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"title": "Watsonville Lacks Funds to Control Toxic Algae, Threatening Wildlife",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2013/10/2013-10-07-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>By Krista Almanzan\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO1_KA_crop.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9661\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9661\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO1_KA_crop.jpg\" alt=\"The menace lurking in Pinto Lake isn't always obvious. (Krista Almanzan)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The menace lurking in Pinto Lake isn’t always obvious. (Krista Almanzan/KAZU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the Central Coast town of Watsonville, \u003ca href=\"http://www.pintolakepark.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pinto Lake City Park\u003c/a> is a fixture in the life of many locals, including 20-year-old Juan Perez. He’s been fishing off the jetty at the southern end of the lake since he was 8 years old. “I come out here whenever I can,” Perez said. He usually fishes for sport–catch and release–except late this summer when he caught more than 100 pounds of carp, winning Watsonville’s “Carpageddon” competition. The monthly $50 prize to the angler who removes the most carp from the lake is about all Watsonville can afford, to address the lake’s big problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nasty stuff\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pinto Lake is \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/09/24/california-lakes-toxic-algae-among-worst-in-u-s/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plagued with chronic blooms\u003c/a> of a toxic blue-green algae called cyanobacteria. The algae feed on phosphorus from decades-old deposits of sediment in the lake. Farm fertilizers and leaky septic systems are also contributors, and the bottom-feeding carp stir that phosphorus up into the lake waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9662\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-3-e1380900507238.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9662\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9662\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-3-e1380900507238.jpg\" alt=\"Blue green algae near the shore of Pinto Lake in Watsonville. (Krista Almanzan)\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue green algae near the shore of Pinto Lake in Watsonville. (Krista Almanzan/KAZU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“So if we can reduce the amount of carp in the lake we can reduce the amount of phosphorus in the water column,” said Robert Ketley, a senior utilities engineer with the city of Watsonville. The algae stay green while they’re floating on the surface of the water and then turn blue where they’ve dried on shore. “The problem really manifests in the fall months, and that’s when you come down here and the lake will look luminescent green and will have an odor that you will either distinguish as ‘gym bag’ or ‘manure,’” Ketley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitors may not always notice the small patches of algae floating on the lake but it’s hard to miss the signs along the shore warning people to avoid direct contact with the water. When it gets really bad, the lake has to be roped off. Patricia McQuade, who manages Pinto Lake City Park, including its RV campground and boat rentals, says she’s had to make changes to keep people from getting sick. For example, she no longer rents boats to families with kids. “Can’t do that,” McQuade told me on a recent visit. “We can’t let them on the water because a kid \u003cem>has\u003c/em> to put their hands over the side of the boat, right? Then they’re going to have to put their hands in their mouth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spiking the meter\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9665\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-4.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9665\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9665\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-4.jpg\" alt=\"Signs warn of the blue green algae at Watsonville's Pinto Lake. (Krista Almanzan)\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signs warn of the blue green algae at Watsonville’s Pinto Lake. (Krista Almanzan/KAZU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The algae produce a toxin called \u003ca href=\"http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/topics/bluegreenalgae.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">microcystin\u003c/a> that when touched or ingested can cause effects ranging from nausea to liver damage. The California health limit for the toxin is 0.8 parts-per-billion. Between 2009 and 2012, Pinto Lake averaged 84 ppb: 100 times the health limit. And one sample back in 2007 showed nearly 2.9 million ppb of microcystin. That’s the highest level of that toxin ever recorded in California: more than 3 million times the health limit. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.toxicalgaenews.com/toxic-algae-report-2013.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new study\u003c/a> sponsored by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nwf.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Wildlife Federation\u003c/a> ranks Pinto Lake’s algae among the worst in the nation. The blooms have been linked to the deaths of birds, fish and even sea otters in nearby Monterey Bay. That’s because the lake’s waters eventually flow into the Pajaro River, which empties into the bay. Once Ketley and a researcher showed symptoms of exposure themselves. Otherwise there are no documented cases of people getting sick from the slime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ketley says the algae will get worse when the rainy season kicks in. That’s when runoff from nearby agricultural fields and neighborhoods gives the biggest boost to phosphorus levels in the lake. The city plans to educate homeowners and businesses in the watershed about the effects of runoff, but that will only go so far. It’s also considering treating the lake with a chemical compound called \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">alum\u003c/a>. “You put alum into the lake,” Ketley said, “it binds up the phosphorus in the water column, and you create a barrier on the bottom of the lake, over the sediment, so that the phosphorus from the sediments can’t get up in the water column.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9671\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9671\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9671\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-2.jpg\" alt=\"Watsonville engineer Robert Ketley wants Pinto Lake to be a successful laboratory for countering algae. (Krista Almanzan) \" width=\"450\" height=\"338\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Watsonville engineer Robert Ketley wants Pinto Lake to be a successful laboratory for countering algae. (Krista Almanzan/KAZU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He says the alum treatment will cost several hundred thousand dollars. It’s money Watsonville does not have. The city hasn’t recovered from the economic downturn, when it had to cut staff and services. So Ketley applied for a grant from the State Water Resources Control Board. He says Pinto is the perfect-sized laboratory lake for other California communities. “One of the things I really feel strongly about,” Ketley said, “is I want to make sure people see this as an opportunity to have a success story rather than doom and gloom–‘Oh no, toxic lake, bad situation.’ We can fix this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McQuade and other community members say it must be fixed. They recently formed a group called \u003ca href=\"http://friendsofpintolake.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Friends of Pinto Lake\u003c/a>. “When you think of how hard we work to save a redwood, maybe 300 years old,” McQuade offers for perspective, “this is 8,000 years old, so we have to do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could be months before Watsonville knows if it will get any state money to help clean up the algae and preserve this treasured lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Krista Almanzan reports for public radio station KAZU in the Monterey Bay Area. She has also produced stories for NPR and KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The city of Watsonville has an expensive problem on its hands: toxic algae stirred up from the bottom of Pinto Lake makes the lake poisonous to humans and deadly to birds, fish, and even the otters in Monterey Bay, where the lake water eventually empties into the sea. Knowing how to clean it is one thing; paying for it is another.\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2013/10/2013-10-07-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>By Krista Almanzan\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO1_KA_crop.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9661\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9661\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO1_KA_crop.jpg\" alt=\"The menace lurking in Pinto Lake isn't always obvious. (Krista Almanzan)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The menace lurking in Pinto Lake isn’t always obvious. (Krista Almanzan/KAZU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the Central Coast town of Watsonville, \u003ca href=\"http://www.pintolakepark.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pinto Lake City Park\u003c/a> is a fixture in the life of many locals, including 20-year-old Juan Perez. He’s been fishing off the jetty at the southern end of the lake since he was 8 years old. “I come out here whenever I can,” Perez said. He usually fishes for sport–catch and release–except late this summer when he caught more than 100 pounds of carp, winning Watsonville’s “Carpageddon” competition. The monthly $50 prize to the angler who removes the most carp from the lake is about all Watsonville can afford, to address the lake’s big problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nasty stuff\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pinto Lake is \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/09/24/california-lakes-toxic-algae-among-worst-in-u-s/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plagued with chronic blooms\u003c/a> of a toxic blue-green algae called cyanobacteria. The algae feed on phosphorus from decades-old deposits of sediment in the lake. Farm fertilizers and leaky septic systems are also contributors, and the bottom-feeding carp stir that phosphorus up into the lake waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9662\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-3-e1380900507238.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9662\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9662\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-3-e1380900507238.jpg\" alt=\"Blue green algae near the shore of Pinto Lake in Watsonville. (Krista Almanzan)\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue green algae near the shore of Pinto Lake in Watsonville. (Krista Almanzan/KAZU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“So if we can reduce the amount of carp in the lake we can reduce the amount of phosphorus in the water column,” said Robert Ketley, a senior utilities engineer with the city of Watsonville. The algae stay green while they’re floating on the surface of the water and then turn blue where they’ve dried on shore. “The problem really manifests in the fall months, and that’s when you come down here and the lake will look luminescent green and will have an odor that you will either distinguish as ‘gym bag’ or ‘manure,’” Ketley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitors may not always notice the small patches of algae floating on the lake but it’s hard to miss the signs along the shore warning people to avoid direct contact with the water. When it gets really bad, the lake has to be roped off. Patricia McQuade, who manages Pinto Lake City Park, including its RV campground and boat rentals, says she’s had to make changes to keep people from getting sick. For example, she no longer rents boats to families with kids. “Can’t do that,” McQuade told me on a recent visit. “We can’t let them on the water because a kid \u003cem>has\u003c/em> to put their hands over the side of the boat, right? Then they’re going to have to put their hands in their mouth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spiking the meter\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9665\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-4.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9665\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9665\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-4.jpg\" alt=\"Signs warn of the blue green algae at Watsonville's Pinto Lake. (Krista Almanzan)\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signs warn of the blue green algae at Watsonville’s Pinto Lake. (Krista Almanzan/KAZU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The algae produce a toxin called \u003ca href=\"http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/topics/bluegreenalgae.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">microcystin\u003c/a> that when touched or ingested can cause effects ranging from nausea to liver damage. The California health limit for the toxin is 0.8 parts-per-billion. Between 2009 and 2012, Pinto Lake averaged 84 ppb: 100 times the health limit. And one sample back in 2007 showed nearly 2.9 million ppb of microcystin. That’s the highest level of that toxin ever recorded in California: more than 3 million times the health limit. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.toxicalgaenews.com/toxic-algae-report-2013.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new study\u003c/a> sponsored by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nwf.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Wildlife Federation\u003c/a> ranks Pinto Lake’s algae among the worst in the nation. The blooms have been linked to the deaths of birds, fish and even sea otters in nearby Monterey Bay. That’s because the lake’s waters eventually flow into the Pajaro River, which empties into the bay. Once Ketley and a researcher showed symptoms of exposure themselves. Otherwise there are no documented cases of people getting sick from the slime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ketley says the algae will get worse when the rainy season kicks in. That’s when runoff from nearby agricultural fields and neighborhoods gives the biggest boost to phosphorus levels in the lake. The city plans to educate homeowners and businesses in the watershed about the effects of runoff, but that will only go so far. It’s also considering treating the lake with a chemical compound called \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">alum\u003c/a>. “You put alum into the lake,” Ketley said, “it binds up the phosphorus in the water column, and you create a barrier on the bottom of the lake, over the sediment, so that the phosphorus from the sediments can’t get up in the water column.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9671\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9671\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9671\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/PINTO-2.jpg\" alt=\"Watsonville engineer Robert Ketley wants Pinto Lake to be a successful laboratory for countering algae. (Krista Almanzan) \" width=\"450\" height=\"338\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Watsonville engineer Robert Ketley wants Pinto Lake to be a successful laboratory for countering algae. (Krista Almanzan/KAZU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He says the alum treatment will cost several hundred thousand dollars. It’s money Watsonville does not have. The city hasn’t recovered from the economic downturn, when it had to cut staff and services. So Ketley applied for a grant from the State Water Resources Control Board. He says Pinto is the perfect-sized laboratory lake for other California communities. “One of the things I really feel strongly about,” Ketley said, “is I want to make sure people see this as an opportunity to have a success story rather than doom and gloom–‘Oh no, toxic lake, bad situation.’ We can fix this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McQuade and other community members say it must be fixed. They recently formed a group called \u003ca href=\"http://friendsofpintolake.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Friends of Pinto Lake\u003c/a>. “When you think of how hard we work to save a redwood, maybe 300 years old,” McQuade offers for perspective, “this is 8,000 years old, so we have to do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could be months before Watsonville knows if it will get any state money to help clean up the algae and preserve this treasured lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Krista Almanzan reports for public radio station KAZU in the Monterey Bay Area. She has also produced stories for NPR and KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Drought Could Hamper Forest Recovery After Rim Fire",
"headTitle": "Drought Could Hamper Forest Recovery After Rim Fire | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9628\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/Rim-fire2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9628\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/Rim-fire2.jpg\" alt=\"California's dry weather could make it tough for young trees to get established after the Rim Fire. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s dry soil could make it tough for young trees to get established after the Rim Fire. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fire ecologists say it will take decades for forests to recover from the Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park, given the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/09/19/rim-fire-draft/\">extent of the high-severity burn\u003c/a>. Now they’re adding another concern to that list: California’s dry weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sprawling stands of dead trees, an estimated 40 percent of the burned area, are reminiscent of another major national park fire: \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94126845\">Yellowstone in 1998\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”3112b44fa131a811d44c7bbb13b64918″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Initial response was that Yellowstone had been destroyed and it was a disaster,” says Malcolm North, a Forest Service ecologist. “We’ve come to understand that fire was actually very characteristic for Yellowstone and did a lot of ecological benefit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here, not so much. Forests in Yellowstone adapted to high-intensity fires, as seen in the lodgepole pines commonly found there. “The cones on the tree are actually sealed with pitch and only open up and release new seeds under high-intensity fire,” says North. “We have lodgepole pine in California but in almost all of it, the cones do not open and release seeds the same way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9700\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/Yellowstone.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9700\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/Yellowstone.jpg\" alt=\"Lodgepole pines regrowing 15 years after the Yellowstone fire. (Photo: Monica Turner)\" width=\"350\" height=\"232\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lodgepole pines regrowing 15 years after the Yellowstone fire. (Photo: Monica Turner)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9630\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 351px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/North-fire.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9630\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/North-fire.jpg\" alt=\"A California forest burned 10 years ago in the Cone Fire is replaced with shrubland. (Photo; Malcolm North/USFS)\" width=\"351\" height=\"231\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A California forest burned 10 years ago in the Cone Fire is now shrub land. (Photo: Malcolm North/USFS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mid-elevation forests, like the area of the Rim Fire, have historically seen frequent, low-intensity fires where most of the large trees survive and seed the next generation. “You need to have live trees nearby an area for the seed to be blown in on the wind,” North says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could be a challenge in the Rim Fire’s largest swath of dead trees, estimated to be 63,000 acres. “It’s very unlikely that seed is going to be able to get into the interior of that high-severity patch,” says North.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when young trees get established, drought could hamper the recovery, as North and other fire ecologists \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/41.summary\">published in the journal Science\u003c/a> on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most susceptible stage of forests throughout their 400-year life is really the first 10 years,” he says. “There’s a much higher likelihood that they’re going to die within that period until they get large enough that they get deep enough root systems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s been a record-dry year in California so far, something that could aid shrubs and bushes – the quick-colonizers that could potentially take over historically forested areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The shrubs are really strong competitors for soil moisture,” North says. “Not only do you have the influence of the climate drying and making the overall soil moisture lower, the shrubs are much better at picking up and using the soil moisture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service is currently considering whether to plant trees in badly-burned areas to give shrubs some competition and the forest a head start.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Ferns and new shoots from oak trees are already appearing in the ashes of the Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park. But fire ecologists say the long-term recovery of the forest could be hampered if California’s dry weather continues",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9628\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/Rim-fire2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9628\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/Rim-fire2.jpg\" alt=\"California's dry weather could make it tough for young trees to get established after the Rim Fire. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s dry soil could make it tough for young trees to get established after the Rim Fire. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fire ecologists say it will take decades for forests to recover from the Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park, given the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/09/19/rim-fire-draft/\">extent of the high-severity burn\u003c/a>. Now they’re adding another concern to that list: California’s dry weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sprawling stands of dead trees, an estimated 40 percent of the burned area, are reminiscent of another major national park fire: \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94126845\">Yellowstone in 1998\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Initial response was that Yellowstone had been destroyed and it was a disaster,” says Malcolm North, a Forest Service ecologist. “We’ve come to understand that fire was actually very characteristic for Yellowstone and did a lot of ecological benefit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here, not so much. Forests in Yellowstone adapted to high-intensity fires, as seen in the lodgepole pines commonly found there. “The cones on the tree are actually sealed with pitch and only open up and release new seeds under high-intensity fire,” says North. “We have lodgepole pine in California but in almost all of it, the cones do not open and release seeds the same way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9700\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/Yellowstone.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9700\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/Yellowstone.jpg\" alt=\"Lodgepole pines regrowing 15 years after the Yellowstone fire. (Photo: Monica Turner)\" width=\"350\" height=\"232\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lodgepole pines regrowing 15 years after the Yellowstone fire. (Photo: Monica Turner)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9630\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 351px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/North-fire.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9630\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/North-fire.jpg\" alt=\"A California forest burned 10 years ago in the Cone Fire is replaced with shrubland. (Photo; Malcolm North/USFS)\" width=\"351\" height=\"231\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A California forest burned 10 years ago in the Cone Fire is now shrub land. (Photo: Malcolm North/USFS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mid-elevation forests, like the area of the Rim Fire, have historically seen frequent, low-intensity fires where most of the large trees survive and seed the next generation. “You need to have live trees nearby an area for the seed to be blown in on the wind,” North says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could be a challenge in the Rim Fire’s largest swath of dead trees, estimated to be 63,000 acres. “It’s very unlikely that seed is going to be able to get into the interior of that high-severity patch,” says North.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when young trees get established, drought could hamper the recovery, as North and other fire ecologists \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/41.summary\">published in the journal Science\u003c/a> on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most susceptible stage of forests throughout their 400-year life is really the first 10 years,” he says. “There’s a much higher likelihood that they’re going to die within that period until they get large enough that they get deep enough root systems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s been a record-dry year in California so far, something that could aid shrubs and bushes – the quick-colonizers that could potentially take over historically forested areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The shrubs are really strong competitors for soil moisture,” North says. “Not only do you have the influence of the climate drying and making the overall soil moisture lower, the shrubs are much better at picking up and using the soil moisture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service is currently considering whether to plant trees in badly-burned areas to give shrubs some competition and the forest a head start.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "What Does an Epileptic Seizure Sound Like?",
"headTitle": "What Does an Epileptic Seizure Sound Like? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>If you haven’t seen an epileptic seizure firsthand, you may have an image of one in your mind: the clenched teeth, the flailing limbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some seizures aren’t so obvious, as demonstrated in this “sonified seizure,” produced in collaboration between a Stanford neurologist and a music professor, who together translated a patient’s EEG signals into sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/113245602″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In it, a woman with epilepsy sits calmly in her hospital bed, talking and acting normally, despite the fact that a seizure is building up steam inside her right hemisphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the right-side seizure subsides around 1:50, the left side of the brain begins to seize. This time, the woman becomes mute and confused. By 2:20, both hemispheres have calmed, leaving the patient disoriented, says her doctor, Stanford’s Josef Parvizi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi made the EEG recording, or electroencephalogram, during the patient’s stay at Stanford Hospital, where she was undergoing brain surgery to treat her intractable epilepsy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In what’s typically a two-stage \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/epilepsy-reveals-the-brain-in-action/\">process\u003c/a>, surgeons first implant electrodes directly into a patient’s brain to record the source of the seizures. Then, a week later, they remove the problematic brain tissue, leaving this patient, and many more, seizure free.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Music inside the brain echoes music produced \u003cem>by\u003c/em> the brain\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi brought EEG recordings to Chris Chafe, a Stanford music professor responsible for the “\u003ca href=\"https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~cc/shtml/tomatoQuintet.shtml\">Tomato Quintet\u003c/a>,” which sonified the carbon dioxide releases from five vats of ripening tomatoes, among other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using human-like tones, Chafe synthesized the patient’s brain’s electrical signals into sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chafe was surprised, he says, by patterns that struck him as musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I said ‘hey, to me this sounds a little bit like Dixieland jazz,” says Chafe.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nA future diagnostic tool\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi and Chafe are working on a prototype of a portable device that could translate brain activity into sound. Unlike this project, the device would record brain signals non-invasively, without requiring surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\nA portable device could do for the brain what a stethoscope does for the heart.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The “gold standard,” for such recordings is an EEG, says Parvizi. But those can take a while to set up. The sound device could be a simpler and faster way to detect when a patient is in the midst of a non-convulsive seizure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the quickest way of getting to know what’s happening inside the brain. It’s like a stethoscope. You listen to the heart to see if there’s a heartbeat and see if it’s normal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Epilepsy as a window into the brain\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seizure sonification work is just one part of a broad and dramatic area of research in which epilepsy patients perform starring roles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, we told the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/epilepsy-reveals-the-brain-in-action/\">story of Nate Bennett\u003c/a>, from Santa Cruz, who participated in brain mapping research during his stay at Stanford Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But since we’re talking about epilepsy again, I can’t resist sharing a couple other clips that didn’t make it into that piece.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\nScientists who do this work control their patients’ subjective experience, making them believe things are happening which are actually not. \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>What’s amazing about this research is that it lets scientists, including Dr. Parvizi, stimulate parts of the brain directly to see what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may be no more precise way to “map” the human brain, determining — on the order of milimeters — which parts of it control which functions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, it’s an experiment in mind control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists who do this work control their patients’ subjective experience, make them believe things are happening which are actually not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a clip where Dr. Parvizi injected a tiny, painless jolts of electricity into Nate’s brain, with a very strange result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/113249240″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At another point in the process, Nate felt like he was being poked. At another, when Parvizi sent an electrical signal to a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate, Nate felt an urge to shout “jinx,” but was unable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And here’s another video from some earlier Parvizi research using the same method, this time on a patient named Ron Blackwell, from Santa Clara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.youtube.com/embed/Otm6ftbZRx4\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Creepy, right? We’ll have more on this research in coming months.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If you haven’t seen an epileptic seizure firsthand, you may have an image of one in your mind: the clenched teeth, the flailing limbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some seizures aren’t so obvious, as demonstrated in this “sonified seizure,” produced in collaboration between a Stanford neurologist and a music professor, who together translated a patient’s EEG signals into sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/113245602″&visual=true&””'\n title='”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/113245602″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In it, a woman with epilepsy sits calmly in her hospital bed, talking and acting normally, despite the fact that a seizure is building up steam inside her right hemisphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the right-side seizure subsides around 1:50, the left side of the brain begins to seize. This time, the woman becomes mute and confused. By 2:20, both hemispheres have calmed, leaving the patient disoriented, says her doctor, Stanford’s Josef Parvizi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi made the EEG recording, or electroencephalogram, during the patient’s stay at Stanford Hospital, where she was undergoing brain surgery to treat her intractable epilepsy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In what’s typically a two-stage \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/epilepsy-reveals-the-brain-in-action/\">process\u003c/a>, surgeons first implant electrodes directly into a patient’s brain to record the source of the seizures. Then, a week later, they remove the problematic brain tissue, leaving this patient, and many more, seizure free.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Music inside the brain echoes music produced \u003cem>by\u003c/em> the brain\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi brought EEG recordings to Chris Chafe, a Stanford music professor responsible for the “\u003ca href=\"https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~cc/shtml/tomatoQuintet.shtml\">Tomato Quintet\u003c/a>,” which sonified the carbon dioxide releases from five vats of ripening tomatoes, among other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using human-like tones, Chafe synthesized the patient’s brain’s electrical signals into sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chafe was surprised, he says, by patterns that struck him as musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I said ‘hey, to me this sounds a little bit like Dixieland jazz,” says Chafe.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nA future diagnostic tool\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi and Chafe are working on a prototype of a portable device that could translate brain activity into sound. Unlike this project, the device would record brain signals non-invasively, without requiring surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\nA portable device could do for the brain what a stethoscope does for the heart.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The “gold standard,” for such recordings is an EEG, says Parvizi. But those can take a while to set up. The sound device could be a simpler and faster way to detect when a patient is in the midst of a non-convulsive seizure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the quickest way of getting to know what’s happening inside the brain. It’s like a stethoscope. You listen to the heart to see if there’s a heartbeat and see if it’s normal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Epilepsy as a window into the brain\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seizure sonification work is just one part of a broad and dramatic area of research in which epilepsy patients perform starring roles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, we told the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/epilepsy-reveals-the-brain-in-action/\">story of Nate Bennett\u003c/a>, from Santa Cruz, who participated in brain mapping research during his stay at Stanford Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But since we’re talking about epilepsy again, I can’t resist sharing a couple other clips that didn’t make it into that piece.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\nScientists who do this work control their patients’ subjective experience, making them believe things are happening which are actually not. \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>What’s amazing about this research is that it lets scientists, including Dr. Parvizi, stimulate parts of the brain directly to see what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may be no more precise way to “map” the human brain, determining — on the order of milimeters — which parts of it control which functions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, it’s an experiment in mind control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists who do this work control their patients’ subjective experience, make them believe things are happening which are actually not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a clip where Dr. Parvizi injected a tiny, painless jolts of electricity into Nate’s brain, with a very strange result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/113249240″&visual=true&””'\n title='”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/113249240″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At another point in the process, Nate felt like he was being poked. At another, when Parvizi sent an electrical signal to a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate, Nate felt an urge to shout “jinx,” but was unable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And here’s another video from some earlier Parvizi research using the same method, this time on a patient named Ron Blackwell, from Santa Clara.\u003c/p>\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/Otm6ftbZRx4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Otm6ftbZRx4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Creepy, right? We’ll have more on this research in coming months.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Can Renewable Energy Reduce California's Fire Risk?",
"headTitle": "Can Renewable Energy Reduce California’s Fire Risk? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/radio/science/2013/09/2013-09-30-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9429\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/DSC01010.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9429\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/DSC01010.jpg\" alt=\"A hot spot smolders in the Rim Fire (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A hotspot smolders in the burn area of the Rim Fire. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3660/\">Rim Fire\u003c/a>, still smoldering in Yosemite National Park, is expected to be fully contained on Tuesday, six weeks after it started. The record-breaking blaze is calling attention to California’s overloaded forests, stocked with fuel after a century of aggressively snuffing out fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reducing the fuel load acre-by-acre is costly and runs headlong into a decades-old environmental debate over forest management. Now, California is making a new push to use forest fuels in biomass energy power plants, part of the state’s ambitious renewable energy goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For U.S. Forest Service scientists assessing the Rim Fire damage on the ground, the case for tackling the fuel problem is becoming increasingly clear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Forests Like a “Teenager’s Room”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9425\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/rimfire-compare.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9425\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/rimfire-compare.jpg\" alt=\"CAPTION\" width=\"350\" height=\"547\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dense tree stand \u003cstrong>(above)\u003c/strong> after the Rim Fire. A tree stand just across the road \u003cstrong>(below)\u003c/strong> was previously thinned out and still has green pine needles. (Photos: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The trees we see here today aren’t going to make it,” says Forest Service Ecologist Carol Ewell, slogging through a foot of powdery, white ash amid seemingly endless stands of blackened tree trunks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees in this part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fs.usda.gov/stanislaus/\">Stanislaus National Forest\u003c/a> are bare, with no pine needles and few branches remaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We use the word, it was ‘torched,” Ewell says. “The fire went all the way up the crown.” About 40 percent of the vegetation in the fire burned at this kind of “high severity” and is unlikely to survive, according to Forest Service estimates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ewell and Stanislaus National Forest fire planner Shelly Crook are doing some “fire forensics,” cataloging the damage to assess how past fuel reduction projects fared in the blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dense trees in this stand, just three and four feet apart, remind Crook of a teenager’s bedroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What happens if you let him go three years without cleaning their room,” she offers. “You know what the room is going to look like. So that’s what the forest is — and the vacuum cleaner out here is fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, the Sierra Nevada saw more low-intensity burns that cleared out the understory every 5-to-20 years. Ewell says that stopped nearly a century ago, when the Service instituted its legendary “10 ‘clock” policy, the goal of putting out any fire by 10 a.m. on the day after it was reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service dropped that policy 30 years ago, but the legacy is still visible on the landscape. The Rim Fire used small trees like ladders, climbing upwards to create high-intensity crown fires that commonly leave just charred trunks behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet, right across the road, it’s an entirely different scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">All the climate change modeling, everything predicts this kind of stuff to happen, and we have to do something about it.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I can see some really bright green, healthy needles showing through this canopy,” Crook says, peering upward. The needles at the base of the trees are brown, but green becomes increasingly dense farther on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The difference between two the plots, Crook says, is that one side of the road had been thinned out. The small trees were removed, leaving 10 to 20 feet of space between the larger trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s painfully obvious to me when you look at this,” she says. “This makes sense; the fire didn’t do as much here. The forest is in better condition here and it might survive it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bigger, Hotter Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Rim Fire is like a wake-up call,” says Hugh Safford, regional ecologist for the Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is only the latest of a series of really big fires that we’ve been seeing, bigger and bigger and bigger over the last 25, 30 years,” he says. “All the climate change modeling, everything predicts this kind of stuff to happen, and we have to do something about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Safford says the best way to reduce forest fuels is to restore fire as a natural process. Forest managers have the option to allow some naturally caused fires to burn in remote areas or if they pose little threat of spreading. Fire officials saw the benefit of so-called “wildland fire use” when the Rim Fire slowed down as it hit areas inside the park boundary that had recently burned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9418\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 324px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/RimFuels-1024x787.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-9418\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/RimFuels-1024x787.jpg\" alt=\"CAPTION\" width=\"324\" height=\"249\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cstrong>Click to Enlarge\u003c/strong> – Map showing previous fuel treatment projects around Rim Fire over past 12 years by the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service. Includes prescribed fire, thinning (mechanical) and naturally caused fires allowed to burn (wildland fire use). (Source: Stanislaus National Forest)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Making the decision to let it burn is often more challenging for the Forest Service than for the National Park Service. National forests are often closer to developed areas and the agency juggles a number of internal priorities, including recreation, timber sales and hunting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have all the towns,” says Safford. “We have all the utility corridors. We have all the private inholdings. We’re a multiple-use agency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closer to development, the Forest Service focuses on prescribed burns and forest thinning, where small trees are taken out with machinery. It’s expensive work, running in the hundreds to thousands of dollars per acre. Only about 8 percent of national forest land within the Rim Fire perimeter had been treated in some way over the last 12 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just simply that the federal government dumps a whole bunch of money on a landscape and we do the work,” says Safford. “It’s done by private contractors almost always. They have to make some kind of a profit or the work doesn’t get done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contractors make their profit on the few trees that are big enough to use for lumber. But most of the material is too small, so it’s usually piled up and burned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Renewable Energy in the Forest\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People like Brett Storey say there’s a better way to handle forest material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you’re seeing right here, this is where the facility would be,” he says, pointing to a lot next to Placer County’s recycling facility, about ten miles northwest of Lake Tahoe. His hope is that next year, it will be the \u003ca href=\"http://www.placer.ca.gov/news/2012/july/cabin%20creek\">Cabin Creek Biomass Facility\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whole towns get heated like this in Scandinavian counties,” he says. The power plant would be small compared to its fossil-fuel cousins, around 2 megawatts, enough electricity for about 1,500 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The facility would run on wood and scrap that’s normally piled and burned during forest thinning operations in the area. Storey says the Forest Service produces a ready supply within 30 miles of where we stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9440\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 326px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Mike-McMillan-USFS.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9440\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Mike-McMillan-USFS.jpg\" alt=\"(Photo: Mike McMillan, USFS)\" width=\"326\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At more than a quarter-million acres, the Rim Fire is the largest Sierra Nevada fire in recorded history. (Photo: Mike McMillan, USFS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I kind of joke around – they have this ten-year plan and I call it my super-size menu because it shows what years, how much acreage and how much material they’re going to be taking out,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Storey calls it a win-win: the local utility gets renewable energy and the money helps the Forest Service reduce fuels on more land. “It has the potential to solve multiple issues,” he says. “It can help with the fire. It can help with renewable energy. It can help with the air emissions from burning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is trying to jump-start the market for similar projects. Last year, the legislature passed \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Renewables/hot/SB_1122_Bioenergy_Feed-in_Tariff.htm\">SB 1122\u003c/a>, a bill that requires the state’s largest electric utilities to purchase 50 megawatts of power from small biomass plants that run on forestry material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could add 15 to 20 new biomass projects in the state. The electricity is likely to be much more expensive than solar and wind power, but unlike those sources, provides a constant “baseload” supply. The California Public Utilities Commission is currently setting up conditions for the power contracts, which must be approved by the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It helps us do more with the same amount of money,” says Larry Swan, a biomass utilization specialist with the Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a market for small forest materials could help the Forest Service treat 10-20 percent more acres, he says, if the power plant is within 30 miles. Beyond that radius, the cost of transporting and trucking materials often makes biomass projects uneconomical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Biomass Opposition Emerges\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Because [biomass plants] are relatively new, people are a little afraid of them.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“You know it’s funny, renewable energy – everyone says they like it,” Storey says. “But because [biomass plants] are relatively new, people are a little afraid of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cabin Creek project was originally proposed for a site in Kings Beach, closer to Lake Tahoe, but the local community was fiercely opposed. Environmental groups also took a stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can call it thinning, but thinning is really logging,” says Kevin Bundy of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to build roads and skid trails and landings,” he says. “There can be a fair amount of environmental damage associated with thinning operations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bundy says biomass power plants would only add pressure to thin, when fire should be used to reduce the fuel load instead. “When you install brand new energy infrastructure that requires a continuous 24/7 supply of fuel, that creates a demand,” he says. “That demand is going to affect the management of the forest in the immediately surrounding areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9441\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 311px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Ewell.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9441\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Ewell.jpg\" alt=\"Forest Service ecologist Carol Ewell surveys the Rim Fire damage. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"311\" height=\"353\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Forest Service ecologist Carol Ewell surveys the Rim Fire damage. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then there’s question of climate change – whether the carbon currently stored in the forest goes into the atmosphere or stays in the trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As they grow, they will continue to take carbon out of the atmosphere,” he says. “When you cut those trees down and burn them for bioenergy, you put all that carbon into the atmosphere where it warms the climate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New trees will eventually reabsorb that carbon, but Bundy says the climate can’t afford even a short-term increase in emissions. The Center for Biological Diversity opposed the Cabin Creek project, though the group entered into negotiations with Placer County. Bundy is currently opposing a similar project proposed for North Fork in Madera County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at the remains of the Rim Fire, signs of life are appearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ants survive!” exclaims Shelly Crook, spotting an ant colony emerging through the layer of ash. Recovery will take decades, she says, but she’s hoping the lessons from the Rim Fire will be taken to heart long before then.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Rim Fire is calling attention to a big problem: California’s forests are overloaded with fuel after a century of putting out fires. There’s a new push to use that fuel to make renewable energy, but it's sparked a heated debate. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/radio/science/2013/09/2013-09-30-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9429\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/DSC01010.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9429\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/DSC01010.jpg\" alt=\"A hot spot smolders in the Rim Fire (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A hotspot smolders in the burn area of the Rim Fire. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3660/\">Rim Fire\u003c/a>, still smoldering in Yosemite National Park, is expected to be fully contained on Tuesday, six weeks after it started. The record-breaking blaze is calling attention to California’s overloaded forests, stocked with fuel after a century of aggressively snuffing out fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reducing the fuel load acre-by-acre is costly and runs headlong into a decades-old environmental debate over forest management. Now, California is making a new push to use forest fuels in biomass energy power plants, part of the state’s ambitious renewable energy goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For U.S. Forest Service scientists assessing the Rim Fire damage on the ground, the case for tackling the fuel problem is becoming increasingly clear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Forests Like a “Teenager’s Room”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9425\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/rimfire-compare.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9425\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/rimfire-compare.jpg\" alt=\"CAPTION\" width=\"350\" height=\"547\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dense tree stand \u003cstrong>(above)\u003c/strong> after the Rim Fire. A tree stand just across the road \u003cstrong>(below)\u003c/strong> was previously thinned out and still has green pine needles. (Photos: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The trees we see here today aren’t going to make it,” says Forest Service Ecologist Carol Ewell, slogging through a foot of powdery, white ash amid seemingly endless stands of blackened tree trunks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees in this part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fs.usda.gov/stanislaus/\">Stanislaus National Forest\u003c/a> are bare, with no pine needles and few branches remaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We use the word, it was ‘torched,” Ewell says. “The fire went all the way up the crown.” About 40 percent of the vegetation in the fire burned at this kind of “high severity” and is unlikely to survive, according to Forest Service estimates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ewell and Stanislaus National Forest fire planner Shelly Crook are doing some “fire forensics,” cataloging the damage to assess how past fuel reduction projects fared in the blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dense trees in this stand, just three and four feet apart, remind Crook of a teenager’s bedroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What happens if you let him go three years without cleaning their room,” she offers. “You know what the room is going to look like. So that’s what the forest is — and the vacuum cleaner out here is fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, the Sierra Nevada saw more low-intensity burns that cleared out the understory every 5-to-20 years. Ewell says that stopped nearly a century ago, when the Service instituted its legendary “10 ‘clock” policy, the goal of putting out any fire by 10 a.m. on the day after it was reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service dropped that policy 30 years ago, but the legacy is still visible on the landscape. The Rim Fire used small trees like ladders, climbing upwards to create high-intensity crown fires that commonly leave just charred trunks behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet, right across the road, it’s an entirely different scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">All the climate change modeling, everything predicts this kind of stuff to happen, and we have to do something about it.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I can see some really bright green, healthy needles showing through this canopy,” Crook says, peering upward. The needles at the base of the trees are brown, but green becomes increasingly dense farther on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The difference between two the plots, Crook says, is that one side of the road had been thinned out. The small trees were removed, leaving 10 to 20 feet of space between the larger trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s painfully obvious to me when you look at this,” she says. “This makes sense; the fire didn’t do as much here. The forest is in better condition here and it might survive it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bigger, Hotter Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Rim Fire is like a wake-up call,” says Hugh Safford, regional ecologist for the Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is only the latest of a series of really big fires that we’ve been seeing, bigger and bigger and bigger over the last 25, 30 years,” he says. “All the climate change modeling, everything predicts this kind of stuff to happen, and we have to do something about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Safford says the best way to reduce forest fuels is to restore fire as a natural process. Forest managers have the option to allow some naturally caused fires to burn in remote areas or if they pose little threat of spreading. Fire officials saw the benefit of so-called “wildland fire use” when the Rim Fire slowed down as it hit areas inside the park boundary that had recently burned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9418\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 324px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/RimFuels-1024x787.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-9418\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/RimFuels-1024x787.jpg\" alt=\"CAPTION\" width=\"324\" height=\"249\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cstrong>Click to Enlarge\u003c/strong> – Map showing previous fuel treatment projects around Rim Fire over past 12 years by the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service. Includes prescribed fire, thinning (mechanical) and naturally caused fires allowed to burn (wildland fire use). (Source: Stanislaus National Forest)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Making the decision to let it burn is often more challenging for the Forest Service than for the National Park Service. National forests are often closer to developed areas and the agency juggles a number of internal priorities, including recreation, timber sales and hunting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have all the towns,” says Safford. “We have all the utility corridors. We have all the private inholdings. We’re a multiple-use agency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closer to development, the Forest Service focuses on prescribed burns and forest thinning, where small trees are taken out with machinery. It’s expensive work, running in the hundreds to thousands of dollars per acre. Only about 8 percent of national forest land within the Rim Fire perimeter had been treated in some way over the last 12 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just simply that the federal government dumps a whole bunch of money on a landscape and we do the work,” says Safford. “It’s done by private contractors almost always. They have to make some kind of a profit or the work doesn’t get done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contractors make their profit on the few trees that are big enough to use for lumber. But most of the material is too small, so it’s usually piled up and burned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Renewable Energy in the Forest\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People like Brett Storey say there’s a better way to handle forest material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you’re seeing right here, this is where the facility would be,” he says, pointing to a lot next to Placer County’s recycling facility, about ten miles northwest of Lake Tahoe. His hope is that next year, it will be the \u003ca href=\"http://www.placer.ca.gov/news/2012/july/cabin%20creek\">Cabin Creek Biomass Facility\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whole towns get heated like this in Scandinavian counties,” he says. The power plant would be small compared to its fossil-fuel cousins, around 2 megawatts, enough electricity for about 1,500 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The facility would run on wood and scrap that’s normally piled and burned during forest thinning operations in the area. Storey says the Forest Service produces a ready supply within 30 miles of where we stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9440\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 326px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Mike-McMillan-USFS.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9440\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Mike-McMillan-USFS.jpg\" alt=\"(Photo: Mike McMillan, USFS)\" width=\"326\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At more than a quarter-million acres, the Rim Fire is the largest Sierra Nevada fire in recorded history. (Photo: Mike McMillan, USFS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I kind of joke around – they have this ten-year plan and I call it my super-size menu because it shows what years, how much acreage and how much material they’re going to be taking out,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Storey calls it a win-win: the local utility gets renewable energy and the money helps the Forest Service reduce fuels on more land. “It has the potential to solve multiple issues,” he says. “It can help with the fire. It can help with renewable energy. It can help with the air emissions from burning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is trying to jump-start the market for similar projects. Last year, the legislature passed \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Renewables/hot/SB_1122_Bioenergy_Feed-in_Tariff.htm\">SB 1122\u003c/a>, a bill that requires the state’s largest electric utilities to purchase 50 megawatts of power from small biomass plants that run on forestry material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could add 15 to 20 new biomass projects in the state. The electricity is likely to be much more expensive than solar and wind power, but unlike those sources, provides a constant “baseload” supply. The California Public Utilities Commission is currently setting up conditions for the power contracts, which must be approved by the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It helps us do more with the same amount of money,” says Larry Swan, a biomass utilization specialist with the Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a market for small forest materials could help the Forest Service treat 10-20 percent more acres, he says, if the power plant is within 30 miles. Beyond that radius, the cost of transporting and trucking materials often makes biomass projects uneconomical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Biomass Opposition Emerges\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Because [biomass plants] are relatively new, people are a little afraid of them.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“You know it’s funny, renewable energy – everyone says they like it,” Storey says. “But because [biomass plants] are relatively new, people are a little afraid of them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cabin Creek project was originally proposed for a site in Kings Beach, closer to Lake Tahoe, but the local community was fiercely opposed. Environmental groups also took a stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can call it thinning, but thinning is really logging,” says Kevin Bundy of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to build roads and skid trails and landings,” he says. “There can be a fair amount of environmental damage associated with thinning operations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bundy says biomass power plants would only add pressure to thin, when fire should be used to reduce the fuel load instead. “When you install brand new energy infrastructure that requires a continuous 24/7 supply of fuel, that creates a demand,” he says. “That demand is going to affect the management of the forest in the immediately surrounding areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9441\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 311px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Ewell.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9441\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Ewell.jpg\" alt=\"Forest Service ecologist Carol Ewell surveys the Rim Fire damage. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"311\" height=\"353\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Forest Service ecologist Carol Ewell surveys the Rim Fire damage. (Photo: Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then there’s question of climate change – whether the carbon currently stored in the forest goes into the atmosphere or stays in the trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As they grow, they will continue to take carbon out of the atmosphere,” he says. “When you cut those trees down and burn them for bioenergy, you put all that carbon into the atmosphere where it warms the climate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New trees will eventually reabsorb that carbon, but Bundy says the climate can’t afford even a short-term increase in emissions. The Center for Biological Diversity opposed the Cabin Creek project, though the group entered into negotiations with Placer County. Bundy is currently opposing a similar project proposed for North Fork in Madera County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at the remains of the Rim Fire, signs of life are appearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ants survive!” exclaims Shelly Crook, spotting an ant colony emerging through the layer of ash. Recovery will take decades, she says, but she’s hoping the lessons from the Rim Fire will be taken to heart long before then.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Carbon Nanotube Computer Paves Way for Faster, Smaller Tech",
"headTitle": "Carbon Nanotube Computer Paves Way for Faster, Smaller Tech | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Engineers at Stanford have come up with a new process to build computers that use carbon nanotubes instead of silicon, taking a significant step forward in the quest for ever-smaller and faster computers.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>I talked with Stanford PhD student Max Shulaker who works with Professors \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/~subh/\">Subhasish Mihtra\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/~hspwong/\">Philip Wong\u003c/a> in the electrical engineering department, and is the lead author on a new paper about the carbon nanotube computer in the journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v501/n7468/full/nature12502.html\">Nature\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what is a carbon nanotube?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nA carbon nanotube is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It’s a nanotube of carbon. If you imagine a sheet of carbon atoms just a single atom thick and you roll it up into a tube, then you’ve got yourself a carbon nanotube. They are very, very thin, very small. Their diameter is nominally 1.2 nanometers. To put that into perspective, you can line up thousands or tens of thousands of these carbon nanotubes side by side and they’d still fit within a single human hair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9347\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Max_Shulaker-1280-640x360.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9347\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Max_Shulaker-1280-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"Stanford grad student Max Shulaker holds a wafer filled with carbon nanotubes.(Photo: Norbert von der Groeben)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stanford grad student Max Shulaker holds a wafer covered with carbon nanotubes. (Photo: Norbert von der Groeben)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why do we need an alternative to silicon chips?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nSilicon has really been the workhorse of Silicon Valley and computation and computers for decades. And it’s done a phenomenal job, but it’s really being pushed to its limits. Year by year computational power keeps improving. It’s because the transistors, which make up the computers, keep getting smaller and smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Carbon nanotubes are basically an exciting emerging technology which can possibly help extend Moore’s Law.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>But it reaches a point — and we’re kind of reaching that point now — where it’s very challenging to keep making the transistors smaller and smaller to keep getting better and better performance. There are still tricks to be played with silicon to keep improving the performance, but now researchers are starting to look for alternatives, or at least supplements and complements to silicon going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So this is potentially a way to keep Moore’s Law going.\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nYeah, so \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/09/11/moores-law/\">Moore’s Law\u003c/a> essentially states: every 18 months, the number of transistors in an integrated circuit basically doubles. With that you get increased computational power, and that’s why your cell phones are way more powerful than those huge computers were a decade ago when I was growing up. Carbon nanotubes are basically an exciting emerging technology which can possibly help extend Moore’s Law and keep improving computational power out several more technology modes in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why haven’t we been able to switch to using carbon nanotubes before?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nCarbon nanotubes have been around for 15 years or so. There was a lot of excitement initially, and it kind of tapered down because it was very challenging to actually build anything out of carbon nanotubes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon nanotubes are actually grown by mother nature, and there are inherent imperfections with them. These imperfections really kind of stopped any sort of large-scale technology from being made from carbon nanotubes. At Stanford, the group led by Professors Mihtra and Wong has, over the years, come up with techniques on how to overcome these inherent imperfections. By piecing everything together, we were able to show that carbon nanotubes are in fact a “manufacturable” technology with this demonstration of the computer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>In the video below, Shulaker explains how they create carbon nanotube circuits. (SACHA the handshaking robot is not the computer they just unveiled; the one in the paper is named Cedric.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj4jyZlwQEc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So explain what you all did.\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThis first part was coming up with ways of overcoming these inherent imperfections in a scalable manner. If you’re building a circuit with billions of transistors, you can’t go one-by-one and make sure that transistor is okay and fine-tune it to make sure it works.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Silicon will not just disappear. It’s a great technology, and it’s done amazing things.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>And with that foundation in place, we really want to demonstrate now that you can use it to actually build useful circuits. So we built a basic computer fabricated completely out of carbon nanotube transistors. This computer can do things which a normal computer can do. It runs a very basic operating system which can actually do multitasking, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Should we be lining up at Best Buy?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nWhat we built is not a computer that you would get in Best Buy. The reason is, this computer is still small, and it’s limited by the fact that we do all this fabrication here in our academic fabrication facility at Stanford. In terms of academic fabs, it’s marvelous. But compared to an industrial fab, it really can’t compare, both in terms of cleanliness and in terms of its ability to fabricate circuits in a very robust manner and a very small manner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9355\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/hand-holding-CNT-wafer.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9355\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/hand-holding-CNT-wafer.jpg\" alt='Shulaker holds a \"wafer\" full of carbon nanotubes. (Photo: Norbert von der Groeben)' width=\"450\" height=\"320\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thousands of nanotubes would fit within the width of a human hair. (Photo: Norbert von der Groeben)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So what we did is a demonstration showing that you actually can manufacture circuits. Now, if this is something industry perceives, that’s where you can start building much larger systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When will we start seeing this technology?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThat’s the ultimate goal, for this technology to be useful and to be used one day. Typically I think from these sorts of demonstrations, you’re looking at maybe a decade, two decades for this technology to start being commercially viable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Should we start calling it “Carbon Valley?”\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIt would be naive of me to think Silicon Valley will one day be called Carbon Valley, or at least overnight because there’s so much time and money and decades of work invested in silicon. And silicon will not just disappear. It’s a great technology, and it’s done amazing things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s important is everything we did, the fabrication, the design, everything, is compatible with silicon. So you can have a silicon chip and you can then build this carbon nanotube circuit right next to it — or right on top of it. And because it’s compatible with silicon, it means integrating it into the current process is very doable, and that also makes it much more commercially viable. So maybe it will be Silicon Valley, and then Silicon Carbon Valley and then who knows from there?\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Engineers at Stanford have come up with a new process to build computers that use carbon nanotubes instead of silicon, taking a significant step forward in the quest for ever-smaller and faster computers.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>I talked with Stanford PhD student Max Shulaker who works with Professors \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/~subh/\">Subhasish Mihtra\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/~hspwong/\">Philip Wong\u003c/a> in the electrical engineering department, and is the lead author on a new paper about the carbon nanotube computer in the journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v501/n7468/full/nature12502.html\">Nature\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what is a carbon nanotube?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nA carbon nanotube is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It’s a nanotube of carbon. If you imagine a sheet of carbon atoms just a single atom thick and you roll it up into a tube, then you’ve got yourself a carbon nanotube. They are very, very thin, very small. Their diameter is nominally 1.2 nanometers. To put that into perspective, you can line up thousands or tens of thousands of these carbon nanotubes side by side and they’d still fit within a single human hair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9347\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Max_Shulaker-1280-640x360.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9347\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Max_Shulaker-1280-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"Stanford grad student Max Shulaker holds a wafer filled with carbon nanotubes.(Photo: Norbert von der Groeben)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stanford grad student Max Shulaker holds a wafer covered with carbon nanotubes. (Photo: Norbert von der Groeben)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why do we need an alternative to silicon chips?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nSilicon has really been the workhorse of Silicon Valley and computation and computers for decades. And it’s done a phenomenal job, but it’s really being pushed to its limits. Year by year computational power keeps improving. It’s because the transistors, which make up the computers, keep getting smaller and smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Carbon nanotubes are basically an exciting emerging technology which can possibly help extend Moore’s Law.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>But it reaches a point — and we’re kind of reaching that point now — where it’s very challenging to keep making the transistors smaller and smaller to keep getting better and better performance. There are still tricks to be played with silicon to keep improving the performance, but now researchers are starting to look for alternatives, or at least supplements and complements to silicon going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So this is potentially a way to keep Moore’s Law going.\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nYeah, so \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/09/11/moores-law/\">Moore’s Law\u003c/a> essentially states: every 18 months, the number of transistors in an integrated circuit basically doubles. With that you get increased computational power, and that’s why your cell phones are way more powerful than those huge computers were a decade ago when I was growing up. Carbon nanotubes are basically an exciting emerging technology which can possibly help extend Moore’s Law and keep improving computational power out several more technology modes in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why haven’t we been able to switch to using carbon nanotubes before?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nCarbon nanotubes have been around for 15 years or so. There was a lot of excitement initially, and it kind of tapered down because it was very challenging to actually build anything out of carbon nanotubes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon nanotubes are actually grown by mother nature, and there are inherent imperfections with them. These imperfections really kind of stopped any sort of large-scale technology from being made from carbon nanotubes. At Stanford, the group led by Professors Mihtra and Wong has, over the years, come up with techniques on how to overcome these inherent imperfections. By piecing everything together, we were able to show that carbon nanotubes are in fact a “manufacturable” technology with this demonstration of the computer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>In the video below, Shulaker explains how they create carbon nanotube circuits. (SACHA the handshaking robot is not the computer they just unveiled; the one in the paper is named Cedric.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\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/rj4jyZlwQEc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/rj4jyZlwQEc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So explain what you all did.\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThis first part was coming up with ways of overcoming these inherent imperfections in a scalable manner. If you’re building a circuit with billions of transistors, you can’t go one-by-one and make sure that transistor is okay and fine-tune it to make sure it works.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Silicon will not just disappear. It’s a great technology, and it’s done amazing things.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>And with that foundation in place, we really want to demonstrate now that you can use it to actually build useful circuits. So we built a basic computer fabricated completely out of carbon nanotube transistors. This computer can do things which a normal computer can do. It runs a very basic operating system which can actually do multitasking, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Should we be lining up at Best Buy?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nWhat we built is not a computer that you would get in Best Buy. The reason is, this computer is still small, and it’s limited by the fact that we do all this fabrication here in our academic fabrication facility at Stanford. In terms of academic fabs, it’s marvelous. But compared to an industrial fab, it really can’t compare, both in terms of cleanliness and in terms of its ability to fabricate circuits in a very robust manner and a very small manner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9355\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/hand-holding-CNT-wafer.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9355\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/hand-holding-CNT-wafer.jpg\" alt='Shulaker holds a \"wafer\" full of carbon nanotubes. (Photo: Norbert von der Groeben)' width=\"450\" height=\"320\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thousands of nanotubes would fit within the width of a human hair. (Photo: Norbert von der Groeben)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So what we did is a demonstration showing that you actually can manufacture circuits. Now, if this is something industry perceives, that’s where you can start building much larger systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When will we start seeing this technology?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThat’s the ultimate goal, for this technology to be useful and to be used one day. Typically I think from these sorts of demonstrations, you’re looking at maybe a decade, two decades for this technology to start being commercially viable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Should we start calling it “Carbon Valley?”\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIt would be naive of me to think Silicon Valley will one day be called Carbon Valley, or at least overnight because there’s so much time and money and decades of work invested in silicon. And silicon will not just disappear. It’s a great technology, and it’s done amazing things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s important is everything we did, the fabrication, the design, everything, is compatible with silicon. So you can have a silicon chip and you can then build this carbon nanotube circuit right next to it — or right on top of it. And because it’s compatible with silicon, it means integrating it into the current process is very doable, and that also makes it much more commercially viable. So maybe it will be Silicon Valley, and then Silicon Carbon Valley and then who knows from there?\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>There may be good news for those who want to remove toxic chemicals from our midst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/upload/abstract-download/2013/Exp/12186_Zota_BFRabstract1.pdf\">study [PDF]\u003c/a> released Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology suggests that a ban on a controversial class of flame retardants seems to be working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2004, California banned a class of chemicals called PBDEs, used to make furniture and other products fire resistant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/sofa2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9274\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/sofa2.jpg\" alt=\"cabbit/Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cabbit/3385850471/\" width=\"1673\" height=\"941\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Some furniture flame retardants have turned up in women’s breast milk. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/cabbit/3385850471/\">cabbit/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chemicals were turning up in womens’ breast milk and blood (among \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2013/09/16/126019/ear_wax_from_whales_keeps_record_of_ocean_contaminants?source=npr&category=science\">other places\u003c/a>). Since the chemicals can interfere with thyroid function – critical to fetal brain development – scientists worried they were affecting babies’ health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the ban in place, researchers now wanted to know: How long would it take for PBDEs to stop showing up in womens’ bodies?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists began with blood samples collected in 2008-09 from pregnant women being cared for at San Francisco General Hospital. These women had shown some of the \u003ca href=\"http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/08/high-levels-of-toxic-flame-retardant-pbde.html\">highest blood levels\u003c/a> of PBDEs ever detected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2011-12, researchers came back to SF General for samples from another group of pregnant women. This time, they found levels less than half of what they’d seen four years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing is that ban worked,” said study co-author Tracey Woodruff, who teaches medicine at UCSF. “We were anticipating we might not see such a dramatic decline, because the chemicals tend to be persistent and accumulate in the environment. They tend to hang around for a while.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Furniture makers currently use other kinds of chemicals to make furniture fire resistant, and thus meet state requirements. Scientists have raised concerns about the safety of these chemicals as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under order from Governor Brown, the state is re-writing its flammability standard, known as “\u003ca href=\"http://www.bhfti.ca.gov/about/laws/propregs.shtml\">TB 117\u003c/a>.” The new regulations, which take effect in January, will eliminate the need for chemical flame retardants.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There may be good news for those who want to remove toxic chemicals from our midst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.bfr2013.com/upload/abstract-download/2013/Exp/12186_Zota_BFRabstract1.pdf\">study [PDF]\u003c/a> released Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology suggests that a ban on a controversial class of flame retardants seems to be working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2004, California banned a class of chemicals called PBDEs, used to make furniture and other products fire resistant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/sofa2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9274\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/sofa2.jpg\" alt=\"cabbit/Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cabbit/3385850471/\" width=\"1673\" height=\"941\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Some furniture flame retardants have turned up in women’s breast milk. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/cabbit/3385850471/\">cabbit/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chemicals were turning up in womens’ breast milk and blood (among \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2013/09/16/126019/ear_wax_from_whales_keeps_record_of_ocean_contaminants?source=npr&category=science\">other places\u003c/a>). Since the chemicals can interfere with thyroid function – critical to fetal brain development – scientists worried they were affecting babies’ health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the ban in place, researchers now wanted to know: How long would it take for PBDEs to stop showing up in womens’ bodies?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists began with blood samples collected in 2008-09 from pregnant women being cared for at San Francisco General Hospital. These women had shown some of the \u003ca href=\"http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/08/high-levels-of-toxic-flame-retardant-pbde.html\">highest blood levels\u003c/a> of PBDEs ever detected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2011-12, researchers came back to SF General for samples from another group of pregnant women. This time, they found levels less than half of what they’d seen four years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing is that ban worked,” said study co-author Tracey Woodruff, who teaches medicine at UCSF. “We were anticipating we might not see such a dramatic decline, because the chemicals tend to be persistent and accumulate in the environment. They tend to hang around for a while.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Furniture makers currently use other kinds of chemicals to make furniture fire resistant, and thus meet state requirements. Scientists have raised concerns about the safety of these chemicals as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under order from Governor Brown, the state is re-writing its flammability standard, known as “\u003ca href=\"http://www.bhfti.ca.gov/about/laws/propregs.shtml\">TB 117\u003c/a>.” The new regulations, which take effect in January, will eliminate the need for chemical flame retardants.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9242\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/algae.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9242\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/algae.jpg\" alt=\"(Image: Robert Ketley)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “blue-green” algae bloom clings to a dock on Pinto Lake. (Photo: Robert Ketley)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A lake near Santa Cruz has the highest levels of toxic algae in the state, and some of the highest in the country, according to a \u003ca href=\"http://www.toxicalgaenews.com/\">new study\u003c/a> by the National Wildlife Federation and the San Francisco-based Resource Media, a non-profit outreach firm that specializes in environmental issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report highlights \u003ca href=\"http://www.pintolakepark.com/\">Pinto Lake\u003c/a>, which is in a park just outside of Watsonville, near the Monterey coast. Every year, it suffers from blooms of \u003ca href=\"http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/bluegreen_algae/index.shtml\">cyanobacteria\u003c/a> which can sicken people and kill animals. The\u003ca href=\"http://cityofwatsonville.org/city-of-watsonville/pinto-lake-recreation-management-public-health\"> health risks\u003c/a> for humans range from rashes and nausea to liver or kidney damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is probably one of the most surreal sights I’ve seen,” said Robert Ketley, a senior utilities engineer for the city of Watsonville. “When we have a really significant bloom, the lake looks like automobile anti-freeze with chunks of steamed broccoli floating in it. You then add to that, depending upon what species of cyanobacteria is blooming, a smell that is either like gym bag or manure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9243\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 339px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Dead-Carp-1a-2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9243 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Dead-Carp-1a-2.jpg\" alt=\"Carp suffocated by an algal bloom in Pinto Lake. (Image: Robert Ketley)\" width=\"339\" height=\"602\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carp suffocated by an algal bloom in Pinto Lake. (Image: Robert Ketley) \u003ccite>(Robert Ketley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The toxic algae in Pinto Lake has been \u003ca href=\"http://news.ucsc.edu/2010/09/otter-toxin.html\">linked to sea otter deaths \u003c/a>in Monterey Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ketley said he discovered the problem when he tested the lake, and found that the algae in it was toxic. Watsonville, Santa Cruz County and researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz now track the water quality at the lake. But Ketley said there’s no coordinated monitoring program for toxic algal blooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we were to look at other bodies of water in the state that may have the same problem — this is very much an emerging water quality issue — there may be nobody looking at it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one of the issues the organizations behind the new study hope to raise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The extent of algal blooms has been under-reported,” said the National Wildlife Federation’s Jordan Lubetkin, “in part because there is a sort of haphazard, inconsistent approach that states take, as well as no real national effort to track health advisories and lake closures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, the Water Resources Control Board’s regional offices monitor toxic algae. The report calls out one Northern California project that’s done a particularly thorough job: \u003ca href=\"http://www.kbmp.net/blue-green-algae-tracker\">The Klamath Basin Monitoring Program\u003c/a>, which is a collaboration between Indian tribes, university research programs, non-profits and the regional Water Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Algae occur naturally; the blooms can happen when phosphorous from fertilizers washes into the water. Even algae that’s not in and of itself toxic can harm wildlife. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/\">dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico\u003c/a> is a result of algae blooms. When the algae die, they decompose. That process takes up oxygen and leaves the area uninhabitable for fish.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9242\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/algae.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9242\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/algae.jpg\" alt=\"(Image: Robert Ketley)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “blue-green” algae bloom clings to a dock on Pinto Lake. (Photo: Robert Ketley)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A lake near Santa Cruz has the highest levels of toxic algae in the state, and some of the highest in the country, according to a \u003ca href=\"http://www.toxicalgaenews.com/\">new study\u003c/a> by the National Wildlife Federation and the San Francisco-based Resource Media, a non-profit outreach firm that specializes in environmental issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report highlights \u003ca href=\"http://www.pintolakepark.com/\">Pinto Lake\u003c/a>, which is in a park just outside of Watsonville, near the Monterey coast. Every year, it suffers from blooms of \u003ca href=\"http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/bluegreen_algae/index.shtml\">cyanobacteria\u003c/a> which can sicken people and kill animals. The\u003ca href=\"http://cityofwatsonville.org/city-of-watsonville/pinto-lake-recreation-management-public-health\"> health risks\u003c/a> for humans range from rashes and nausea to liver or kidney damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is probably one of the most surreal sights I’ve seen,” said Robert Ketley, a senior utilities engineer for the city of Watsonville. “When we have a really significant bloom, the lake looks like automobile anti-freeze with chunks of steamed broccoli floating in it. You then add to that, depending upon what species of cyanobacteria is blooming, a smell that is either like gym bag or manure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9243\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 339px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Dead-Carp-1a-2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9243 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Dead-Carp-1a-2.jpg\" alt=\"Carp suffocated by an algal bloom in Pinto Lake. (Image: Robert Ketley)\" width=\"339\" height=\"602\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carp suffocated by an algal bloom in Pinto Lake. (Image: Robert Ketley) \u003ccite>(Robert Ketley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The toxic algae in Pinto Lake has been \u003ca href=\"http://news.ucsc.edu/2010/09/otter-toxin.html\">linked to sea otter deaths \u003c/a>in Monterey Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ketley said he discovered the problem when he tested the lake, and found that the algae in it was toxic. Watsonville, Santa Cruz County and researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz now track the water quality at the lake. But Ketley said there’s no coordinated monitoring program for toxic algal blooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we were to look at other bodies of water in the state that may have the same problem — this is very much an emerging water quality issue — there may be nobody looking at it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one of the issues the organizations behind the new study hope to raise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The extent of algal blooms has been under-reported,” said the National Wildlife Federation’s Jordan Lubetkin, “in part because there is a sort of haphazard, inconsistent approach that states take, as well as no real national effort to track health advisories and lake closures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, the Water Resources Control Board’s regional offices monitor toxic algae. The report calls out one Northern California project that’s done a particularly thorough job: \u003ca href=\"http://www.kbmp.net/blue-green-algae-tracker\">The Klamath Basin Monitoring Program\u003c/a>, which is a collaboration between Indian tribes, university research programs, non-profits and the regional Water Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Algae occur naturally; the blooms can happen when phosphorous from fertilizers washes into the water. Even algae that’s not in and of itself toxic can harm wildlife. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/\">dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico\u003c/a> is a result of algae blooms. When the algae die, they decompose. That process takes up oxygen and leaves the area uninhabitable for fish.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "Epilepsy Reveals the Brain in Action | KQED",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/radio/science/2013/09/2013-09-23-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Scientists who study the brain have it tough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike, say, cardiologists or researchers who study the digestive track, neurologists have few lab tests, few opportunities to actually watch the human brain in action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a few rare exceptions. One comes with patients who have intractable epilepsy and seek brain surgery to remove the source of their seizures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nate Bennett is one such patient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9119\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 274px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Nate-eyes-closed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9119 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Nate-eyes-closed.jpg\" alt=\"Nate relaxes in his hospital bed, waiting to detect changes as tiny jolts of electricity enter his brain. \" width=\"274\" height=\"365\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nate relaxes in his hospital bed, waiting to detect changes as tiny jolts of electricity enter his brain.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In his back pocket, Bennett carries around a black leather wallet, about the size of an envelope, attached to a keychain. He made it himself. His teeth have left deep scars in the leather. That’s a good sign: it means he had time to prepare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tend to bite my tongue during the grand mal portion of the seizure,” says Bennett.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I’m conscious and I feel the seizure starting, I warn people around me what’s going on. I lay down on the floor and I put this in my mouth. That way, when I wake up, I may not have bitten my tongue.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nNeurons in lockstep\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the outside, a seizure looks like the product of a brain in chaos, but in reality, it’s the opposite. In an epileptic seizure, millions of neurons stop what they’re doing and suddenly begin firing in lockstep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Fisher, Director of the Stanford Epilepsy Center, compares it to a crowd at a football game. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of the chatter that you might see in a football stadium before the game starts, now it’s like the wave, or the cheer after a touchdown where everybody’s doing the same thing at once.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In centuries past, this looked to many like a spiritual possession. Joan of Arc may have had epilepsy. So might have Saint Teresa de Ávila.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, scientists have learned that epilepsy is a window into the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the notion that certain parts of the body are controlled by certain parts of the brain was an insight first gleaned by the 19th-century English neurologist John Hughlings Jackson, when he observed an epileptic seizure that seemed to travel from one part of his patient’s body to another. To Jackson, this was a clue that the disease was affecting parts of the brain in succession, each with a corresponding effect on the body.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Depending on where a seizure strikes, a patient may lose or alter his sense or smell, flail his hands, or suddenly recall a specific childhood memory. \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Epilepsy gave us our first clue that parts of the brain are responsible for parts of the body, or different senses,” says Edward Chang, a neurologist and neurosurgeon at the University of California San Francisco.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nSeeking a cure in surgery\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, patients being treated for epilepsy have become active participants in this research. Nate Bennett is one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last few years, Bennett’s epilepsy has become almost disabling. He’s having one or two grand mal seizures a month, sometimes in the middle of the workday. He’s unable to drive, and worries about having to go on disability and losing his health insurance. Medication isn’t helping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That makes him a candidate for surgery to remove the part of his brain that’s causing the seizures, and, possibly, cure his epilepsy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Stanford Hospital, where Bennett’s being treated, there are two stages to this process. First is a surgery to implant electrodes — in this case, thin plastic wires each about an inch-and-a-half long — into his brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I visit him as he’s waking from anesthesia. He’s groggy, but he gives me a thumb’s up. “I’m putting reality back together here… gradually,” he says, with a smile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think I can tell you my full name,” he announces. “Nathaniel Walter Bennett. Right? Always a good start.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A doctor tells Bennett that while he was unconscious, a surgeon implanted seven electrodes in his brain, two on the right hemisphere, five on the left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What a party,” Bennett replies wryly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9116\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 678px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/1.jpg\" alt=\"In surgery, a grid of electrodes is applied directly to a patient's brain. The electrodes can record changes in electrical activity at a fine level of detail. \" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9116\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In surgery, a grid of electrodes is applied directly to a patient’s brain. The electrodes can record changes in electrical activity at a fine level of detail.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The electrodes are intended to record exactly what happens in Bennett’s brain when he has a seizure. This can tell his doctors where his seizures are coming from and, in theory, which part of his brain to remove. It means spending a week or more in the hospital, off meds, waiting for seizures to strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nA rare opportunity for brain mapping\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I visit him the next day, Bennett’s head is swathed in bandages. A thick braid of electrical wires hangs from his left temple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s hanging in there, he says, but he wishes he’d have a seizure, so that his doctors might have some information to work with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To keep himself occupied, Bennett’s brought a bag of musical instruments and a copy of “Siddhartha,” by Hermann Hesse. One night, in which he’s instructed to stay awake as long as possible so as to hasten seizures, he watches a “Spongebob Squarepants” marathon on TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Electrical pulses make the patient do things without his will. “He is perceiving reality in a completely different way.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>But there are a few other things to do, including a functional mapping session with Bennett’s neurologist, Dr. Josef Parvizi, an associate professor of neurology at Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the day of the mapping, Dr. Parvizi wheels a cart with an electrical console and a laptop to Bennett’s bedside. Before surgeons remove part of Bennett’s brain, his doctors will want as detailed a picture of his brain as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where, exactly, are the parts that control his vision, for example, and his motor control? These are things you want to know before you take out the scalpel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nPainless electrical pulses cause strange reactions\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Parvizi tells Bennett to take a deep breath and relax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Bennett leans back in his bed, Parvizi sends a series of tiny electrical pulses into different parts of Bennett’s brain. The jolts are too small to cause Bennett any pain, but the results can be dramatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want you to tell us if you feel anything that resembles your seizures, ok?” says Parvizi. “One. Two three. Anything?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It kind of felt like somebody was poking me with a finger right here, “says Bennett, pointing to his forehead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, Parvizi sends a signal to an area called the anterior cingulate, involved in automatic speech such as reflexive vocalizations like “ouch,” or laughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let me know if anything changes,” says Parvizi calmly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suddenly Bennett lurches forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I, I I,” he stutters. “I became unable to speak. I was going to say “Jinx,” but then I started stuttering. I couldn’t get the words out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In injecting a little bit of electricity to the brain,” says Parvizi, the patient “ends up doing things without [his] will. He is perceiving the reality in a completely different way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of this is helpful for understanding Bennett’s epilepsy, but some of it is pure science, a rare opportunity for mind control, to simulate parts of the brain and see what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9117\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/800px-Homunculus-ja.svg_.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/800px-Homunculus-ja.svg_.png\" alt='The cortical homunculus (after the Latin for \"little man\") indicates which parts of the brain control which parts of the body, and the relative amount of neural area involved in different functions. ' width=\"800\" height=\"423\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9117\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cortical homunculus (after the Latin for “little man”) indicates which parts of the brain control which parts of the body, and the relative amount of neural area involved in different functions.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists and many patients see this as a win-win. For Bennett, it’s a way to “make something positive,” he says, out of his long medical journey with epilepsy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s rare that an epilepsy patient declines to participate in research,” says UCSF’s Edward Chang. “I think because they understand that we don’t know enough about how the brain works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People like Nate have been immensely valuable,” says Parvizi. “They’ve courageously donated their time and they’ve valued brain research.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Chang, Parvizi and other scientists, it’s amazing access. In doing this work, they and others have identified parts of the brain involved in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/02/13541/secrets-human-speech-uncovered\">forming words\u003c/a>, counting and \u003ca href=\"http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/october/face-blind.html\">recognizing faces\u003c/a>, among other things. In many cases, they can turn these abilities on and off like a light switch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mapping the brain in pursuit of future therapies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea is that when you start learning where certain abilities live in the brain, you come closer to finding new ways to fix them when they break down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take, for example, dyslexia or depression, says Parvizi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This really helps us understand, for example, the origin of psychological disorders. There are people who see reality very differently than us. We can’t just blame them. We need to understand how their brain is working in a way that they are seeing reality differently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi needs to wait for Bennett to have a natural seizure. But he also wants to stimulate the part of his brain that causes Bennett’s seizures, to elicit an “aura,” the particular sensation that can precede a seizure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi sends a small electrical signal to Bennett’s temporal lobe, a part of the brain thought to be implicated in his seizures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, there’s a change,” says Bennett. “I might have a seizure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi asks Bennett to say more, but he falls silent. His face hardens; his eyes become fixed on a spot across the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A doctor moves quickly to Bennett’s side and injects him with a dose of medication intended to stop the seizure. A nurse ushers me out of the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I next look in, Bennett is sleeping peacefully. His seizure has been recorded, his brain mapped at the finest level of detail possible with today’s technology. He is, he hopes, one step closer to a life without epilepsy.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "It's common sense: If you want to study the brain, open it up and take a look. That's not an opportunity scientists often get. One rare exception: patients with severe epilepsy, who volunteer their time as research subjects in the course of their treatment. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/radio/science/2013/09/2013-09-23-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Scientists who study the brain have it tough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike, say, cardiologists or researchers who study the digestive track, neurologists have few lab tests, few opportunities to actually watch the human brain in action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a few rare exceptions. One comes with patients who have intractable epilepsy and seek brain surgery to remove the source of their seizures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nate Bennett is one such patient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9119\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 274px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Nate-eyes-closed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9119 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/Nate-eyes-closed.jpg\" alt=\"Nate relaxes in his hospital bed, waiting to detect changes as tiny jolts of electricity enter his brain. \" width=\"274\" height=\"365\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nate relaxes in his hospital bed, waiting to detect changes as tiny jolts of electricity enter his brain.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In his back pocket, Bennett carries around a black leather wallet, about the size of an envelope, attached to a keychain. He made it himself. His teeth have left deep scars in the leather. That’s a good sign: it means he had time to prepare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tend to bite my tongue during the grand mal portion of the seizure,” says Bennett.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I’m conscious and I feel the seizure starting, I warn people around me what’s going on. I lay down on the floor and I put this in my mouth. That way, when I wake up, I may not have bitten my tongue.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nNeurons in lockstep\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the outside, a seizure looks like the product of a brain in chaos, but in reality, it’s the opposite. In an epileptic seizure, millions of neurons stop what they’re doing and suddenly begin firing in lockstep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Fisher, Director of the Stanford Epilepsy Center, compares it to a crowd at a football game. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of the chatter that you might see in a football stadium before the game starts, now it’s like the wave, or the cheer after a touchdown where everybody’s doing the same thing at once.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In centuries past, this looked to many like a spiritual possession. Joan of Arc may have had epilepsy. So might have Saint Teresa de Ávila.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, scientists have learned that epilepsy is a window into the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the notion that certain parts of the body are controlled by certain parts of the brain was an insight first gleaned by the 19th-century English neurologist John Hughlings Jackson, when he observed an epileptic seizure that seemed to travel from one part of his patient’s body to another. To Jackson, this was a clue that the disease was affecting parts of the brain in succession, each with a corresponding effect on the body.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Depending on where a seizure strikes, a patient may lose or alter his sense or smell, flail his hands, or suddenly recall a specific childhood memory. \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Epilepsy gave us our first clue that parts of the brain are responsible for parts of the body, or different senses,” says Edward Chang, a neurologist and neurosurgeon at the University of California San Francisco.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nSeeking a cure in surgery\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, patients being treated for epilepsy have become active participants in this research. Nate Bennett is one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last few years, Bennett’s epilepsy has become almost disabling. He’s having one or two grand mal seizures a month, sometimes in the middle of the workday. He’s unable to drive, and worries about having to go on disability and losing his health insurance. Medication isn’t helping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That makes him a candidate for surgery to remove the part of his brain that’s causing the seizures, and, possibly, cure his epilepsy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Stanford Hospital, where Bennett’s being treated, there are two stages to this process. First is a surgery to implant electrodes — in this case, thin plastic wires each about an inch-and-a-half long — into his brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I visit him as he’s waking from anesthesia. He’s groggy, but he gives me a thumb’s up. “I’m putting reality back together here… gradually,” he says, with a smile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think I can tell you my full name,” he announces. “Nathaniel Walter Bennett. Right? Always a good start.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A doctor tells Bennett that while he was unconscious, a surgeon implanted seven electrodes in his brain, two on the right hemisphere, five on the left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What a party,” Bennett replies wryly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9116\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 678px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/1.jpg\" alt=\"In surgery, a grid of electrodes is applied directly to a patient's brain. The electrodes can record changes in electrical activity at a fine level of detail. \" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9116\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In surgery, a grid of electrodes is applied directly to a patient’s brain. The electrodes can record changes in electrical activity at a fine level of detail.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The electrodes are intended to record exactly what happens in Bennett’s brain when he has a seizure. This can tell his doctors where his seizures are coming from and, in theory, which part of his brain to remove. It means spending a week or more in the hospital, off meds, waiting for seizures to strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nA rare opportunity for brain mapping\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I visit him the next day, Bennett’s head is swathed in bandages. A thick braid of electrical wires hangs from his left temple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s hanging in there, he says, but he wishes he’d have a seizure, so that his doctors might have some information to work with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To keep himself occupied, Bennett’s brought a bag of musical instruments and a copy of “Siddhartha,” by Hermann Hesse. One night, in which he’s instructed to stay awake as long as possible so as to hasten seizures, he watches a “Spongebob Squarepants” marathon on TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Electrical pulses make the patient do things without his will. “He is perceiving reality in a completely different way.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>But there are a few other things to do, including a functional mapping session with Bennett’s neurologist, Dr. Josef Parvizi, an associate professor of neurology at Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the day of the mapping, Dr. Parvizi wheels a cart with an electrical console and a laptop to Bennett’s bedside. Before surgeons remove part of Bennett’s brain, his doctors will want as detailed a picture of his brain as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where, exactly, are the parts that control his vision, for example, and his motor control? These are things you want to know before you take out the scalpel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nPainless electrical pulses cause strange reactions\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Parvizi tells Bennett to take a deep breath and relax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Bennett leans back in his bed, Parvizi sends a series of tiny electrical pulses into different parts of Bennett’s brain. The jolts are too small to cause Bennett any pain, but the results can be dramatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want you to tell us if you feel anything that resembles your seizures, ok?” says Parvizi. “One. Two three. Anything?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It kind of felt like somebody was poking me with a finger right here, “says Bennett, pointing to his forehead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, Parvizi sends a signal to an area called the anterior cingulate, involved in automatic speech such as reflexive vocalizations like “ouch,” or laughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let me know if anything changes,” says Parvizi calmly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suddenly Bennett lurches forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I, I I,” he stutters. “I became unable to speak. I was going to say “Jinx,” but then I started stuttering. I couldn’t get the words out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In injecting a little bit of electricity to the brain,” says Parvizi, the patient “ends up doing things without [his] will. He is perceiving the reality in a completely different way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of this is helpful for understanding Bennett’s epilepsy, but some of it is pure science, a rare opportunity for mind control, to simulate parts of the brain and see what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9117\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/800px-Homunculus-ja.svg_.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/800px-Homunculus-ja.svg_.png\" alt='The cortical homunculus (after the Latin for \"little man\") indicates which parts of the brain control which parts of the body, and the relative amount of neural area involved in different functions. ' width=\"800\" height=\"423\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9117\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cortical homunculus (after the Latin for “little man”) indicates which parts of the brain control which parts of the body, and the relative amount of neural area involved in different functions.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists and many patients see this as a win-win. For Bennett, it’s a way to “make something positive,” he says, out of his long medical journey with epilepsy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s rare that an epilepsy patient declines to participate in research,” says UCSF’s Edward Chang. “I think because they understand that we don’t know enough about how the brain works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People like Nate have been immensely valuable,” says Parvizi. “They’ve courageously donated their time and they’ve valued brain research.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Chang, Parvizi and other scientists, it’s amazing access. In doing this work, they and others have identified parts of the brain involved in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/02/13541/secrets-human-speech-uncovered\">forming words\u003c/a>, counting and \u003ca href=\"http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/october/face-blind.html\">recognizing faces\u003c/a>, among other things. In many cases, they can turn these abilities on and off like a light switch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mapping the brain in pursuit of future therapies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea is that when you start learning where certain abilities live in the brain, you come closer to finding new ways to fix them when they break down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take, for example, dyslexia or depression, says Parvizi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This really helps us understand, for example, the origin of psychological disorders. There are people who see reality very differently than us. We can’t just blame them. We need to understand how their brain is working in a way that they are seeing reality differently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi needs to wait for Bennett to have a natural seizure. But he also wants to stimulate the part of his brain that causes Bennett’s seizures, to elicit an “aura,” the particular sensation that can precede a seizure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi sends a small electrical signal to Bennett’s temporal lobe, a part of the brain thought to be implicated in his seizures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, there’s a change,” says Bennett. “I might have a seizure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parvizi asks Bennett to say more, but he falls silent. His face hardens; his eyes become fixed on a spot across the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A doctor moves quickly to Bennett’s side and injects him with a dose of medication intended to stop the seizure. A nurse ushers me out of the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I next look in, Bennett is sleeping peacefully. His seizure has been recorded, his brain mapped at the finest level of detail possible with today’s technology. He is, he hopes, one step closer to a life without epilepsy.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Birders Flock to See Blue-Footed Boobies",
"headTitle": "Birders Flock to See Blue-Footed Boobies | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue-footed_Booby/id\">Blue-footed boobies\u003c/a> are most commonly seen down in the Gulf of California or the Galapagos, but this week they’ve been \u003ca href=\"http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/bfbo_2013/\">invading the Southern California coast\u003c/a> and making their way up north, where very few have come before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9087\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 960px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/bluefootedbooby.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9087\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/bluefootedbooby.jpg\" alt=\"A blue-footed booby fails to blend in with the pelicans and cormorants at Año Nuevo State Park earlier this week. It's the brown and white bird at the lower left. (Photo: Jennifer Rycenga)\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A blue-footed booby fails to blend in with the pelicans and cormorants at Año Nuevo State Park earlier this week. It’s the brown and white bird at the lower left. (Photo: Jennifer Rycenga)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before this week, there’d been one sighting of a blue-footed booby in San Francisco, and just two others in the rest of Northern California. Now there have been more than a dozen. There have been sightings in Point Reyes, \u003ca href=\"http://fog.ccsf.edu/~jmorlan/Blue-footedBoobyP1120990s.htm\">near Lands End\u003c/a> in San Francisco (where on one day, birders were reporting two blue-footed boobies in the area at once) and at Moss Beach and other spots in San Mateo County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really thrilling to be watching an incidence of this rarity,” said Jennifer Rycenga, the president of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sequoia-audubon.org/index.html\">Sequoia Audubon Society\u003c/a>, which is the San Mateo County chapter. “It’s kind of like a Halley’s Comet moment. It might not happen again in my lifetime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sixteen year-old Logan Kahle was the first person to spot the bird in San Francisco a few days ago. On Thursday, he watched while one perched on the rocks near Lands End. He said when he first spotted a blue-footed booby, he had a hard time keeping his spotting scope on it because he was trembling with excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9098\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 346px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/ebird-e1379635476777.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9098 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/ebird-e1379635476777.png\" alt=\"Blue-footed booby sightings in Northern California reported to the website eBird. Click on the image to go to the interactive map on eBird.org.\" width=\"346\" height=\"256\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue-footed booby sightings in Northern California reported to the website eBird. Click on the image to go to the interactive map on eBird.org.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Winning the lottery is a good comparison,” he said. “Because it’s something that you may work at for years and years and years, and after ten years or so, you’ll get one stellar find.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists aren’t sure yet why the boobies are here. \u003ca href=\"http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/09/16/39295/blue-footed-booby-fever-hits-la-photos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+893KpccSouthernCaliforniaNews+(KPCC%3A+News)\">Some have speculated\u003c/a> it could be connected to food supply issues in their usual territory, but Jack Dumbacher, the curator of ornithology and mammalogy at the California Academy of Sciences said it may be difficult to find the exact cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When events like this happen, then it gives us an opportunity to say, ‘What’s different?'” he said. “Why did they expand? Is there something that’s not working for them back at home that they had to leave? Or is there something that’s beginning to work for them up here that never had before?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the blue-footed boobies in California seem to be juveniles that haven’t yet developed the bright blue feet of the adult birds. But check out this video of blue-footed boobies showing off their fancy feet during their mating dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgNPaZ5Qdq0\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue-footed_Booby/id\">Blue-footed boobies\u003c/a> are most commonly seen down in the Gulf of California or the Galapagos, but this week they’ve been \u003ca href=\"http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/bfbo_2013/\">invading the Southern California coast\u003c/a> and making their way up north, where very few have come before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9087\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 960px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/bluefootedbooby.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9087\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/bluefootedbooby.jpg\" alt=\"A blue-footed booby fails to blend in with the pelicans and cormorants at Año Nuevo State Park earlier this week. It's the brown and white bird at the lower left. (Photo: Jennifer Rycenga)\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A blue-footed booby fails to blend in with the pelicans and cormorants at Año Nuevo State Park earlier this week. It’s the brown and white bird at the lower left. (Photo: Jennifer Rycenga)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before this week, there’d been one sighting of a blue-footed booby in San Francisco, and just two others in the rest of Northern California. Now there have been more than a dozen. There have been sightings in Point Reyes, \u003ca href=\"http://fog.ccsf.edu/~jmorlan/Blue-footedBoobyP1120990s.htm\">near Lands End\u003c/a> in San Francisco (where on one day, birders were reporting two blue-footed boobies in the area at once) and at Moss Beach and other spots in San Mateo County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really thrilling to be watching an incidence of this rarity,” said Jennifer Rycenga, the president of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sequoia-audubon.org/index.html\">Sequoia Audubon Society\u003c/a>, which is the San Mateo County chapter. “It’s kind of like a Halley’s Comet moment. It might not happen again in my lifetime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sixteen year-old Logan Kahle was the first person to spot the bird in San Francisco a few days ago. On Thursday, he watched while one perched on the rocks near Lands End. He said when he first spotted a blue-footed booby, he had a hard time keeping his spotting scope on it because he was trembling with excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9098\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 346px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/ebird-e1379635476777.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9098 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/ebird-e1379635476777.png\" alt=\"Blue-footed booby sightings in Northern California reported to the website eBird. Click on the image to go to the interactive map on eBird.org.\" width=\"346\" height=\"256\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue-footed booby sightings in Northern California reported to the website eBird. Click on the image to go to the interactive map on eBird.org.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Winning the lottery is a good comparison,” he said. “Because it’s something that you may work at for years and years and years, and after ten years or so, you’ll get one stellar find.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists aren’t sure yet why the boobies are here. \u003ca href=\"http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/09/16/39295/blue-footed-booby-fever-hits-la-photos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+893KpccSouthernCaliforniaNews+(KPCC%3A+News)\">Some have speculated\u003c/a> it could be connected to food supply issues in their usual territory, but Jack Dumbacher, the curator of ornithology and mammalogy at the California Academy of Sciences said it may be difficult to find the exact cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When events like this happen, then it gives us an opportunity to say, ‘What’s different?'” he said. “Why did they expand? Is there something that’s not working for them back at home that they had to leave? Or is there something that’s beginning to work for them up here that never had before?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the blue-footed boobies in California seem to be juveniles that haven’t yet developed the bright blue feet of the adult birds. But check out this video of blue-footed boobies showing off their fancy feet during their mating dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\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/mgNPaZ5Qdq0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/mgNPaZ5Qdq0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Tsunami Debris May Be Mixed in With the Local Trash at This Year's Beach Cleanup",
"headTitle": "Tsunami Debris May Be Mixed in With the Local Trash at This Year’s Beach Cleanup | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Littered with cigarette butts, water bottles and tires, California’s beaches accumulate millions of pounds of trash every year. And every year volunteers sweep them clean during the \u003ca href=\"http://www.coastal.ca.gov/\">California Coastal Commission’s\u003c/a> annual beach and inland shore cleanup, which happens this Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the volunteer event may be different this year, owing to an influx of debris from \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami\">the tsunami\u003c/a> that hit the coast of Japan in 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8986\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/tsunami-debris-fishing-boat-washington-coast-1024x575.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8986\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-8986\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/tsunami-debris-fishing-boat-washington-coast-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"tsunami-debris-fishing-boat-washington-coast\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This fishing boat appeared near Cape Disappointment, Washington last year. The Japanese Consulate in Seattle confirmed the debris is a remnant of the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. (The Department of Ecology, State of Washington)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists think the bulk of the debris will hit the California coast this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Saying one particular thing is definitively tsunami debris is going to be really tough,” said Eben Schwartz of the Coastal Commission. “But we do expect an upward tick in those types of items during this coastal cleanup day and for the next several years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 5 million tons of debris washed into the Pacific after the tsunami. While most of it sank, Japanese officials estimate that up to 1.5 million tons of debris is still afloat. Some debris from the tsunami has already turned up on California beaches, including a boat that \u003ca href=\"http://www.livescience.com/29124-japan-tsunami-debris-reaches-california.html\">washed ashore\u003c/a> near the California-Oregon border in April. Most of the tsunami debris has been sighted farther north in places like Oregon, Washington, Alaska and even Canada. Large items like \u003ca title=\"News article\" href=\"http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120608a2.html\">a concrete dock\u003c/a> and a \u003ca title=\"News article\" href=\"http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tsunami-motorcycle-to-be-preserved-at-harley-davidson-museum-in-milwaukee\">Harley-Davidson motorcycle\u003c/a> washed up along the coasts of Oregon and British Columbia last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coastal Cleanup is part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.oceanconservancy.org/\">Ocean Conservancy’s\u003c/a> international cleanup which happens in more than thirty countries around the world. Last year more than 15,000 people in the Bay Area participated, Schwartz said he expects a bigger turnout this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The California Coastal Cleanup Day is the one chance we all have to take care of our ocean,” Schwartz said. “All the trash from our city streets will eventually end up in our ocean if we don’t stop it where it starts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out more or register to participate, visit the \u003ca href=\"http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/join.html\">California Coastal Commission\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Projected path of the tsunami debris\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1275px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/users/nikolai/2011/Pacific_Islands/Simulation_of_Debris_from_March_11_2011_Japan_tsunami.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1275\" height=\"825\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Computer simulation showing the estimated path of the tsunami debris field based on modeling of ocean currents. (The International Pacific Research Center)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Along with cigarette butts, water bottles and candy wrappers, volunteers at the statewide beach cleanup this Saturday may find debris from the Japanese tsunami.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Littered with cigarette butts, water bottles and tires, California’s beaches accumulate millions of pounds of trash every year. And every year volunteers sweep them clean during the \u003ca href=\"http://www.coastal.ca.gov/\">California Coastal Commission’s\u003c/a> annual beach and inland shore cleanup, which happens this Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the volunteer event may be different this year, owing to an influx of debris from \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami\">the tsunami\u003c/a> that hit the coast of Japan in 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8986\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/tsunami-debris-fishing-boat-washington-coast-1024x575.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8986\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-8986\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/tsunami-debris-fishing-boat-washington-coast-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"tsunami-debris-fishing-boat-washington-coast\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This fishing boat appeared near Cape Disappointment, Washington last year. The Japanese Consulate in Seattle confirmed the debris is a remnant of the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. (The Department of Ecology, State of Washington)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists think the bulk of the debris will hit the California coast this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Saying one particular thing is definitively tsunami debris is going to be really tough,” said Eben Schwartz of the Coastal Commission. “But we do expect an upward tick in those types of items during this coastal cleanup day and for the next several years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 5 million tons of debris washed into the Pacific after the tsunami. While most of it sank, Japanese officials estimate that up to 1.5 million tons of debris is still afloat. Some debris from the tsunami has already turned up on California beaches, including a boat that \u003ca href=\"http://www.livescience.com/29124-japan-tsunami-debris-reaches-california.html\">washed ashore\u003c/a> near the California-Oregon border in April. Most of the tsunami debris has been sighted farther north in places like Oregon, Washington, Alaska and even Canada. Large items like \u003ca title=\"News article\" href=\"http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120608a2.html\">a concrete dock\u003c/a> and a \u003ca title=\"News article\" href=\"http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tsunami-motorcycle-to-be-preserved-at-harley-davidson-museum-in-milwaukee\">Harley-Davidson motorcycle\u003c/a> washed up along the coasts of Oregon and British Columbia last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Coastal Cleanup is part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.oceanconservancy.org/\">Ocean Conservancy’s\u003c/a> international cleanup which happens in more than thirty countries around the world. Last year more than 15,000 people in the Bay Area participated, Schwartz said he expects a bigger turnout this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The California Coastal Cleanup Day is the one chance we all have to take care of our ocean,” Schwartz said. “All the trash from our city streets will eventually end up in our ocean if we don’t stop it where it starts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out more or register to participate, visit the \u003ca href=\"http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/join.html\">California Coastal Commission\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Projected path of the tsunami debris\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1275px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/users/nikolai/2011/Pacific_Islands/Simulation_of_Debris_from_March_11_2011_Japan_tsunami.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1275\" height=\"825\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Computer simulation showing the estimated path of the tsunami debris field based on modeling of ocean currents. (The International Pacific Research Center)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Isabel Angell\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three new monitors to measure vehicle emissions are going up this year at congested traffic corridors in the Bay Area. They’re the result of a new federal law requiring local governments to keep tabs on emissions in heavily trafficked areas. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.baaqmd.gov/\">Bay Area Air Quality Management District\u003c/a> will oversee and manage the monitors, which will cost between $250,000 to $500,000 each.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Populations near roadways are more affected and have higher rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses,” said Eric Stevenson, the technical director of the Air District. “Because of that we want to gather data near the roadway and determine which compounds might be responsible for those increases in health effects.” Stevenson said regulating those emissions is an important tool for public health policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8817\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/traffic-featured-e1379369463152.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/traffic-featured-e1379369463152.jpg\" alt=\"The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will begin monitoring emissions near highways. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8817\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will begin monitoring emissions near highways. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The federal regulations require three compounds to be monitored: nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and small particulates. But the Air District plans to track other emissions, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We the Air District have decided that it makes a lot of sense to try and measure as many different types of compounds as possible,” said Stevenson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the district will measure hydrocarbons, ultrafine particles and will conduct an analysis to discover other compounds that may come from emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monitors will be placed at Laney College in Oakland by Interstate 880 and along Interstate 80 in Berkeley, west of Aquatic Park. The third monitor will be in San Jose, south of the interchange between Interstates 280, 680 and Highway 101.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Emissions-to-be-monitored-on-major-Bay-Area-roads-4816992.php\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> has more on the program:\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceItemEmbedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/23/63/06/5190045/3/200x200.jpg\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Emissions-to-be-monitored-on-major-Bay-Area-roads-4816992.php\">Emissions to be monitored on major Bay Area roads\u003c/a>Right now, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has a system of more than 30 monitors throughout the nine Bay Area counties to measure air pollution in general areas, but none is located close to a busy traffic corridor. As a result, environmentalists say, the system overlooks the risks to people who, like tens of millions of Americans, live within 300 feet of major roads.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float:right\">\u003ca target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" title=\"Powered by Embedly\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">\u003cspan>via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com\" class=\"media-attribution-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sfgate\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Isabel Angell\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three new monitors to measure vehicle emissions are going up this year at congested traffic corridors in the Bay Area. They’re the result of a new federal law requiring local governments to keep tabs on emissions in heavily trafficked areas. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.baaqmd.gov/\">Bay Area Air Quality Management District\u003c/a> will oversee and manage the monitors, which will cost between $250,000 to $500,000 each.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Populations near roadways are more affected and have higher rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses,” said Eric Stevenson, the technical director of the Air District. “Because of that we want to gather data near the roadway and determine which compounds might be responsible for those increases in health effects.” Stevenson said regulating those emissions is an important tool for public health policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8817\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/traffic-featured-e1379369463152.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/traffic-featured-e1379369463152.jpg\" alt=\"The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will begin monitoring emissions near highways. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8817\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will begin monitoring emissions near highways. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The federal regulations require three compounds to be monitored: nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and small particulates. But the Air District plans to track other emissions, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We the Air District have decided that it makes a lot of sense to try and measure as many different types of compounds as possible,” said Stevenson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the district will measure hydrocarbons, ultrafine particles and will conduct an analysis to discover other compounds that may come from emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monitors will be placed at Laney College in Oakland by Interstate 880 and along Interstate 80 in Berkeley, west of Aquatic Park. The third monitor will be in San Jose, south of the interchange between Interstates 280, 680 and Highway 101.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Emissions-to-be-monitored-on-major-Bay-Area-roads-4816992.php\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> has more on the program:\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceItemEmbedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/23/63/06/5190045/3/200x200.jpg\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Emissions-to-be-monitored-on-major-Bay-Area-roads-4816992.php\">Emissions to be monitored on major Bay Area roads\u003c/a>Right now, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has a system of more than 30 monitors throughout the nine Bay Area counties to measure air pollution in general areas, but none is located close to a busy traffic corridor. As a result, environmentalists say, the system overlooks the risks to people who, like tens of millions of Americans, live within 300 feet of major roads.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float:right\">\u003ca target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" title=\"Powered by Embedly\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">\u003cspan>via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com\" class=\"media-attribution-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sfgate\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California's Fire History Written in the Trees",
"headTitle": "California’s Fire History Written in the Trees | KQED",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/radio/science/2013/09/2013-09-16-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Much has been made of the Rim Fire being one of California’s largest “on record,” and the biggest burn yet seen in the Sierra Nevada. But it depends on what record you’re looking at.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/rimfire-featured.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8760\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/rimfire-featured.jpg\" alt=\"Flames from the Rim Fire consume trees on August 25, 2013 near Groveland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flames from the Rim Fire consume trees on August 25, 2013 near Groveland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists are finding that in the not-too-distant past — we’re \u003cem>not\u003c/em> talking Jurassic here — forest fires burned far more real estate than they typically do today, and more often. The difference is that the forests bounced back much more readily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A century of forest management practices, combined with hotter and longer summers brought on by climate change, have set the stage for more catastrophic fires. But “big” didn’t always mean catastrophic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8681\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 216px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/IMG_4113-216x162.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8681 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/IMG_4113-216x162.jpg\" alt=\"USFS geographer Carl Skinner is piecing together a fire history of California by studying tree rings. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"216\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">USFS geographer Carl Skinner is piecing together a fire history of California by studying tree rings. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For 25 years, Carl Skinner and his colleagues at the U.S. Forest Service have been building a kind of “pre-history” of fire in California by scrutinizing tree rings. The shelves of his lab near Redding are piled high with crosscut slabs of big sugar pines and other trees from northern California forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We find 1822 fires all over the place,” Skinner told me while sorting through wooden slabs. “It was a very dry year. 1729 is another one. There’s a number of these very pronounced drought years that give us an idea of what to expect in a year like this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Trees tell the story\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner pointed to intermittent black marks within the tree rings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The areas here are scars, where the fire came along and killed a very small section of the tree right here, and then this is the healing where the tree tries to heal over,” he observed. “And then a few years later another fire came and then it heals, and then a few years later another fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracking backward in time, from the outside in, something surprising emerges. Fire was an integral part of the landscape — and there was a lot of it, caused primarily by lightning strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8690\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/FireScars_4110-featured.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8690\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/FireScars_4110-featured.jpeg\" alt='Black \"scars\" in the annual growth rings in this cedar tree reveal when fires occurred though the years. (Craig Miller/KQED)' width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black “scars” in the annual growth rings in this cedar tree reveal when fires occurred though the years. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every 8-to-12 years, they were putting scars on the trees and some places even much more frequently than that,” he explained. “What this did was to clean out a lot of the understory, keep it low and have the forest, instead of being pretty dense like it is today, it’d be much more open in general, but kind of patchy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What that meant was that fires could roar through a forest and stay low to the ground, without “crowning,” that is climbing and burning the big trees, as we just saw with the Rim Fire. And so a couple of hundred years ago, before there were people bent on putting out fires, forest fires were both bigger and more frequent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Typical years would have had somewhere between 5 million acres to 12 million acres burn before we began fire suppression,” said Skinner. “Since fire suppression, it’s far below that.” The Rim Fire has already consumed more than a quarter-million acres by itself, but nowadays a million acres total is a very nasty fire season. “So that means we’re storing up a lot of vegetation, which is there to burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Climate Factor\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuel isn’t the only thing feeding bigger fires. Most scientists agree that the warming climate is, too, and may already be setting the stage for more intense events.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“Fire seasons are lengthening.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Fire seasons are lengthening,” says Skinner, who cites research that shows them starting earlier in the spring and lasting longer. “Basically what that does is creates a longer period for drying in the summer, makes more fuel available and much more period of time in the year that you can have a fire, so your probability of having a fire just goes up with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fire “management”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner says that throughout the West, the fire season is running about a month longer than even 30 or 40 years ago. That means not just more potential for catastrophic fires, but also a narrower window to do “prescribed burns” in the off-season, when foresters light fires intentionally to clear out some of the fuel languishing in the forest understory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This process can’t start until the arrival of enough rain to keep things from getting out of control. But there’s a narrow window, because fire managers have to conduct the burns before winter sets in. Skinner has seen that window shrinking since the 1970s, when those first rains might have arrived as soon as September in the northern forests of California. Now, he said, the prescribed fire season might not start until late-October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(Climate change) is actually, we think, playing havoc with a lot of the prescribed fire program,” he said. “Because of the lengthening fire season, it’s squashing down the prescribed fire period before it becomes too wet in the winter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service and Cal Fire got lucky last year, with an unexpectedly light fire season. But Skinner has learned that luck is a kind of two-edged sword. It means that more fuel is accumulating, waiting for the next big burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile Cal Fire has floated a new plan that would reduce fuels on an additional 216,000 acres per year on average, using a combination of burning, logging, targeted grazing and herbicides. The use of herbicides has invited controversy but prescribed burns have been controversial, too. And according to research by the U.S. Geological Survey, outlined in this video, how well it works depends on where it’s done.\u003cbr>\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-SNFf0xM5g\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/radio/science/2013/09/2013-09-16-science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Much has been made of the Rim Fire being one of California’s largest “on record,” and the biggest burn yet seen in the Sierra Nevada. But it depends on what record you’re looking at.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/rimfire-featured.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8760\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/rimfire-featured.jpg\" alt=\"Flames from the Rim Fire consume trees on August 25, 2013 near Groveland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flames from the Rim Fire consume trees on August 25, 2013 near Groveland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists are finding that in the not-too-distant past — we’re \u003cem>not\u003c/em> talking Jurassic here — forest fires burned far more real estate than they typically do today, and more often. The difference is that the forests bounced back much more readily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A century of forest management practices, combined with hotter and longer summers brought on by climate change, have set the stage for more catastrophic fires. But “big” didn’t always mean catastrophic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8681\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 216px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/IMG_4113-216x162.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8681 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/IMG_4113-216x162.jpg\" alt=\"USFS geographer Carl Skinner is piecing together a fire history of California by studying tree rings. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"216\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">USFS geographer Carl Skinner is piecing together a fire history of California by studying tree rings. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For 25 years, Carl Skinner and his colleagues at the U.S. Forest Service have been building a kind of “pre-history” of fire in California by scrutinizing tree rings. The shelves of his lab near Redding are piled high with crosscut slabs of big sugar pines and other trees from northern California forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We find 1822 fires all over the place,” Skinner told me while sorting through wooden slabs. “It was a very dry year. 1729 is another one. There’s a number of these very pronounced drought years that give us an idea of what to expect in a year like this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Trees tell the story\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner pointed to intermittent black marks within the tree rings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The areas here are scars, where the fire came along and killed a very small section of the tree right here, and then this is the healing where the tree tries to heal over,” he observed. “And then a few years later another fire came and then it heals, and then a few years later another fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracking backward in time, from the outside in, something surprising emerges. Fire was an integral part of the landscape — and there was a lot of it, caused primarily by lightning strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8690\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/FireScars_4110-featured.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8690\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/FireScars_4110-featured.jpeg\" alt='Black \"scars\" in the annual growth rings in this cedar tree reveal when fires occurred though the years. (Craig Miller/KQED)' width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black “scars” in the annual growth rings in this cedar tree reveal when fires occurred though the years. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every 8-to-12 years, they were putting scars on the trees and some places even much more frequently than that,” he explained. “What this did was to clean out a lot of the understory, keep it low and have the forest, instead of being pretty dense like it is today, it’d be much more open in general, but kind of patchy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What that meant was that fires could roar through a forest and stay low to the ground, without “crowning,” that is climbing and burning the big trees, as we just saw with the Rim Fire. And so a couple of hundred years ago, before there were people bent on putting out fires, forest fires were both bigger and more frequent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Typical years would have had somewhere between 5 million acres to 12 million acres burn before we began fire suppression,” said Skinner. “Since fire suppression, it’s far below that.” The Rim Fire has already consumed more than a quarter-million acres by itself, but nowadays a million acres total is a very nasty fire season. “So that means we’re storing up a lot of vegetation, which is there to burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Climate Factor\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuel isn’t the only thing feeding bigger fires. Most scientists agree that the warming climate is, too, and may already be setting the stage for more intense events.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“Fire seasons are lengthening.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Fire seasons are lengthening,” says Skinner, who cites research that shows them starting earlier in the spring and lasting longer. “Basically what that does is creates a longer period for drying in the summer, makes more fuel available and much more period of time in the year that you can have a fire, so your probability of having a fire just goes up with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fire “management”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner says that throughout the West, the fire season is running about a month longer than even 30 or 40 years ago. That means not just more potential for catastrophic fires, but also a narrower window to do “prescribed burns” in the off-season, when foresters light fires intentionally to clear out some of the fuel languishing in the forest understory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This process can’t start until the arrival of enough rain to keep things from getting out of control. But there’s a narrow window, because fire managers have to conduct the burns before winter sets in. Skinner has seen that window shrinking since the 1970s, when those first rains might have arrived as soon as September in the northern forests of California. Now, he said, the prescribed fire season might not start until late-October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(Climate change) is actually, we think, playing havoc with a lot of the prescribed fire program,” he said. “Because of the lengthening fire season, it’s squashing down the prescribed fire period before it becomes too wet in the winter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service and Cal Fire got lucky last year, with an unexpectedly light fire season. But Skinner has learned that luck is a kind of two-edged sword. It means that more fuel is accumulating, waiting for the next big burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile Cal Fire has floated a new plan that would reduce fuels on an additional 216,000 acres per year on average, using a combination of burning, logging, targeted grazing and herbicides. The use of herbicides has invited controversy but prescribed burns have been controversial, too. And according to research by the U.S. Geological Survey, outlined in this video, how well it works depends on where it’s done.\u003cbr>\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/g-SNFf0xM5g'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/g-SNFf0xM5g'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"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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"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. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"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.",
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"mindshift": {
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"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>",
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"order": 12
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"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?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"info": "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.",
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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",
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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",
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},
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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"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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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
},
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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