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They’re a honeybee’s worst enemy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fine-powdered sugar made them lose the grip they had on their hosts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A minute ago, the mites were on the bees in the hive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s as if you were carrying around a tick the size of a dinner plate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, up to half the managed honeybee hives in the United States die from hazards like pesticide exposure, lack of flowers to forage on year-round, and varroa mites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To feed, a varroa mite nestles between the bees’ protective plates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It digs in with its gnarly mouth, the gnathosoma. The mite sinks it into a crucial organ called the fat body. It’s a layer of tissue that lines the abdomen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003cbr>\nElina L. Niño, associate professor of cooperative extension in apiculture at UC Davis, has answered \u003ca href=\"https://elninobeelab.sf.ucdavis.edu/resources-community\">common questions about honeybees\u003c/a> from beekeepers, homeowners and gardeners, including where to send pests to be identified. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This 2019 paper by Samuel Ramsey and colleagues details how they discovered that \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1818371116\">varroa mites feed on the fat body of honeybees\u003c/a>. For a long time, it was thought that the mites fed on honeybees’ blood, known as hemolymph.\u003cbr>\n[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sort of like the human liver, the fat body helps the bee break down harmful stuff, including pesticides. And it maintains the bee’s immune system. So, when varroa mites attack the fat body, they seriously weaken the bee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mites can also transmit a virus that causes a bee to be born with deformed wings, no good for flying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s go back to the “sugar shake.” Beekeepers use them to monitor the varroa mites in their hives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As few as three mites per half-cup of bees could kill a hive within the year. That’s because varroa mites are great at sneaking into hives, hiding, and reproducing like mad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first mite gets into a hive by hitching a ride on a bee from another colony. Maybe the bee’s own colony wasn’t doing well and it was looking for a new home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mite sniffs around for a bee larva and sneaks in right before the bees cover the cell with wax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defenseless larva is now trapped with its enemy, which begins to feed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the larva grows into a pupa, the mite, called a foundress, starts her family. Take a look underneath this bee pupa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mite’s firstborn is always a son. The rest are daughters. They’re hard to tell apart when they’re young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the siblings come of age inside the cell, they’ll meet up on this pile of mite poop – maybe they’re guided by the scent. And they’ll mate … with each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes two foundresses make it into a cell. Then their offspring get to mate with someone they’re not related to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mites live off the bee pupa, but they don’t kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the bee is all grown up, it chews its way out of the cell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mite slips onto its next victim. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, why don’t the bees just pick those mites off themselves?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, we didn’t start seeing varroa mites in the U.S. until the 1980s. They evolved on eastern honeybees, in Asia. That’s why the western honeybees in the Americas and Europe aren’t yet good at defending against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When beekeepers find mites in a sugar shake, they treat a hive with pesticide strips that kill the mites. But mites are becoming resistant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, researchers are selectively breeding honeybees to fight back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Agriculture and private companies are breeding bees that can sniff out varroa mites. When the bees find some, they uncap the cells and interrupt reproduction. The bees then, um, “recycle” the unlucky pupa. Yep, they’re eating it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Purdue and Central State universities, scientists breed honeybees known as “mite-biters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After collecting sperm from a male bee, they inseminate a queen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the queen and the male come from colonies that are particularly good at killing mites by chewing off their legs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a grisly end for these tormentors and – just maybe – a fair shake for the honeybees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hey sugar, what’s shakin’? We’ve got more bee stories for you. Bindweed turret bees fill their underground nests with pollen. See those “pollen pants”? But freeloading flies drop their own eggs into the nests … from the air!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, PBS Digital Studios wants to know what you enjoy on YouTube and what you want more of. Follow the link in the description to take their annual survey. You even get to vote on new show ideas. Thanks for representing, and please tell them Deep Look sent you.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003cbr>\nElina L. Niño, associate professor of cooperative extension in apiculture at UC Davis, has answered \u003ca href=\"https://elninobeelab.sf.ucdavis.edu/resources-community\">common questions about honeybees\u003c/a> from beekeepers, homeowners and gardeners, including where to send pests to be identified. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This 2019 paper by Samuel Ramsey and colleagues details how they discovered that \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1818371116\">varroa mites feed on the fat body of honeybees\u003c/a>. For a long time, it was thought that the mites fed on honeybees’ blood, known as hemolymph.\u003cbr>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sort of like the human liver, the fat body helps the bee break down harmful stuff, including pesticides. And it maintains the bee’s immune system. So, when varroa mites attack the fat body, they seriously weaken the bee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mites can also transmit a virus that causes a bee to be born with deformed wings, no good for flying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s go back to the “sugar shake.” Beekeepers use them to monitor the varroa mites in their hives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As few as three mites per half-cup of bees could kill a hive within the year. That’s because varroa mites are great at sneaking into hives, hiding, and reproducing like mad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first mite gets into a hive by hitching a ride on a bee from another colony. Maybe the bee’s own colony wasn’t doing well and it was looking for a new home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mite sniffs around for a bee larva and sneaks in right before the bees cover the cell with wax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defenseless larva is now trapped with its enemy, which begins to feed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the larva grows into a pupa, the mite, called a foundress, starts her family. Take a look underneath this bee pupa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mite’s firstborn is always a son. The rest are daughters. They’re hard to tell apart when they’re young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the siblings come of age inside the cell, they’ll meet up on this pile of mite poop – maybe they’re guided by the scent. And they’ll mate … with each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes two foundresses make it into a cell. Then their offspring get to mate with someone they’re not related to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mites live off the bee pupa, but they don’t kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the bee is all grown up, it chews its way out of the cell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mite slips onto its next victim. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, why don’t the bees just pick those mites off themselves?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, we didn’t start seeing varroa mites in the U.S. until the 1980s. They evolved on eastern honeybees, in Asia. That’s why the western honeybees in the Americas and Europe aren’t yet good at defending against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When beekeepers find mites in a sugar shake, they treat a hive with pesticide strips that kill the mites. But mites are becoming resistant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, researchers are selectively breeding honeybees to fight back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Agriculture and private companies are breeding bees that can sniff out varroa mites. When the bees find some, they uncap the cells and interrupt reproduction. The bees then, um, “recycle” the unlucky pupa. Yep, they’re eating it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Purdue and Central State universities, scientists breed honeybees known as “mite-biters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After collecting sperm from a male bee, they inseminate a queen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the queen and the male come from colonies that are particularly good at killing mites by chewing off their legs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a grisly end for these tormentors and – just maybe – a fair shake for the honeybees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hey sugar, what’s shakin’? We’ve got more bee stories for you. Bindweed turret bees fill their underground nests with pollen. See those “pollen pants”? But freeloading flies drop their own eggs into the nests … from the air!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, PBS Digital Studios wants to know what you enjoy on YouTube and what you want more of. Follow the link in the description to take their annual survey. You even get to vote on new show ideas. Thanks for representing, and please tell them Deep Look sent you.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Ladybugs may be the cutest insects around, but they don’t start off that way. Also called lady beetles or ladybirds, they pop out of their eggs as prickly mini-monsters with an insatiable hunger for aphids. Once they’ve bulked up, they transform, shedding their terrifying looks, but keeping their killer vibes.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>What is prickly … ferocious … and also one of the most beloved insects around? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A ladybug. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, a teenage one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this ladybug larva has something to teach us about appearances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menacing or cute, the ladybug is a stone cold killer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are about 6,000 species of ladybugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also called lady beetles or ladybirds, they come in varying shades and with different numbers of spots. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes even no spots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a myth that ladybugs gain a spot every year, but those markings are a useful way to tell different species apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever they are, they all start out here. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As eggs laid in neat clusters by their mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a week later these mini-alligators crawl free. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These larvae have an insatiable hunger for aphid insides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The larvae stalk their unsuspecting prey, feeling around with their sensitive legs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though to be honest, the plump little aphids aren’t exactly a challenge to bring down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their main defense is to make lots of aphids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I mean a lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes, the ladybug larva starts on one end of the aphid and eats it alive. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other times, it’ll just treat the aphid like a juice box – ditch what’s left and bail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the roughly three weeks it takes the larva to grow up, it’ll eat hundreds of these scrumptious treats. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It needs to bulk up for what comes next\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The larva finds a cozy spot close to its favorite snacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It exudes a sticky liquid from its backside and cements itself in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, it hunches over and squirms in rhythmic convulsions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The larva’s about to say goodbye to its old goth look and reinvent itself. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sheds its outer layer, legs and all, to reveal a ladybug pupa. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An in-between stage where it can spend some time alone figuring out who it really wants to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It spends the next week going through a major metamorphosis. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s ready to do some adulting, the full-grown ladybug emerges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take that, butterflies! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’re not the only ones that create an all new persona for yourselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once it’s free, the ladybug’s armored forewings, called elytra, harden and develop their color and spots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not that spots are required.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The elytra protect the ladybug’s delicate hindwings, which it now stretches out for the very first time. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those wings open whole new worlds to a grown ladybug. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only can the adults fly from plant to plant looking for food and mates,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>but the wings also allow the ladybug to migrate huge distances. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’ll eat up to 5,000 aphids in its adventurous life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That makes them a true ally to us, protecting our farms and gardens from harmful pests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So don’t be fooled by that candy-apple coating. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the hood, the ladybug is still the same wild, relentless hunter it’s always been.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Do cockroaches — those daring, disgusting disease vectors — have anything at all to offer us? Scientists think so. They compressed American roaches with a hydraulic press, subjecting them to the force of 900 times their body weight. Don’t worry (or do): They survived! How exactly do they do it?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The cockroach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You know ‘em, you hate ‘em.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with good reason. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They carry bacteria like salmonella on their legs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aisy.202300181\">Biomechanist and roboticist Kaushik Jayaram (@JayaramKaushik), who worked with us on our cockroach episode, also finds inspiration in the creepy, crawly spider! Specifically spider joints! Check out his work with spiders and robots in this paper!\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://academic.oup.com/jee/article/115/1/259/6469283\">Professor of Urban Entomology Chow-Yang Lee (@chowyanglee), of the University of California, Riverside, studies many critters who cohabitate with humans. He’s been looking into how certain populations of German roaches (Blattella germanica) consistently evade our pesticides. Read more here\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roaches can cause asthma and allergies as they spread their saliva and poop around your home. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when you try to take one out …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>… it always seems to get away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes the roach so indestructible?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American cockroach is one of the fastest insects on the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can run up to 3.4 miles per hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’d be like a human knocking out eight marathons over their lunch break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It uses hooks, called tarsal claws, to flip over ledges. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And not even a wall can stop it. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Better to keep up the momentum and figure it out as you go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The roach is both tough and flexible. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its exoskeleton isn’t one large piece of armor, but many shield-like plates made of a tough material called chitin. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re held together by lots of pliable joints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they use all those bendy joints to fold up, origami-style, and push through impossibly small cracks … \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>…like that gap you never knew existed in your kitchen cupboard. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cockroach can army-crawl through a space a quarter of its normal standing height. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one reason it’s so good at surviving your thwack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how much pressure can the cockroach take?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists at UC Berkeley found it can withstand a thwack equivalent to 900 times its body weight …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>… and walk away unscathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why are researchers so interested in all this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They think the roach, despite its ability to make us sick, can teach us to save lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those researchers is now building robots the size of insects to squeeze into places you and I cannot. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like piles of rubble left by major earthquakes or hurricanes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And maybe down the line, much smaller versions of these robots could even enter our bodies to perform life-saving tasks! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, on the one hand, we want to keep these creatures out – by sealing cracks, caulking windows and storing food in airtight containers …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>… but we also want to learn from them. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cockroach teaches us that the key to overcoming adversity isn’t just toughness, it’s also flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aisy.202300181\">Biomechanist and roboticist Kaushik Jayaram (@JayaramKaushik), who worked with us on our cockroach episode, also finds inspiration in the creepy, crawly spider! Specifically spider joints! Check out his work with spiders and robots in this paper!\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://academic.oup.com/jee/article/115/1/259/6469283\">Professor of Urban Entomology Chow-Yang Lee (@chowyanglee), of the University of California, Riverside, studies many critters who cohabitate with humans. He’s been looking into how certain populations of German roaches (Blattella germanica) consistently evade our pesticides. Read more here\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> Covered in a shiny bubble, the alkali fly scuba dives into the harsh waters of California’s Mono Lake. Thanks to an abundance of hair and water-repellent wax, this remarkable insect remains dry while embarking on a quest for tasty algae and a place to lay its eggs.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This fly is the Jacques Cousteau of flies. It dives where no other insect dares, in its very own scuba gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It risks it all for food and a place to lay its eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alkali fly thrives in waters three times saltier than the ocean, here in California’s Mono Lake. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discover more about Mono Lake and the efforts of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.monolake.org/\">Mono Lake Committee\u003c/a> to protect the lake, restore its tributary streams and educate the next generation about wise water use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote] \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It lives among these otherworldly towers of limestone deposits called tufas. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those same minerals make the water inhospitable for almost every other form of life. Like if someone made a soup of table salt, baking soda, and soda ash, an abrasive stain remover. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the alkali fly? It loves it. Scientists call this kind of creature an extremophile. It survives in an extreme environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a larva, it spends all its time underwater. It gets oxygen through its skin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These special kidneys, called lime glands, pump excess salts out of its body. It’s a process called osmoregulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it grows up, it gets its wings, but it loses those lime glands and can’t breathe under the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So this extremophile employs an extreme solution: a shimmering bubble shield enclosing its entire body. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only things sticking out are its eyes … and its claws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it dives from the surface, it captures air between its body and hairs, like its very own oxygen tank. And the fly isn’t actually getting wet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can do this thanks to its charming looks. It’s far hairier than your average fly. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out its shaggy wings, fluffy legs, and bristly abdomen. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These hairs, and the fly’s body, are covered in water-repellent wax. It’s a lot of product, but these waxy hairs are crucial to the fly’s survival. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s an animal that doesn’t have as many hairs: This red ant wandered too close to the lake’s edge. Now, it can handle some amount of freshwater, but the mineral-rich Mono Lake water bogs it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mono Lake’s water is some of the \u003cem>wettest \u003c/em>water in the world. Yeah, you heard me right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You see, all water sticks to itself; that’s why rain comes down in neat droplets. But the minerals in Mono Lake water make it even stickier. It feels slippery and soapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out the wing of this house fly when it touches a droplet of pure water. The wing pulls away from the drop easily. But when it touches water with the same compounds as Mono Lake? It sticks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So your standard fly, frog, even fish avoids the lake at all costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only other life down here is brine shrimp and one type of microscopic worm. That leaves nearly all the delicious algae for the alkali fly. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fly sticks out its proboscis and slurps it up where the algae collects on tufas. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this diving fly is not invincible. The water levels of Mono Lake are getting lower. We divert water from the streams that feed the lake, and rising temperatures mean it’s drying up faster than before. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This makes the lake more salty, and those larvae that spend their days underwater can only handle so much. Fewer of them are growing into adults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe you’re thinking, “So what, it’s just a few flies!” But these swarms help feed millions of birds as they migrate across the Americas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the alkali fly may seem audacious, even indestructible, it still relies on a delicate balance to survive.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It lives among these otherworldly towers of limestone deposits called tufas. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those same minerals make the water inhospitable for almost every other form of life. Like if someone made a soup of table salt, baking soda, and soda ash, an abrasive stain remover. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the alkali fly? It loves it. Scientists call this kind of creature an extremophile. It survives in an extreme environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a larva, it spends all its time underwater. It gets oxygen through its skin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These special kidneys, called lime glands, pump excess salts out of its body. It’s a process called osmoregulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it grows up, it gets its wings, but it loses those lime glands and can’t breathe under the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So this extremophile employs an extreme solution: a shimmering bubble shield enclosing its entire body. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only things sticking out are its eyes … and its claws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it dives from the surface, it captures air between its body and hairs, like its very own oxygen tank. And the fly isn’t actually getting wet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can do this thanks to its charming looks. It’s far hairier than your average fly. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out its shaggy wings, fluffy legs, and bristly abdomen. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These hairs, and the fly’s body, are covered in water-repellent wax. It’s a lot of product, but these waxy hairs are crucial to the fly’s survival. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s an animal that doesn’t have as many hairs: This red ant wandered too close to the lake’s edge. Now, it can handle some amount of freshwater, but the mineral-rich Mono Lake water bogs it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mono Lake’s water is some of the \u003cem>wettest \u003c/em>water in the world. Yeah, you heard me right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You see, all water sticks to itself; that’s why rain comes down in neat droplets. But the minerals in Mono Lake water make it even stickier. It feels slippery and soapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out the wing of this house fly when it touches a droplet of pure water. The wing pulls away from the drop easily. But when it touches water with the same compounds as Mono Lake? It sticks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So your standard fly, frog, even fish avoids the lake at all costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only other life down here is brine shrimp and one type of microscopic worm. That leaves nearly all the delicious algae for the alkali fly. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fly sticks out its proboscis and slurps it up where the algae collects on tufas. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this diving fly is not invincible. The water levels of Mono Lake are getting lower. We divert water from the streams that feed the lake, and rising temperatures mean it’s drying up faster than before. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This makes the lake more salty, and those larvae that spend their days underwater can only handle so much. Fewer of them are growing into adults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe you’re thinking, “So what, it’s just a few flies!” But these swarms help feed millions of birds as they migrate across the Americas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the alkali fly may seem audacious, even indestructible, it still relies on a delicate balance to survive.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>A “bee fly” looks a bit like a bee, but it’s a freeloader that takes advantage of a bindweed turret bee’s hard work. The bees dig underground nests and fill them with pollen they collect in the form of stylish “pollen pants.” As the bees are toiling on their nests, the flies drop their *own* eggs into them from the air. But the bees employ a tricky defense against the flies.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Life for bindweed turret bees is violent and unfair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s spring in California, and these male bees are in an all-out brawl, desperate to mate with the female trapped at the bottom of this pile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes the fight is so intense that the female they’re going after gets crushed to death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if she survives, she and the winner steal away and mate … until another male wants in. Buzz kill!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now she starts an epic dig, prepping a place to lay her eggs underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She tirelessly scoops earth with her mandibles, dousing it with nectar she collected earlier to soften it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The majority of the world’s bee species – 70% – nest in the ground. These ones chose a dirt parking lot. Some nice folks cordoned it off to protect the bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Females work side by side. Each is “queen” of her own funky little castle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They build turrets, but only some of them are vertical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many are tunnel-like, with a sideways entrance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others curve down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ll see why that’s important in a bit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the bees are done digging, they head off on another mission. They gather pollen from one plant only: morning glories, also known as bindweeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She rubs her shaggy legs all over that pollen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And down she goes with her haul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pollen pants!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside her nest, she packs the pollen into neat balls – each one in its own chamber – and lays an egg on top.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the egg hatches into a larva, it will live off the pollen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she toils, freeloaders show up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They look like a bee, but their huge eyes give them away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re called … wait for it … bee flies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fly doesn’t dig or gather pollen for her young. She just hovers over a bee’s nest and … yup, she’s dropping her own eggs in there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’ll drop 200 eggs over her lifetime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where those tunnels and curved turrets are useful. They make it harder for the flies to drop their eggs in from the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when the fly does succeed, the fly’s egg hatches into a larva that digs tiny hooks into the bee larva.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the bee eats the pollen and grows, the fly larva sucks it dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes the flies are so successful, they can nearly wipe out a population of bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these bees don’t give up. Two or three months of mating, foraging and warding off parasites come to an end when they seal up their nests with dirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below ground, babies will grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following spring, if the bees are lucky, a new tiny city will burst to life, full of bees persevering just as their mothers did before them.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Meet the Floating Animals That Call the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Home",
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"content": "\u003cp>Trash from humans is constantly spilling into the ocean — so much so that there are five gigantic garbage patches in the seas. They hang out at the nexus of the world’s ocean currents, changing shape with the waves. The largest is the North Pacific Garbage Patch, known colloquially as the \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/garbagepatch.html\">Great Pacific Garbage Patch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These areas were long thought to have been uninhabited, the plastics and fishing gear too harmful to marine life. But researchers have recently uncovered a whole ecosystem of life in this largest collection of trash. “This research has shown me that there is more life than we expected there … a whole ecosystem that are in the middle of the patch,” says marine biologist Fiona Chong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">OMG it literally took someone SWIMMING FROM HAWAII TO CALIFORNIA to discover this, but wow did we find something shocking in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch... [a thread 🧵]…\u003cbr>New study: \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/kcbKyYJbXv\">https://t.co/kcbKyYJbXv\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/1hVL0YFbDp\">pic.twitter.com/1hVL0YFbDp\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Open Ocean Exploration (@RebeccaRHelm) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/RebeccaRHelm/status/1654536756493156357?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 5, 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Fiona is part of a team of researchers that \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001646#\">published a paper in \u003cem>PLOS Biology\u003c/em>\u003c/a> documenting the inhabitants of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch earlier this year. Their most common inhabitants include: \u003ca href=\"https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02sab/logs/aug15/media/porpida_post.html\">\u003cem>Porpita\u003c/em>\u003c/a> (also called “blue button”), a small disc-like animal with “tentacles” radiating outward, closely related to jellyfish; \u003ca href=\"https://sio-legacy.ucsd.edu/zooplanktonguide/species/velella-velella\">\u003cem>Velella \u003c/em>\u003c/a>(also called the “by-the-wind-sailor”), which looks like a flat disc with a kind of “sail” running across the top; and \u003ca href=\"http://sio-legacy.ucsd.edu/zooplanktonguide/species/janthina-janthina\">\u003cem>Janthina\u003c/em>\u003c/a> a violet sea snail that traps bubbles to stay afloat. These and other organisms that float freely atop the water are called \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001046\">neuston\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neuston form an \u003ca href=\"https://www.britannica.com/science/ecosystem\">ecosystem\u003c/a> and food web amongst themselves. \u003cem>Janthina\u003c/em> are known to eat both \u003cem>Velella \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Porpita. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=140022\">\u003cem>Glaucus atlanticus\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>another neuston observed in very small quantities in the patch, is another predator. Known as the “blue sea dragon,” it prefers to snack on the Portuguese man o’war but has been known to chomp on both \u003cem>Porpita \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Velella\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These marine animals are also are part of a larger ecosystem. Fiona notes that \u003cem>Porpita\u003c/em> are known to sometimes form symbiotic partnerships with small, juvenile fish that are stressed when removed from their individual \u003cem>Porpita\u003c/em>. Plus, animals like the ocean sunfish, seabirds and sea turtles are known to munch on neuston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a shame that us humans have such large impacts in the ocean that, you know, our footprint is so far out,” she laments. “Plastic being in the patch could be harmful for other marine organisms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Fiona, the realization that animals call the Great Pacific Garbage Patch home has made her reconsider efforts aim at indiscriminately cleaning up the trash. She also hopes that the findings will make people and the fishing industry more aware of their footprint and lead to better waste management systems. That’s because for her, one of the most ideal solutions to the ocean debris problem is curbing plastic use. If less is used in the first place, less will eventually make its way to the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is probably quite difficult, but we should try it,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Read Fiona and her collaborators’ paper, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001646#\">\u003cem>High concentrations of floating neustonic life in the plastic-rich North Pacific Garbage Patch\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Short Wave on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/2rTT1klKUoQNuaW2Ah19Pa?si=71edcf9163d848f7&nd=1\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM1MS9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbA?utm_campaign=Digital+to+Shortwave&utm_medium=bitly&utm_source=NPRorg+Story+Page\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/short-wave/id1482575855\">\u003cem>Google Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This episode was produced by Carly Rubin and Berly McCoy. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. The audio engineer was Maggie Luthar.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Meet+the+floating+animals+that+call+the+Great+Pacific+Garbage+Patch+home&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Trash from humans is constantly spilling into the ocean — so much so that there are five gigantic garbage patches in the seas. They hang out at the nexus of the world’s ocean currents, changing shape with the waves. The largest is the North Pacific Garbage Patch, known colloquially as the \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/garbagepatch.html\">Great Pacific Garbage Patch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These areas were long thought to have been uninhabited, the plastics and fishing gear too harmful to marine life. But researchers have recently uncovered a whole ecosystem of life in this largest collection of trash. “This research has shown me that there is more life than we expected there … a whole ecosystem that are in the middle of the patch,” says marine biologist Fiona Chong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">OMG it literally took someone SWIMMING FROM HAWAII TO CALIFORNIA to discover this, but wow did we find something shocking in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch... [a thread 🧵]…\u003cbr>New study: \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/kcbKyYJbXv\">https://t.co/kcbKyYJbXv\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/1hVL0YFbDp\">pic.twitter.com/1hVL0YFbDp\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Open Ocean Exploration (@RebeccaRHelm) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/RebeccaRHelm/status/1654536756493156357?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 5, 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Fiona is part of a team of researchers that \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001646#\">published a paper in \u003cem>PLOS Biology\u003c/em>\u003c/a> documenting the inhabitants of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch earlier this year. Their most common inhabitants include: \u003ca href=\"https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02sab/logs/aug15/media/porpida_post.html\">\u003cem>Porpita\u003c/em>\u003c/a> (also called “blue button”), a small disc-like animal with “tentacles” radiating outward, closely related to jellyfish; \u003ca href=\"https://sio-legacy.ucsd.edu/zooplanktonguide/species/velella-velella\">\u003cem>Velella \u003c/em>\u003c/a>(also called the “by-the-wind-sailor”), which looks like a flat disc with a kind of “sail” running across the top; and \u003ca href=\"http://sio-legacy.ucsd.edu/zooplanktonguide/species/janthina-janthina\">\u003cem>Janthina\u003c/em>\u003c/a> a violet sea snail that traps bubbles to stay afloat. These and other organisms that float freely atop the water are called \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001046\">neuston\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neuston form an \u003ca href=\"https://www.britannica.com/science/ecosystem\">ecosystem\u003c/a> and food web amongst themselves. \u003cem>Janthina\u003c/em> are known to eat both \u003cem>Velella \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Porpita. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=140022\">\u003cem>Glaucus atlanticus\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>another neuston observed in very small quantities in the patch, is another predator. Known as the “blue sea dragon,” it prefers to snack on the Portuguese man o’war but has been known to chomp on both \u003cem>Porpita \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Velella\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These marine animals are also are part of a larger ecosystem. Fiona notes that \u003cem>Porpita\u003c/em> are known to sometimes form symbiotic partnerships with small, juvenile fish that are stressed when removed from their individual \u003cem>Porpita\u003c/em>. Plus, animals like the ocean sunfish, seabirds and sea turtles are known to munch on neuston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a shame that us humans have such large impacts in the ocean that, you know, our footprint is so far out,” she laments. “Plastic being in the patch could be harmful for other marine organisms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Fiona, the realization that animals call the Great Pacific Garbage Patch home has made her reconsider efforts aim at indiscriminately cleaning up the trash. She also hopes that the findings will make people and the fishing industry more aware of their footprint and lead to better waste management systems. That’s because for her, one of the most ideal solutions to the ocean debris problem is curbing plastic use. If less is used in the first place, less will eventually make its way to the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is probably quite difficult, but we should try it,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Read Fiona and her collaborators’ paper, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001646#\">\u003cem>High concentrations of floating neustonic life in the plastic-rich North Pacific Garbage Patch\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Short Wave on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/2rTT1klKUoQNuaW2Ah19Pa?si=71edcf9163d848f7&nd=1\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM1MS9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbA?utm_campaign=Digital+to+Shortwave&utm_medium=bitly&utm_source=NPRorg+Story+Page\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/short-wave/id1482575855\">\u003cem>Google Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This episode was produced by Carly Rubin and Berly McCoy. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. The audio engineer was Maggie Luthar.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Meet+the+floating+animals+that+call+the+Great+Pacific+Garbage+Patch+home&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Go clamber around the tide pools at Asilomar State Beach this summer and you might notice something odd: Some of the rocks look like someone haphazardly glued twisty scraps of old macaroni to them. \u003cem>Nature enrolled in a kindergarten art class\u003c/em>, you might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_shell_tower.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_shell_tower.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983395\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scaled wormsnail retracts into its tower-like shell to avoid drying out when exposed to the air during low tide. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But if you watch one of those noodle-like tubes closely, after a few seconds a squishy, speckled, black-and-orange creature may peep out from the opening. You’ve just found a scaled wormsnail — a curious marine animal that built this tube out of calcium carbonate secreted from its body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might look tiny and fragile, but looks can deceive: As climate change fuels marine heat waves that threaten countless ocean species, this odd little mollusk could prove to be a survivor. Its strength may stem, at least in part, from an adaptable diet of marine detritus, which it plucks from the current with a net made of its own mucus.\u003cbr>\n\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>A Fishing Net ‘Like Snot in Seawater’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scaled wormsnail is a snail, not a worm. It gets its confounding name because it resembles marine worms that also live in tubes. But while other snails carry their houses around on their backs, this one doesn’t move at all. It anchors itself to a rock and never leaves, its tube home protecting it from the crashing surf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wormsnail’s cloistered lifestyle brings with it a major drawback, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can’t do the normal thing other gastropods would do, which is crawl around and search for food,” says Peter Macht, aquarium curator at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how can it find anything to eat?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a process that Macht sees every day at the Seymour Center’s aquarium, wormsnails fish for their dinner by casting a net. But instead of fashioning it from rope or thread like human fishers, they use something all snails have plenty of: mucus. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to look like snot in seawater,” Macht says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983393\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_hauling_in.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_hauling_in.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983393\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One big pull at a time, a scaled wormsnail hauls in its mucus net, which has bits of food attached to it. In the wild, the snail’s diet typically includes tiny plankton, little bits of seaweed, and detritus churned up by the waves. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The snail releases mucus from a gland just below its mouth. But, unlike its more mobile relatives, which leave a trail of the slimy substance, the wormsnail sends mucus down the tentacles on either side of its head, forming it into strings like some invertebrate Spiderman slinging a web. The mucus strands ride the tides, spreading out into the water to create a miniature fishing net. It can cover more than 7 square inches in a matter of minutes, an impressive feat for a snail living in a tube the width of a pencil. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reeling in the Catch With a Monstrous Mouth\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once it casts its net, the snail simply sits and waits for goodies to drift by and get caught — a tiny crustacean here, a savory mote of algae there. As it gathers particles, the net gradually becomes visible to the human eye, like a fresh spiderweb gathering dust. And by snatching random organic detritus from the water, the snail acts as a recycler, similar to a hungry earthworm breaking down meal scraps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s time to eat, the wormsnail uses its radula — an undulating conveyor belt of jagged teeth — to snag and pull the mucus net down the hatch. Seen up close, a feeding wormsnail looks a bit like the Sarlacc, the tentacled desert monster from “Return of the Jedi,” as it drags struggling prey down its gaping maw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_radula.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_radula.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983390\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail hauls in its mucus net using a belt of hooked teeth called the radula. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With no way of disentangling its catch from the net, the wormsnail swallows the entire bundle, mucus and all. This way, it recoups the calories it spent to make the net in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a wormsnail has to stay alert if it wants to keep all that phlegmy goodness for itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Often, their mucus nets fuse,” says biologist Michael Hadfield, who has studied wormsnails extensively at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. “When one of them starts to pull it in, the others sense it, and they all pull in to make sure they get their share.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scourge of the Aquarium\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Indian and Pacific oceans, the scaled wormsnail’s cousins antagonize other creatures, too. Tropical species of wormsnail sometimes coat corals with their mucus nets, making it harder for those corals to \u003ca href=\"https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0291\">grow and survive\u003c/a>. Researchers aren’t sure why, but some suggest wormsnails’ nets hog food particles or alter the balance of \u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258391779_Detection_of_Bioactive_Compounds_in_the_Mucus_Nets_of_Dendropoma_maxima_Sowerby_1825_Prosobranch_Gastropod_Vermetidae_Mollusca\">chemicals \u003c/a>around the surfaces of corals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s always this death zone around the vermetids,” says Rüdiger Bieler of Chicago’s Field Museum, referring to the name given to the family of wormsnail species around the world. This can make them a pest to saltwater aquarium keepers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983403\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_Wormsnail_in_private_aquarium_Brock_Leonard.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_Wormsnail_in_private_aquarium_Brock_Leonard.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983403\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail has cast a long net inside a private aquarium tank in Shreveport, Louisiana. \u003ccite>(Brock Leonard)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’ve talked to a lot of aquarium folks,” Bieler says, “and it took me a while to realize how much they hate these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>In Warming Waters, a Varied Menu Goes a Long Way\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the California coast, the scaled wormsnail may be gaining a competitive advantage over its neighbors, as climate change heats up ocean habitats. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists at UC Santa Barbara found that the 2014-15 marine heat wave known as the “Blob” gave a boost to scaled wormsnails living along the coast near the university’s campus. By contrast, invertebrates like sea stars, which eat wormsnails, perished during the event. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That freed up a lot of space that the wormsnail could colonize,” says marine ecologist Bob Miller, senior author on the 2022 study. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, wormsnails spread to occupy over 80 times more space than before the Blob — from less than one-fifth of a square foot at each study site to over 16 square feet per site, on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller believes the scaled wormsnail may be able to withstand heat waves along the California coast because it has evolved within a range that extends south to Baja California, Mexico, where waters are already warmer to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not being a picky eater may help, too, the researchers noted. When a heat wave makes nutritious plankton hard to come by, for instance, shreds of kelp and other floating food bits can fill the snails’ phlegmy nets instead. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_tangled_nets.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_tangled_nets.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983401\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail’s net can cover over 7 square inches in a few minutes. When multiple snails cluster together, their combined nets can span an even broader area. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Whatever may end up in their nets, wormsnails will continue to perform an important job: As their nets filter the water, they keep coastal habitats clean for everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re doing their part in recycling dead plant material,” biologist Hadfield says. “If there were no recyclers except bacteria and fungi in the sea, there would be huge piles of decaying detritus.” Those piles would suck oxygen from the environment as they decomposed, potentially harming other marine animals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So next time you’re exploring the tide pools, peering through clean, clear water at anemones, crabs and nudibranchs, just remember — among many other creatures, you’ve got a sedentary little snail and its mucus to thank.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Go clamber around the tide pools at Asilomar State Beach this summer and you might notice something odd: Some of the rocks look like someone haphazardly glued twisty scraps of old macaroni to them. \u003cem>Nature enrolled in a kindergarten art class\u003c/em>, you might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_shell_tower.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_shell_tower.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983395\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scaled wormsnail retracts into its tower-like shell to avoid drying out when exposed to the air during low tide. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But if you watch one of those noodle-like tubes closely, after a few seconds a squishy, speckled, black-and-orange creature may peep out from the opening. You’ve just found a scaled wormsnail — a curious marine animal that built this tube out of calcium carbonate secreted from its body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might look tiny and fragile, but looks can deceive: As climate change fuels marine heat waves that threaten countless ocean species, this odd little mollusk could prove to be a survivor. Its strength may stem, at least in part, from an adaptable diet of marine detritus, which it plucks from the current with a net made of its own mucus.\u003cbr>\n\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>A Fishing Net ‘Like Snot in Seawater’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scaled wormsnail is a snail, not a worm. It gets its confounding name because it resembles marine worms that also live in tubes. But while other snails carry their houses around on their backs, this one doesn’t move at all. It anchors itself to a rock and never leaves, its tube home protecting it from the crashing surf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wormsnail’s cloistered lifestyle brings with it a major drawback, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can’t do the normal thing other gastropods would do, which is crawl around and search for food,” says Peter Macht, aquarium curator at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how can it find anything to eat?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a process that Macht sees every day at the Seymour Center’s aquarium, wormsnails fish for their dinner by casting a net. But instead of fashioning it from rope or thread like human fishers, they use something all snails have plenty of: mucus. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to look like snot in seawater,” Macht says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983393\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_hauling_in.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_hauling_in.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983393\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One big pull at a time, a scaled wormsnail hauls in its mucus net, which has bits of food attached to it. In the wild, the snail’s diet typically includes tiny plankton, little bits of seaweed, and detritus churned up by the waves. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The snail releases mucus from a gland just below its mouth. But, unlike its more mobile relatives, which leave a trail of the slimy substance, the wormsnail sends mucus down the tentacles on either side of its head, forming it into strings like some invertebrate Spiderman slinging a web. The mucus strands ride the tides, spreading out into the water to create a miniature fishing net. It can cover more than 7 square inches in a matter of minutes, an impressive feat for a snail living in a tube the width of a pencil. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reeling in the Catch With a Monstrous Mouth\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once it casts its net, the snail simply sits and waits for goodies to drift by and get caught — a tiny crustacean here, a savory mote of algae there. As it gathers particles, the net gradually becomes visible to the human eye, like a fresh spiderweb gathering dust. And by snatching random organic detritus from the water, the snail acts as a recycler, similar to a hungry earthworm breaking down meal scraps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s time to eat, the wormsnail uses its radula — an undulating conveyor belt of jagged teeth — to snag and pull the mucus net down the hatch. Seen up close, a feeding wormsnail looks a bit like the Sarlacc, the tentacled desert monster from “Return of the Jedi,” as it drags struggling prey down its gaping maw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_radula.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_radula.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983390\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail hauls in its mucus net using a belt of hooked teeth called the radula. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With no way of disentangling its catch from the net, the wormsnail swallows the entire bundle, mucus and all. This way, it recoups the calories it spent to make the net in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a wormsnail has to stay alert if it wants to keep all that phlegmy goodness for itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Often, their mucus nets fuse,” says biologist Michael Hadfield, who has studied wormsnails extensively at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. “When one of them starts to pull it in, the others sense it, and they all pull in to make sure they get their share.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scourge of the Aquarium\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Indian and Pacific oceans, the scaled wormsnail’s cousins antagonize other creatures, too. Tropical species of wormsnail sometimes coat corals with their mucus nets, making it harder for those corals to \u003ca href=\"https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0291\">grow and survive\u003c/a>. Researchers aren’t sure why, but some suggest wormsnails’ nets hog food particles or alter the balance of \u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258391779_Detection_of_Bioactive_Compounds_in_the_Mucus_Nets_of_Dendropoma_maxima_Sowerby_1825_Prosobranch_Gastropod_Vermetidae_Mollusca\">chemicals \u003c/a>around the surfaces of corals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s always this death zone around the vermetids,” says Rüdiger Bieler of Chicago’s Field Museum, referring to the name given to the family of wormsnail species around the world. This can make them a pest to saltwater aquarium keepers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983403\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_Wormsnail_in_private_aquarium_Brock_Leonard.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_Wormsnail_in_private_aquarium_Brock_Leonard.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983403\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail has cast a long net inside a private aquarium tank in Shreveport, Louisiana. \u003ccite>(Brock Leonard)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’ve talked to a lot of aquarium folks,” Bieler says, “and it took me a while to realize how much they hate these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>In Warming Waters, a Varied Menu Goes a Long Way\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the California coast, the scaled wormsnail may be gaining a competitive advantage over its neighbors, as climate change heats up ocean habitats. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists at UC Santa Barbara found that the 2014-15 marine heat wave known as the “Blob” gave a boost to scaled wormsnails living along the coast near the university’s campus. By contrast, invertebrates like sea stars, which eat wormsnails, perished during the event. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That freed up a lot of space that the wormsnail could colonize,” says marine ecologist Bob Miller, senior author on the 2022 study. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, wormsnails spread to occupy over 80 times more space than before the Blob — from less than one-fifth of a square foot at each study site to over 16 square feet per site, on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller believes the scaled wormsnail may be able to withstand heat waves along the California coast because it has evolved within a range that extends south to Baja California, Mexico, where waters are already warmer to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not being a picky eater may help, too, the researchers noted. When a heat wave makes nutritious plankton hard to come by, for instance, shreds of kelp and other floating food bits can fill the snails’ phlegmy nets instead. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_tangled_nets.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_tangled_nets.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983401\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail’s net can cover over 7 square inches in a few minutes. When multiple snails cluster together, their combined nets can span an even broader area. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Whatever may end up in their nets, wormsnails will continue to perform an important job: As their nets filter the water, they keep coastal habitats clean for everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re doing their part in recycling dead plant material,” biologist Hadfield says. “If there were no recyclers except bacteria and fungi in the sea, there would be huge piles of decaying detritus.” Those piles would suck oxygen from the environment as they decomposed, potentially harming other marine animals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So next time you’re exploring the tide pools, peering through clean, clear water at anemones, crabs and nudibranchs, just remember — among many other creatures, you’ve got a sedentary little snail and its mucus to thank.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Rare Devils Hole Pupfish Offers Inspiring Story of Survival in Death Valley",
"headTitle": "Rare Devils Hole Pupfish Offers Inspiring Story of Survival in Death Valley | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Have you ever felt stuck in a bad situation that you couldn’t get out of, through no fault of your own, and all you could do is just make the best of it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such is the life of the Devils Hole pupfish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This small, iridescent blue-or-green fish swims in the hot waters of an inhospitable fishbowl made of rock in a Nevada section of Death Valley National Park, where it somehow got trapped thousands of years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deep cavern that is this fish’s only home is surrounded by a chain-link fence, razor wire, and other security measures designed to protect this incredibly rare endangered species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, its population hit a low of only 35 fish. But over the last couple of years, the Devils Hole pupfish has bounced back, thrilling and somewhat baffling wildlife managers who still are trying to figure out how this tough little fish manages to make a go of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, in the spring, they counted 175 observable fish. This spring, the count was the same, which means that the population has been holding steady.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983286\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983286\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Small blue fish in greenish water.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Devils Hole pupfish are about an inch long. \u003ccite>(Olin Feuerbacher/NPS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A wild population of just 175 fish doesn’t sound like a lot. But this is the best the Devils Hole pupfish has been doing in about two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Times are good now with Devils Hole pupfish, compared to how they’ve been in the past,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.gummlab.org/\">Jenny Gumm\u003c/a>, a fish biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exactly how the pupfish have recovered to this point is a bit of a mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question that I receive and my colleagues receive is, ‘Why?’ And you know, we’re trying to answer that,” says Kevin Wilson, an aquatic ecologist at the National Park Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A fish that’s able to cope\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wilson first learned of this iconic fish as a kid back in the 1970s, when he tagged along with his geologist mom on a field trip that stopped by Devils Hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just remember as a young lad just laying down on this wooden observation deck, looking down into this immense hole in the ground and was fascinated,” says Wilson.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Steve Beissinger, conservation biologist, UC Berkeley\"]‘You’ve got to admire that, something that can cling on and adapt to such a difficult environment — with nowhere to go.’[/pullquote]At the bottom of the hole is the pool where the fish swim. No one knows how deep it is — scuba divers have explored to a depth of over 400 feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pupfish, which are only about an inch long, have no natural predators. Without fear, they’ll curiously swim up to inspect divers or anything else that enters their isolated world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fish tend to hang out near the top of the pool, swimming around in the shallow water that covers a rocky ledge. There, they feed on algae and spawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water isn’t exactly cozy. “It’s 93 degrees fahrenheit all the time,” says Wilson, and its oxygen levels are low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, for about four months in winter, the pool remains entirely in shadow, which is not good for the tiny plants that the fish eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a great place to live if you’re a fish, that’s for sure,” says Gumm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reduced amount of food in winter is thought to be why spring counts of this fish have historically been lower than counts done in the fall. Last fall, researchers \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news/devils-hole-fall-2022.htm\">observed\u003c/a> 263 fish. The next count will come in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that we cross the threshold of 300,” says Wilson.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Earthquakes and flash floods\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Part of this fish’s recent revival may be due to some dramatic events that have shaken up life in Devils Hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July of 2021, a rare flash flood poured in an enormous amount of muddy water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The volume of water that went into the habitat was just so much,” says Gumm, who worried the fish would die from a change in water chemistry — or even just the sheer violence of the flood and its churning debris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the first time Gumm felt like these fish really might go extinct on her watch. She recalls going to the hole just after the flood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walking into it, we just weren’t sure what was going to be there,” she recalls. “And the water looked like chocolate milk. You couldn’t see any fish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She mentally prepared for the worst. But then she saw a few fish, and then a few more the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that the flood may ultimately have helped the species, by bringing new nutrients into their environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a couple of days after that flood, the fish got hit by another unusual whammy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck Alaska. Even though the epicenter was more than 2,000 miles away, it created a mini-tsunami inside Devils Hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Video cameras \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=1c1d516b-b49c-474e-83d6-0a4b9cac5479\">caught\u003c/a> the water sloshing around. All that sloshing may have helpfully redistributed materials brought in by the flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another mini-tsunami \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news/9-19-2022.htm\">happened\u003c/a> last year, when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Mexico caused 4-foot waves inside Devils Hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983285\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1018px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983285\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A man stands above a water hole surrounded by rocks with a woman by the water's edge looking up at him.\" width=\"1018\" height=\"692\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1018w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy-768x522.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1018px) 100vw, 1018px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This 2006 photo shows biologist Mike Bower, left, with the National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor Cynthia Martinez, as they peer down into Devils Hole. \u003ccite>(JAE C. HONG/The Associated Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wilson says that these kinds of disturbance events can clean off the precious rocky shelf that the fish depend on, benefiting the fish by basically hitting the reset button for the whole system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Video from one earthquake shows pupfish streaming past the camera, as if the fish knew what was happening and where to go to be safe, says Gumm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve been living here for a lot longer than we really comprehend,” she says, with the best estimates suggesting they’ve been in the hole for about ten thousand years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are used to it. And they know what to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s had a huge impact’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The fish have gotten some help from humans. Wilson says they’re now fed supplemental food, since at one point they looked emaciated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was somewhat controversial to start feeding the fish,” says Wilson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pupfish also enjoy the extra shelter of some plant material that wildlife managers attached to their rocky ledge, to give them increased shade and more options for hiding — because the older fish aren’t above eating the young’uns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think society has a duty to protect species that humankind has negatively impacted,” says Wilson. He points out that groundwater pumping lowered the water level in Devils Hole, and the top of the pool is about six or eight inches below the historical pre-pumping level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Devils Hole pupfish is famous in conservation circles. It was one of the first species to be listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. After nearby development threatened to siphon water away from its lonely refuge, lawsuits aimed at saving it went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983287\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1065px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983287\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A man observes a fish in a bowl in a lab.\" width=\"1065\" height=\"713\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1065w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy-768x514.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1065px) 100vw, 1065px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service observes captive Devils Hole pupfish. \u003ccite>(Ryan Hagerty/USFWS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s had a huge impact on water conservation and water rights throughout the western United States,” says \u003ca href=\"https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/people/steven-beissinger\">Steve Beissinger\u003c/a>, a conservation biologist with the University of California, Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the decades, several efforts have been made to set up a captive population of these fish in a separate tank, as a back-up insurance policy in case the wild fish met an untimely end. Past attempts all failed for various reasons, such as mechanical issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The approach that we take now for the refuge population is a much larger scale,” says Gumm, who manages a fish conservation \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/devils-hole.htm\">facility\u003c/a> located near Devils Hole. There, its unique ecosystem has essentially been recreated in a 100,000-gallon tank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most of it is actually underground, simulating that cave environment of Devils Hole,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fish’s all-important rocky shelf was faithfully copied by the tank’s designers. “They actually went out and 3-D scanned the shallow shelf of Devils Hole and carved it out of styrofoam,” she says. “It is an exact replica of the habitat at Devils Hole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The refuge tank has a population of about 300, created from eggs taken from the wild. An additional 100 or so fish live in smaller tanks that are kept for breeding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change could make Devils Hole even hotter, and that’s a concern for the future. Still, Beissinger thinks the fish could keep on keeping on, as long as they continue to get help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can never relax with a small population like that,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone thinks that so much time and money should go into safeguarding these fish. Once someone told Wilson that “they should just drown those fish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drown the fish?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had to shake my head,” he recalls. “You know, it’s tough, and it’s about water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But love them or hate them, Beissinger thinks everyone should at least respect the tenacity of these beleaguered fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s certainly, in many ways, an inspiring story of survival,” says Beissinger. “You’ve got to admire that, something that can cling on and adapt to such a difficult environment — with nowhere to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Estimated to have inhabited Devils Hole in Death Valley for the last 10,000 years, the Devils Hole pupfish is an endangered species that has proven incredibly resilient.",
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"description": "Estimated to have inhabited Devils Hole in Death Valley for the last 10,000 years, the Devils Hole pupfish is an endangered species that has proven incredibly resilient.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Have you ever felt stuck in a bad situation that you couldn’t get out of, through no fault of your own, and all you could do is just make the best of it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such is the life of the Devils Hole pupfish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This small, iridescent blue-or-green fish swims in the hot waters of an inhospitable fishbowl made of rock in a Nevada section of Death Valley National Park, where it somehow got trapped thousands of years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deep cavern that is this fish’s only home is surrounded by a chain-link fence, razor wire, and other security measures designed to protect this incredibly rare endangered species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, its population hit a low of only 35 fish. But over the last couple of years, the Devils Hole pupfish has bounced back, thrilling and somewhat baffling wildlife managers who still are trying to figure out how this tough little fish manages to make a go of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, in the spring, they counted 175 observable fish. This spring, the count was the same, which means that the population has been holding steady.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983286\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983286\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Small blue fish in greenish water.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/f6ca782c-7d40-4426-8926-dc06ef0d54d8original-b4059656b9c178f2224e8c099a46cbde2ee3b125-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Devils Hole pupfish are about an inch long. \u003ccite>(Olin Feuerbacher/NPS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A wild population of just 175 fish doesn’t sound like a lot. But this is the best the Devils Hole pupfish has been doing in about two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Times are good now with Devils Hole pupfish, compared to how they’ve been in the past,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.gummlab.org/\">Jenny Gumm\u003c/a>, a fish biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exactly how the pupfish have recovered to this point is a bit of a mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question that I receive and my colleagues receive is, ‘Why?’ And you know, we’re trying to answer that,” says Kevin Wilson, an aquatic ecologist at the National Park Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A fish that’s able to cope\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wilson first learned of this iconic fish as a kid back in the 1970s, when he tagged along with his geologist mom on a field trip that stopped by Devils Hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just remember as a young lad just laying down on this wooden observation deck, looking down into this immense hole in the ground and was fascinated,” says Wilson.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At the bottom of the hole is the pool where the fish swim. No one knows how deep it is — scuba divers have explored to a depth of over 400 feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pupfish, which are only about an inch long, have no natural predators. Without fear, they’ll curiously swim up to inspect divers or anything else that enters their isolated world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fish tend to hang out near the top of the pool, swimming around in the shallow water that covers a rocky ledge. There, they feed on algae and spawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water isn’t exactly cozy. “It’s 93 degrees fahrenheit all the time,” says Wilson, and its oxygen levels are low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, for about four months in winter, the pool remains entirely in shadow, which is not good for the tiny plants that the fish eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a great place to live if you’re a fish, that’s for sure,” says Gumm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reduced amount of food in winter is thought to be why spring counts of this fish have historically been lower than counts done in the fall. Last fall, researchers \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news/devils-hole-fall-2022.htm\">observed\u003c/a> 263 fish. The next count will come in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that we cross the threshold of 300,” says Wilson.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Earthquakes and flash floods\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Part of this fish’s recent revival may be due to some dramatic events that have shaken up life in Devils Hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July of 2021, a rare flash flood poured in an enormous amount of muddy water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The volume of water that went into the habitat was just so much,” says Gumm, who worried the fish would die from a change in water chemistry — or even just the sheer violence of the flood and its churning debris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the first time Gumm felt like these fish really might go extinct on her watch. She recalls going to the hole just after the flood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walking into it, we just weren’t sure what was going to be there,” she recalls. “And the water looked like chocolate milk. You couldn’t see any fish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She mentally prepared for the worst. But then she saw a few fish, and then a few more the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that the flood may ultimately have helped the species, by bringing new nutrients into their environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a couple of days after that flood, the fish got hit by another unusual whammy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck Alaska. Even though the epicenter was more than 2,000 miles away, it created a mini-tsunami inside Devils Hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Video cameras \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=1c1d516b-b49c-474e-83d6-0a4b9cac5479\">caught\u003c/a> the water sloshing around. All that sloshing may have helpfully redistributed materials brought in by the flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another mini-tsunami \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news/9-19-2022.htm\">happened\u003c/a> last year, when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Mexico caused 4-foot waves inside Devils Hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983285\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1018px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983285\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A man stands above a water hole surrounded by rocks with a woman by the water's edge looking up at him.\" width=\"1018\" height=\"692\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1018w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/ap871232091047_custom-5c4f1c435df84409cda59da136e4918f6d7fc4c0-s1600-c85-copy-768x522.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1018px) 100vw, 1018px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This 2006 photo shows biologist Mike Bower, left, with the National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor Cynthia Martinez, as they peer down into Devils Hole. \u003ccite>(JAE C. HONG/The Associated Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wilson says that these kinds of disturbance events can clean off the precious rocky shelf that the fish depend on, benefiting the fish by basically hitting the reset button for the whole system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Video from one earthquake shows pupfish streaming past the camera, as if the fish knew what was happening and where to go to be safe, says Gumm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve been living here for a lot longer than we really comprehend,” she says, with the best estimates suggesting they’ve been in the hole for about ten thousand years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are used to it. And they know what to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s had a huge impact’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The fish have gotten some help from humans. Wilson says they’re now fed supplemental food, since at one point they looked emaciated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was somewhat controversial to start feeding the fish,” says Wilson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pupfish also enjoy the extra shelter of some plant material that wildlife managers attached to their rocky ledge, to give them increased shade and more options for hiding — because the older fish aren’t above eating the young’uns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think society has a duty to protect species that humankind has negatively impacted,” says Wilson. He points out that groundwater pumping lowered the water level in Devils Hole, and the top of the pool is about six or eight inches below the historical pre-pumping level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Devils Hole pupfish is famous in conservation circles. It was one of the first species to be listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. After nearby development threatened to siphon water away from its lonely refuge, lawsuits aimed at saving it went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983287\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1065px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983287\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A man observes a fish in a bowl in a lab.\" width=\"1065\" height=\"713\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1065w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/usfws-public-domain-image-captive-dh-pupfish_custom-78ec476fa00ab80e0d3ad3f1f7764bc27e55d564-s1600-c85-copy-768x514.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1065px) 100vw, 1065px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service observes captive Devils Hole pupfish. \u003ccite>(Ryan Hagerty/USFWS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s had a huge impact on water conservation and water rights throughout the western United States,” says \u003ca href=\"https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/people/steven-beissinger\">Steve Beissinger\u003c/a>, a conservation biologist with the University of California, Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the decades, several efforts have been made to set up a captive population of these fish in a separate tank, as a back-up insurance policy in case the wild fish met an untimely end. Past attempts all failed for various reasons, such as mechanical issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The approach that we take now for the refuge population is a much larger scale,” says Gumm, who manages a fish conservation \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/devils-hole.htm\">facility\u003c/a> located near Devils Hole. There, its unique ecosystem has essentially been recreated in a 100,000-gallon tank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most of it is actually underground, simulating that cave environment of Devils Hole,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fish’s all-important rocky shelf was faithfully copied by the tank’s designers. “They actually went out and 3-D scanned the shallow shelf of Devils Hole and carved it out of styrofoam,” she says. “It is an exact replica of the habitat at Devils Hole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The refuge tank has a population of about 300, created from eggs taken from the wild. An additional 100 or so fish live in smaller tanks that are kept for breeding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change could make Devils Hole even hotter, and that’s a concern for the future. Still, Beissinger thinks the fish could keep on keeping on, as long as they continue to get help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can never relax with a small population like that,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone thinks that so much time and money should go into safeguarding these fish. Once someone told Wilson that “they should just drown those fish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drown the fish?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had to shake my head,” he recalls. “You know, it’s tough, and it’s about water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But love them or hate them, Beissinger thinks everyone should at least respect the tenacity of these beleaguered fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s certainly, in many ways, an inspiring story of survival,” says Beissinger. “You’ve got to admire that, something that can cling on and adapt to such a difficult environment — with nowhere to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Step right up to see tiny springtails spin through the air with the greatest of ease! In ponds and streams, they skyrocket out of the reach of hungry insects like water striders by slapping a tail-like appendage against the water. And you won’t believe how they stick the landing.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Now presenting: the springtail!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It jumps … right off the water! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Explosive! 150 times faster than a blink!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here at the water’s edge, where these springtails live, it’s a tiny circus that never stops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, they can also walk … and glide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the spring in springtail is for escaping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you’re the size of a poppy seed, lots of things want to eat you. Like this young water strider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nope!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not today, kid!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hey, hold my beer!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To power these lifesaving leaps, a springtail deploys … the furcula! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It just pushes down this lever and in two milliseconds it’s defying gravity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It vaults up to what would be a sixth floor for you and me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what goes up must come down, and hopefully you land right side up … so you’re ready to dart off again when the water strider catches up. Yeah, water striders jump too. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, how does the springtail stick that landing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all starts up in the air. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists at Georgia Tech put springtails in a wind tunnel, blowing air up from below. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they hover, they spin like wild trapeze artists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By curving its body into a U shape, a springtail stops spinning and rights itself midair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And see that little circle on its belly? That’s a teeny tiny drop of water clinging to a tube called the collophore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That droplet makes all the difference. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It lowers the springtail’s center of gravity and stabilizes it. When it lands, the drop glues the springtail in place. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s really helpful during a bumpy landing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It even works on dry land. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without that drop, oh … ooh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But most of the time they fly through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young springtails on the flying trapeze.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>No suction cups, no Velcro, no glue. Geckos navigate nearly any surface with something far cooler: an electron dance at the atomic scale.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003ch3>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>You know you’ve dreamed of it – scaling walls with your bare hands and feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most geckos, that dream is reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geckos can navigate nearly any surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speeding along to score a meal, flee an enemy, or just take in the scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what’s the trick to its stick?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gecko feet aren’t covered in suction cups or velcro. They don’t squirt glue, or leave any footprints for that matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gecko’s secret is a herculean amount of grip – at the atomic scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/about-us/major-initiatives/islands-2030\">Learn more about the California Academy of Sciences’ research on geckos, frogs and more as part of their Islands 2030 initiative here\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/exhibits/steinhart-aquarium\">\u003cbr>\nSee these geckos up close and personal at California Academy of Sciences, and celebrate 100 years of the Steinhart Aquarium and its sticky, slimy, wonderful creatures\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-120213-091839\">Lewis & Clark College Professor Kellar Autumn has been taking a very close look at gecko feet for decades. Learn more about his work in this paper\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out its fabulous toes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These ridges – called lamellae – are blanketed in hairs called setae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the setae branch out further – into millions of spatula-shaped pads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spatulae, if you will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the stick happens even closer in – check out these spatulae atoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They don’t have an electric charge, and neither do the atoms of the surfaces the gecko moves on. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the gecko pulls its foot at just the right angle – those spatulae get so close to the surfaces’ atoms that the electrons start to sync up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That shimmy is called Van der Waals force, and it’s what keeps the gecko attached to the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If a gecko used all of its millions of setae at once, that force could hold you up – and a friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans have been trying to mimic gecko adhesion for years, and they’re finally getting close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists at Stanford University created a sort of gecko-inspired tape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a microscope, you can see it has tiny wedges, much like the gecko’s spatulae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you pull the tape parallel to a surface, like an apple, the wedges flatten and connect to a larger area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That close contact creates – you guessed it – Van der Waals force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To release it, simply reverse the pull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, how does the gecko do it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, it curls up its toes, changing the angle of its spatulae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which keeps them light on their feet, and ready to set out on more snack-robatic adventures.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "California Condors Confront Bird Flu in Flight From Extinction",
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"content": "\u003cp>The California condor is facing the deadliest strain of avian influenza in U.S. history, and the outbreak could jeopardize the iconic vulture with its 10-foot wingspan decades after \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/north-america-condors-us-news-ut-state-wire-az-state-wire-d1425cf1e17249f088a00b2f14a319b9\">conservationists saved the species from extinction\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But nine newly hatched chicks, covered in downy white feathers, give condor-keepers at the Los Angeles Zoo hope that the endangered population of North America’s largest soaring land birds will once again thrive after 40 years of aggressive efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With fewer than 350 condors in the wild — in flocks that span from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California, Mexico — the historic outbreak means ongoing breeding-in-captivity and rewilding programs like the LA Zoo’s remain essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past year and a half, millions of birds across the U.S. have died from avian flu, including \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/health-business-minnesota-environment-0ec6d3f11b09ddd023d7d5d50ab7f8c1\">more than 430 bald eagles\u003c/a> and some 58 million turkeys and commercial chickens \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/disease-outbreaks-iowa-business-health-bird-flu-2c9ca4b3d04f3c0269a1fee233daa3a6\">that were euthanized to prevent the spread of the disease\u003c/a>. Bird flu is further suspected in the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/health-maine-flu-seals-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration-66939e32ca206ab0c150953e55d22434\">deaths of dozens of seals\u003c/a> off the coast of Maine last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, the strain is believed to have caused \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-condor-deaths-arizona-utah-avian-flu-cc83480a4979a235c44e27d1890ab340\">the deaths of at least 22 California condors in Arizona\u003c/a>, which were part of a flock in the Southwest that typically accounts for a third of the species’ entire wild population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts are now concerned the strain could further affect condors by rapidly spreading across state lines through the spring migration. More than two dozen environmental advocates this week urged the federal government to expedite approvals for a vaccine that would be given to both condors in the wild and in captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The advocates, which include the Center for Biological Diversity, warned in a letter that the flu strain is “jeopardizing the existence” of the famed bird.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Endangered condor chicks hatch at LA Zoo\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/OFw1_T8Cixg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The California condor is at risk of extinction once again, and once again, an emergency vaccination campaign is required to stave off a deadly infection and possible extinction,” they wrote, referencing the success of the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/west-nile-virus\">West Nile virus\u003c/a> vaccine for condors in the early 2000s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act approaches, wildlife officials say the species still cannot sustain itself without human intervention — even though humans are also to blame for much of its losses outside the avian flu, including deaths from lead ammunition poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s going to take some changes in behavior from the humans on the planet so that we can really address the threats to the species,” said Ashleigh Blackford, California condor coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite a California law banning lead ammunition for hunting, it is still readily used. The condors scavenge meat from dead animals, felled by the lead ammunition, and fall ill — often fatally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard to watch a bird you raised come back and die in your arms,” said Los Angeles Zoo condor-keeper Chandra David, who has tended to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/2e9f542f808ec2ee54daf612651422bc\">lead-poisoned condors\u003c/a> brought back to the zoo for treatment. “And there’s nothing we can do about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, spring is a time for hope. At breeding programs in the U.S. and Mexico, chicks are hatching and online “condor cams” provide live feeds for fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a funny species in that it really is not your typical charismatic species, right? They are a little bit on the ugly side. Most people are not endeared to vultures, but this one in particular (is different),” Blackford said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless, the condor looms large in California culture — even if it’s not the official state bird (that’s the California quail). The mascot for the Los Angeles Clippers is Chuck the Condor and one of the birds in flight is featured prominently on the state quarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The population was nearly wiped out by hunting during the California Gold Rush, as well as poisoning from toxic pesticide DDT and lead ammunition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1980s, all 22 California condors left in the wild were \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/85dbcded1311eb38156766664cec55b1\">controversially captured\u003c/a> and put into captive breeding programs to save the species. Zoo-bred birds were first released into the wild in 1992 and in the years since have been reintroduced into habitats they’d disappeared from — including the Yurok Tribe’s ancestral lands in Northern California. The ongoing rewilding efforts are considered a conservation success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It took decades to drive species toward extinction and it’s, in many cases, going to take decades to bring them back,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The condor is intrinsically tied to several Native American tribes in the West. The Havasupai people, for example, say the condor flew their ancestors from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top — its wings creating the famous striations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the Yurok Tribe, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/travel-california-wildlife-parks-national-fefbd6b9ed15698c0b6507fa6f60317d\">the work to bring the condors back\u003c/a> highlights how Native Americans are reclaiming their traditional roles as stewards of the land — “which was a role that was taken from us forcibly post-contact,” said Tiana Williams-Claussen, director of the tribe’s wildlife department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Known as prey-go-neesh in Yurok, the revered condor disappeared from the region in the late 1800s. In 2021, Williams-Claussen and her team, building on a promise made by tribal leaders in 2003, watched as captive-bred condors took flight over Yurok lands for the first time in more than a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tribe hopes to release four to six captive-bred birds into the wild annually over the next two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately our goal, of course, is to have birds without tags, without transmitters, that can just reintegrate into our ecosystem,” Williams-Claussen said, “into our cultural lifeways again.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The California condor is facing the deadliest strain of avian influenza in U.S. history, and the outbreak could jeopardize the iconic vulture with its 10-foot wingspan decades after \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/north-america-condors-us-news-ut-state-wire-az-state-wire-d1425cf1e17249f088a00b2f14a319b9\">conservationists saved the species from extinction\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But nine newly hatched chicks, covered in downy white feathers, give condor-keepers at the Los Angeles Zoo hope that the endangered population of North America’s largest soaring land birds will once again thrive after 40 years of aggressive efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With fewer than 350 condors in the wild — in flocks that span from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California, Mexico — the historic outbreak means ongoing breeding-in-captivity and rewilding programs like the LA Zoo’s remain essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past year and a half, millions of birds across the U.S. have died from avian flu, including \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/health-business-minnesota-environment-0ec6d3f11b09ddd023d7d5d50ab7f8c1\">more than 430 bald eagles\u003c/a> and some 58 million turkeys and commercial chickens \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/disease-outbreaks-iowa-business-health-bird-flu-2c9ca4b3d04f3c0269a1fee233daa3a6\">that were euthanized to prevent the spread of the disease\u003c/a>. Bird flu is further suspected in the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/health-maine-flu-seals-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration-66939e32ca206ab0c150953e55d22434\">deaths of dozens of seals\u003c/a> off the coast of Maine last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, the strain is believed to have caused \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-condor-deaths-arizona-utah-avian-flu-cc83480a4979a235c44e27d1890ab340\">the deaths of at least 22 California condors in Arizona\u003c/a>, which were part of a flock in the Southwest that typically accounts for a third of the species’ entire wild population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts are now concerned the strain could further affect condors by rapidly spreading across state lines through the spring migration. More than two dozen environmental advocates this week urged the federal government to expedite approvals for a vaccine that would be given to both condors in the wild and in captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The advocates, which include the Center for Biological Diversity, warned in a letter that the flu strain is “jeopardizing the existence” of the famed bird.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Endangered condor chicks hatch at LA Zoo\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/OFw1_T8Cixg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The California condor is at risk of extinction once again, and once again, an emergency vaccination campaign is required to stave off a deadly infection and possible extinction,” they wrote, referencing the success of the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/west-nile-virus\">West Nile virus\u003c/a> vaccine for condors in the early 2000s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act approaches, wildlife officials say the species still cannot sustain itself without human intervention — even though humans are also to blame for much of its losses outside the avian flu, including deaths from lead ammunition poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s going to take some changes in behavior from the humans on the planet so that we can really address the threats to the species,” said Ashleigh Blackford, California condor coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite a California law banning lead ammunition for hunting, it is still readily used. The condors scavenge meat from dead animals, felled by the lead ammunition, and fall ill — often fatally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard to watch a bird you raised come back and die in your arms,” said Los Angeles Zoo condor-keeper Chandra David, who has tended to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/2e9f542f808ec2ee54daf612651422bc\">lead-poisoned condors\u003c/a> brought back to the zoo for treatment. “And there’s nothing we can do about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, spring is a time for hope. At breeding programs in the U.S. and Mexico, chicks are hatching and online “condor cams” provide live feeds for fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a funny species in that it really is not your typical charismatic species, right? They are a little bit on the ugly side. Most people are not endeared to vultures, but this one in particular (is different),” Blackford said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless, the condor looms large in California culture — even if it’s not the official state bird (that’s the California quail). The mascot for the Los Angeles Clippers is Chuck the Condor and one of the birds in flight is featured prominently on the state quarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The population was nearly wiped out by hunting during the California Gold Rush, as well as poisoning from toxic pesticide DDT and lead ammunition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1980s, all 22 California condors left in the wild were \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/85dbcded1311eb38156766664cec55b1\">controversially captured\u003c/a> and put into captive breeding programs to save the species. Zoo-bred birds were first released into the wild in 1992 and in the years since have been reintroduced into habitats they’d disappeared from — including the Yurok Tribe’s ancestral lands in Northern California. The ongoing rewilding efforts are considered a conservation success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It took decades to drive species toward extinction and it’s, in many cases, going to take decades to bring them back,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The condor is intrinsically tied to several Native American tribes in the West. The Havasupai people, for example, say the condor flew their ancestors from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top — its wings creating the famous striations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the Yurok Tribe, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/travel-california-wildlife-parks-national-fefbd6b9ed15698c0b6507fa6f60317d\">the work to bring the condors back\u003c/a> highlights how Native Americans are reclaiming their traditional roles as stewards of the land — “which was a role that was taken from us forcibly post-contact,” said Tiana Williams-Claussen, director of the tribe’s wildlife department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Known as prey-go-neesh in Yurok, the revered condor disappeared from the region in the late 1800s. In 2021, Williams-Claussen and her team, building on a promise made by tribal leaders in 2003, watched as captive-bred condors took flight over Yurok lands for the first time in more than a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tribe hopes to release four to six captive-bred birds into the wild annually over the next two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately our goal, of course, is to have birds without tags, without transmitters, that can just reintegrate into our ecosystem,” Williams-Claussen said, “into our cultural lifeways again.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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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": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"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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"order": 9
},
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"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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"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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"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",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"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": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"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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},
"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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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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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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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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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/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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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": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"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)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"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",
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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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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
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},
"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",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/political-breakdown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/07RVyIjIdk2WDuVehvBMoN",
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