KQED QUEST Science Video Podcast

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.

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.

Physicists can't see it and don't know much about what it is, but dark energy makes up 70 percent of the universe. Meet one of the country's leading scientists trying to understand dark energy and the role it plays in causing our universe to expand.

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.

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.

QUEST teams up with Make Magazine to make your own pulse jet engine - inside a jam jar.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Think you know about frogs? Test your knowledge with our QUEST Quiz.

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.

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.

What does our use of bottled water say about us? Take a look from the perspective of an anthropologist from the distant future.

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.

QUEST teams up with Make Magazine to construct the latest must have, do-it-yourself device hacks, whiz-bang gizmos and techno do-dads.

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.

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.

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."

By 2050, as our population ages, 15 million Americans will suffer from Alzheimer's disease - triple today's number. Researchers at San Francisco's Gladstone Institutes have found that a gene may hold the key to a cure.

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.

For years there's been buzz - both positive and negative - about generating ethanol fuel from corn. But thanks to recent developments, the Bay Area is rapidly becoming a world center for the next generation of green fuel alternatives. Meet the scientists investigating the newest methods for converting what we grow into what makes us go.

It looks like frozen smoke. And it's the lightest solid material on the planet. Aerogel insulates space suits, makes tennis rackets stronger and could be used one day to clean up oil spills. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Alex Gash shows us some remarkable properties of this truly unique substance.

Is anyone out there? For over 40 years scientists have been searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, but they've found nothing. Now the new Allen Telescope Array, a string of 350 radio telescopes, is being built 300 miles north of San Francisco and is breathing new life into the search.

SEASON 2 SNEAK PREVIEW. A mysterious sea creature up to 7 feet long, with 10 arms, a sharp beak and a ravenous appetite has invaded ocean waters off Northern California. Packs of fierce Humboldt Squid attack nearly everything they see, from fish to scuba divers. Marine biologists are working to discover why they've headed north from their traditional homes off South America.

In dry years, fires in California cost billions of dollars and often result in lost lives. QUEST goes inside the fire season, looking at how the history of forest management could be feeding today's flames.

It's been called "Burning Man for science geeks." The annual Maker Faire attracts thousands of amateur inventors and scientists, displaying their home-made prototypes and gadget hacks. In a world where the technological race is speeding up, the Maker movement has revealed that the do-it-yourself culture is in no danger of dying out.

It's a virtual world, but the transactions are real. Go inside Second Life, an online game where millions of people are creating digital personalities called avatars and are living virtual lives-- meeting other avatars, going to events, and even buying property with real money.