QUEST Community Science Blog

Hypothetical exoplanet of a brown dwarf star--similar to a future Earth? Credit: Jeff Bryant

Every now and then, when seeing fresh examples of the world's problems, local or global, I take a deep breath, sigh, and think, "In a million years, what difference will it all make?" It may sound fatalistic, and of course current events do matter to our short-timer existences on Earth, but the thought gives me an odd sense of peace and gets me to thinking about the future—the far distant future—of the Earth. It's hard to imagine what the future will bring in ten, a hundred, or even a thousand million years. Where will evolution take life on Earth—including us? How far will human civilization stretch, and what turns will it take? What exciting twists and cliffhangers are in store for the climate? What will be on television?

Some things are a bit easier to predict: what the sun will do and how the Earth and the Earth-moon relationship will change.

I ran across a web version of the H.G. Wells novel "The Time Machine" a couple of weeks ago, and re-reading Chapter 11 I was reminded how insightful the story is with regard to visualizing future possibilities. In this chapter, the Time Traveler probes forward in time, going millions of years into the future and arriving in a tidally-locked Earth under a bloated, reddened sun, with no moon in the sky. The ocean was calm and cold, sporting only gentle, lazy swells, and the air was considerably less stocked with oxygen than today. Snow peppered the land and ice fringed the sea, and the only ubiquitous sign that life still existed was a green slime that coated the rocks of the shore.

"All the sounds of man, the bleating of sheep, the cries of birds, the hum of insects, the stir that makes the background of our lives – all that was over."

An alien, cold, and pessimistic view of the future? Well—it can hardly be classified as pessimistic; pessimism is an emotion based on the seeming unchangeability of things we can in fact change. But the Earth's future is commanded by forces scarcely within our power to affect.

For one, the Earth's rotation is slowing down. It used to spin much faster—maybe three times as much—but tidal effects of the moon and sun have been slowing it down for four and a half billion years. Imagine an eight-hour day, with the sun crossing from horizon to horizon in about four. Wake up, it's only a couple of hours until lunchtime, and another two ‘til dinner. I got a whole three hours of sleep last night! Ahh!

Where is Earth's spin going? Shakespeare had the answer: "The moon's an arrant thief…." The momentum of Earth's spin is being slowly siphoned off by the moon through tidal interaction, which is simultaneously causing the moon to move farther from the Earth. Once much closer to Earth, even today the moon continues to inch away into space–quite literally, at less than two inches per year.

So in the very distant future, we can project that the moon will have moved much farther from the Earth, and the Earth's rotation will have slowed down even more. At some point the Earth's rotation would match the moon's orbital period and the Earth will become tidally locked with the moon, always keeping the same face to it, just as the moon is currently tidal-locked to the Earth.

In H.G. Wells' vision, the far distant future Earth is tidally locked to the Sun, and the moon is apparently gone. Would this happen? Will there ever be an Earth with an unending day and unending moonless night (depending on your address)? That could happen, but the moon would have to leave the picture first, perhaps wandering far enough out that a chance gravitational disturbance by another planet would knock it off the edge of its orbit.

The sun is changing too—has changed, and will continue to change—as the dynamics of its nuclear fuel supply mix shifts. As atomic fusion converts hydrogen into helium, helium to carbon, and so forth, the availability of easily released energy will diminish, causing the core to shrink and heat up, in turn causing the outer layers to inflate, becoming more expansive but also cooler and redder. In the very long run, the outer layers will expand beyond Earth's present orbit.

So there is a future out there that we can be more certain of than the future shaped by human affairs. It's further out in time than the decades or centuries ahead—and frankly further out than H. G. Wells penned in at 30 million years (little will have changed with the length of a day and the mile markers to the moon in that time, and I believe the sun won't make much of a fuss for at least a billion, or more).

In the meantime, it's captivating to think what the scenery may be like around the place I stand today, a million or a billion years hence.

The Greathouse Portal Visitor Center, inside the former Hazel-Atlas sand mine, is open again after five years. Photos by Andrew Alden

With California's state parks under threat of imminent closure, the East Bay Regional Park District is a bright spot for naturegoers. Careful management has maintained steady funding in hard times, and this summer EBRPD's Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve promises to be a well-attended place—especially with the long-awaited reopening of its underground Greathouse Visitor Center.

Black Diamond is named for its history as California's largest coal district, starting in the 1850s. Coal was a prerequisite of 19th-century technology, and its discovery in the hills south of Antioch helped propel the new state of California to prosperity. It wasn't great coal, being classified as lignite or the lowest grade of coal, but it was good enough to do the job. Several mining towns sprang up here, and for a while this was the biggest settlement in Contra Costa County.

Fragments of Black Diamond's low-grade lignite coal can still be found in the tailings piles.

The coal didn't run out, but by the 1890s better coal was available from elsewhere so the mines shut down soon after. Next came the exploitation of the premium quartz sand beds beneath the coal. The sand mines supplied glassmakers in Oakland and steelmakers in Pittsburg from the 1920s to the late 1940s. That was when the Greathouse underground chamber was created, in the Hazel-Atlas sand mine. The Regional Parks District repurposed it as a visitor center in the 1970s, but storm damage shut it down in 2007. After five years of painstaking rehab, the room is receiving visitors again every weekend at no charge.

The old mining district is hidden from the riverside sprawl of Antioch behind a narrow canyon and oak-dotted hills. Driving through the canyon is like leaving the 21st century behind.

Inside, the vegetation is more lush on the higher hills, and miles of trails snake through the country. The area is notable for wildlife and plant species, but geologists find it notable too.

The bones of the hills are relatively young sedimentary rocks that are well exposed here. They extend all the way across the Central Valley in the subsurface. I look forward to showing you more as I explore this beautiful place.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, May 15, 2012, I hitched a ride with my closest friend from San Francisco out to Palo Alto to attend the ribbon cutting for the first public fast charger in California for electric vehicles in Stanford Mall. This was definitely a green carpet event as it took place in the shopping mall’s garage within walking distance of the fast charger. Many people drove in zero emission cars to attend and the podium was lined on both sides with electric vehicles. Out of the many electric vehicles that were parked, most of them were Nissan Leafs, the same model we drove in from San Francisco. I counted 17 electric vehicles in all which I was told was a modest turnout at a EV event!

Now I’m not new to electric vehicles and the infrastructure. I tagged along with Obrie Hostetter, the Northern California EV Infrastructure Director at 350 Green, a developer of electric vehicle (EV) charging station networks. Her company, along with a partnership with the city of Palo Alto and John Ryan Company, Inc., was responsible for the permitting and construction necessary to place the Level 3 Fast Charger.

A level 2 charger will take about 7 hours to fully charge an EV battery; the Level 3 fast charger can charge the battery up to 80% in 30 minutes. Most EV owners do the majority of their charging at night at home and stay within a close proximity mitigating “range anxiety”. To give you an example: the ideal range of a Nissan Leaf for freeway driving is about 100 miles. With an infrastructure of fast chargers, that range can be increased without spending a lot of time to recharge the battery. This is just the first step in a fast charger infrastructure, as plans are in place to install 25 public fast chargers near retail locations by the fall of 2012.

EV drivers sign up for a payment card from 350Green to use the fast charger station. Use of the card and how to properly use the station was demonstrated after remarks from Palo Alto's Mayor Yiaway Yeh as well as the partners involved in making the public charging station possible. There were quite a few statistics that came out that were enlightening about this new technological movement: 1) There are over 3000 EVs in the Silicon Valley making Palo Alto a great corner stone for the EV infrastructure; the fast charger has already gotten quite a bit of use — since being turned on, it’s been used 3 to 4 times a day; 136 EV drivers have already signed up for the payment card to use at the station and the infrastructure to follow.

So what is the best ribbon to cut at such a green event? Applause went up when a gas hose was cut in front of the fast charger station and the Nissan Leaf it was charging with 100% REC (Renewable Energy Credits) energy!

Cancer cells under a microscope. Colored stains
mark different compartments in the cell. The nucleus is
red and lysosomes (which break down waste) are purple.
(Image: Carolin Zehetmeier, Morphosys AG, Germany)

Dr. Susan Love thinks breast cancer researchers need to get over their addiction to rodents.

America’s most famous breast cancer surgeon started treating women some 30 years ago. “And we’re still doing the same thing we did when I started,” she told a crowd in San Francisco last month at the Sage Bionetworks conference, aimed at transforming biomedical research.

“Surgery radiation, chemotherapy, hormones, and now we’ve added a little bit of targeted therapies,” said Love, a clinical professor of surgery at UCLA. “We never subtract anything, mind you, we only add things on top. And our results are about the same.”

Although breast cancer incidence and mortality have decreased since 1998, by 1.3% and 2% respectively, more than 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and more than 40,000 will die from it. Nearly 110 women die from breast cancer every day.

Experts think earlier detection and better treatments account for the decline in deaths, but screening carries risks. With mass screening comes overdiagnosis—that is, diagnosing a condition that would not prove symptomatic or fatal—and with overdiagnosis comes overtreatment and other potential harms (see video below). Screening technology can’t distinguish between aggressive and harmless tumors, which can shrink or even disappear on their own. Overdiagnosis will likely just increase as imaging technology finds smaller and smaller tumors.

Medical experts acknowledged in an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine last month that it’s time to recognize overdiagnosis as a serious problem. Most patient-education materials don’t even mention overdiagnosis and most women aren’t aware of the possibility, the authors said. As they pointed out, and any woman knows, “the impact of a cancer diagnosis lasts a lifetime.”

It’s hard to think of a physician who’s done more to acknowledge the trauma of breast cancer than the author of the best-selling “Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book,” now in its fifth edition.

That book, along with Love's early refusal to accept the oxymoronic (emphasis on moronic) “early detection is your best prevention” mantra of mainstream cancer and advocacy organizations, won her a place of honor among frustrated breast cancer activists, who know all too well that if you can diagnose cancer, you haven't prevented it. Detecting it, by definition, means it's there.

The surgical tools used on breast cancer
patients in the 18th century look gruesome, but
aren't really so far removed from the "slash, burn
and poison" approach to breast cancer today.
(Illustration: Louis-Jacques Goussier)

Activists have long pushed researchers to shift their focus from treatments and cures to true prevention.

Despite $4 billion spent on breast cancer research, researchers still don’t know what causes it or how to prevent it. Yet Love believes that the tools exist to “eradicate breast cancer within our lifetime” if we ask the right questions.

And for decades, Love has helped shine the spotlight on causes, not cures, to spare women from that dreaded diagnosis. But that goal will remain elusive, she believes, as long as researchers keep studying the disease in rodents. That’s because mice and rats don’t get breast cancer. Researchers have to give it to them.

So she’s been trying to wean researchers off rodents. “I can say this is a good study, you could do that in women, and they say, ‘Let me tell you about my rats.’ ”

Yet researchers can learn valuable insights into the origins of disease by comparing people with an illness to matched cohorts of healthy people, as the legendary Nurses’ Health Study has demonstrated for heart disease, diabetes and other conditions.

Finding the causes and, ultimately, how to prevent breast cancer requires a radical shift in thinking, Love said. And that means that at least some researchers have to give up their rats and mice and start working with the people who get the disease.

Researchers used to tell Love that even if they did want to study women, they didn’t know how to find them. But she knew that was the easy part. So for more than three years, the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation has been recruiting an online "army of women" with a target of enrolling “one million women and a few good men.”

Dr. Susan Love spoke at the Sage Bionetworks conference in San Francisco last month. The Seattle-based nonprofit is dedicated to “moving beyond the current medical information system and its rewards.”

“Scientists come to us with studies that need people, and we e-blast them out to everybody in the army,” Love said.

So far, they’ve recruited 365,000 women for about 60 studies. Seven in 10 of the women don’t have breast cancer, but are "altruistic,” Love said. They’re willing to undergo unpleasant procedures to help researchers figure out root causes. In one study, women in the control group had to endure a sigmoidoscopy and a biopsy. And Love got more enrollees than researchers could use.

By the end of this summer, the foundation will be launching its own Health of Women Study. The large online breast cancer cohort study will follow women with and without a diagnosis to identify new risk factors. It will also follow breast cancer survivors to identify factors that predict long-term survival and consequences of different therapies.

Any woman over 18 can register online or with a mobile phone. (Men are welcome, too.)

Love’s study will let participants suggest questions they’d
like to see tested, because she thinks you don’t
need a PhD to come up with a good idea.

She told her San Francisco audience that early theories about the cause of human papillomavirus (HPV) came from observations of people who knew a man whose wife died of cervical cancer, and who then married a second woman who died of the same cancer. “They said, well maybe it’s the guy.”

“And then we figured out it was sexually transmitted, then we figured out it was a virus and now we have a vaccine.”

Potentially, Love reminds us, “Everybody is a patient.” She thinks eliminating disease is something we should all do together.

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Credit: jypsygen/Flickr

Opening the refrigerator to find a gallon of spoiled milk is a rotten way to start the day. But for fresh cheese makers, every day begins with sour milk. Here’s why: 80% of the proteins in milk belong to a family called caseins. Adding acid to milk, like lemon juice or vinegar, makes these invisible proteins visible as a white, chunky solid we call the curds.

In a glass of milk, caseins aggregate into small spheres called micelles. The outside of each protein cluster is negatively charged, causing neighboring spheres to repel each other. Thus, these micelles remain evenly distributed throughout the milk.

Acidic vinegar neutralizes the negative charge on the spheres. With the repulsive force gone, the protein clusters clump together and form an observable solid, the curds. When chefs collect the curds and discard the liquid whey, they have queso fresco. Try it yourself with this recipe.

Stretching the hot curds instead of pressing them into a cake gives you homemade mozzarella cheese. I've tried to make mozzarella using this kit, but it only worked once. That's because the quality of the curds depends on the type of milk that you use.

Credit: poopoorama/Flickr

Most milk from the grocery store has been ultra-pasteurized, meaning it's been heated to temperatures above 172° Fahrenheit. That extra heat disturbs the casein proteins. Curds from ultra-pasteurized milk don't stick together and stretch as nicely as they do when made from milk that has been pasteurized. I've had a hard time finding milk not labeled UP or UHP, so I haven't tried to make mozzarella at home again.

But now I'm hankering for a mozzarella, tomato and basil salad. Guess I'd better find some pasteurized milk before summer comes!

Red-eyed Tree Frogs by Laurel Mundy. Mating events are not always easy to observe in the wild, but a good illustration can capture the moment.

Leafy Sea Dragon by Natalia Wilkins. Life cycles are a common theme for science illustration.

Science illustration began in a time when drawing was the only way to record the anatomy of a bird or the life stages of a flower. While it's charming to envision Darwin sketching in a field notebook, is illustration still useful today, when it seems every cell phone has an 8 MB camera with zoom, auto-focus, and image stabilization?

Marimo by Justine Shih. Colors, especially underwater, can be distorted in a photo, but selected carefully in an illustration.

The Science Illustration Certificate Program at Cal State University, Monterey Bay, gives a resounding "yes," and the success of its graduates lends credence to that answer.

Illustration and photography are both powerful tools of modern science and education. There's nothing like a photo to record, for example, the unique identifying pattern on a whale's flukes as they make a fleeting appearance above the water. But an illustration is uniquely suited to convey the similarities and differences of all cetacean species in a comparative poster.

Bills of Ardeinae Herons by Jillian Walters. This comparative illustration creates a composition that would be rather difficult to photograph.

The "Program", as it is affectionately known, trains fifteen students every year in the skills of science illustration. Techniques range from the obvious, like graphite and watercolor, to things you've probably never heard of unless you're an artist, like coquille and scratchboard.

Students also become adept with digital tools (but how many people can use Photoshop well?). They learn to sketch in the field, to create trompe l'oeil compositions and to design infographics and interactive displays.

The CSUMB students complete their training with summer internships at magazines, museums, and parks. The Smithsonian is a popular destination.

Alveoli by Leigh Anne Carter. Although cameras are getting smaller, it would still be a challenge to take a photo of these little cavities in our lungs.

Some graduates may go on to regular employment, but the job of science illustrator is more often a freelance one these days.

Blue-Ringed Octopus by Meghan Rock. Sometimes, art is just beautiful, though I am biased by the subject matter (cephalopods are my favorite).

They have their work cut out for them. Once you start looking, you see science illustration everywhere: in aquariums and on hiking trails, in field guides and textbooks, in the doctor's office and even in legal briefs.

And some truly spectacular examples can be seen right now on the walls of the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.

"Illustrating Nature," the Program’s end-of-year exhibit, is open until June 18th, and it's just as fun and educational as the "Art of Nature" show in Santa Cruz.

I learned that the "lucky bamboo" my aunt gave me at my wedding is actually not related to real bamboo at all, and that the novelist Vladimir Nabokov made a seminal discovery about the evolution of butterflies. Who knew?

I’d like to switch places with Kip Evans for a few months. He’s a professional photographer, underwater explorer, and award-winning cinematographer from Pacific Grove, California and we are delighted to be featuring on QUEST an excerpt of his short film, “Isla Holbox: Whale Shark Island.”

• Click here to watch Kip Evans' film, "Isla Holbox: Whale Shark Island" in its entirety.

The film is about an unusually large population of whale sharks that gathers off the coast of Mexico’s Holbox Island during the summer months to feed and mate. Narrated by marine biologist, Sylvia Earle, the film explores how the recent discovery of this population of whale sharks – the largest fish in the world- is shifting the economic focus of the surrounding area from fishing to eco-tourism. The film highlights the successes as well as the ecological concerns that have arisen from this transition.

Diver and whale shark vertical feeding. Photo by Kip Evans

If I was actually able to switch places with Kip Evans, I’m not sure how he would feel about working at KQED and running the QUEST TV series. I’ll admit, my job is pretty much as cool as it gets for a Bay Area science geek and TV producer like me, but Evans's resume makes the day-to-day aspects of my job look downright mundane.

He’s an internationally known photographer who’s been widely published in books and magazines including National Geographic, Outside, Sea and Patagonia. He’s an underwater cinematographer and documentary producer who’s worked on shows for BBC, CNN, Discovery Channel and National Geographic. He’s also the Director of Photography and Expeditions for the Sylvia Earle Alliance and has served for many years as the great marine biologist’s chief photographer and videographer.

I first became aware of Kip Evans's work in 2008 when I produced a QUEST TV story about Sylvia Earle. We only had about two hours to shoot an interview with Earle and that was all the time she could give us for the whole story. We normally shoot with the main subjects of our stories for two or three days in order to get enough footage to make a 10-minute story. So, because I had only a sit-down interview with Earle, I had to acquire all of the footage and photographs of her throughout her career. We were happy to locate Kip Evans and licensed some spectacular underwater footage and photographs from him.

Dr. Sylvia Earle in the Deep Rover submarine. Photo by Kip Evans

So, when I was thinking about who we could feature in our new segment, “Your Videos on QUEST,” where we feature the work Bay Area filmmakers who tell science, environment and nature stories, I immediately thought of Evans. I feel lucky that he answered the phone when I first called because it seems that he’s often traveling around the world to shoot photographs and video about what he and Sylvia Earle call “Hope Spots”- places that are critically in need of protection and conservation because they are vital to saving what’s left of the planet’s oceans.

When I was in college studying biology and cinema production, my dream was to one day, travel the world as a cinematographer shooting films and TV shows about science and nature. I’m not at all disappointed with where I ended up but I realize that one of the most special things about my job is that I get to meet people like Kip Evans and Sylvia Earle and showcase the important work they are doing to protect the environment. I suppose it’s the next best thing to being them.

We don’t often think of it this way, but the everyday work of scientists frequently comes down to sewing, welding or hammering together simple materials like elastic, metal tubes and plastic to create the devices that will allow them to conduct their experiments.

Mechanical engineer Jason Moore knows this all too well. To conduct an experiment on the mechanics of bicycle-riding, he even used a sewing machine.

Moore’s doctoral dissertation on the complex mechanisms by which a rider balances atop a bike required him to build a research bicycle at the University of California, Davis. We filmed Moore for our story about the science of riding a bicycle. In this slideshow you can explore some of the bike’s components and the work that went into creating them:

Nature's gopher control, the Great Blue Heron, photographed in Bolinas by Ryan DiGaudio.

It's a sight to behold: an elegant four-foot tall heron slowly stalking across the field above the Big Rec baseball diamonds in Golden Gate Park. Suddenly, from a motionless stance, it strikes out and nabs an unsuspecting pocket gopher, swallowing it whole. If you've seen it happen, you won't soon forget it, and if not, this is a prime time for heron sightings. Why? Because up at Stow Lake, they have nests full of hungry mouths to feed.

Great Blue Herons are solitary birds for most of the year, but when mating season arrives in the spring, they pair off and build nests close to one another. Assuming they were successful the previous year, the same pair will often mate year after year, raising chicks in saucer-shaped nests that range from 1.5 to 4 feet across. Nests used over and over (like those at Stow Lake) tend to be on the larger end of the size scale.

On Saturday morning, volunteers at San Francisco Nature Education had a series of spotting scopes set up just to the right of Stow Lake's boathouse, trained on Heron Island’s towering treetops. The scene was action-packed. Adult herons swooped through the air, chasing one another away from their nests, and every so often the chicks could be seen between tree branches strutting around their nests. Observers estimate the four nesting pairs produced six chicks, which hatched in early April and are now about six weeks old.

On Stow Lake's Heron Island, parents keep watch over young chicks. The large nest in the lower-center part of the photo contains two chicks whose heads are behind a tree branch.

Heron chicks hatch from eggs slightly bigger than a chicken’s and grow to full size in just 10-12 weeks. That means mom and dad are busy around the clock hunting and regurgitating partially digested food for their rapidly growing young to eat. Soon, the chicks will begin flapping from one branch to another and at about eight weeks old, they will be ready to fledge, taking their first flights from the nest. Just a few short weeks later, parents and chicks will part ways.

When Great Blue Heron chicks hatch, they have bluish eyes and are covered in covered in pale gray down. Photo credit: Glenn and Martha Vargas, California Academy of Sciences.

Hunting herons will eat just about anything within striking distance, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, insects, and other birds. Their S-shaped neck allows them to strike with a spring-like power (up to 90 miles per hour), and underneath those feathers is a curious anatomic design. In a human neck, the esophagus runs parallel to our vertebral column, but in a heron's neck, the two cross one another, creating a speed bump in the swallowing process. When a meal hits the crux of the "S," a heron will often do a series of maneuvers to help shift its meal past the obstacle. It sounds uncomfortable to me, but this design helps protect the delicate esophagus from potential damage to the front of the bird's neck.

Find "Heron Watch" just to the right of the boathouse at Stow Lake on Saturday, May 19.

Herons can be seen in Golden Gate Park year-round, though individuals are thought to come and go. This year’s chicks and their parents should be visible at Stow Lake's Heron Island until mid-late June, but if you want the benefit of San Francisco Nature Education’s naturalists and spotting scopes at your disposal, don't miss the final "Heron Watch" program on Saturday, May 19. Founder Nancy DeStefanis first started documenting the birds’ nesting behavior at Stow Lake in 1993, and now runs a series of interpretive bird walks, field trips, and observation sessions to educate school kids and locals about birds and local ecology.

We've taken another baby step away from the current one size fits all health care system.

We may finally be at the threshold of the age of personalized medicine. In a recent study, scientists were able to predict that a man was at a higher risk for developing Type 2 diabetes and over a two-year period tracked his health as he developed the disease. And even better, because they caught it so early, they were able to stave off the diabetes with lifestyle changes. This man’s glucose levels have returned to normal.

Wow. This story highlights the promise of at least one aspect of personalized medicine. By looking at someone’s DNA, you can predict what might go wrong with someone and so keep an eye out for early symptoms. Or maybe even start out with the right lifestyle changes that will keep the disease from developing in the first place.

This study also showed that intensely studying a single person can yield potential benefits for lots of other people. The researchers saw that just before the test subject’s glucose levels spiked, he had a viral infection. No one was really looking for viruses that trigger Type 2 diabetes in people. Now they will. (Keep in mind we don’t yet know if the two are connected or if it was just a coincidence.)

The study also points to the obstacles we still need to overcome to realize the full potential of personalized medicine. The top ones I could think of off the top of my head are our own ignorance, the inconvenience, the expense, and our lack of willpower.

The researchers were able to predict an increased risk for diabetes as well as an increased risk for high triglycerides but very little else. There is certainly more information lurking in his DNA…we just don’t understand our DNA well enough to tease it out yet.

Soon your treatments will be tailored for you based on at least partly on what's in your DNA.

Another related issue is whether we actually do know enough to make good predictions or if we just got lucky here. In other words, was his developing Type 2 diabetes a coincidence or was he really at a higher risk for getting it? He didn’t have any classic risk factors but given that so many people in the U.S. have the disease, it could have been chance. Doing many more studies on lots of different people should give us some idea about how predictive our DNA really is right now.

Besides our still sketchy knowledge, we also have to deal with the expense and inconvenience of this form of personalized medicine. The test subject had over twenty blood draws over a two year period that each looked at tens of thousands of different things. Not many people would put up with so many blood draws. And the expense of looking at all those different molecules is prohibitively expensive.

A better knowledge of our risks can help with the second point. Once we understand our DNA better and so know what are most likely risks are, we’ll be able to test for fewer molecules which should make the whole thing more affordable. This may also solve the first problem too.

Maybe in the future we’ll look at few enough molecules or the tests will be sensitive enough to get the information we need from a simple finger prick. Then we’d all be like folks with diabetes, self testing our blood on a regular basis. And hopefully in the more distant future, we’ll have some sort of implant that reads the information for us automatically without the need for a blood draw.

All of these are technical hurdles that will almost certainly be overcome at some point. The last obstacle, though, is much more difficult. It deals with human nature.

One reason this is such a powerful story is that the test subject was able to get his glucose under control without the use of medicines. This is not only good for him but it suggests that this form of personalized medicine may prove to be cost effective sooner rather than later. Keeping his Type 2 diabetes at bay will probably save tons of money over his life time. Perhaps even enough to justify the cost of his testing.

But to control his glucose levels, he had to make radical changes to his diet and exercise regime. He had to eat a whole lot less sugar and fat and exercise a lot more. Sound familiar?

Everyone should be doing this stuff anyway but most of us don’t. Will we have the willpower to realize the full potential of personalized medicine? Or will things pretty much stay the same except with more frequent scolding from our doctors?

Of course, catching a disease early and getting patients their medications early when it could do the most good is obviously wonderful too. Just not as cost effective.

What a visit to the doctor in the near future might look like.

The view from inside the Oakland Fire Department's burn trailer during a rollover fire. Photograph courtesy of Kara Platoni.

Looking back, the only field trip that stands out from my grade school days was our trip to the San Francisco Exploratorium. What I remember best is the tactile dome. I entered into total darkness and spent the next hour feeling, crawling and sliding my way through a 3-D maze.

That excursion was fairly tame compared to the exploits Kara Platoni, Eric Simons, and Casey Miner take on for their podcast series, The Field Trip, which broadcasts their science adventures out in the real world. For their first series that debuted last year, they explored fermentation by visiting the Cultured Pickle Shop, climbed into the Oakland Fire Department’s burn trailer for a kitchen fire simulation, interviewed a commercial salmon fisherman on his boat in the Berkeley Marina and followed a NASA crew at the bottom of a lakebed in Canada for their research study on Mars. To add a little more intellectual rigor to their adventures, they also interviewed an expert guest in their radio studio for each episode.

“We think our strong suit is going places, learning new things and being a proxy for the listener,” explained Kara Platoni. “We didn’t know of any other show where it was about going out and having a science adventure.”

As friends and UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism colleagues, the genuine personal chemistry of this trio is evident in their podcasts and blogs. They're definitely having fun on their adventures while taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge and opportunities offered by scientists in the Bay Area — and the listener is invited to tag along.

The studio interview segments are loosely scripted, but the field trips are taped live. The key to making this work is the trio’s insatiable curiosity for science. After lots of preparation, they just go out and ask the questions that interest them in a humorous and spontaneous way that engages their listeners.

When selecting topics for their episodes, they focus on stories that take science out of the laboratory. “Our ideal narrator for the field trip is someone whose life just embodies science everyday. It is part of their job, hobby and home,” explained Platoni, “so we can show people how science is something that happens in your everyday life, not just something that happens in school.” Casey Miner added, “And it should be fun, interesting, weird or gross.”

Their field trips will continue with a second series this spring and cover the diverse topics of coffee, taxidermy, telescopes and local inventors. One upcoming episode on telescopes will visit the Chabot Space & Science Center Observatory and feature a studio interview with UC Berkeley astronomer Geoff Marcy. Beginning today, a new episode will air weekly each Monday through June 4. You can listen to a preview of their new season here.

Free episodes are available on their website, iTunes, Public Radio Exchange and Sound Cloud. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

A map of the Delta created by the US Geological Survey in the 1910s.

As detective stories go, this sunny, spring day in the Delta isn't a typical backdrop. In the distance, tractors move slowly through dry fields of row crops.

"Once he got lost, they were wandering all over," says Alison Whipple of the San Francisco Estuary Institute, a non-profit research group based in Richmond. Her colleague, Robin Grossinger, agrees. "They were all over this place." The two are trying to piece together the path of William Wright, a man who got hopelessly lost somewhere nearby.

I should probably mention: it happened 160 years ago. Whipple and Grossinger are historical ecologists. They use sources like old photos, hand-drawn maps and early land surveys to sleuth out what this landscape looked like before it was dramatically remade by Californians.

The Delta's landscape has been dramatically remade over the last 200 years. Today, it's a crucial part of the state's water system, supplying 25 million people and irrigating millions of acres of farm land. But with this re-engineering, the Delta's ecosystem has collapsed, harming the fishing industry and putting water supplies at risk. Little is known about what it once looked like.

See an interactive map of the Delta, past and present, and the historical photos and maps used to create it.

Lost in a Delta Marsh

Standing on a levee about 20 miles south of Sacramento, Whipple and Grossinger are discussing what they found a tattered, yellowing notebook uncovered in a state archive. It contains stories from William Wright, a duck hunter who spent a long, cold night lost in the Delta in 1850.

"On all sides stretched a vast wilderness of tules from ten to fifteen feet in height. The driving storm of sleet was bad, but the pitchy darkness was infinitely worse… Our situation was so miserable that no words can do justice to it."

It's not just the dramatic story they're interested in. It's passages this like one:

"The lakes proved to be from one hundred to three hundred yards in width, as near as we could judge. The water was very cold and often waist‐deep."

When Whipple and Grossinger read his account, they knew they’d found a Holy Grail source document. Its detail reveal a landscape that doesn't exist here today and hasn’t existed for some time.

"The Delta is probably one of the most intensively transformed parts of California and it was also changed really early on because of such fertile land," says Grossinger.

As California's Gold Rush boomed, farmers came to the Delta for its rich soil. Land went for a dollar an acre and settlers turned the wetlands into dry, agricultural land. 97% of the historic marshes were lost.

“We have here maybe one of the most important parts of the state's ecosystem and we don’t actually know how it used to work," Says Grossinger.

Alison Whipple and Robin Grossinger examine historic maps in the Delta.

He and Whipple have layered together thousands of historical sources that reveal an ecosystem of incredible complexity. “We would be in trees right here with a couple winding channels that were dry in the summer but had flowing water in the wintertime," explains Whipple.

Yearly floods from the Sacramento River inundated Delta marshes creating habitat for birds and young salmon. Closer to San Francisco Bay, hundreds of miles of small tidal channels branched out like capillaries in the wetlands. Today, most of those channels have been filled in.

Returning the Delta to this pristine state just isn’t possible, says Whipple, and that’s not the goal of the project. But knowing how the ecosystem once worked could improve the habitat restoration efforts that are happening.

Restoring Habitat

Liberty Island is one place in the Delta that looks as it might have 200 years ago. Not long ago, it was a low-lying expanse of farmland, protected by tall levees.

“The levees broke and it wasn’t financially worth reclaiming,” Says Carl Wilcox of with California’s Department of Fish and Game. The landowners gave up when the island flooded 15 years ago. After that, nature took over. Tules and cattails started sprouting and wildlife followed.

Returning vegetation at Liberty Island in the Delta.

Now, “some of the endangered native fishes, Delta smelt, longfin smelt are using this area,” says Wilcox. They're finding endangered Chinook salmon as well. "These are more productive areas for them, they’re more protected, they’re less prone to predators."

California Considers Ambitious Restoration Plans

California is using the Liberty Island project as a model for a proposal to restore 65,000 acres of Delta habitat. It's part of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan – a major overhaul of the Delta’s water infrastructure.

Leo Winternitz of the Nature Conservancy says bringing back habitat for declining wildlife could make the state’s water supply more reliable. Restrictions under the Endangered Species Act have limited how much water can be pumped from the Delta in recent years.

There is one big problem with restoration: most of the islands in the Delta are below sea level.

"Just south of here, some of the islands, they're in the 17 to 25 below sea level range. So if their levees broke, what you’d have is a large open body of water. You can’t create tidal marshes in those areas," says Winternitz.

That leaves only a few places where restoration is feasible. Winternitz says in those areas it’s crucial the state look to the past to create the same interconnected habitat that once was.

Governor Jerry Brown's administration is set to unveil the sweeping plan to restore the Delta later this year.

Chinook salmon, Feather River Hatchery, Oroville. Credit: Dan Brekke

After years of dire tidings, the news this year about California's chinook salmon all sounds good.

Federal fisheries biologists have predicted big numbers of Sacramento River fall run chinook–the state's biggest, most commercially important salmon fishery–and the biggest population of Klamath River fall-run fish in memory. The California Salmon Council, a commercial fishermen's group, forecasts a harvest of 3 million pounds this year. That's triple last year's take and represents a comeback from the Great Salmon Crash of '08-'09, when the sudden collapse of the Sacramento fall run forced state and federal officials to shut down salmon fishing two years in a row. Salmon fishermen who barely hung on through the crash, along with those who sell them gear and supplies and process and market their catch, can look forward to something like a prosperous season.

And for the rest of us, the civilian salmon lovers? Victor Gonella, who heads the Golden Gate Salmon Association, promised in March that "consumers can look forward to some of the best food on earth–wild salmon, coming to a dinner plate near them soon."

Yes, that all sounds good. But here's the rest of the story.

Feather River Hatchery

A declining catch

Let's start with that commercial harvest number. We won't really know until later this year how the season turns out, but that 3 million-pound catch is only impressive next to the recent string of disastrous salmon years. The forecast for this year is nearly one-third lower than the average yearly harvest for the decade before the crash. And National Marine Fisheries Service data shows the catch has been slowly dwindling since 1950, with a more rapid decline starting in the late 1980s.

But nothing prepared fishing communities, scientists, or interested onlookers for the population crash that took place in 2008. Everyone would still like to know why it happened. Scientists have studied factors from water pollution to a big bridge project in the Carquinez Strait–did construction noise harm out-migrating juvenile salmon?–without identifying a single factor. The consensus is that circumstances ranging from poor ocean feeding conditions to water diversions from the Delta played a role.

But this is a mystery with an answer hiding in plain sight.

From abundance to scarcity

Once, salmon returned by the millions each year to the Bay, the Delta, and the rivers and streams in the Central Valley. Napa Valley pioneer George C. Yount recalled the region between San Pablo Bay and Sutter's Fort (in present-day Sacramento) as one where "the Rivers were literally crouded [sic] with salmon." And there's plenty of pioneer testimony that echoes that description.

What changed? Just everything, starting with the Gold Rush, which brought forth fabulous wealth and wrought unimaginable environmental destruction to salmon streams. And then dams, cities, farms, and industry. In a word: Us.

Feather River Hatchery

Even some efforts to preserve commercial chinook salmon populations may be hurting rather than helping the fish. When the Sacramento River fall-run chinook population collapsed a few years ago, it happened despite a long and aggressive effort to use hatcheries to replace spawning streams destroyed by dams, logging, and development.

But the heroic effort to improve on nature—even trucking baby hatchery fish downriver so they can avoid predators, polluted water, and Delta pumps—could be exacting a toll on the long-term fate of the run. Some biologists believe that the combination of habitat loss and hatchery production has essentially wiped out the last truly wild Sacramento Valley fall-run chinook. Worse, the surviving hatchery stock lacks the genetic variety of wild fish and could be more vulnerable to changes in ocean conditions or disease–and thus more prone to collapses like the crash of '08-'09.

The outlook

Is there anything hopeful about the salmon's story in California? There is. Over the past twenty years, government and resource managers have taken the first steps to restoring both water and habitat for chinook salmon. One of the most publicized actions—a limit on pumping from the Delta at certain times of year to protect threatened salmon and other species. That action was prompted by an environmental lawsuit, and it prompted a wave of lawsuits from farm and city water users south of the Delta. Outside of court, both the state and federal governments are working on plans that are supposed to restore the Delta and its species while delivering the water that farms and cities expect. Doing that will take a lot of money and determination.

The chinook can't help with the cash, but they may provide a lesson about persistence. As a species, they are the product of millions of years of evolution. The few wild fish still out there have been doing what they do, sometimes climbing thousands of vertical feet out of the Central Valley to their home streams, for a very long time. They are engineered to deal with disasters on their home streams and famine at sea. Given half a chance, they not only survive, but thrive. Fortunately or unfortunately for them, they now depend on us for that chance.

Our tour begins with a beautifully landscaped front yard

Imagine this audacious plan: we return our grid of manicured yards into watershed and wildlife-friendly spaces. From a bird or butterfly’s perspective, it would be a transformation from sterile segmented turf fields to bounteous habitat full of nectar plants, insects, hiding places and nesting spaces.  This "Bay-Friendly"
gardens initiative is underway around the Bay Area under the sponsorship of Stopwaste.org. Last weekend some generous, certified “Bay-Friendly” garden owners opened their yards for tours.

A red fox squirrel scampers through the garden

We were able to purchase a tour booklet and tickets to gain entry to meander around and view the seven principles of "Bay-Friendly" gardening used in very different ways.  As their website states, "It’s an approach to landscaping with room for lots of personal preferences and interpretations." The gardens were beautiful, creative, and a great way to bring the natural world into people’s every day lives.

What struck me was the amount of insect and wildlife activity in the featured gardens.  These gardens were busy with insects visiting flowers on the sunny Sunday afternoon.  Squirrels scampered through the trees and a variety of birds were flitting about and calling from the shelter of trees and shrubs.  Like little wildlife havens, the yards were alive with an abundant diversity of plants and wildlife compared with other nearby yards of traditional turf grass and ornamental plants.

Garden creekside retreat featuring water permeable surface and artistic seating area

"Bay-Friendly" gardening also calls for the limited use of pesticides. Toxic chemicals, along with trash pollution, pose big problems to our bay and creeks.  Diazinon and chlorpyrifos are two commonly used insecticides.  According to a report by TDC Environmental, the two are “of great concern, because elevated levels of the two pesticides have been linked to findings of toxicity in wastewater treatment plant effluent, storm water runoff, urban creeks (including all San Francisco Bay area urban creeks), estuaries (including San Francisco Bay), and the Sacramento River.  Much of this toxicity occurs in urban areas, apparently reflecting urban releases—rather than agricultural releases—of diazinon and chlorpyrifos.”

Thimbleberry provides food for native birds and insects

"Bay-Friendly" gardens seem to need fewer pest control measures because the owners strive to create healthier soil conditions, choose plants that are best suited to our climate and location in the garden which, in turn, encourages beneficial insects.  Ultimately this combination keeps the pest populations in better balance.  When control measures are called for, there are resources available to help you choose those least toxic to the environment. Our Water, Our World website has some great resources including a downloadable pocket guide.

The "Bay-Friendly" garden website is a great resource, too, for both home gardeners and landscaping professionals.  There’s an interactive page showing some examples of good gardening practices. There is still one more tour you can attend in Marin County on May 19 to gather ideas for your own "Bay-Friendly" garden.  We’ve also been working on creating a "Bay-Friendly" landscape around the Crab Cove Visitor Center.  Maybe you’ll see us on the Alameda County garden tour, once we get certified, in the next couple of years!

Additional Links:

Pesticide pollution prevention ideas

Sunset Magazine landscaping ideas with less lawn

Protecting blue-green Rodeo Lagoon from the green-blue Pacific, Rodeo Beach displays unusual materials in its unusual setting. Photos by Andrew Alden

The strait called the Golden Gate has beaches on both sides of its seaward end. On the south side, in San Francisco, are Baker Beach and Ocean Beach, which are made of fine sand derived mostly from the Sierra Nevada. On the north side in Marin County is little Rodeo Beach, which is not. Rodeo Beach is small but has a lot to see.

Rodeo Beach is next to old Fort Cronkhite in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, situated between the sea and the valley of Rodeo Creek. The beach qualifies as a bar, the geographer's term for a pile of sediment that crosses the mouth of a river. As you can see in the top photo, Rodeo Creek is dammed behind the beach to form Rodeo Lagoon, but some of the water from the lagoon manages to spill across the beach at its north (left) end into Rodeo Cove.

Rodeo Creek supplies no sediment to the shoreline. Instead, the beach's sand and gravel is manufactured on the spot from the local bedrock of the Franciscan Complex, which crops out in steep coastal bluffs on either side. Before you study the beach itself, take a look at these rocks. There are three main Franciscan rock types at Rodeo Beach that you can easily distinguish: on the south side (see below) are chert and basalt and on the north side is sandstone.

View south of Rodeo Beach toward Point Bonita

Chert is the most obvious of the three, a hard, flinty stone arranged in hundreds of thin layers. This is the same deep-sea ribbon chert visible along Conzelman Road as you arrive through the Marin Headlands, but here parts of it have been turned green and even bluish colors by the pressure and chemical action of metamorphism.

Basalt here is not the black lava you might expect in Hawaii or the Cascade volcanoes. It's largely deep-sea pillow lava that also has been metamorphosed into greenstone. The original pillow shapes persist in some places here.

The sandstone of the northern bluffs is not the red or brown rock of the Grand Canyon, but a dark grit with its own metamorphic overprint. Of these three rocks, basalt is the weakest, the sandstone grains are the hardest and the chert is the toughest. In Rodeo Cove, the vigorous Pacific surf tosses and sweeps and grinds them together, turning out batch after batch of coarse dark sand mixed with polished chert pebbles. The north end of the beach is the best place to admire (and not collect) this exquisite gravel.

Geologists have studied this sediment closely and matched its ingredients to nearby rocks, although one rare constituent used to puzzle them: round pebbles of translucent carnelian, a red-orange gemstone. In Geology of the San Francisco Bay Region, Doris Sloan states that in the winter of 1967 after an especially strong storm, the outflow channel from Rodeo Lagoon dug its way to basalt bedrock six feet down. In that deeply buried stone the source of the carnelian grains was found. They had formed when bubbles in the lava filled with silica—in geologist's jargon, they were amygdules or mineral-filled vesicles.

Carnelian in a ring and amygdules in basalt, Berkeley Hills

Ever since learning this, I've watched for another such coincidence of storm and tide, although a lifetime might not be sufficient. As could be said of various things, the most severe times may produce the most sublime experiences.

The 41st Annual Northern California Area EMMY® Award Nominations were announced today for outstanding achievement in television by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). The following five QUEST stories received nominations — congratulations to you all and best of luck!

Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct: Big Fixes for Big Quakes

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is hard at work on a $4.6 billion, decade-long construction project to overhaul the Hetch Hetchy water system, which delivers water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park and five local reservoirs to 2.5 million residents in the Bay Area.

Exoskeletons Walk Forward

An exoskeleton suit may seem like science fiction, turning ordinary humans into super heroes, but wearable robots are moving forward into reality.

Redwoods and Climate Change

QUEST follows a group of UC Berkeley scientists to the top of a 320-foot redwood in Mendocino County. Only 5 percent of these ancient redwoods survived our voracious desire for their hardy and plentiful wood. Now scientists are trying to predict how the remaining ones and their descendants might fare in the face of climate change in the decades to come.

Sidelined: Sports Concussions

Studying the effects of a concussion at its source, inside the brain, is no easy feat. Says Dr. Geoffrey Manley, Chief of Neurosurgery at San Francisco General Hospital, "What we’re dealing with is one of the most complicated injuries in the most complicated organ in the body."

Science on the SPOT: Open Source Creativity – Hackerspaces

Inspired in part by the open source movement, public spaces are emerging where people congregate to share ideas, make cool projects, teach, and brainstorm on everything from coding to cooking. With no leaders, they have one rule: "Be excellent to each other." Take a tour of the hackerspace Noisebridge, located in the heart of San Francisco's Mission District, with co-founder Mitch Altman.

Indo-Pacific Sailfish by Kate Spencer

Two artists sat side by side at the demo table. Diane T. Sands wrestled with a live turtle who didn't want to pose; Megan Gnekow hovered over her laptop, flipping between "nestcams"–live video streams from birds' nests around the country. At the beginning of the evening, Gnekow found a pair of red-tailed hawk parents feeding their chicks. "What a treat!" she exclaimed, and began to sketch.

Sands and Gnekow were participants in the First Friday Art Tour on May 4th at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History's exhibit "The Art of Nature." Throughout the museum, behind permanent display cases of stuffed foxes and a marine touch pool, the walls were covered with artwork from the California Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.

Allen's Hummingbird by Karen Talbot

The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History has been hosting an annual science illustration exhibit for twenty-three years. It began as a showcase for the graduating class of the UC Santa Cruz science illustration program, but when that program moved to CSU Monterey Bay, the end-of-year show moved with it. ("Illustrating Nature" is now on display at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History–I'll be reporting next week.)

The Santa Cruz museum switched partners from the university to the California chapter of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. As it turns out, a large proportion of guild members are graduates of the UCSC/CSUMB program. So those artists currently showing at the PG Museum may well be featured in a few years in Santa Cruz.

And future generations of science illustrators could spring from participants in school tours of "The Art of Nature." Deborah McArthur, the Santa Cruz museum's education manager, leads kids on a picture hunt through the exhibit, then lets them experiment with their own mixed media illustration. Science and art instruction go hand in hand.

California Butterfly by Sondra Cohelan

Even as an adult wandering through the show, I found myself learning new things. When a drawing of shiny scarabs caught my eye, I first thought "Ancient Egypt!" then learned that some scarabs are actually native to the southwest US. On another wall, a California gull plowing hungrily through a cloud of flies taught me that a seagull's diet is far more varied than fish and picnic sandwiches.

One painting is particularly poignant: a watercolor of an Indo-Pacific sailfish, commissioned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium as a gift to the director of the Japanese sea museum Aquamarine Fukushima. According to the placard, "The framed original survived the 2011 earthquake/tsunami."

As I left the museum, Sands' turtle was crawling across Gnekow's colored pencil case while Gnekow sketched eagle chicks from Decorah, Iowa. Science illustrators may travel far afield–there were sketchbooks on display from New Zealand and South America–but I appreciated the reminder that natural subjects are everywhere, from the family pet to the internet.

Updated 5/10/12 with artists' links and higher-quality images. Thanks, artists!

Marsh plants (in sketchbook) by Emily Coren (walkaboutem.com)

It's hard to fathom that off our central California coast, just 80 miles southwest of Monterey, is a massive underwater mountain which blooms with deep sea coral life, including some corals which were new to science before they were discovered by researchers at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

A new species of coral, Chrysogorgia monticola, discovered more than a mile and a half deep at the Davidson Seamount. Courtesy NOAA / MBARI 2002.

This underwater mountain is the Davidson Seamount, an impressive geological structure which like the roughly 30,000 seamounts throughout the world, was generated by underwater volcanic activity. In 1933, it became the first geographic feature called a "seamount" and it is named after George Davidson, an astronomer and geographer.

So what makes the Davidson Seamount so special?

As Andrew DeVogelaere, Research Coordinator for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary told me during our filming for this QUEST story, "It’s special because of its shape. Most sea mounts are circular…This one is oblong, because as it developed over millions of years, it was on a spreading center.Think of Hawaii underneath the water…that juts up from the sea floor mud thousands of feet."

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Research Coordinator Andrew DeVogelaere during a break from the filming of his interview. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq / QUEST.

The other reason why this seamount is so special is its reputation as an oasis of deep sea coral life. Approximately 30 species of deep sea corals have been found at the Davidson Seamount. While it may seem odd that any animal could survive let alone thrive in this dark, frigid environment, the deep sea corals opportunistically position themselves on the steep sides of the Davidson Seamount to catch nutrients and plankton rushing up from deep sea currents.

But venturing to this seamount is no easy feat; in fact, the top of the Davidson Seamount is still 4,000 feet below the surface of the water! Undeterred and with the high-tech submersible tools at their disposal, DeVogelaere and fellow marine biologist Jim Barry of MBARI launched a research trip in 2006 to the 26 mile-long Davidson Seamount to explore the rich biodiversity teeming in its dark, watery depths.

The trip was a follow-up to a 2002 research expedition funded by NOAA, also under the direction of Andrew DeVogelaere at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The impetus of that trip was to catalogue, through the use of a Remotely Operated Vehicle mounted with sophisticated cameras, the abundance and diversity of deep sea corals and other striking animals such as anemones and fish observed along the sides and valleys of this volcanic, rocky formation.

A bubble gum coral spotted more than 4,300 feet deep at the Davidson Seamount. Courtesy NOAA / MBARI 2006.

In 2006, the team returned to the seamount and once more recorded hours upon hours of breathtaking HD footage. The scientists were also trying to develop a model that would help them predict where other corals might be in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which the Davidson Seamount was incorporated into in 2009. Some deep sea corals were also transplanted from a less acidic region at the top of the seamount to a more acidic region farther below to assess how these transplanted corals would fare in the face of increasing ocean acidification. Not only did the scientists find evidence of ocean acidification at 12,000 feet, they also found evidence of the toxic pesticide DDT and trash, including a Coca-Cola bottle.

On a personal level, this was an aspect of the story which indelibly affected me – how is it that creatures like corals, which can live thousands of years, survive in an inhospitable environment thousands of feet beneath the surface of the ocean?

A black coral clinging to the side of the Davidson seamount. A species of black coral was discovered off the coast of Hawaii and dated to 4,600 years old! Courtesy NOAA / MBARI 2002.

Sadly, these seemingly fragile but resilient, ancient organisms are experiencing stresses, such as ocean acidification, to their ancient marine habitats which may far outstrip their ability to adapt.

Jim Barry is studying the effects of ocean acidification on deep sea organisms like urchins and, as he told me, he plans to bring into his lab precious corals (so named for their value as jewelry) to see how they contend with increasing levels of acidity. "The California coast could be considered the front line for ocean acidification damage, within 50 years, and certainly by the end of the century…As ocean acidification due to our C02 emissions intensifies along this coast, those corals are gonna have a hard time," Barry said.

MBARI Staff Scientist in his lab at Moss Landing, looking at a tank containing urchins. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq / QUEST.

Stephen Palumbi, Director of the Hopkins Marine Station, is another amazing, eloquent marine biologist whom I interviewed for this story. He specializes in tropical corals which are also vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification. His research in American Samoa focuses on "super corals" – species of corals which thrive in waters that would be too warm for most other corals.

Palumbi similarly struck a somber note in regards to ocean acidification, trawling and other pressures facing corals, be they in the cold, deep ocean or in the warm, shallow waters of the tropics.

Stephen Palumbi, Director of the Hopkins Marine Station in his lab at Pacific Grove. Photo by Sheraz Sadiq / QUEST.

"The biggest worry is that we humans are such game-changers. We change the rules wherever we go," he said. "That record of coral success, which has been a quarter of a billion years that corals have been successful on our planet, …is about to come to an end because of the way we are so incredibly changing the oceans."

Indeed, it's a race against time. DeVogelaere told me that we know less about the deep ocean than the surface of the moon. With tens of thousands of seamounts around the world, perhaps now is the time to descend high-tech ROVs thousands of feet into the cold, watery abyss and illuminate the stunning, ancient corals of the deep, documenting their diversity and habitat range around the world before they disappear.

In the course of my production on this story, I was lucky enough to acquire some very compelling footage of bottom trawling activity. In particular, Greenpeace International allowed me to use the powerful clip of a large bubblegum coral being thrown overboard, part of the senseless bycatch scooped up in the shipping vessel's trawl net. The size of the coral, which took two men two throw overboard, indicates that it must have been growing for at least hundreds of years in the deep sea. Greenpeace also had video shot in the deep Bering Sea, where parts of the seafloor bore scars from trawling activity. Oceana, another NGO diligently trying to protect the world's oceans, shared black and white video footage originally shot by NOAA of a trawl net scraping the seafloor and scooping up any and all marine organisms in its indiscriminate, destructive path.

Zoos and Aquariums Embrace Conservation
Text by Amy Gotliffe, Conservation Director at the Oakland Zoo.

There are many admirable conservation organizations around the world, but zoos and aquariums have a unique advantage: they welcome 175 million people through their gates each year. On a nice, affordable day out, these zoo-goers can be exposed to conservation messages at a variety of levels. In fact, zoos were ranked among the top most trusted messengers of wildlife conservation.

Zoos and aquariums are now on the forefront of wildlife protection. They raise and donate funds, send medical, educational and operational supplies to projects, raise awareness through lectures, classes and publications, donate expertise by sending vets and other staff to project sites and sell indigenous wares in their gift shops. They band together with other zoos in their ecosystem to work on local conservation issues, breed and release species, and provide medical attention to local wildlife. They are full service.

The conservation of wildlife is central to the mission of the Oakland Zoo as well, and we fully embrace the projects we are closest to. The Budongo Snare Removal Project in Uganda is a good example.

A chimp from the Budongo Forest Reserve in Uganda

This project protects endangered chimpanzees by providing a snare patrol and removal team, an educational outreach program and a means for getting protein for ex-poachers: goats!

The Oakland Zoo Conservation Fund has been the sole financial supporter of the project since 2001. The funding is raised through an evening event and silent auction, called For the Love of Primates, in February, giving us a chance to raise awareness about the project, as well as funds. Discovering Primates Day also happens in February, where guests participate in fun, hands-on stations and learn about all primates and what each of us can do to help them.

Kids participate in The Oakland Zoo's "ZooCamp"

In 2011, the Oakland Zoo’s ZooCamp selected the Budongo Snare Removal Project as their beneficiary, thereby designating one dollar of every camper registration as a donation to the project.

During the week, 1000 plus children donned in yellow t-shirts with the Budongo logo, connected to chimps and the project in a variety of ways. They visited our dynamic group of chimpanzees, created enrichment for them and participated in a theatrical, live presentation called Budongo Hour. Their ZooCamp gift was a Kibale Bead bracelet made by an artisan group in Uganda.

Meanwhile, an intrepid group of adults and an enthusiastic group of teens collected cameras, laptops, books, school supplies, medical supplies and notes of appreciation from staff and ZooCampers, and set sail for Uganda to visit the project. After a very warm welcome, each group delivered their goods, walked the forest with the snare patrol team, attended ex-poacher meetings, got schooled in their outreach programs, and experienced first-hand the joys and challenges of maintaining a successful conservation program. I think the highlight for many of us was the day spent working to de-worm the many goats in the program.

The Oakland Zoo team in Uganda

Back at the zoo, a new concept launched: Quarters for Conservation. This program donates $.25 from each zoo admission to one of three featured conservation programs, and in our inaugural year, the Budongo Snare Removal Project was selected. Visitors receive a token at the gate and vote for their favorite project at the conservation voting station. Signage and often a volunteer, enlighten all Oakland Zoo visitors about the plight of these Ugandan primates.

As we have reached a critical time in the history of conserving wildlife, now is the time for all of us to care and take action. It is fortunate that most zoos do just that. We look forward to creating more ways our zoo can fully embrace the Budongo Snare Removal Project and all of our planet’s precious wildlife.

2012 Toyota Rav4 EV. Credit: Toyota

Toyota has announced the release of its 2012 all-electric RAV4. This is the company's second effort at making a green RAV4. The unveiling of the small SUV, which will be powered by Tesla, took place Monday at the Los Angeles Convention Center as part of the 26th International Electric Vehicle Symposium. Toyota leased a version of the electric RAV4 from 1997 to 2003. Many of the original models, which were subsequently bought, are still on the roads.

The specs

The RAV4 EV combines a Tesla designed and produced battery and electric power train with Toyota’s small SUV. The electric RAV4 has an anticipated driving range of about 100 miles which is, sadly, not much different than its predecessor. The charging time should be about 6 hours using a 240v charger. The Tesla components will be manufactured at the Tesla location in Palo Alto. The manufacturing of the Rav4 EV will take place at Toyota’s plant in Ontario.

Unveiling of Toyota's Rav4 EV in Los Angeles. Credit: Jessica Gilman

What does an electric RAV4 driver think?

Jay Friedland has put 93,000 miles on his 2001 all-electric RAV4 and still gets about 85 miles per full charge. Although he has not driven the 2012 model, he likes his old RAV4 EV so much that he visited a Palo Alto Toyota dealer four months ago to put a deposit down on the new model. “I have been waiting for a long time,” says Friedland who was at Monday’s unveiling. “It was the car that changed my life,” he explains.

After going electric eleven years ago, Friedland became a major advocate of the electric drive and is now the legislative director for Plug-In America where he works on EV policy and government incentives.

Friedland was part of the group Don’tcrush.com which urged Toyota not to demolish its electric RAV4s when the Japanese car maker discontinued the model. Unlike GM with its EV 1, Toyota eventually allowed drivers to buy their lease out. “I love the quiet, the fast acceleration, the fact that I've saved 45 tons of CO2 from going into the atmosphere," Friedland says.

Where can I get one?

The MSRP for the new, electric RAV4 is expected to be $49,800, before tax credits. The car will go on sale later this year in select markets including Los Angeles, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego.