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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52581\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/22/fund-basic-research-its-for-your-own-good/lamppost/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52581\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Lamppost.jpg\" alt=\"Basic research shines light on parts of science we didn't even know we should be looking at. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"640\" height=\"362\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52581\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Lamppost.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Lamppost-400x226.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Basic research shines light on parts of science we didn't even know we should be looking at. Image courtesy of \u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lamp-post_silhouette_(3795639484).jpg\">Wikimedia Commons\u003c/a>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The budget proposal by the Obama administration is a mixed bag in terms of \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/a-back-seat-for-basic-science-1.12803\">funding for science\u003c/a>. Targeted research received some OK gains but basic research was left with the same or even less money than the previous year. If this trend continues, it won’t just be basic research that takes a hit. It’ll be your health and the U.S. economy too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I know, I know, a scientist bemoaning a cut in funding -- talk about someone with a vested interest! But hear me out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some ways this funding proposal is understandable. We have a dwindling pot of money and we want to fund what will be most likely to pay off. The problem is that this approach keeps science from finding completely new things that will lead to new approaches to treating diseases, identifying new energy sources and so on. We won't make any dramatic leaps in knowledge that fundamentally change how we address our problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funding predominantly targeted research is like looking for your car keys only in lighted areas of the street. You are missing a whole lot places where the keys could be. Science is similar. Basic research is like adding new light posts—it opens up areas of research we didn’t even know we could explore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have a listed a few such findings off the top of my head. Because I’m more of a molecular biologist/geneticist, I’ve focused on these topics. There are undoubtedly lots of other examples from this and other areas that I haven’t included. Please feel free to add more to the comments section if you’d like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cell cycle regulators\u003c/strong>. Cancer happens when a cell grows out of control and/or refuses to die. Our cells have all sorts of controls in place to keep cells growing and dividing when they should and to also stop growing and even to die when they should too. The key regulators in this process were originally found in the humble baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We found them more easily in yeast because of the unique properties of this model system (easily manipulated genetics, fast growing, etc.). Because of that initial basic research, we were able to study this aspect of cancer and begin to identify treatments based on these regulators much sooner than we otherwise would have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Micro RNAs\u003c/strong>. Until the early 1990’s, RNA was mostly thought of as a passive molecule. Basically the instructions found in genes in DNA were copied into RNA. This mRNA was then translated into proteins using two other RNAs, tRNA and rRNA, and it was proteins that did all the heavy lifting in the cell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through the work done in a small, see-through worm called C. elegans, we discovered that tiny RNAs are actually important in controlling how much protein gets made from a gene. These microRNAs are used in people too and have been shown to be involved in a number of cancers. Not only that, but they are incredibly useful tools for exploring how genes work so we can find new targets to go after for cancer research. It would have taken a very long time to find them with targeted research and even longer to figure out they were significant and how they work without basic research. I am not sure we would have found out what they are and/or do for decades if we had just focused on people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52597\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/22/fund-basic-research-its-for-your-own-good/insulin-bottle/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52597\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/insulin-bottle.gif\" alt=\"Without the basic research on enzymes that cut bacterial DNA at certain places and the research on little bits of self-replicating DNA called plasmids, we’d still be getting our insulin from pigs and cadavers.\" width=\"200\" height=\"208\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52597\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/insulin-bottle.gif 200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/insulin-bottle-32x32.gif 32w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Without the basic research on enzymes that cut bacterial DNA at certain places and the research on little bits of self-replicating DNA called plasmids, we’d still be getting our insulin from pigs and cadavers.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Genetic Engineering\u003c/strong>: What started out as some basic research on bacteria in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, turned into today’s genetic engineering. People who become anemic from cancer treatments can thank basic science for their EPO and people with diabetes can do the same for their insulin. Both are now grown in bacteria using the genetic engineering tools created from basic research. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the list can go on and on. The human genome project has opened up so many avenues of research that we are still figuring out where to go with it all. The same is true for the basic research that identified stem cells, the structure of DNA, recombination and on and on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we had just focused on targeted research, we would have missed most of this or at least research would have been delayed by years or even decades. Sick people would have suffered longer because we didn’t fund basic research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course I understand the quandary we are in here. If we have to choose between research on \u003ca href=\"http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/25/ducks-meet-the-culture-wars/\">duck penises\u003c/a> and food stamps for poor families, food stamps would undoubtedly win. This is even if the duck research might help us understand and possible even better treat conditions like preeclampsia, a problem with high blood pressure that can happen with pregnancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But we do need to think about how we can get the most bang for our limited science research dollars. Can we free up some money by streamlining how scientists are funded? Should we change how we assess whether scientific research has been successful or not? Should we divvy up the money in different ways with an increased percentage going to basic research?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t have the answers to these questions but the folks in Washington need to start thinking about this. I don’t think we want to give up our strong science position in the world just yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/research-main.html\">More on applied vs. basic research\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.genomicron.evolverzone.com/2008/02/basic-research-is-lifeline-of-practical/\">Importance of basic research\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cell cycle regulators\u003c/strong>. Cancer happens when a cell grows out of control and/or refuses to die. Our cells have all sorts of controls in place to keep cells growing and dividing when they should and to also stop growing and even to die when they should too. The key regulators in this process were originally found in the humble baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We found them more easily in yeast because of the unique properties of this model system (easily manipulated genetics, fast growing, etc.). Because of that initial basic research, we were able to study this aspect of cancer and begin to identify treatments based on these regulators much sooner than we otherwise would have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Micro RNAs\u003c/strong>. Until the early 1990’s, RNA was mostly thought of as a passive molecule. Basically the instructions found in genes in DNA were copied into RNA. 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I am not sure we would have found out what they are and/or do for decades if we had just focused on people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52597\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/22/fund-basic-research-its-for-your-own-good/insulin-bottle/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52597\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/insulin-bottle.gif\" alt=\"Without the basic research on enzymes that cut bacterial DNA at certain places and the research on little bits of self-replicating DNA called plasmids, we’d still be getting our insulin from pigs and cadavers.\" width=\"200\" height=\"208\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52597\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/insulin-bottle.gif 200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/insulin-bottle-32x32.gif 32w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Without the basic research on enzymes that cut bacterial DNA at certain places and the research on little bits of self-replicating DNA called plasmids, we’d still be getting our insulin from pigs and cadavers.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Genetic Engineering\u003c/strong>: What started out as some basic research on bacteria in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, turned into today’s genetic engineering. 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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California biotech companies had their eye on the U.S. Supreme Court this week as it heard arguments on a key question: can you patent a human gene? The court’s ruling could mean millions of dollars to biotech companies and universities. \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201304191630/c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">…\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Source: \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201304191630/c\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Biotech Braces for Gene Patenting Ruling\" rel=\"noopener\">The California Report Science\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/quest/2013/04/20130422science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52713\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-52713\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/brains.jpg\" alt=\"fMRI brain scans. (David Feinberg/UC Berkeley)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/brains.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/brains-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">fMRI brain scans. (David Feinberg/UC Berkeley)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Get ready for the year – or the decade – of the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Obama recently announced what he called the next “Great American Project”: $100 million, plus private investment, to study what he called “that matter between our ears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of this work is already happening here in the Bay Area, where neuroscientists are starting small and dreaming big.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nCracking the Code\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There's an idea about the brain that you hear a lot: That it’s akin to a language. If you could just figure out the meaning of every letter, you could read it and say – or do – anything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about what we could do once we do crack this code,” said President Obama in announcing his BRAIN initiative, which he’ll also have to sell to Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Imagine if no family had to feel helpless watching a loved one disappear behind the mask of Parkinson’s or struggle in the grip of epilepsy. Imagine if we could reverse traumatic brain injury or PTSD for our veterans who are coming home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before any of that can be achieved – even if it can be achieved – we have to understand the brain first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The human brain is the most complicated known entity in the universe,” says William Newsome, a Stanford University professor of neurobiology and co-chair of the president’s BRAIN Initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's Newsome’s job to figure out what this mapping plan is all about.\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\"The most complex entity in the universe\"\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says consider the numbers. There could be close to a hundred billion\u003cem> \u003c/em>neurons, or nerve cells, in the human brain. And somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand trillion connections, zapping little jolts of information back and forth from cell to cell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mapping at that level is not going to happen anytime soon, Newsome says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not going to solve and completely understand the human brain in ten years, or probably not even in 100 years,\" says Newsome. “It may take us a couple hundred years.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a long time, which is one reason the project has been criticized as too vague.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the goal of the BRAIN initiative isn't to fully map the brain or to cure a specific disease, what is it? And without a specific goal, how do you decide what kind of research to focus on?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s like trying to understand a beach. Do you count the grains of sand? Or study satellite photos of the entire coastline?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Somewhere near the satellite level is the work happening in UC Berkeley psychology professor Jack Gallant’s lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A graduate student named James is trying to stay as still as possible inside a functional MRI machine. When James squeezes a ball, the machine beeps steadily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the sound of data,” Gallant says.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nMind Reading, Circa 2013\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallant points to a computer monitor where, every two seconds, another crisp, black and white image of James’ brain refreshes itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here’s the cortex, the cerebellum back here. This is the brain stem, the thalamus,” Gallant says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using the fMRI, Gallant’s lab has been able to record what happens inside subjects’ brains while they watch movies, and then translate those responses into images.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These reconstructed videos are blurry but remarkable, about as close to mind-reading as we get in 2013. Gallant says in theory, this is just the beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In principle, it’s probably possible to reconstruct any activity in your brain that reflects ongoing conscious brain processes,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsjDnYxJ0bo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any conscious thought could, one day, be visible to the outside world: a memory, a dream or your private, internal dialogues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have this little person in our head that talks to us all the time,” says Gallant. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to reconstruct that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As amazing – and scary – as this is, Gallant and others are quick to point out that the fMRI is full of limitations. For example, it doesn’t actually show neurons, let alone the connections between them. To be able to easily watch human neurons in action would take a machine that hasn’t been invented yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we knew what that technology will be, we would invent it today,” Gallant said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the BRAIN Initiative is almost certainly going to involve engineers building better machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’ll also involve work that has seemingly very little to do with humans at all. This work is a lot closer to the grain of sand level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nStarting Small, Dreaming Big\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Ngai, director of UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, studies the olfactory system of – among other things – zebrafish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ngai wants to understand what happens in the brain of a zebrafish when it detects pheromones that signal danger. When the fish smell this pheromone, they dive to the bottom of the tank and hide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which of the zebra fish’s 100,000 or so neurons are driving this reaction and how?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Ngai’s lab can figure this out, they’d have a working model for how information in a brain translates into behavior. And eventually not just for zebrafish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsome, the head of the BRAIN Initiative, says\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>fast-forward this line of work a generation or a few, and maybe you're closer to curing diseases like Alzheimer’s. Maybe you’ve even started to answer bigger questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questions like, says Newsome, “why do I make so many mistakes that I know perfectly well are avoidable? Why do I hurt people that I love? Why do I turn left at some corner when I knew perfectly well that I should have turned right? What is it up there inside our head that produce emotions?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Big questions that will have to start with very small answers.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52713\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-52713\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/brains.jpg\" alt=\"fMRI brain scans. (David Feinberg/UC Berkeley)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/brains.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/brains-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">fMRI brain scans. (David Feinberg/UC Berkeley)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Get ready for the year – or the decade – of the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Obama recently announced what he called the next “Great American Project”: $100 million, plus private investment, to study what he called “that matter between our ears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of this work is already happening here in the Bay Area, where neuroscientists are starting small and dreaming big.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nCracking the Code\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There's an idea about the brain that you hear a lot: That it’s akin to a language. If you could just figure out the meaning of every letter, you could read it and say – or do – anything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about what we could do once we do crack this code,” said President Obama in announcing his BRAIN initiative, which he’ll also have to sell to Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Imagine if no family had to feel helpless watching a loved one disappear behind the mask of Parkinson’s or struggle in the grip of epilepsy. Imagine if we could reverse traumatic brain injury or PTSD for our veterans who are coming home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before any of that can be achieved – even if it can be achieved – we have to understand the brain first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The human brain is the most complicated known entity in the universe,” says William Newsome, a Stanford University professor of neurobiology and co-chair of the president’s BRAIN Initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's Newsome’s job to figure out what this mapping plan is all about.\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\"The most complex entity in the universe\"\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says consider the numbers. There could be close to a hundred billion\u003cem> \u003c/em>neurons, or nerve cells, in the human brain. And somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand trillion connections, zapping little jolts of information back and forth from cell to cell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mapping at that level is not going to happen anytime soon, Newsome says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not going to solve and completely understand the human brain in ten years, or probably not even in 100 years,\" says Newsome. “It may take us a couple hundred years.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a long time, which is one reason the project has been criticized as too vague.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the goal of the BRAIN initiative isn't to fully map the brain or to cure a specific disease, what is it? And without a specific goal, how do you decide what kind of research to focus on?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s like trying to understand a beach. Do you count the grains of sand? Or study satellite photos of the entire coastline?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Somewhere near the satellite level is the work happening in UC Berkeley psychology professor Jack Gallant’s lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A graduate student named James is trying to stay as still as possible inside a functional MRI machine. When James squeezes a ball, the machine beeps steadily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the sound of data,” Gallant says.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nMind Reading, Circa 2013\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallant points to a computer monitor where, every two seconds, another crisp, black and white image of James’ brain refreshes itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here’s the cortex, the cerebellum back here. This is the brain stem, the thalamus,” Gallant says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using the fMRI, Gallant’s lab has been able to record what happens inside subjects’ brains while they watch movies, and then translate those responses into images.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These reconstructed videos are blurry but remarkable, about as close to mind-reading as we get in 2013. Gallant says in theory, this is just the beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In principle, it’s probably possible to reconstruct any activity in your brain that reflects ongoing conscious brain processes,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/nsjDnYxJ0bo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/nsjDnYxJ0bo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any conscious thought could, one day, be visible to the outside world: a memory, a dream or your private, internal dialogues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have this little person in our head that talks to us all the time,” says Gallant. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to reconstruct that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As amazing – and scary – as this is, Gallant and others are quick to point out that the fMRI is full of limitations. For example, it doesn’t actually show neurons, let alone the connections between them. To be able to easily watch human neurons in action would take a machine that hasn’t been invented yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we knew what that technology will be, we would invent it today,” Gallant said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the BRAIN Initiative is almost certainly going to involve engineers building better machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’ll also involve work that has seemingly very little to do with humans at all. This work is a lot closer to the grain of sand level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nStarting Small, Dreaming Big\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Ngai, director of UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, studies the olfactory system of – among other things – zebrafish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ngai wants to understand what happens in the brain of a zebrafish when it detects pheromones that signal danger. When the fish smell this pheromone, they dive to the bottom of the tank and hide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which of the zebra fish’s 100,000 or so neurons are driving this reaction and how?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Ngai’s lab can figure this out, they’d have a working model for how information in a brain translates into behavior. And eventually not just for zebrafish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsome, the head of the BRAIN Initiative, says\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>fast-forward this line of work a generation or a few, and maybe you're closer to curing diseases like Alzheimer’s. Maybe you’ve even started to answer bigger questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questions like, says Newsome, “why do I make so many mistakes that I know perfectly well are avoidable? Why do I hurt people that I love? Why do I turn left at some corner when I knew perfectly well that I should have turned right? What is it up there inside our head that produce emotions?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Big questions that will have to start with very small answers.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/17/fire-safety-without-harm/fire/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52484\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire.jpg\" alt=\"fire\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-52484\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, scientists and regulators from more than 20 countries gathered in San Francisco to discuss the latest research on flame retardants. \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/bfr2013_about.cfm\">The conference\u003c/a> lasted four days, but the theme of the meeting was clear from just a few talks: Do we need toxic chemicals to achieve fire safety?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past decade, scientists have voiced increasing concern about the potential health and environmental risks of these chemicals, which show up—and leach from—a growing number of consumer products. By now, most California consumers probably know that flame retardants permeate the foam in their couches and chairs, along with a surprising array of baby products. (On Monday, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Flame-retardants-to-be-removed-from-nap-mats-4436828.php\">San Francisco Chronicle noted\u003c/a> that at least some nap maps sold in the state will no longer contain flame retardants.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I reported yesterday in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/flame-retardants-in-consumer-products-are-linked-to-health-and-cognitive-problems/2013/04/15/f5c7b2aa-8b34-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html\">story for the Washington Post\u003c/a>, mounting evidence suggests that these brominated chemicals pose risks to human health. Californians carry among the highest levels of flame retardants in the world, which researchers attribute to a 70s-era flammability standard that requires foam products to resist an open flame for 12 seconds. Manufacturers typically used flame retardants to comply and many tailored their products to California’s standard—and considerable market share—to avoid double inventories. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown, concerned about the risks the chemicals pose to human health, \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17598\">called on the state agency\u003c/a> in charge of flammability standards to find a way to ensure fire safety without the need for toxic flame retardants. In March, the agency held \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hOjKKdZR_s&feature=youtu.be\">a public hearing\u003c/a> on its new standard, revised to do just that. The new regulations go into effect July 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2011, when I started \u003ca href=\"http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/money-to-burn\">writing about flame retardants\u003c/a>, I’ve been struck by how the researchers studying these chemicals talk about their findings. Scientists tend to talk about their results in terms of what they don’t know and what new questions their studies raise. (All \u003ca href=\"http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=weak-link-fossil-darwinius\">exceptions duly noted\u003c/a>.) And those studying flame retardants do discuss their findings with all the usual caveats. But they also do something else. They tell me, \"We don’t like what we’re seeing.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks ago, I spoke with Heather Stapleton, a flame retardant expert at Duke University who’s pioneered methods to correlate levels of dust on people’s hands with levels found in their blood or urine. With two small children, a four-year-old son and a daughter who will be two next month, Stapleton said she thinks very carefully “as a mother and scientist” about the products she buys and washes her children’s hands frequently to reduce exposure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s particularly worried about people using hand-me-down nursing pillows and other baby products that likely exude more flame retardants as they age. “No one to my knowledge is examining infants’ exposure to flame retardants from these small items,” she said. “They’re small but an infant spends a lot of contact time with them.” What’s more, babies are likely to go from sleep positioner to a car seat to a changing table, spending the better part of a day in contact with products that could be leaching the chemicals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week at the flame retardant conference, researchers talked about the global reach of these chemicals, now detected in trees, sludge, wildlife and people around the world. They listed the wide range of health effects associated with the well-studied brominated flame retardants—including endocrine disruption and developmental, neurological and reproductive defects—and emphasized that the effects have been found in both animals and humans. They also reported worrying early results on new formulations like tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), which is showing up in human breast milk and maternal cord blood samples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, TBBPA was added mostly to electronics and circuit boards in a “reactive mode,” which means it’s unlikely to leach from the product. But as Linda Birnbaum pointed out at the meeting, it’s now being used as a replacement for banned or discontinued brominated flame retardants in an “additive mode”—so it can offgas, migrate from the product into the air. “Which means more is going to get into the environment,” Birnbaum said, “which means more is going to get into people and wildlife.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, reported that a two-year study of TBBPA in rats and mice found a dose-related increase in aggressive uterine tumors in the female rats—“these are highly malignant tumors that metastasize to many different sites,” she told the crowd—as well as liver tumors in male and female mice. These results suggest, she said, that TBBPA is a “two species carcinogen” that warrants closer study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months ago, Birnbaum told me that she used to think flame retardants were providing fire safety but now isn't so sure. She allows there may be applications that warrant them, like airplanes, but even then, she said, “If we think flame retardants are going to be helpful, why not use them in a reactive mode, so they don’t easily escape into the environment?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decade ago, after seeing data showing rising levels of flame retardants in people along with animal evidence linking neurological effects to exposure early in life, Birnbaum called attention to the issue with a paper called \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1241790/pdf/ehp0112-000009.pdf\">\"Brominated Flame Retardants: Cause for Concern?\" \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she said, “everything that is being seen in people when you look—and until recently, no one looked—is consistent with things that we’ve seen in animal models.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/upload/abstract-download/2013/BirnbaumPlenary.pdf\">weight of the evidence\u003c/a> inspired Birnbaum to write another paper. “I changed the question mark,” she said, “to an exclamation point.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Last week, scientists and regulators from more than 20 countries gathered in San Francisco to discuss the latest research on flame retardants. The conference lasted four days, but the theme of the meeting was clear from just a few talks: Do we need toxic chemicals to achieve fire safety?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/17/fire-safety-without-harm/fire/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52484\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire.jpg\" alt=\"fire\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-52484\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/fire-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, scientists and regulators from more than 20 countries gathered in San Francisco to discuss the latest research on flame retardants. \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/bfr2013_about.cfm\">The conference\u003c/a> lasted four days, but the theme of the meeting was clear from just a few talks: Do we need toxic chemicals to achieve fire safety?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past decade, scientists have voiced increasing concern about the potential health and environmental risks of these chemicals, which show up—and leach from—a growing number of consumer products. By now, most California consumers probably know that flame retardants permeate the foam in their couches and chairs, along with a surprising array of baby products. (On Monday, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Flame-retardants-to-be-removed-from-nap-mats-4436828.php\">San Francisco Chronicle noted\u003c/a> that at least some nap maps sold in the state will no longer contain flame retardants.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I reported yesterday in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/flame-retardants-in-consumer-products-are-linked-to-health-and-cognitive-problems/2013/04/15/f5c7b2aa-8b34-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html\">story for the Washington Post\u003c/a>, mounting evidence suggests that these brominated chemicals pose risks to human health. Californians carry among the highest levels of flame retardants in the world, which researchers attribute to a 70s-era flammability standard that requires foam products to resist an open flame for 12 seconds. Manufacturers typically used flame retardants to comply and many tailored their products to California’s standard—and considerable market share—to avoid double inventories. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown, concerned about the risks the chemicals pose to human health, \u003ca href=\"http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17598\">called on the state agency\u003c/a> in charge of flammability standards to find a way to ensure fire safety without the need for toxic flame retardants. In March, the agency held \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hOjKKdZR_s&feature=youtu.be\">a public hearing\u003c/a> on its new standard, revised to do just that. The new regulations go into effect July 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2011, when I started \u003ca href=\"http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2011/money-to-burn\">writing about flame retardants\u003c/a>, I’ve been struck by how the researchers studying these chemicals talk about their findings. Scientists tend to talk about their results in terms of what they don’t know and what new questions their studies raise. (All \u003ca href=\"http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=weak-link-fossil-darwinius\">exceptions duly noted\u003c/a>.) And those studying flame retardants do discuss their findings with all the usual caveats. But they also do something else. They tell me, \"We don’t like what we’re seeing.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks ago, I spoke with Heather Stapleton, a flame retardant expert at Duke University who’s pioneered methods to correlate levels of dust on people’s hands with levels found in their blood or urine. With two small children, a four-year-old son and a daughter who will be two next month, Stapleton said she thinks very carefully “as a mother and scientist” about the products she buys and washes her children’s hands frequently to reduce exposure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s particularly worried about people using hand-me-down nursing pillows and other baby products that likely exude more flame retardants as they age. “No one to my knowledge is examining infants’ exposure to flame retardants from these small items,” she said. “They’re small but an infant spends a lot of contact time with them.” What’s more, babies are likely to go from sleep positioner to a car seat to a changing table, spending the better part of a day in contact with products that could be leaching the chemicals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week at the flame retardant conference, researchers talked about the global reach of these chemicals, now detected in trees, sludge, wildlife and people around the world. They listed the wide range of health effects associated with the well-studied brominated flame retardants—including endocrine disruption and developmental, neurological and reproductive defects—and emphasized that the effects have been found in both animals and humans. They also reported worrying early results on new formulations like tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), which is showing up in human breast milk and maternal cord blood samples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, TBBPA was added mostly to electronics and circuit boards in a “reactive mode,” which means it’s unlikely to leach from the product. But as Linda Birnbaum pointed out at the meeting, it’s now being used as a replacement for banned or discontinued brominated flame retardants in an “additive mode”—so it can offgas, migrate from the product into the air. “Which means more is going to get into the environment,” Birnbaum said, “which means more is going to get into people and wildlife.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, reported that a two-year study of TBBPA in rats and mice found a dose-related increase in aggressive uterine tumors in the female rats—“these are highly malignant tumors that metastasize to many different sites,” she told the crowd—as well as liver tumors in male and female mice. These results suggest, she said, that TBBPA is a “two species carcinogen” that warrants closer study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months ago, Birnbaum told me that she used to think flame retardants were providing fire safety but now isn't so sure. She allows there may be applications that warrant them, like airplanes, but even then, she said, “If we think flame retardants are going to be helpful, why not use them in a reactive mode, so they don’t easily escape into the environment?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decade ago, after seeing data showing rising levels of flame retardants in people along with animal evidence linking neurological effects to exposure early in life, Birnbaum called attention to the issue with a paper called \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1241790/pdf/ehp0112-000009.pdf\">\"Brominated Flame Retardants: Cause for Concern?\" \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she said, “everything that is being seen in people when you look—and until recently, no one looked—is consistent with things that we’ve seen in animal models.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/upload/abstract-download/2013/BirnbaumPlenary.pdf\">weight of the evidence\u003c/a> inspired Birnbaum to write another paper. “I changed the question mark,” she said, “to an exclamation point.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Dabbling and Diving Ducks: Catch the Spring Show",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 487px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/12/dabbling-and-diving-ducks-catch-the-spring-show/ducks_are_back/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52159\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-52159\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Ducks_Are_Back-487x360.jpg\" alt=\"Many ducks come to the Bay to spend the winter. Photo by Ingrid Taylar\" width=\"487\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many species of ducks come to the Bay to spend the winter. Photo by \u003ca title=\"Ducks are Back by Ingrid Taylar, Wikimedia\" href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ducks_Are_Back.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Ingrid Taylar\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“The ducks would appear in flocks, darkening the air…” \u003ca title=\"www.lagunadesantarosa.org\" href=\"http://www.lagunadesantarosa.org/pdfs/AppendixF.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">William Heath Davis; Yerba Buena (San Francisco)\u003c/a>. c. 1846.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our winter ducks are getting ready to take flight for their summer breeding grounds. Subdued patterns have been replaced with vibrant breeding colors -- for the males at any rate. Any morning now, with the longer days and warm weather, we'll awaken and they'll have departed overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52160\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 337px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/12/dabbling-and-diving-ducks-catch-the-spring-show/ruddy_duck_oxyura_jamaicensis_rwd1/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52160\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-52160\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Ruddy_Duck_Oxyura_jamaicensis_RWD1-337x253.jpg\" alt=\"Male ruddy duck attracting attention in full breeding plumage. Photo by Dick Daniels.\" width=\"337\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Male ruddy duck attracting attention in full breeding plumage. Photo by Dick Daniels.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists generally divide ducks into three categories: \u003ca title=\"Dabblers vs. Divers, Stanford University\" href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Dabblers_vs._Divers.html\" target=\"_blank\">divers, dabblers, and “Sea Ducks”\u003c/a>. Here are a few of my favorites starting with the diving ducks. \u003ca title=\"Ruddy Duck ID, Cornell website\" href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruddy_Duck/id\" target=\"_blank\">Ruddy ducks\u003c/a> are built for underwater speed and agility, with their stiff tails used for steering underwater and large, webbed feet placed far back on their chunky bodies to propel them as they chase fish. Males are currently showing off their tawny red body feathers with bright blue bills set off against creamy cheeks. The females remain camouflaged brown with creamy cheek patches, good for sitting on nests unobserved. They’ll be \u003ca title=\"Aquarium of the Pacific, ruddy ducks information\" href=\"http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/ruddy_duck\" target=\"_blank\">migrating to Prairie Potholes\u003c/a> soon where they’ll build nests in reeds suspended over shallow water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enchanting \u003ca title=\"Northern Pintail ID, Cornell website\" href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pintail/lifehistory\" target=\"_blank\">Northern pintail\u003c/a> ducks remind me of graceful ballerinas. Their slim shape and longish neck -- accented by a “racing stripe” of feathers on the males -- and elegant head are the essence of refinement. The male’s tail, which have the longest tail feathers in the duck world, gives them their name. They seem to be continually enacting “Swan Lake,” including their habit of dabbling by tipping, butts up, to feed on underwater vegetation and insects. They’ll be migrating to freshwater ponds from California and northeast as far as Canada and Alaska. They nest on the ground in brush or grass where the female can sit camouflaged until the ducklings hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52161\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 435px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/12/dabbling-and-diving-ducks-catch-the-spring-show/northern_pintail_2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52161\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-52161\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Northern_pintail_2-435x253.jpg\" alt=\"A graceful male Northern pintail duck rests atop the water. Photo by Mehmet Karatay.\" width=\"435\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A graceful male Northern pintail duck rests atop the water. Photo by Mehmet Karatay.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Striking \u003ca title=\"Bufflehead Duck ID, Cornell website\" href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/bufflehead/lifehistory\" target=\"_blank\">buffleheads\u003c/a>, identified by the large white patch on the back of the male’s head and white bodies, are in the group known as Sea Ducks. Though they’re small, \u003ca title=\"Aquarium of the Pacific, bufflehead information\" href=\"http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/bufflehead\" target=\"_blank\">buffleheads migrate to Canadian and Alaskan breeding grounds\u003c/a> in aspen and boreal forests near lakes and ponds. A few isolated populations nest more locally. They seek out woodpecker holes 5-20 feet above the ground for their young and mates stay together for several seasons, which is unusual among ducks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can help with duck conservation by supporting efforts to maintain and restore healthy Bay habitats locally and nesting grounds further afield. You can also purchase \u003ca title=\"Duck Stamp Information, US Fish and Wildlife Service website\" href=\"http://www.fws.gov/duckstamps/Info/Stamps/stampinfo.htm\" target=\"_blank\">\"Duck Stamps\"\u003c/a>, a surprising way to support ducks even if you're not a hunter.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Ducks are getting ready to make their seasonal migration away from San Francisco Bay. Come see them in their breeding finery before they're gone for the summer.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 487px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/12/dabbling-and-diving-ducks-catch-the-spring-show/ducks_are_back/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52159\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-52159\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Ducks_Are_Back-487x360.jpg\" alt=\"Many ducks come to the Bay to spend the winter. Photo by Ingrid Taylar\" width=\"487\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many species of ducks come to the Bay to spend the winter. Photo by \u003ca title=\"Ducks are Back by Ingrid Taylar, Wikimedia\" href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ducks_Are_Back.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Ingrid Taylar\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“The ducks would appear in flocks, darkening the air…” \u003ca title=\"www.lagunadesantarosa.org\" href=\"http://www.lagunadesantarosa.org/pdfs/AppendixF.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">William Heath Davis; Yerba Buena (San Francisco)\u003c/a>. c. 1846.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our winter ducks are getting ready to take flight for their summer breeding grounds. Subdued patterns have been replaced with vibrant breeding colors -- for the males at any rate. Any morning now, with the longer days and warm weather, we'll awaken and they'll have departed overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52160\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 337px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/12/dabbling-and-diving-ducks-catch-the-spring-show/ruddy_duck_oxyura_jamaicensis_rwd1/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52160\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-52160\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Ruddy_Duck_Oxyura_jamaicensis_RWD1-337x253.jpg\" alt=\"Male ruddy duck attracting attention in full breeding plumage. Photo by Dick Daniels.\" width=\"337\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Male ruddy duck attracting attention in full breeding plumage. Photo by Dick Daniels.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists generally divide ducks into three categories: \u003ca title=\"Dabblers vs. Divers, Stanford University\" href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Dabblers_vs._Divers.html\" target=\"_blank\">divers, dabblers, and “Sea Ducks”\u003c/a>. Here are a few of my favorites starting with the diving ducks. \u003ca title=\"Ruddy Duck ID, Cornell website\" href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruddy_Duck/id\" target=\"_blank\">Ruddy ducks\u003c/a> are built for underwater speed and agility, with their stiff tails used for steering underwater and large, webbed feet placed far back on their chunky bodies to propel them as they chase fish. Males are currently showing off their tawny red body feathers with bright blue bills set off against creamy cheeks. The females remain camouflaged brown with creamy cheek patches, good for sitting on nests unobserved. They’ll be \u003ca title=\"Aquarium of the Pacific, ruddy ducks information\" href=\"http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/ruddy_duck\" target=\"_blank\">migrating to Prairie Potholes\u003c/a> soon where they’ll build nests in reeds suspended over shallow water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enchanting \u003ca title=\"Northern Pintail ID, Cornell website\" href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pintail/lifehistory\" target=\"_blank\">Northern pintail\u003c/a> ducks remind me of graceful ballerinas. Their slim shape and longish neck -- accented by a “racing stripe” of feathers on the males -- and elegant head are the essence of refinement. The male’s tail, which have the longest tail feathers in the duck world, gives them their name. They seem to be continually enacting “Swan Lake,” including their habit of dabbling by tipping, butts up, to feed on underwater vegetation and insects. They’ll be migrating to freshwater ponds from California and northeast as far as Canada and Alaska. They nest on the ground in brush or grass where the female can sit camouflaged until the ducklings hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_52161\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 435px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/12/dabbling-and-diving-ducks-catch-the-spring-show/northern_pintail_2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-52161\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-52161\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Northern_pintail_2-435x253.jpg\" alt=\"A graceful male Northern pintail duck rests atop the water. Photo by Mehmet Karatay.\" width=\"435\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A graceful male Northern pintail duck rests atop the water. Photo by Mehmet Karatay.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Striking \u003ca title=\"Bufflehead Duck ID, Cornell website\" href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/bufflehead/lifehistory\" target=\"_blank\">buffleheads\u003c/a>, identified by the large white patch on the back of the male’s head and white bodies, are in the group known as Sea Ducks. Though they’re small, \u003ca title=\"Aquarium of the Pacific, bufflehead information\" href=\"http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/bufflehead\" target=\"_blank\">buffleheads migrate to Canadian and Alaskan breeding grounds\u003c/a> in aspen and boreal forests near lakes and ponds. A few isolated populations nest more locally. They seek out woodpecker holes 5-20 feet above the ground for their young and mates stay together for several seasons, which is unusual among ducks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can help with duck conservation by supporting efforts to maintain and restore healthy Bay habitats locally and nesting grounds further afield. You can also purchase \u003ca title=\"Duck Stamp Information, US Fish and Wildlife Service website\" href=\"http://www.fws.gov/duckstamps/Info/Stamps/stampinfo.htm\" target=\"_blank\">\"Duck Stamps\"\u003c/a>, a surprising way to support ducks even if you're not a hunter.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Beavers Return to San Jose",
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"content": "\u003cp>The swallows may not be flocking back to Capistrano these days, but the beavers have returned to San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when they're not receiving guests, curled wood shavings and girdled willow trees give the critters away. It started when a lone beaver was spotted in the Guadalupe River, just across the street from HP Pavilion in downtown San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thrilled, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.grpg.org/\">Guadalupe River Park Conservancy\u003c/a> set up a trail camera to monitor its activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/TZkjtkIfGOs\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then another beaver appeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I jumped up out of my chair and high-fived my wife and hugged her when I saw the second beaver,” said Greg Kerekes of the conservancy, after going through the camera footage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, he discovered that three beavers, a pregnant mother and her two yearlings, were keeping house at the confluence of the \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Guadalupe R.\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe_River_%28California%29\">Guadalupe River\u003c/a> and \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Los Gatos Creek\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Gatos_Creek_%28Santa_Clara_County,_California%29\">Los Gatos Creek\u003c/a>. A family indicates they will likely settle, said conservancy executive director Leslee Hamilton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental educators hope the beavers will stay because they benefit wildlife and can help teach children about watersheds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Eyes get really wide when children hear about salmon in the river,” Hamilton said. “The beavers will enrich our program and show kids what an ecosystem is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Clara Valley Water District has decided that the beavers do not pose a threat to flood protection efforts. Located near a water intake, Hamilton says the beavers could not have picked a better spot. If water rises to a certain point, it pours into an underground concrete channel bypass that leads to a flood control plain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, a family of beavers also \u003ca title=\"Bay Nature - beavers\" href=\"http://baynature.org/articles/martinez-beavers/\">colonized Alhambra Creek\u003c/a> in downtown Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could sit at Starbucks, drink your morning coffee and watch kits (young beavers) play,” said Heidi Perryman, president of \u003ca title=\"Worth a Dam - home\" href=\"http://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/\">Worth a Dam\u003c/a>, a beaver advocacy organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the beavers have settled in Martinez, the ecosystem has flourished, seeing at least 13 new species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The next year, the river otter returned, no doubt to hunt the now plentiful fish in the beaver ponds. Then the year after, the mink returned,” said Rick Lanman of the Institute of Historical Ecology in Los Altos. “All manner of birds and fish have returned, and we don't even know how many species of dragonflies and damselflies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beaver supporters praise the \u003ca title=\"Atlantic - beavers\" href=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/06/leave-it-to-beavers/308980/\">benefits that beavers bestow\u003c/a> on the environment. The “ecosystem engineers” are a keystone species, and they raise water tables, create wetlands, clean water, slow water down and restore topsoil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanman called beaver-created ponds “factories” for producing insects and fish, and “cafeterias” for birds and salmonids, such as trout and salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federally endangered species also benefit, such as the California red-legged frog and the southwest willow flycatcher. Beavers will cut down some trees and widen the amount of riverbank that gets watered, resulting in a net increase of trees, according to Lanman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armed with two industrial-grade incisors, beavers are often considered a nuisance. They cause problems with agriculture, damming irrigation canals and chewing trees. They also wreak havoc in urban areas, gnawing landscaping and flooding fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"A lost species has found its way back.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Beavers, North America’s largest rodents, are native to the Bay Area, but their numbers dwindled because of fur trading. In 1997, they were reintroduced to the Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos, and the Guadalupe beavers arrived by swimming down Los Gatos Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lost species has found its way back,” Kerekes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beavers are starting to spread in the South Bay, a sign that the ecosystem may be able to support larger mammals again and that restoration efforts have been successful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norma Camacho, the water district’s chief operating officer for watersheds, said she is thrilled that efforts to improve the Guadalupe ecosystem are working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, a beaver was spotted in the Guadalupe River near Hedding Street in San Jose and another at the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant. In 2008, beaver tracks were also spotted in Charleston Slough near the Palo Alto-Mountain View border.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have been cruising the South Bay for awhile,” Lanman said. “The \u003ca title=\"NewsFix - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2011/09/12/bay-salt-pond-restoration-reaches-milestone-tomorrow/\">conversion of the South Bay salt ponds\u003c/a> back to tidal marsh may be providing the beaver with a means to access the South Bay rivers. Beaver can cross salt water easily and even live in it if it's brackish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perryman said people could see the beavers as a good sign for the river and its good fortune, adding that beavers revitalize ecosystems for free, unlike cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A small investment in restoration continues to yield dividends,” Lanman said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The swallows may not be flocking back to Capistrano these days, but the beavers have returned to San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when they're not receiving guests, curled wood shavings and girdled willow trees give the critters away. It started when a lone beaver was spotted in the Guadalupe River, just across the street from HP Pavilion in downtown San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thrilled, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.grpg.org/\">Guadalupe River Park Conservancy\u003c/a> set up a trail camera to monitor its activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/TZkjtkIfGOs\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then another beaver appeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I jumped up out of my chair and high-fived my wife and hugged her when I saw the second beaver,” said Greg Kerekes of the conservancy, after going through the camera footage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, he discovered that three beavers, a pregnant mother and her two yearlings, were keeping house at the confluence of the \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Guadalupe R.\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe_River_%28California%29\">Guadalupe River\u003c/a> and \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Los Gatos Creek\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Gatos_Creek_%28Santa_Clara_County,_California%29\">Los Gatos Creek\u003c/a>. A family indicates they will likely settle, said conservancy executive director Leslee Hamilton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental educators hope the beavers will stay because they benefit wildlife and can help teach children about watersheds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Eyes get really wide when children hear about salmon in the river,” Hamilton said. “The beavers will enrich our program and show kids what an ecosystem is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Clara Valley Water District has decided that the beavers do not pose a threat to flood protection efforts. Located near a water intake, Hamilton says the beavers could not have picked a better spot. If water rises to a certain point, it pours into an underground concrete channel bypass that leads to a flood control plain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, a family of beavers also \u003ca title=\"Bay Nature - beavers\" href=\"http://baynature.org/articles/martinez-beavers/\">colonized Alhambra Creek\u003c/a> in downtown Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could sit at Starbucks, drink your morning coffee and watch kits (young beavers) play,” said Heidi Perryman, president of \u003ca title=\"Worth a Dam - home\" href=\"http://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/\">Worth a Dam\u003c/a>, a beaver advocacy organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the beavers have settled in Martinez, the ecosystem has flourished, seeing at least 13 new species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The next year, the river otter returned, no doubt to hunt the now plentiful fish in the beaver ponds. Then the year after, the mink returned,” said Rick Lanman of the Institute of Historical Ecology in Los Altos. “All manner of birds and fish have returned, and we don't even know how many species of dragonflies and damselflies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beaver supporters praise the \u003ca title=\"Atlantic - beavers\" href=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/06/leave-it-to-beavers/308980/\">benefits that beavers bestow\u003c/a> on the environment. The “ecosystem engineers” are a keystone species, and they raise water tables, create wetlands, clean water, slow water down and restore topsoil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanman called beaver-created ponds “factories” for producing insects and fish, and “cafeterias” for birds and salmonids, such as trout and salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federally endangered species also benefit, such as the California red-legged frog and the southwest willow flycatcher. Beavers will cut down some trees and widen the amount of riverbank that gets watered, resulting in a net increase of trees, according to Lanman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armed with two industrial-grade incisors, beavers are often considered a nuisance. They cause problems with agriculture, damming irrigation canals and chewing trees. They also wreak havoc in urban areas, gnawing landscaping and flooding fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"A lost species has found its way back.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Beavers, North America’s largest rodents, are native to the Bay Area, but their numbers dwindled because of fur trading. In 1997, they were reintroduced to the Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos, and the Guadalupe beavers arrived by swimming down Los Gatos Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lost species has found its way back,” Kerekes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beavers are starting to spread in the South Bay, a sign that the ecosystem may be able to support larger mammals again and that restoration efforts have been successful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norma Camacho, the water district’s chief operating officer for watersheds, said she is thrilled that efforts to improve the Guadalupe ecosystem are working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, a beaver was spotted in the Guadalupe River near Hedding Street in San Jose and another at the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant. In 2008, beaver tracks were also spotted in Charleston Slough near the Palo Alto-Mountain View border.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have been cruising the South Bay for awhile,” Lanman said. “The \u003ca title=\"NewsFix - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2011/09/12/bay-salt-pond-restoration-reaches-milestone-tomorrow/\">conversion of the South Bay salt ponds\u003c/a> back to tidal marsh may be providing the beaver with a means to access the South Bay rivers. Beaver can cross salt water easily and even live in it if it's brackish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perryman said people could see the beavers as a good sign for the river and its good fortune, adding that beavers revitalize ecosystems for free, unlike cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A small investment in restoration continues to yield dividends,” Lanman said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Science on the SPOT: The Glowing Millipedes of Alcatraz",
"title": "Science on the SPOT: The Glowing Millipedes of Alcatraz",
"headTitle": "Science on the SPOT | QUEST | KQED Science",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50533\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 270px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/brco-colony-001.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/brco-colony-001-270x360.jpg\" alt=\"Brandt's cormorants\" width=\"270\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-large wp-image-50533\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandt's cormorants. Image courtesy of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nps.gov/alca/naturescience/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">National Park Service\u003c/a>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last March, one of our QUEST contributors, Thibault Worth, wrote \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/03/14/millipede-mystery-a-new-fluorescent-subspecies-on-alcatraz/\">a piece about the fluorescent millipedes\u003c/a> that were unexpectedly discovered on Alcatraz during a survey of the rat population on the island. As we were eager to learn more about these fascinating arthropods, I and my several of my KQED Science colleagues headed to Alcatraz with forensic entomologist Dr. Robert Kimsey, the National Park Service's Integrated Pest Manager Bruce Badzik and the \u003ca href=\"https://sites.google.com/a/ucdavis.edu/entclubug/home\">UC Davis Entomology Club\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was my first visit to Alcatraz, and my general impression of the island was as Badzik described it to me during our interview: “Most people are fascinated with the history of the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz because of the well-known criminals such as Al Capone, “Creepy” Karpis, the “Birdman of Alcatraz” and Machine Gun Kelly. There were also a lot of movies made about Alcatraz: \u003cem>Murder In The First\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Rock\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Escape From Alcatraz\u003c/em> with Clint Eastwood. So people love to come out to see where those films were filmed and see what they can see of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I didn’t realize it also has a \u003ca href=\"http://www.nps.gov/alca/naturescience/seabirds.htm\" target=\"_blank\">thriving water bird population\u003c/a> and serves as a sanctuary to a diverse number of species. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Folks who may not be interested in the prison love to come out here and see the large quantities of birds that we have that inhabit the island, such as the pelicans, the Brandt’s cormorants, the black-crowned night herons, the snowy white egret, mallards and a whole host of other sea birds that call this place home,” says Badzik.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50326\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 225px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz11-e1362701046404.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz11.jpg\" alt=\"Senior Interactive Producer Craig Rosa and Multimedia Producer Joshua Cassidy served as camera and sound on the millipedes shoot.\" width=\"225\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50326\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Senior Interactive Producer Craig Rosa and Multimedia Producer Joshua Cassidy served as camera and sound on the millipedes shoot.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And the name of the island is derived from the Spanish word, \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.bop.gov/about/history/alcatraz.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">alcatraces\u003c/a>\", another indicator of its \u003ca href=\"http://www.nps.gov/alca/naturescience/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">avian history\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Other people talk about it meaning strange white bird, but Alcatraz basically means pelican,” says Badzik. “This island, before it became a federal institution, was just covered with pelicans. Folks talked about how this was just covered in guano. Some folks actually called this 'White Island', just because of all the guano out here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Kimsey adds, “When the National Park Service got the island assigned to them, water bird rookeries began to develop and so now for a large part of the year, a large fraction of the island is closed because these rookeries are protected by federal law. And so the ecology of the island [over time] has changed rather considerably.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get a tour of Alcatraz while we were there, so I'll have to go back to check out the penitentiary. But it was a real privilege to be able to gain access to the more restricted portions of the island. We filmed our interviews in one of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.alcatrazgardens.org/visit.php\">private gardens\u003c/a> created by its previous military residents. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we shot most of our footage at night, filming in the darkness posed some technical challenges for the crew and evolved into a \"hunting-the-hunter-with-lights\" scenario. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50331\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz16.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50331\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz16.jpg\" alt=\"Multimedia Producer Joshua Cassidy films Alex Nguyen looking for milipedes on Alcatraz. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz16.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz16-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Multimedia Producer Joshua Cassidy films Alex Nguyen looking for milipedes on Alcatraz.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alex Nguyen, the UC Davis undergraduate student who originally found the millipedes last winter, would shine his UV flashlight on the ground in search of millipedes and we'd closely track him with a high-powered portable LED light. When he finally found his first millipede, we were just as enthralled as he was when it glowed a brilliant turquoise blue under the UV light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz17.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz17.jpg\" alt=\"millipede on alcatraz\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-50332\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz17.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz17-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want to learn a few more basic facts about millipedes? Check out this \u003ca href=\"https://popcorn.webmaker.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Popcorn Maker\u003c/a>-enhanced web extra featuring Dr. Kimsey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube=http://popcorn.webmadecontent.org/nbp_]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "More than a million visitors visit Alcatraz every year, but a recent discovery has revealed another attraction that lives within the shadows of this historic prison. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50533\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 270px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/brco-colony-001.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/brco-colony-001-270x360.jpg\" alt=\"Brandt's cormorants\" width=\"270\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-large wp-image-50533\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandt's cormorants. Image courtesy of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nps.gov/alca/naturescience/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">National Park Service\u003c/a>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last March, one of our QUEST contributors, Thibault Worth, wrote \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/03/14/millipede-mystery-a-new-fluorescent-subspecies-on-alcatraz/\">a piece about the fluorescent millipedes\u003c/a> that were unexpectedly discovered on Alcatraz during a survey of the rat population on the island. As we were eager to learn more about these fascinating arthropods, I and my several of my KQED Science colleagues headed to Alcatraz with forensic entomologist Dr. Robert Kimsey, the National Park Service's Integrated Pest Manager Bruce Badzik and the \u003ca href=\"https://sites.google.com/a/ucdavis.edu/entclubug/home\">UC Davis Entomology Club\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was my first visit to Alcatraz, and my general impression of the island was as Badzik described it to me during our interview: “Most people are fascinated with the history of the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz because of the well-known criminals such as Al Capone, “Creepy” Karpis, the “Birdman of Alcatraz” and Machine Gun Kelly. There were also a lot of movies made about Alcatraz: \u003cem>Murder In The First\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Rock\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Escape From Alcatraz\u003c/em> with Clint Eastwood. So people love to come out to see where those films were filmed and see what they can see of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I didn’t realize it also has a \u003ca href=\"http://www.nps.gov/alca/naturescience/seabirds.htm\" target=\"_blank\">thriving water bird population\u003c/a> and serves as a sanctuary to a diverse number of species. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Folks who may not be interested in the prison love to come out here and see the large quantities of birds that we have that inhabit the island, such as the pelicans, the Brandt’s cormorants, the black-crowned night herons, the snowy white egret, mallards and a whole host of other sea birds that call this place home,” says Badzik.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50326\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 225px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz11-e1362701046404.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz11.jpg\" alt=\"Senior Interactive Producer Craig Rosa and Multimedia Producer Joshua Cassidy served as camera and sound on the millipedes shoot.\" width=\"225\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50326\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Senior Interactive Producer Craig Rosa and Multimedia Producer Joshua Cassidy served as camera and sound on the millipedes shoot.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And the name of the island is derived from the Spanish word, \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.bop.gov/about/history/alcatraz.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">alcatraces\u003c/a>\", another indicator of its \u003ca href=\"http://www.nps.gov/alca/naturescience/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">avian history\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Other people talk about it meaning strange white bird, but Alcatraz basically means pelican,” says Badzik. “This island, before it became a federal institution, was just covered with pelicans. Folks talked about how this was just covered in guano. Some folks actually called this 'White Island', just because of all the guano out here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Kimsey adds, “When the National Park Service got the island assigned to them, water bird rookeries began to develop and so now for a large part of the year, a large fraction of the island is closed because these rookeries are protected by federal law. And so the ecology of the island [over time] has changed rather considerably.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get a tour of Alcatraz while we were there, so I'll have to go back to check out the penitentiary. But it was a real privilege to be able to gain access to the more restricted portions of the island. We filmed our interviews in one of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.alcatrazgardens.org/visit.php\">private gardens\u003c/a> created by its previous military residents. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we shot most of our footage at night, filming in the darkness posed some technical challenges for the crew and evolved into a \"hunting-the-hunter-with-lights\" scenario. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50331\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz16.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50331\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz16.jpg\" alt=\"Multimedia Producer Joshua Cassidy films Alex Nguyen looking for milipedes on Alcatraz. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz16.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz16-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Multimedia Producer Joshua Cassidy films Alex Nguyen looking for milipedes on Alcatraz.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alex Nguyen, the UC Davis undergraduate student who originally found the millipedes last winter, would shine his UV flashlight on the ground in search of millipedes and we'd closely track him with a high-powered portable LED light. When he finally found his first millipede, we were just as enthralled as he was when it glowed a brilliant turquoise blue under the UV light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz17.jpg\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz17.jpg\" alt=\"millipede on alcatraz\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-50332\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz17.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/alcatraz17-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want to learn a few more basic facts about millipedes? Check out this \u003ca href=\"https://popcorn.webmaker.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Popcorn Maker\u003c/a>-enhanced web extra featuring Dr. Kimsey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>null\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50979\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/15/rescuing-injured-wildlife/colos-in-pool-edited/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50979\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50979\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/COLOs-in-pool-edited.jpg\" alt=\"The common loon rescued at Crown Beach (rear bird) swims in a pool at the International Bird Rescue Center. Her injuries can be seen in the stitches on her head. Image courtesy International Bird Rescue Center.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/COLOs-in-pool-edited.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/COLOs-in-pool-edited-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The common loon rescued at Crown Beach (rear bird) swims in a pool at the International Bird Rescue Center. Her injuries can be seen in the stitches on her head. Image courtesy International Bird Rescue Center.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She was sick, alone, and stranded on a beach, her head wrapped in fishing line that had cut down to the bone in some areas. Even without the injuries, she would have had a hard time taking flight from the sand. Loons are built for a water takeoff with feet far back on their bodies. This \u003ca title=\"Common Loon ID, Cornell website\" href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/common_loon/id\" target=\"_blank\">common loon\u003c/a> (COLO) was lucky, though, that Martha noticed her and went to get help. Martha found James and Trevor, East Bay Regional Parks naturalist staff at\u003ca title=\"Crab Cove at Crown Beach, EBRPD\" href=\"http://www.ebparks.org/parks/vc/crab_cove\"> Crown Beach\u003c/a>, and they came to COLO’s rescue. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50980\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 382px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/15/rescuing-injured-wildlife/colo-hook-lat/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50980\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-50980\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/COLO-hook-LAT-382x253.jpg\" alt=\"The hook can be seen in this x-ray in the middle-left part of the picture.\" width=\"382\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The hook can be seen in this x-ray in the middle-left part of the picture. Image courtesy of International Bird Rescue Center.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Throwing a jacket over her head to protect themselves and help calm her down, they were able to pick her up and prepare her for transport to the \u003ca title=\"Lindsey Wildlife Museum\" href=\"http://wildlife-museum.org/hospital/about\" target=\"_blank\">Lindsey Wildlife Museum and Hospital\u003c/a> in Walnut Creek. She ended up at the \u003ca title=\"International Bird Rescue Center\" href=\"http://www.bird-rescue.org/\" target=\"_blank\">International Bird Rescue Center\u003c/a> in Cordelia, CA as they specialize in caring for waterbirds. The staff vets removed the monofilament and stitched up her wounds. X-rays revealed that COLO had swallowed a hook. Surgery would be required to remove that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Common loons are \u003ca title=\"loon migration, USGS\" href=\"http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/terrestrial/migratory_birds/loons/questions.html\" target=\"_blank\">migratory\u003c/a>, spectacular, large grayish birds who winter along the East and West coasts, including San Francisco Bay, and nest in the far northern US, Canada, Alaska, and the Arctic. (Some of you may remember Henry Ford and Katherine Hepburn’s movie, “On Golden Pond,” which made the yodeling call of the loon and lifelong love forever entwined in my mind. But I digress.) Loons can dive deeply and chase their small fish prey to depths of up to 200 feet using their large feet to propel them underwater. Usually though they fish in shallow, nearshore waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50982\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 189px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/15/rescuing-injured-wildlife/2013-02-22-13-37-35/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50982\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-50982\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/2013-02-22-13.37.35-189x253.jpg\" alt=\"Trevor helped rescue the injured common loon from the beach.\" width=\"189\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trevor helped rescue the injured common loon from the beach.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Discarded fishing line, tackle and hooks pose threats to loons and other wildlife. One initiative to help educate fishermen about the importance of cleaning up after themselves is underway in many fishing spots along our shores. \u003ca title=\"Marine Debris website\" href=\"http://www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/trashdebris.html\" target=\"_blank\">Monofilament collection bins \u003c/a>have been installed in many areas and information is being distributed about where they can send their line to have it recycled. You can help wildlife by donating time or resources to the facilities and volunteers who do the important work in the day-to-day care for our injured wildlife. \u003ca title=\"Wildcare Bay Area\" href=\"http://www.wildcarebayarea.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AnimalAid\" target=\"_blank\">Wildcare\u003c/a> is another important wildlife care facility operating in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50979\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/15/rescuing-injured-wildlife/colos-in-pool-edited/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50979\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50979\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/COLOs-in-pool-edited.jpg\" alt=\"The common loon rescued at Crown Beach (rear bird) swims in a pool at the International Bird Rescue Center. Her injuries can be seen in the stitches on her head. Image courtesy International Bird Rescue Center.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/COLOs-in-pool-edited.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/COLOs-in-pool-edited-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The common loon rescued at Crown Beach (rear bird) swims in a pool at the International Bird Rescue Center. Her injuries can be seen in the stitches on her head. Image courtesy International Bird Rescue Center.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She was sick, alone, and stranded on a beach, her head wrapped in fishing line that had cut down to the bone in some areas. Even without the injuries, she would have had a hard time taking flight from the sand. Loons are built for a water takeoff with feet far back on their bodies. This \u003ca title=\"Common Loon ID, Cornell website\" href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/common_loon/id\" target=\"_blank\">common loon\u003c/a> (COLO) was lucky, though, that Martha noticed her and went to get help. Martha found James and Trevor, East Bay Regional Parks naturalist staff at\u003ca title=\"Crab Cove at Crown Beach, EBRPD\" href=\"http://www.ebparks.org/parks/vc/crab_cove\"> Crown Beach\u003c/a>, and they came to COLO’s rescue. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50980\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 382px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/15/rescuing-injured-wildlife/colo-hook-lat/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50980\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-50980\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/COLO-hook-LAT-382x253.jpg\" alt=\"The hook can be seen in this x-ray in the middle-left part of the picture.\" width=\"382\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The hook can be seen in this x-ray in the middle-left part of the picture. Image courtesy of International Bird Rescue Center.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Throwing a jacket over her head to protect themselves and help calm her down, they were able to pick her up and prepare her for transport to the \u003ca title=\"Lindsey Wildlife Museum\" href=\"http://wildlife-museum.org/hospital/about\" target=\"_blank\">Lindsey Wildlife Museum and Hospital\u003c/a> in Walnut Creek. She ended up at the \u003ca title=\"International Bird Rescue Center\" href=\"http://www.bird-rescue.org/\" target=\"_blank\">International Bird Rescue Center\u003c/a> in Cordelia, CA as they specialize in caring for waterbirds. The staff vets removed the monofilament and stitched up her wounds. X-rays revealed that COLO had swallowed a hook. Surgery would be required to remove that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Common loons are \u003ca title=\"loon migration, USGS\" href=\"http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/terrestrial/migratory_birds/loons/questions.html\" target=\"_blank\">migratory\u003c/a>, spectacular, large grayish birds who winter along the East and West coasts, including San Francisco Bay, and nest in the far northern US, Canada, Alaska, and the Arctic. (Some of you may remember Henry Ford and Katherine Hepburn’s movie, “On Golden Pond,” which made the yodeling call of the loon and lifelong love forever entwined in my mind. But I digress.) Loons can dive deeply and chase their small fish prey to depths of up to 200 feet using their large feet to propel them underwater. Usually though they fish in shallow, nearshore waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50982\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 189px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/15/rescuing-injured-wildlife/2013-02-22-13-37-35/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50982\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-50982\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/2013-02-22-13.37.35-189x253.jpg\" alt=\"Trevor helped rescue the injured common loon from the beach.\" width=\"189\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trevor helped rescue the injured common loon from the beach.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Discarded fishing line, tackle and hooks pose threats to loons and other wildlife. One initiative to help educate fishermen about the importance of cleaning up after themselves is underway in many fishing spots along our shores. \u003ca title=\"Marine Debris website\" href=\"http://www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/trashdebris.html\" target=\"_blank\">Monofilament collection bins \u003c/a>have been installed in many areas and information is being distributed about where they can send their line to have it recycled. You can help wildlife by donating time or resources to the facilities and volunteers who do the important work in the day-to-day care for our injured wildlife. \u003ca title=\"Wildcare Bay Area\" href=\"http://www.wildcarebayarea.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AnimalAid\" target=\"_blank\">Wildcare\u003c/a> is another important wildlife care facility operating in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In this part of California we may thank our lucky stars for being free of \u003ca href=\"http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/animals/python.shtml\">Burmese pythons\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Loxosceles_reclusa_range.png\">brown recluse spiders\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=11059&page=6\">Africanized honeybees\u003c/a>. But during the last few decades, while most of us weren't paying attention, much of California was taken over by ants from Argentina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Argentine ants, \u003ci>Linepithema humile\u003c/i>, love the environment of our homes and gardens. The soil is watered regularly, there's warmth nearby in the winter, and it almost never floods. The species is aggressive, and unlike most ants they don't fight each other's colonies. Recent research suggests that even though they're genetically diverse, Argentine ants always smell the same to each other, so undistracted by internal wars they combine forces and simply overwhelm most other ant species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But our different kinds of native ants are crucial members of the local ecosystem. Some eat corpses, while others scavenge the ground for dead plant matter. Some live like farmers, cultivating certain fungus species by feeding them plant materials. Some depend on specific plants, which benefit from the attention. (KQED has a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/slideshow/interactive-map-ants-of-the-bay-area/\">cool gallery of Bay Area native ant species\u003c/a> and their lifeways.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Argentine ants move in, all of those specialized services are handicapped or disappear. There's plenty of reading out there about the effect of these ants on ecosystems, but as a geologist I wonder about their effect on \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/glossaryofgeology/g/defbioturbation.htm\">bioturbation\u003c/a>, the processes by which living things stir the soil. Ground-dwelling animals have profound effects on soil: the way it breathes, circulates water and cycles nutrients. Ants and worms are the most important of these.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the various ant species, Argentine ants are small and their nests are shallow. That means, for instance, they're not capable of building the piles of coarse sand and gravel, brought up from meters below the ground, that desert red ants made in this example from Nevada. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_51002\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/14/the-ant-driven-landscape/anthill/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-51002\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/anthill.jpg\" alt=\"Photos by Andrew Alden\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-51002\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/anthill.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/anthill-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photos by Andrew Alden\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fortunately Argentine ants have trouble where it's dry and cold, so gold prospectors in the Mojave can continue their practice of sampling buried rocks from anthills. But around here, how does the soil respond when the deep-digging ant species are gone? I also wonder about the various bee species that dig holes in the ground, like these ones I spotted on a San Mateo County seacliff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/14/the-ant-driven-landscape/bees/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-51003\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bees.jpg\" alt=\"bees\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-51003\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bees.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bees-400x233.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As scientists learn more about invasive species, it's clear that no matter wherever they live, people need to raise their game and learn defensive practices: call it eco-hygeine. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider the earthworms of Minnesota. Did you know that in Minnesota and much of its neighboring states there aren't any native earthworms? Since the ice age glaciers melted, some 10,000 years ago, the earthworms haven't managed to crawl north fast enough, and the forests there are adapted to worm-free soils that consist of raw glacier sediment with a thick layer of organic matter on top. Worms eat all that stuff and dig it into the dirt. That's why we love them in most places, but in Minnesota the worms brought in with nursery plants and baitworms thrown away during fishing trips are ruining the woods. Up there, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/forest/soil.html\">Great Lakes Worm Watch\u003c/a> is trying to raise consciousness and fight the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around here, we have to think more about our ants. At Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve they've been \u003ca href=\"http://jrbp.stanford.edu/db/projects/project_display.php?project_id=56\">monitoring the Argentine ant invasion\u003c/a> and are learning what limits them: cold, dry ground and ant species with strong defenses. Volunteers all over the Bay Area can act locally by gathering data through the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/science/citizen_science/ants/\">Bay Area Ant Survey\u003c/a>, coordinated by the California Academy of Sciences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There has been a lot of talk lately about \"Anthropocene time,\" a name for the geological time period that includes the present and future. It represents a concept I might call the human-driven planet: our actions and influences have become as important as natural forces in governing the planetary environment. The root \"anthropo-\" refers to human causes, but for teaching purposes it may be better just to look down at our feet and think \"ant-\" instead. Because humans brought the invaders here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the way, Argentine ants are well controlled with \u003ca href=\"http://insects.about.com/od/HouseholdPests/a/How-To-Make-And-Use-Homemade-Ant-Baits.htm\">boric acid bait\u003c/a>. I've had lasting success with \u003ca href=\"http://www.ps.uci.edu/~tomba/ants/\">this simple method\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In this part of California we may thank our lucky stars for being free of \u003ca href=\"http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/animals/python.shtml\">Burmese pythons\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Loxosceles_reclusa_range.png\">brown recluse spiders\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=11059&page=6\">Africanized honeybees\u003c/a>. But during the last few decades, while most of us weren't paying attention, much of California was taken over by ants from Argentina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Argentine ants, \u003ci>Linepithema humile\u003c/i>, love the environment of our homes and gardens. The soil is watered regularly, there's warmth nearby in the winter, and it almost never floods. The species is aggressive, and unlike most ants they don't fight each other's colonies. Recent research suggests that even though they're genetically diverse, Argentine ants always smell the same to each other, so undistracted by internal wars they combine forces and simply overwhelm most other ant species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But our different kinds of native ants are crucial members of the local ecosystem. Some eat corpses, while others scavenge the ground for dead plant matter. Some live like farmers, cultivating certain fungus species by feeding them plant materials. Some depend on specific plants, which benefit from the attention. (KQED has a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/slideshow/interactive-map-ants-of-the-bay-area/\">cool gallery of Bay Area native ant species\u003c/a> and their lifeways.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Argentine ants move in, all of those specialized services are handicapped or disappear. There's plenty of reading out there about the effect of these ants on ecosystems, but as a geologist I wonder about their effect on \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/glossaryofgeology/g/defbioturbation.htm\">bioturbation\u003c/a>, the processes by which living things stir the soil. Ground-dwelling animals have profound effects on soil: the way it breathes, circulates water and cycles nutrients. Ants and worms are the most important of these.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the various ant species, Argentine ants are small and their nests are shallow. That means, for instance, they're not capable of building the piles of coarse sand and gravel, brought up from meters below the ground, that desert red ants made in this example from Nevada. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_51002\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/14/the-ant-driven-landscape/anthill/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-51002\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/anthill.jpg\" alt=\"Photos by Andrew Alden\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-51002\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/anthill.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/anthill-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photos by Andrew Alden\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fortunately Argentine ants have trouble where it's dry and cold, so gold prospectors in the Mojave can continue their practice of sampling buried rocks from anthills. But around here, how does the soil respond when the deep-digging ant species are gone? I also wonder about the various bee species that dig holes in the ground, like these ones I spotted on a San Mateo County seacliff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/14/the-ant-driven-landscape/bees/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-51003\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bees.jpg\" alt=\"bees\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-51003\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bees.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bees-400x233.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As scientists learn more about invasive species, it's clear that no matter wherever they live, people need to raise their game and learn defensive practices: call it eco-hygeine. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider the earthworms of Minnesota. Did you know that in Minnesota and much of its neighboring states there aren't any native earthworms? Since the ice age glaciers melted, some 10,000 years ago, the earthworms haven't managed to crawl north fast enough, and the forests there are adapted to worm-free soils that consist of raw glacier sediment with a thick layer of organic matter on top. Worms eat all that stuff and dig it into the dirt. That's why we love them in most places, but in Minnesota the worms brought in with nursery plants and baitworms thrown away during fishing trips are ruining the woods. Up there, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/forest/soil.html\">Great Lakes Worm Watch\u003c/a> is trying to raise consciousness and fight the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around here, we have to think more about our ants. At Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve they've been \u003ca href=\"http://jrbp.stanford.edu/db/projects/project_display.php?project_id=56\">monitoring the Argentine ant invasion\u003c/a> and are learning what limits them: cold, dry ground and ant species with strong defenses. Volunteers all over the Bay Area can act locally by gathering data through the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/science/citizen_science/ants/\">Bay Area Ant Survey\u003c/a>, coordinated by the California Academy of Sciences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There has been a lot of talk lately about \"Anthropocene time,\" a name for the geological time period that includes the present and future. It represents a concept I might call the human-driven planet: our actions and influences have become as important as natural forces in governing the planetary environment. The root \"anthropo-\" refers to human causes, but for teaching purposes it may be better just to look down at our feet and think \"ant-\" instead. Because humans brought the invaders here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the way, Argentine ants are well controlled with \u003ca href=\"http://insects.about.com/od/HouseholdPests/a/How-To-Make-And-Use-Homemade-Ant-Baits.htm\">boric acid bait\u003c/a>. I've had lasting success with \u003ca href=\"http://www.ps.uci.edu/~tomba/ants/\">this simple method\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Engineering a Virus-Free Future",
"title": "Engineering a Virus-Free Future",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/hivdocking/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50657\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/HIVdocking.jpg\" alt=\"One day we may all be engineered so that we are immune to all viruses (including the HIV shown here). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"630\" height=\"361\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50657\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/HIVdocking.jpg 630w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/HIVdocking-400x229.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One day we may all be engineered so that we are immune to all viruses (including the HIV shown here). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I have been reading a book called \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Regenesis-Synthetic-Biology-Reinvent-Ourselves/dp/0465021751/ref=tmm_hrd_title_popover?ie=UTF8&qid=1362680681&sr=8-1\">Regenesis \u003c/a>where in one part the authors propose a way to re-engineer the human race so all people are resistant to all viruses, known and unknown. This will theoretically be possible in the next few decades (or even sooner) and, if done right, is predicted to make us resistant for a very long time and possibly even forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as you might guess, something this radical does not come without risks. There are many possible health risks involved in a major reshaping of human DNA that essentially divorces us from the nature around us. And there are many ethical dilemmas in its implementation as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The benefits of a virus-free world are obvious. But it is an open question whether the risks outweigh these benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Science of Complete Viral Resistance\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The science behind all of this is plausible although it will definitely be a daunting technological challenge. The basic idea it is to change our operating system—we will be Macs in a PC world and so be immune to those pesky PC viruses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nature’s operating system is the genetic code. At its simplest the code is made up of 64, three letter words called codons. This is the language our genes are written in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viruses are able to infect our cells and make us sick because they use the same operating system. Basically a virus enters a cell and gives it a series of commands via the genetic code to make new viruses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we engineer our cells to speak a different language, then the viral instructions will be meaningless. Our cell will ignore the virus and eventually clear it out of our system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Re-engineering a code that has been around for a billion years might sound hard, but one of its properties makes it doable. Many of those 64 words mean pretty much the same thing. Our genetic code has a lot of synonyms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50664\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/geneticcodesm/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50664\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/geneticCodeSM.gif\" alt=\"A simple code with lots of synonyms makes re-engineering our operating system relatively simple.\" width=\"250\" height=\"220\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50664\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A simple code with lots of synonyms makes re-engineering our operating system relatively simple.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The idea would be to change the meaning of a few of the synonyms. What we’d do is pick a codon, maybe TAG, and change all of the TAGs in our genes to its synonyms, TGA and TAA. Then we’d make TAG code for something else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now when a virus enters the cell, its instructions to the cell are gibberish. Whenever it gives cells an instruction with TAG somewhere in it, the cell misreads it and so can’t do as it is told. The cell can then calmly ignore the virus and go about its business. (Click \u003ca href=\"http://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/viral-resistance\">here \u003c/a>to learn more about the science behind this.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making the resistance more or less permanent requires changing more than one synonym. Viruses are small and mutate like crazy so we have to make it so the virus requires at least ten and probably many more simultaneous mutations to become resistant. The only way to do this is if we make all the changes in one fell swoop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This all sounds like some Hollywood \"B movie\" but \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2011/08/15/redesigning-life/\">scientists are very close\u003c/a> to testing this theory out in \u003cem>E. coli\u003c/em>, a common lab bacterium. Scientists have made the appropriate changes and are stitching together the DNA as we speak. Soon we should know if this strain of \u003cem>E. coli\u003c/em> is immune to the phages that plague it. (Phages are what viruses that attack bacteria are called.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this works in bacteria, then it might work in people too. But it isn’t a for sure thing. We are more complicated than a bacterium and the genetic code is more complicated than it first appears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big challenge that has important implications is that we can’t make the necessary changes a bit at a time. If we do that, viruses will mutate along with us and keep up. We need to make all the tens of thousands of changes all at once. This is where the trouble can start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Technical Risks\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are at least two sets of technical risks associated with doing something like this. The first just has to do with how often we make a mistake while changing tens of thousands of our DNA letters. No matter how good we get, there will always be a chance that we make a mistake. And since these changes are in genes, some of the mistakes could be really bad for our health. I am not sure we can ever be careful enough to not introduce a few errors here and there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second big risk is that we do not fully understand how our DNA works. What if there are very small genes we don’t know about that use the synonym that we have changed? The consequences could be severe if that “genelet” plays an important role in the cell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another problem in that the synonyms may not be as alike as we think. We’ve known for a while that not all synonymous codons are created equal. For example, sometimes when we try to optimize a gene by selecting what we think are better codons, the gene stops working. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50677\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/geneticengineering/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50677\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering.jpg\" alt=\"We are bound to make a few mistakes when making so many changes to our DNA.\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50677\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering.jpg 250w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">We are bound to make a few mistakes when making so many changes to our DNA.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.yeastgenome.org/the-rhythm-of-ribosomes\">study \u003c/a>just out in yeast confirms that some of the specific codons in a gene are there for a reason—not all synonymous codons are used in the same way in the cell. It looks like some words are preferred at certain parts of a gene. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means we may not be able to simply swap one codon out for another in a gene. And since all the genes are competing for a limited amount of machinery using specific codons, we don’t really know what effect eliminating all these codons will have on all 20,000 or 25,000 of our genes. We may slow things down as the parts of the cell all compete for these limited resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes each of these problems worse is that we will need to make all the changes at once in a cell to keep viruses from catching up to us. We will be able to test a lot beforehand, but it may not be enough. We may miss something and that would be unacceptable here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember, we are talking about people here not bacteria, yeast or daisies. Mistakes mean a dead baby or one with disabilities. I am not sure there will ever be enough testing to make this safe enough to be worthwhile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Implementation Risks\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As you’ve seen, there are definitely health risks associated with doing this (I’m sure I haven’t thought of them all). But the ethical risks might be worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These changes can’t be made in any of us alive today. They would have to be made by inserting the changed DNA into a stem cell and coaxing that stem cell into becoming an embryo. This means that instead of changing the current human race, we’d be creating a new one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An immediate problem is how we choose who gets to be virus-resistant. And scarily still, whose DNA gets to live on. So the first step will be figuring out who gets to have virus-free children and how we “choose” what DNA that child will have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way would be to make it so everyone who wants a child gets the option of having the child be virus-resistant. Maybe parents fertilize an egg the old fashioned way, the embryo’s DNA is sequenced and the DNA made matches this embryo’s. This makes me a little squeamish and is a strange gray area. We have eliminated the embryo but essentially cloned it…is the child truly identical?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50683\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 150px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/atcgpeople-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50683\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/atcgPeople.jpg\" alt=\"This sort of re-engineering might result in two species of humans that cannot interbreed. Yikes.\" width=\"150\" height=\"184\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50683\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This sort of re-engineering might result in two species of humans that cannot interbreed. Yikes.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another option would be to use a computer to generate a mix of the parents’ DNA and then to make that DNA and grow it into a child. This is scary as you know people will be tempted to choose the DNA rather than letting it come down to chance. We’ll definitely end up with a very different human race in the end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both of these would be pretty expensive dollar-wise but are better than an option where a chosen few get to have virus-free kids. How would that decision be made and who gets to make it? (Hint: The poor would be poorly represented.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever option we choose, there will still be another key issue. Engineered humans and natural humans won’t be able to have kids together. This opens up a whole can of worms if the two groups are around together for any length of time. And chances are they will (unless we outlaw having kids the old fashioned way). We will have artificially speciated the human race!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is no way that comes out well. Most likely we’ll split into a group of haves and have nots decided by genetics. The engineered humans will have kids together and the natural humans will too. Occasionally a natural human could make enough money to have an engineered child but for the most part they’d be separated. I’ll let you paint that dystopic future in your head!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are a few of the ethical dilemmas I can think of off the top of my head. I am sure there are many more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This may all seem like a problem for Captain Kirk, but it is closer than you might think. It is really important to start talking about this stuff now so we can think out how we are going to deal with these sorts of decisions in coming decades. Before we know it, the need to decide will be upon us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(And I didn’t even bring up the scary possibility of some Bond villain creating a virus-resistant army and then unleashing a deadly virus on the rest of us. Hey, maybe I need to send this idea to Hollywood!)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "I have been reading a book called \"Regenesis\" where in one part the authors propose a way to re-engineer the human race so all people are resistant to all viruses, known and unknown. This will theoretically be possible in the next few decades (or even sooner) and, if done right, is predicted to make us resistant for a very long time and possibly even forever.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/hivdocking/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50657\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/HIVdocking.jpg\" alt=\"One day we may all be engineered so that we are immune to all viruses (including the HIV shown here). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"630\" height=\"361\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50657\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/HIVdocking.jpg 630w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/HIVdocking-400x229.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One day we may all be engineered so that we are immune to all viruses (including the HIV shown here). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I have been reading a book called \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Regenesis-Synthetic-Biology-Reinvent-Ourselves/dp/0465021751/ref=tmm_hrd_title_popover?ie=UTF8&qid=1362680681&sr=8-1\">Regenesis \u003c/a>where in one part the authors propose a way to re-engineer the human race so all people are resistant to all viruses, known and unknown. This will theoretically be possible in the next few decades (or even sooner) and, if done right, is predicted to make us resistant for a very long time and possibly even forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as you might guess, something this radical does not come without risks. There are many possible health risks involved in a major reshaping of human DNA that essentially divorces us from the nature around us. And there are many ethical dilemmas in its implementation as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The benefits of a virus-free world are obvious. But it is an open question whether the risks outweigh these benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Science of Complete Viral Resistance\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The science behind all of this is plausible although it will definitely be a daunting technological challenge. The basic idea it is to change our operating system—we will be Macs in a PC world and so be immune to those pesky PC viruses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nature’s operating system is the genetic code. At its simplest the code is made up of 64, three letter words called codons. This is the language our genes are written in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viruses are able to infect our cells and make us sick because they use the same operating system. Basically a virus enters a cell and gives it a series of commands via the genetic code to make new viruses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we engineer our cells to speak a different language, then the viral instructions will be meaningless. Our cell will ignore the virus and eventually clear it out of our system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Re-engineering a code that has been around for a billion years might sound hard, but one of its properties makes it doable. Many of those 64 words mean pretty much the same thing. Our genetic code has a lot of synonyms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50664\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/geneticcodesm/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50664\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/geneticCodeSM.gif\" alt=\"A simple code with lots of synonyms makes re-engineering our operating system relatively simple.\" width=\"250\" height=\"220\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50664\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A simple code with lots of synonyms makes re-engineering our operating system relatively simple.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The idea would be to change the meaning of a few of the synonyms. What we’d do is pick a codon, maybe TAG, and change all of the TAGs in our genes to its synonyms, TGA and TAA. Then we’d make TAG code for something else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now when a virus enters the cell, its instructions to the cell are gibberish. Whenever it gives cells an instruction with TAG somewhere in it, the cell misreads it and so can’t do as it is told. The cell can then calmly ignore the virus and go about its business. (Click \u003ca href=\"http://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/viral-resistance\">here \u003c/a>to learn more about the science behind this.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making the resistance more or less permanent requires changing more than one synonym. Viruses are small and mutate like crazy so we have to make it so the virus requires at least ten and probably many more simultaneous mutations to become resistant. The only way to do this is if we make all the changes in one fell swoop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This all sounds like some Hollywood \"B movie\" but \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2011/08/15/redesigning-life/\">scientists are very close\u003c/a> to testing this theory out in \u003cem>E. coli\u003c/em>, a common lab bacterium. Scientists have made the appropriate changes and are stitching together the DNA as we speak. Soon we should know if this strain of \u003cem>E. coli\u003c/em> is immune to the phages that plague it. (Phages are what viruses that attack bacteria are called.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this works in bacteria, then it might work in people too. But it isn’t a for sure thing. We are more complicated than a bacterium and the genetic code is more complicated than it first appears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big challenge that has important implications is that we can’t make the necessary changes a bit at a time. If we do that, viruses will mutate along with us and keep up. We need to make all the tens of thousands of changes all at once. This is where the trouble can start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Technical Risks\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are at least two sets of technical risks associated with doing something like this. The first just has to do with how often we make a mistake while changing tens of thousands of our DNA letters. No matter how good we get, there will always be a chance that we make a mistake. And since these changes are in genes, some of the mistakes could be really bad for our health. I am not sure we can ever be careful enough to not introduce a few errors here and there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second big risk is that we do not fully understand how our DNA works. What if there are very small genes we don’t know about that use the synonym that we have changed? The consequences could be severe if that “genelet” plays an important role in the cell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another problem in that the synonyms may not be as alike as we think. We’ve known for a while that not all synonymous codons are created equal. For example, sometimes when we try to optimize a gene by selecting what we think are better codons, the gene stops working. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50677\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/geneticengineering/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50677\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering.jpg\" alt=\"We are bound to make a few mistakes when making so many changes to our DNA.\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50677\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering.jpg 250w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-32x32.jpg 32w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-64x64.jpg 64w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-96x96.jpg 96w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-128x128.jpg 128w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/GeneticEngineering-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">We are bound to make a few mistakes when making so many changes to our DNA.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.yeastgenome.org/the-rhythm-of-ribosomes\">study \u003c/a>just out in yeast confirms that some of the specific codons in a gene are there for a reason—not all synonymous codons are used in the same way in the cell. It looks like some words are preferred at certain parts of a gene. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means we may not be able to simply swap one codon out for another in a gene. And since all the genes are competing for a limited amount of machinery using specific codons, we don’t really know what effect eliminating all these codons will have on all 20,000 or 25,000 of our genes. We may slow things down as the parts of the cell all compete for these limited resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes each of these problems worse is that we will need to make all the changes at once in a cell to keep viruses from catching up to us. We will be able to test a lot beforehand, but it may not be enough. We may miss something and that would be unacceptable here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember, we are talking about people here not bacteria, yeast or daisies. Mistakes mean a dead baby or one with disabilities. I am not sure there will ever be enough testing to make this safe enough to be worthwhile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Implementation Risks\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As you’ve seen, there are definitely health risks associated with doing this (I’m sure I haven’t thought of them all). But the ethical risks might be worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These changes can’t be made in any of us alive today. They would have to be made by inserting the changed DNA into a stem cell and coaxing that stem cell into becoming an embryo. This means that instead of changing the current human race, we’d be creating a new one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An immediate problem is how we choose who gets to be virus-resistant. And scarily still, whose DNA gets to live on. So the first step will be figuring out who gets to have virus-free children and how we “choose” what DNA that child will have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way would be to make it so everyone who wants a child gets the option of having the child be virus-resistant. Maybe parents fertilize an egg the old fashioned way, the embryo’s DNA is sequenced and the DNA made matches this embryo’s. This makes me a little squeamish and is a strange gray area. We have eliminated the embryo but essentially cloned it…is the child truly identical?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50683\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 150px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/11/engineering-a-virus-free-future/atcgpeople-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50683\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/atcgPeople.jpg\" alt=\"This sort of re-engineering might result in two species of humans that cannot interbreed. Yikes.\" width=\"150\" height=\"184\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50683\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This sort of re-engineering might result in two species of humans that cannot interbreed. Yikes.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another option would be to use a computer to generate a mix of the parents’ DNA and then to make that DNA and grow it into a child. This is scary as you know people will be tempted to choose the DNA rather than letting it come down to chance. We’ll definitely end up with a very different human race in the end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both of these would be pretty expensive dollar-wise but are better than an option where a chosen few get to have virus-free kids. How would that decision be made and who gets to make it? (Hint: The poor would be poorly represented.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever option we choose, there will still be another key issue. Engineered humans and natural humans won’t be able to have kids together. This opens up a whole can of worms if the two groups are around together for any length of time. And chances are they will (unless we outlaw having kids the old fashioned way). We will have artificially speciated the human race!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is no way that comes out well. Most likely we’ll split into a group of haves and have nots decided by genetics. The engineered humans will have kids together and the natural humans will too. Occasionally a natural human could make enough money to have an engineered child but for the most part they’d be separated. I’ll let you paint that dystopic future in your head!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are a few of the ethical dilemmas I can think of off the top of my head. I am sure there are many more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This may all seem like a problem for Captain Kirk, but it is closer than you might think. It is really important to start talking about this stuff now so we can think out how we are going to deal with these sorts of decisions in coming decades. Before we know it, the need to decide will be upon us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(And I didn’t even bring up the scary possibility of some Bond villain creating a virus-resistant army and then unleashing a deadly virus on the rest of us. Hey, maybe I need to send this idea to Hollywood!)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50416\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 616px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/06/arsenic-and-old-wells/arsenic_poisoning/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50416\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50416\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/arsenic_poisoning.jpg\" alt=\"arsenic poisoning\" width=\"616\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/arsenic_poisoning.jpg 616w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/arsenic_poisoning-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 616px) 100vw, 616px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The risks of arsenic-contaminated drinking water captured the world's attention when a 2010 Lancet study reported that close to 80 million people in Bangladesh may have been exposed to toxic levels of arsenic in their drinking water. A patient displays one of the many symptoms of arsenic poisoning--skin lesions--in the picture above. (Photo: waterdotorg, via Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Public health advocates cheered when the Environmental Protection Agency approved a stricter standard for arsenic in drinking water in 2001. Arsenic, a naturally occurring element in the earth’s crust, contaminates water supplies when it migrates from rocks into groundwater. Chronic exposure to arsenic in drinking water can cause serious skin and digestive problems and has been linked to several types of cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as \u003ca href=\"http://www.ehjournal.net/content/11/1/84\">a recent study shows\u003c/a>, not everyone is reaping the benefits of the revised safety standard. Six years after the new rule went into effect, poor communities—who can’t afford the costs of compliance—face the highest risk of exposure to unsafe arsenic levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley researchers analyzed arsenic levels in hundreds of community water systems in California’s San Joaquin Valley, one of the poorest regions in the United States. Most residents are Latino farmworkers. Many speak little English. They live in one of the country’s most productive agricultural regions, but they don’t share its bounty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the study's lead researcher, Carolina Balazs, showed in a paper last year, low-income Latinos in the valley are more likely to have high levels of nitrates in their water. Her arsenic study, published in November, finds no clear link between ethnicity and arsenic exposure. But it does show that if you’re poor and live in the San Joaquin Valley, you’re more likely to have unsafe levels of arsenic in your water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA lowered the arsenic standard, from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion, after a 1999 National Academy of Sciences report concluded that the higher standard “could easily” result in a 1-in-100 cancer risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(In a highly controversial move, the Bush White House postponed the revised rule, approved during the Clinton years, and asked the academy to evaluate new studies on arsenic’s health effects. To the dismay of some Bush supporters, the new studies actually strengthened the evidence.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arsenic levels in most groundwater samples in the United States average 1 ppb or below. But some places in the West, including the San Joaquin Valley, exceed 50 ppb. Small communities like those in the valley often get their drinking water from groundwater wells (while cities use surface water), and so are \u003ca href=\"http://oh.water.usgs.gov/tanc/pubs/BurowEtal04.pdf\">more likely to have higher concentrations of arsenic\u003c/a> in their water supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 30 million California residents rely on groundwater supplied by community water systems for at least some of their drinking water, according to the California Department of Public Health. Demand for groundwater increases during droughts, when surface water supplies start drying up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/press_room/press_releases/2013/pr020413.pdf\">report released by the State Water Resources Control Board\u003c/a> last month found that 21 million residents get their drinking water from community water systems with contaminated groundwater sources. Arsenic was the most common naturally occurring contaminant, followed by nitrates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water board identified three general approaches to solving the problem: preventing pollution, removing contaminants, and finding alternative water supplies. Unfortunately, there’s no economically feasible way to remove a naturally occurring contaminant like arsenic from groundwater. In that case, the board noted, water suppliers should focus on finding alternative supplies or treatment at the point of delivery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the board also acknowledged that community water systems in rural areas, which often serve just a few thousand people, can’t afford any of these solutions and may face persistent contamination problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA recognized that many smaller, poorer community water systems might not be able to meet the tougher standard. That’s why it extended the compliance deadline to January 2006. Yet today some water systems still lack the technical and financial means to comply, prompting regulators to suggest exemptions, including stop-gap measures like supplying bottled water, to give them even more time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as Balazs and her colleagues argue, this would simply perpetuate the inequities they found. Small systems often lack the economies of scale to raise rates and the know-how to apply for loans to hire experts who can install and oversee new treatments. And their customers have to buy bottled water so their families have safe drinking water at home—whether they can afford it or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the EPA simply extends the compliance period, it risks creating a situation where community water systems that can’t afford treatments will continue to violate the arsenic safety standard. And customers too poor to buy bottled water will suffer chronic exposure to arsenic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To address these disparities in the short term, Balazs and her colleagues argue, regulators must provide technical and financial assistance tailored to the special needs of small water systems so they can reduce their arsenic levels. But in the long run, regulators will need to help these communities tap into regional systems so they can absorb the high costs of delivering safe drinking water to everyone in the valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only then will public health advocates be able to celebrate the victory they envisioned more than a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Six years after the EPA's new arsenic rule for drinking water went into effect, poor communities in the San Joaquin Valley—who can’t afford the costs of complying with the stricter standard—face the highest risk of exposure to unsafe arsenic levels. \r\n\r\n\u003cp>\u003cspan>claimtoken-5144c0abd5ac8\u003c/span>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50416\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 616px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/06/arsenic-and-old-wells/arsenic_poisoning/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50416\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50416\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/arsenic_poisoning.jpg\" alt=\"arsenic poisoning\" width=\"616\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/arsenic_poisoning.jpg 616w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/arsenic_poisoning-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 616px) 100vw, 616px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The risks of arsenic-contaminated drinking water captured the world's attention when a 2010 Lancet study reported that close to 80 million people in Bangladesh may have been exposed to toxic levels of arsenic in their drinking water. A patient displays one of the many symptoms of arsenic poisoning--skin lesions--in the picture above. (Photo: waterdotorg, via Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Public health advocates cheered when the Environmental Protection Agency approved a stricter standard for arsenic in drinking water in 2001. Arsenic, a naturally occurring element in the earth’s crust, contaminates water supplies when it migrates from rocks into groundwater. Chronic exposure to arsenic in drinking water can cause serious skin and digestive problems and has been linked to several types of cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as \u003ca href=\"http://www.ehjournal.net/content/11/1/84\">a recent study shows\u003c/a>, not everyone is reaping the benefits of the revised safety standard. Six years after the new rule went into effect, poor communities—who can’t afford the costs of compliance—face the highest risk of exposure to unsafe arsenic levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley researchers analyzed arsenic levels in hundreds of community water systems in California’s San Joaquin Valley, one of the poorest regions in the United States. Most residents are Latino farmworkers. Many speak little English. They live in one of the country’s most productive agricultural regions, but they don’t share its bounty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the study's lead researcher, Carolina Balazs, showed in a paper last year, low-income Latinos in the valley are more likely to have high levels of nitrates in their water. Her arsenic study, published in November, finds no clear link between ethnicity and arsenic exposure. But it does show that if you’re poor and live in the San Joaquin Valley, you’re more likely to have unsafe levels of arsenic in your water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA lowered the arsenic standard, from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion, after a 1999 National Academy of Sciences report concluded that the higher standard “could easily” result in a 1-in-100 cancer risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(In a highly controversial move, the Bush White House postponed the revised rule, approved during the Clinton years, and asked the academy to evaluate new studies on arsenic’s health effects. To the dismay of some Bush supporters, the new studies actually strengthened the evidence.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arsenic levels in most groundwater samples in the United States average 1 ppb or below. But some places in the West, including the San Joaquin Valley, exceed 50 ppb. Small communities like those in the valley often get their drinking water from groundwater wells (while cities use surface water), and so are \u003ca href=\"http://oh.water.usgs.gov/tanc/pubs/BurowEtal04.pdf\">more likely to have higher concentrations of arsenic\u003c/a> in their water supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 30 million California residents rely on groundwater supplied by community water systems for at least some of their drinking water, according to the California Department of Public Health. Demand for groundwater increases during droughts, when surface water supplies start drying up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/press_room/press_releases/2013/pr020413.pdf\">report released by the State Water Resources Control Board\u003c/a> last month found that 21 million residents get their drinking water from community water systems with contaminated groundwater sources. Arsenic was the most common naturally occurring contaminant, followed by nitrates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water board identified three general approaches to solving the problem: preventing pollution, removing contaminants, and finding alternative water supplies. Unfortunately, there’s no economically feasible way to remove a naturally occurring contaminant like arsenic from groundwater. In that case, the board noted, water suppliers should focus on finding alternative supplies or treatment at the point of delivery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the board also acknowledged that community water systems in rural areas, which often serve just a few thousand people, can’t afford any of these solutions and may face persistent contamination problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA recognized that many smaller, poorer community water systems might not be able to meet the tougher standard. That’s why it extended the compliance deadline to January 2006. Yet today some water systems still lack the technical and financial means to comply, prompting regulators to suggest exemptions, including stop-gap measures like supplying bottled water, to give them even more time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as Balazs and her colleagues argue, this would simply perpetuate the inequities they found. Small systems often lack the economies of scale to raise rates and the know-how to apply for loans to hire experts who can install and oversee new treatments. And their customers have to buy bottled water so their families have safe drinking water at home—whether they can afford it or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the EPA simply extends the compliance period, it risks creating a situation where community water systems that can’t afford treatments will continue to violate the arsenic safety standard. And customers too poor to buy bottled water will suffer chronic exposure to arsenic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To address these disparities in the short term, Balazs and her colleagues argue, regulators must provide technical and financial assistance tailored to the special needs of small water systems so they can reduce their arsenic levels. But in the long run, regulators will need to help these communities tap into regional systems so they can absorb the high costs of delivering safe drinking water to everyone in the valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only then will public health advocates be able to celebrate the victory they envisioned more than a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"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.",
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"order": 9
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"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. ",
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"order": 15
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"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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"order": 18
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"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
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"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",
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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},
"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",
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"meta": {
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"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
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"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.",
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"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",
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"order": 11
},
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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",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
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"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"planet-money": {
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"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",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"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",
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"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
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