QUEST Science Video Podcast: Episodes
Ocean tides rise and fall twice a day, influenced by the gravitational forces of the sun and moon. Studying tides' rhythmic movements helps us understand both the ocean and the cosmos. Astronomer Ben Burress explains how tides work, and QUEST visits Crissy Field in San Francisco to see the oldest continually ...
The California Academy of Sciences has the largest collection of biological reference materials west of the Mississippi. Dating back over 100 years, the collection provides a treasure trove of biological information for scientists and researchers studying the natural world. Norman Penny, the Collections ...
Can fire save the endangered Mission Blue Butterfly? The Golden Gate National Recreation Area experiments with using controlled burns to improve habitat for this critically imperiled Bay Area native.
The Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco are a vital home to many birds and marine mammals. While the forbidding and inhospitable nature of the Farallones may be ideal for wildlife, it also makes this a difficult place for scientists to live and work. QUEST ventures out to these jagged rocks ...
California Highway One, between Pacifica and Montara, was carved out of the steep coastal cliffs. Plagued by closures due to rockslides and land slippage, this route has earned the nickname "The Devil's Slide." Now two tunnels beneath San Pedro Mountain, each 30-feet wide and 4,200-feet long are being ...
Artist Kate Nichols longed to paint with the iridescent colors of butterfly wings, but no such pigments existed. So she became the first artist-in-residence at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to synthesize nanoparticles and incorporate them into her artwork.
Meet Shelley, a car that drives itself. Researchers at Stanford University have developed an autonomous race car and plan on taking it on one of the toughest courses in the country. First, the car is taking them for a test ride at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
Pale ghosts that hide amidst their gigantic siblings, only a few dozen Albino redwood trees are known to exist. They are genetic mutants that lack the chlorophyll needed for photosynthesis-- how and why they survive is a scientific mystery. QUEST ventures into the deep canopy of Henry Cowell Redwoods ...
As the "father of biodiversity," two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and guru of myrmecology (the study of ants), E. O. Wilson has been an inspiration to young scientists around the globe. Wilson discusses his life, his career, and his hope for the future of our living world.
Scientists say it's no secret San Francisco Bay is rising, along with all of the earth’s oceans. The reason -- global warming. This rise in sea level will affect everyone who lives, works, or plays near the bay. QUEST asks how high will the Bay rise and when? And what steps can communities take to plan for it?
QUEST journeys back to find out how physicists on the UC Berkeley campus in the 1930s, and at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in the 1970s, created "atom smashers" that led to key discoveries about the tiny constituents of the atom and paved the way for the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
San Francisco 's fickle summer weather has earned it the nickname "Fog City." Science on the SPOT asks UC Berkeley's Todd Dawson to clear up the mysterious origins of this weather phenomenon, and share his research on how fog is integral to our state's ecology.
Flowing 330 miles from the Sierras to the delta, the San Joaquin River is California’s second longest river. It once boasted one of the state's great salmon runs. But since the construction of Friant Dam near Fresno in the 1940s, most of the San Joaquin's water has been siphoned off to farmland in ...
Think there's nothing to new to see outside? Take a closer look. Photographer Ron Wolf leads us on a hunt for fungi and slime molds, with their surprisingly ornate and elegant patterns, at Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve in Los Altos.
Most of us think ants are just pests. But not Brian Fisher. Known as "The Ant Guy," he's on a mission to show the world just how important and amazing these little creatures are and in the process, catalog all of the world's 30,000 ant species before they become casualties of habitat loss. But he can't ...
The Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries cover more than 9,500 square miles of ocean habitat. While most fishing and shipping are still allowed within sanctuary waters, some activities are now regulated or prohibited. Patrolling such an immense ...
They are otherworldly creatures who glow in the dark, without brains or bones, some reaching 100 feet long. And they live just off California's coast. Join two top marine biologists who have devoted their careers to unlocking the mysteries of jellyfish and alien-like siphonophores.
In our second episode of Science on the SPOT, join us on a behind-the-scenes trip deep into the massive collection of marine mammal skulls at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. You'd be surprised how much you can learn about an animal's life– and death– by reading their bones.
In this QUEST web extra, Stanford University astrophysicist Todd Hoeksema explains how solar sound waves are a vital ingredient to the science of helioseismology, whereby the interior properties of the sun are probed by analyzing and tracking the surface sound waves that bounce into and out of the Sun.
Test your knowledge about this mysterious, awesome and most vital of stars.