QUEST Quiz: Water
How much water does it take to produce a steak? How much water does a leaky toilet waste? Test your water knowledge in this quiz.
Aug 20, 2008•2 min
KQED Science Video Podcast
KQED Science explores science and environment news, trends and events from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond with its award-winning features and reporting on television, radio and the Web.
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Episodes
Cal Academy Comes to Life
A great migration is taking place as the California Academy of Sciences moves from its temporary home in downtown San Francisco to its new green building in Golden Gate Park. Join QUEST inside as Cal Academy scientists move live penguins, sharks, eels and millions of other scientific specimens. In the process, we'll see how this new building will showcase one of the greatest scientific institutions in the country.
Aug 20, 2008•11 min
Autism: Searching for Causes
In California today, 37,000 people, mostly children, receive treatment for the most severe form of autism. This is a sevenfold increase from 15 years ago, prompting officials to call the situation a public health crisis. QUEST takes an intimate look at Northern California autism researchers as they study everything from saliva samples to carpet dust in hopes of cracking the mystery.
Aug 20, 2008•12 min
Macro Concerns in a Nano World
At 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, you can't see nanoparticles, but you can find them in everyday products like sunscreen and clothing. But environmental and health concerns are mounting about exposure to nanomaterials, sparking a growing debate about their possible regulation.
Aug 13, 2008•9 min
Ghost Fleet
More than 70 retired military ships are anchored northeast of San Francisco in Suisun Bay. Most of them have been there for decades and are leaching toxic substances into the water. While a few have historic value, the rest are in line for scrapping - a process that environmentalists hope to speed up with a new lawsuit.
Aug 13, 2008•12 min
Cool Critters: Hyenas
Hyenas are mostly scavengers, right? Wrong! Spotted Hyenas are extremely good hunters, and they can hunt alone or in a pack. Find out more interesting facts about the Spotted Hyena when QUEST visits with Oakland Zoo Keeper Lorraine Levy.
Aug 13, 2008•2 min
Why I Do Science
For herpetologist Robert Drewes, studying frogs has been a lifelong affair. Find out why he does science.
Jul 30, 2008•2 min
Science Flexes its Muscles
Athletes are racing to get the most out of the human body and are using new technology to do it. But there is a dark side. Anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs have been injected into the mix. But how do they really work? And can new technology catch the cheaters?
Jul 30, 2008•11 min
How Edison Got His Groove Back
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are pioneering a new way to recover 100-year-old recordings. Found on fragile wax cylinders and early lacquer records, the sounds reveal a rich acoustic heritage, including languages long lost.
Jul 30, 2008•11 min
Your Photos on QUEST - Erin Malone
Join QUEST in our latest photography feature about viewers like you who love documenting science, environment and nature imagery here in the Bay Area. This week, meet Erin Malone, who makes beautiful, impressionistic images in a place that many overlook or see as ugly-- the subtly hued mud and marsh of South San Francisco Bay.
Jul 23, 2008•2 min
Tracking Raindrops
We all rely on the water cycle, but how does it really work? Scientists at UC Berkeley are embarking on a new project to understand how global warming is affecting our fresh water supply. And they're doing it by tracking individual raindrops in Mendocino and north of Lake Tahoe.
Jul 23, 2008•10 min
Dark Energy
Meet one of the three winners of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, Lawrence Berkeley Lab astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter. He explains how dark energy, which makes up 70 percent of the universe, is causing our universe to expand.
Jul 23, 2008•12 min
State of Thirst: California's Water Future
Are we in danger of running out of water? California's population is growing by 600,000 people a year, but much of the state receives as much annual rainfall as Morocco. With fish populations crashing, global warming, and the demands of the country's largest agricultural industry, the pressures on our water supply are increasing.
Jul 16, 2008•27 min
Web Exclusive: Tagging Pacific Predators Extended Interview
Why are Monterey Bay area scientists putting tuna on treadmills? See an extended interview with scientist Barbara Block at the Tuna Research and Conservation Center about her work to get a picture of their migration routes and ecosystem...through the tuna's eyes.to discover even more about lives of sea turtles, sharks and other Pacific predators.
May 21, 2008•6 min
Tagging Pacific Predators
It's easy to find them in a can, but the lives of tuna in the open ocean have been a mystery to scientists. Thanks to a tagging program, Monterey Bay Area scientists are learning that these underwater sprinters travel thousands of miles around the Pacific. Now they're also working to discover even more about lives of sea turtles, sharks and other Pacific predators.
May 21, 2008•11 min
Darfur Stoves Project
Everyday, women living in the refugee camps of Darfur, Sudan must walk for up to seven hours outside the safety of the camps to collect firewood for cooking, putting them at risk for violent attacks. Now, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have engineered a more efficient wood-burning stove, which is greatly reducing both the women's need for firewood and the threats against them.
May 21, 2008•10 min
Cool Critters: Great Horned Owls
Want to find out why Great Horned Owls can turn their heads 270 degrees? Join us as we meet Olivia the Owl at the Oakland Zoo.
May 14, 2008•2 min
Ugo Conti's Spider Boat
Bay Area engineer Ugo Conti has sailed the world, but has always suffered from seasickness. A queasy stomach became his motivation to design "Proteus" - a spider-like sea craft made for smoother sailing. He designed the Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel to cross the ocean while flexing with the movement of the waves. And it may change the way people take to the high seas.
May 14, 2008•9 min
Nature Deficit Disorder
A growing number of children's advocates and political leaders are worried that our culture's disconnection from nature is harming kids. Concerns about the long-term consequences on children's physical and emotional well-being have spawned a national movement to "leave no child inside." QUEST explores why we need nature, and efforts to encourage children to play outdoors.
May 14, 2008•12 min
Web Exclusive: Frogs in Decline, Interview with Professor Tyrone Hayes
Watch a interview with Dr. Tyrone Hayes, Professor of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley about his research into the effects of the pesticide Atrazine on frogs.
May 07, 2008•6 min
QUEST Quiz: Frogs
Think you know about frogs? Test your knowledge with our QUEST Quiz.
May 07, 2008•1 min
Disappearing Frogs
Around the world, frogs are declining at an alarming rate due to threats like pollution, disease and climate change. Frogs bridge the gap between water and land habitats, making them the first indicators of ecosystem changes. Meet the Bay Area researchers working to protect frogs across the state.
May 07, 2008•12 min
Future History: Plastic Water Bottles
What does our use of bottled water say about us? Take a look from the perspective of an anthropologist from the distant future.
Apr 30, 2008•2 min
Amateur Astronomers
Some of the most passionate astronomers don't even need to leave their own backyards. QUEST meets the amateur stargazers in the Bay Area who are making important observations about the cosmos and inventing tools at home to do it.
Apr 30, 2008•10 min
Emotions Revealed
Is your face giving you away? Meet renowned psychologist Paul Ekman, who has spent his life studying how our facial muscles involuntarily reveal emotions like sadness and anger. His comprehensive catalog of human facial expressions has become an important tool for everyone from law enforcement agents to animators.
Apr 30, 2008•11 min
MAKE it at Home: Table-Top Biosphere
QUEST teams up with Make Magazine to construct the latest must have, do-it-yourself device hacks, whiz-bang gizmos and techno do-dads.
Apr 16, 2008•2 min
Resurveying California's Wildlife 100 Years Later
In the early 1900's, researchers from UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology traveled around California and created detailed records of the wildlife they found. A century later, scientists are revisiting the same sites - they've found that global warming is already having an impact.
Apr 16, 2008•11 min
Super Laser at the National Ignition Facility
It's the largest laser beam in the world and it's being built in the Bay Area. The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will shoot tremendous bursts of energy at an area the size of a pencil eraser. The goal? To create fusion ignition, a potential clean energy source for the 21st century.
Apr 16, 2008•10 min
Astronomer Dr. Jill Tarter of SETI Institute
1/2 HOUR WEB-ONLY QUEST SPECIAL: the complete November 2007 interview with astronomer Dr. Jill Tarter of SETI Institute on site at the Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek, CA. Tarter is generally thought to be the inspiration for Ellie Arroway, the character played by Jodi Foster in the classic science fiction movie "Contact."
Apr 10, 2008•35 min
Cool Critters: Sharks of the Bay
Do sharks live in San Francisco Bay? QUEST heads out on a shark-tagging expedition to unlock the secrets of some of the bay's biggest and least known predators.
Apr 09, 2008•2 min
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