tiny red bodies jostling for position on rocks, logs, and branches—is typical of the “convergent” ladybug whose range covers a great deal of North America.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the Bay Area, one of the best places to view ladybug aggregations is \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebparks.org/parks/redwood\">Redwood Regional Park in Oakland\u003c/a>. Between November and February, numerous points along the park’s main artery, the Stream Trail, are swarming with the insects.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468680\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-468680 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_pileup_720.gif\" alt=\"DL_ladybugs_pileup_720\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Movement is chaotic in a ladybug aggregation. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“People love ladybugs, ” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebparks.org/activities/naturalists/contact/crabcove#mcharnofsky\">Michael Charnofsky\u003c/a>, a naturalist with \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebparks.org/\">East Bay Regional Park District \u003c/a>who leads ladybug walking tours. “And to see so many in one location is fascinating to people. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands…it’s outside the realm of their experience.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists believe the behavior evolved as a way for a solitary species to reproduce and to cope with a limited winter food supply. After fattening themselves up, and before bedding down for winter, these ladybugs are getting together to take care of some final business—namely, mating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468585\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-468585\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-468585\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Ladybugs normally live solitary lives.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ladybugs normally live solitary lives. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ironically, convergent ladybugs, which are actually beetles, are not named for this behavior. The word “convergent” in their name refers to the characteristic white lines behind their heads.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In California, ladybugs spend most of the year on crops in the Central Valley, or on domestic garden plants, feeding on aphids. When the weather starts to turn chilly, however, the aphids die off in the cold.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468673\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468673\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_aphid-munch_720.gif\" alt=\"Ladybugs eat aphids for most of the year.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ladybugs eat aphids for most of the year. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With food becoming scarce, the ladybugs take off, flying straight up. The wind picks them up and carries them on their way, toward hills in the Bay Area and coastal mountain ranges.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They are literally blown into the mountains,” said Christopher Wheeler, who studied ladybug behavior for his Ph.D. at UC Riverside. “At first, they’re spread out. They use a combination of visual cues and smell to start to find each other.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468684\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468684\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_takeoff_720.gif\" alt=\"Departing ladybugs fly straight up in the air.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Departing ladybugs fly straight up in the air. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pheromones left behind in the mountains from previous aggregations lead these newcomers right to the best wintering spots. One type of chemical even comes from the ladybugs’ feet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Wherever they walk, they leave behind a chemical trace. These sites are covered in it,” said Wheeler.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468675\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468675\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_two-on-grass_720.gif\" alt=\"Ladybugs leave pheromones behind in their footsteps. \" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ladybugs leave pheromones behind in their footsteps. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the ladybugs trickle in one by one, the aggregation grows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While these gatherings might seem to make the ladybugs more visible, and therefore more vulnerable to predators, the opposite is probably true, scientists say. Their higher numbers serve to magnify the warning broadcast by their red color.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Predators have evolved to avoid that kind of visual signal,” Wheeler said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that red color is no red herring. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They truly do taste bad. In high enough concentrations, they can be toxic,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Within the ladybug clumps, the movement is scrambling and unpredictable, not hierarchical like in a beehive or ant hill. Scientists think that the females—about half of the population, all of them previously unmated—may be selecting mates amid the chaos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468588\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468588\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_closeup-pileup_720.gif\" alt=\"Aggregating ladybugs seem to jostle for position. \" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aggregating ladybugs seem to jostle for position. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finally, the beetles hunker down underground, entering “diapause” or deep hibernation. Chemical changes in the ladybugs’ bodies prevent them from freezing or drying out. They can stay underground safely, even covered in snow, for up to three months.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The reemergence is gradual.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468679\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-468679\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-468679\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Finding mates is one reason ladybugs aggregate.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Finding mates is one reason ladybugs aggregate. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In snowier areas, it’s more of a deep hibernation,” said Charnofksy. “It really depends on temperature more than anything. When it warms up, you start to see them becoming more active again.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When spring arrives, warmer daytime temperatures urge the dormant aggregators to venture forth and return home, where a diet of aphids awaits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468671\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468671\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_aphid-munch-MORE_720.gif\" alt=\"Black bean aphids are a ladybug favorite.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black bean aphids are a ladybug favorite. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Every winter ladybugs assemble in big groups to bed down for the year. But they'll do more than hibernate—it's their best chance to find a mate.",
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"title": "The Ladybug Love-In: A Valentine's Special | KQED",
"description": "Every winter ladybugs assemble in big groups to bed down for the year. But they'll do more than hibernate—it's their best chance to find a mate.",
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"headline": "The Ladybug Love-In: A Valentine's Special",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With their charming spots and bright red bodies, ladybugs are pretty hard to miss. We’re used to seeing them alone, picking off sap-sucking aphids in the garden. But at certain times of year, ladybugs head for the hills to assemble in huge groups, called aggregations, clumping together in layers several bodies thick.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468682\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-468682\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-468682\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Ladybugs find safety in numbers, broadcasting their warning red color to predators.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-clump-on-branch-LB10-CC-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ladybugs find safety in numbers, broadcasting their warning red color to predators. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This arresting, almost uncanny sight—roiling masses of tiny red bodies jostling for position on rocks, logs, and branches—is typical of the “convergent” ladybug whose range covers a great deal of North America.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the Bay Area, one of the best places to view ladybug aggregations is \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebparks.org/parks/redwood\">Redwood Regional Park in Oakland\u003c/a>. Between November and February, numerous points along the park’s main artery, the Stream Trail, are swarming with the insects.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468680\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-468680 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_pileup_720.gif\" alt=\"DL_ladybugs_pileup_720\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Movement is chaotic in a ladybug aggregation. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“People love ladybugs, ” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebparks.org/activities/naturalists/contact/crabcove#mcharnofsky\">Michael Charnofsky\u003c/a>, a naturalist with \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebparks.org/\">East Bay Regional Park District \u003c/a>who leads ladybug walking tours. “And to see so many in one location is fascinating to people. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands…it’s outside the realm of their experience.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists believe the behavior evolved as a way for a solitary species to reproduce and to cope with a limited winter food supply. After fattening themselves up, and before bedding down for winter, these ladybugs are getting together to take care of some final business—namely, mating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468585\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-468585\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-468585\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Ladybugs normally live solitary lives.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-solitary-on-leaf-LB14-CC-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ladybugs normally live solitary lives. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ironically, convergent ladybugs, which are actually beetles, are not named for this behavior. The word “convergent” in their name refers to the characteristic white lines behind their heads.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In California, ladybugs spend most of the year on crops in the Central Valley, or on domestic garden plants, feeding on aphids. When the weather starts to turn chilly, however, the aphids die off in the cold.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468673\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468673\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_aphid-munch_720.gif\" alt=\"Ladybugs eat aphids for most of the year.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ladybugs eat aphids for most of the year. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With food becoming scarce, the ladybugs take off, flying straight up. The wind picks them up and carries them on their way, toward hills in the Bay Area and coastal mountain ranges.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They are literally blown into the mountains,” said Christopher Wheeler, who studied ladybug behavior for his Ph.D. at UC Riverside. “At first, they’re spread out. They use a combination of visual cues and smell to start to find each other.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468684\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468684\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_takeoff_720.gif\" alt=\"Departing ladybugs fly straight up in the air.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Departing ladybugs fly straight up in the air. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pheromones left behind in the mountains from previous aggregations lead these newcomers right to the best wintering spots. One type of chemical even comes from the ladybugs’ feet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Wherever they walk, they leave behind a chemical trace. These sites are covered in it,” said Wheeler.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468675\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468675\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_two-on-grass_720.gif\" alt=\"Ladybugs leave pheromones behind in their footsteps. \" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ladybugs leave pheromones behind in their footsteps. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the ladybugs trickle in one by one, the aggregation grows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While these gatherings might seem to make the ladybugs more visible, and therefore more vulnerable to predators, the opposite is probably true, scientists say. Their higher numbers serve to magnify the warning broadcast by their red color.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Predators have evolved to avoid that kind of visual signal,” Wheeler said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that red color is no red herring. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They truly do taste bad. In high enough concentrations, they can be toxic,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Within the ladybug clumps, the movement is scrambling and unpredictable, not hierarchical like in a beehive or ant hill. Scientists think that the females—about half of the population, all of them previously unmated—may be selecting mates amid the chaos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468588\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468588\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_closeup-pileup_720.gif\" alt=\"Aggregating ladybugs seem to jostle for position. \" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aggregating ladybugs seem to jostle for position. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finally, the beetles hunker down underground, entering “diapause” or deep hibernation. Chemical changes in the ladybugs’ bodies prevent them from freezing or drying out. They can stay underground safely, even covered in snow, for up to three months.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The reemergence is gradual.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468679\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-468679\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-468679\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Finding mates is one reason ladybugs aggregate.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL-ladybugs-mating-LB12-CC-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Finding mates is one reason ladybugs aggregate. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In snowier areas, it’s more of a deep hibernation,” said Charnofksy. “It really depends on temperature more than anything. When it warms up, you start to see them becoming more active again.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When spring arrives, warmer daytime temperatures urge the dormant aggregators to venture forth and return home, where a diet of aphids awaits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_468671\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-468671\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/01/DL_ladybugs_aphid-munch-MORE_720.gif\" alt=\"Black bean aphids are a ladybug favorite.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black bean aphids are a ladybug favorite. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Cockroach Robot Could Come to Your Rescue",
"headTitle": "Cockroach Robot Could Come to Your Rescue | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Squashing a cockroach is not easy if the insect scurries away or escapes between a groove in your shoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the pests are designed to move quickly under this type of pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American cockroach can flatten itself down to a quarter of its height and withstand almost 900 times its body weight without injury. And the bugs can move about 50 body lengths per second, which is equivalent to a human running 210 miles per hour. Roaches can even run at high speeds when flattened in half.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These observations about the bug’s speed and flexibility led to a spark of insight for UC Berkeley researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, Kaushik Jayaram worked with integrative biology professor Robert Full to create a pliable robot modeled after the American cockroach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their design is outlined in a \u003cem>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/02/04/1514591113\">paper published today\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/81Zv8PPF8bE\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The robot’s flexible shell covers legs that splay outward when it’s smushed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On top of the palm-sized robot is a plastic shield similar to the tough, smooth wings covering the back of a cockroach. When tested under pressure, the robot could run through crevices half its height.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“G\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rowing up we’ve all seen cockroaches creep into buildings but what was so amazing to us was that they could squeeze through a gap the size of two pennies stacked on top of each other,” says Jayaram.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because it can squeeze through small openings, the cockroach-inspired robot is extremely desirable for search-and-rescue operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a natural disaster, a swarm of robots could penetrate small openings in a pile of rubble to look for survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This robot is a first step toward a low cost first responder robot,” says Full. “Lots of robots now are really expensive and can’t get into tiny cracks but a swarm of small robots could get info about what areas are stable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_517976\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1276px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-517976\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG.jpg\" alt=\"A cockroach can compress into a 4 millimeter space without any damage to its body.\" width=\"1276\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG.jpg 1276w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-400x87.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-800x173.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-768x166.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-1180x255.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-960x208.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1276px) 100vw, 1276px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cockroach can compress into a 3 millimeter space without any damage to its body. \u003ccite>(PNAS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The robot can be controlled via a joystick and moves for up to ten minutes before the lithium ion battery dies. Jayaram said the goal is to get this up to thirty minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jayaram and Full’s flexible machine is part of a trend toward soft robotics. In 2011, scientists at the Wyss Institute created a \u003ca href=\"http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/12/soft-robots-starfish-variation\">starfish-like robot\u003c/a> that could squeeze through a mouse hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the past we’ve made things very different from this–human technology has tended to be large stiff things with right angles.” says Full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As things take on more characteristics of nature they become more pliable and durable. The master shape changing animals are often considered to be worms, and slugs and octopi, which are extremely flexible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jayaram is continuing to improve the robot prototype at \u003ca href=\"http://wyss.harvard.edu/\">Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering\u003c/a>, working to equip the next generation of robots with sensors and cameras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal is to create robots that could wirelessly transmit data to the cloud for FEMA or other government agencies to analyze. The US Army is also interested and has provided partial funding for Jayaram and Full’s project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jayaram says he expects to have a new cockroach-inspired prototype equipped with cameras and sensors in about a year.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Squashing a cockroach is not easy if the insect scurries away or escapes between a groove in your shoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the pests are designed to move quickly under this type of pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American cockroach can flatten itself down to a quarter of its height and withstand almost 900 times its body weight without injury. And the bugs can move about 50 body lengths per second, which is equivalent to a human running 210 miles per hour. Roaches can even run at high speeds when flattened in half.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These observations about the bug’s speed and flexibility led to a spark of insight for UC Berkeley researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, Kaushik Jayaram worked with integrative biology professor Robert Full to create a pliable robot modeled after the American cockroach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their design is outlined in a \u003cem>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/02/04/1514591113\">paper published today\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/81Zv8PPF8bE\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The robot’s flexible shell covers legs that splay outward when it’s smushed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On top of the palm-sized robot is a plastic shield similar to the tough, smooth wings covering the back of a cockroach. When tested under pressure, the robot could run through crevices half its height.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“G\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rowing up we’ve all seen cockroaches creep into buildings but what was so amazing to us was that they could squeeze through a gap the size of two pennies stacked on top of each other,” says Jayaram.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because it can squeeze through small openings, the cockroach-inspired robot is extremely desirable for search-and-rescue operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a natural disaster, a swarm of robots could penetrate small openings in a pile of rubble to look for survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This robot is a first step toward a low cost first responder robot,” says Full. “Lots of robots now are really expensive and can’t get into tiny cracks but a swarm of small robots could get info about what areas are stable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_517976\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1276px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-517976\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG.jpg\" alt=\"A cockroach can compress into a 4 millimeter space without any damage to its body.\" width=\"1276\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG.jpg 1276w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-400x87.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-800x173.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-768x166.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-1180x255.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/02/cockroach-squish_JPEG-960x208.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1276px) 100vw, 1276px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cockroach can compress into a 3 millimeter space without any damage to its body. \u003ccite>(PNAS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The robot can be controlled via a joystick and moves for up to ten minutes before the lithium ion battery dies. Jayaram said the goal is to get this up to thirty minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jayaram and Full’s flexible machine is part of a trend toward soft robotics. In 2011, scientists at the Wyss Institute created a \u003ca href=\"http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/12/soft-robots-starfish-variation\">starfish-like robot\u003c/a> that could squeeze through a mouse hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the past we’ve made things very different from this–human technology has tended to be large stiff things with right angles.” says Full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As things take on more characteristics of nature they become more pliable and durable. The master shape changing animals are often considered to be worms, and slugs and octopi, which are extremely flexible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jayaram is continuing to improve the robot prototype at \u003ca href=\"http://wyss.harvard.edu/\">Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering\u003c/a>, working to equip the next generation of robots with sensors and cameras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal is to create robots that could wirelessly transmit data to the cloud for FEMA or other government agencies to analyze. The US Army is also interested and has provided partial funding for Jayaram and Full’s project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jayaram says he expects to have a new cockroach-inspired prototype equipped with cameras and sensors in about a year.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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}
},
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Magazine-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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},
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"info": "One of public radio's most dynamic voices, Sam Sanders helped launch The NPR Politics Podcast and hosted NPR's hit show It's Been A Minute. Now, the award-winning host returns with something brand new, The Sam Sanders Show. Every week, Sam Sanders and friends dig into the culture that shapes our lives: what's driving the biggest trends, how artists really think, and even the memes you can't stop scrolling past. Sam is beloved for his way of unpacking the world and bringing you up close to fresh currents and engaging conversations. The Sam Sanders Show is smart, funny and always a good time.",
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