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What’s Left to Discover About Microbes? Pretty Much Everything
Last week a group of 48 scientists, in the prestigious journal Science, urged America to launch a national project to study microbes. The next day, eminent scientists commenting in Nature, a journal of...
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Nature’s Scuba Divers: How Beetles Breathe Underwater
People first crossed the line between land and sea to become scuba divers more than 70 years ago, when Jacques Cousteau pioneered the Aqua-Lung in Nazi-occupied France. But humans aren’t the only...
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The Sex Lives of Christmas Trees
It’s the time of year when people start inviting pine, fir and spruce trees into their homes, and wreaths and pine cones take center stage. But while pine cones may seem a familiar trapping of the...
View ArticleHow Science Can Help Prevent a (Bad) Hangover
Listen: http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2014/12/20141229science.mp3 Editor’s Note: This story ran originally on Dec. 29, 2014 Hangovers are a neglected topic, at least in the annals of...
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Scientists Track Undersea Noise Pollution as Ship Traffic Swells
Listen to the Story: http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio//2015/12/OceanSoundscapesMiller.mp3 When one of the world’s largest container ships passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on New Year’s Eve, it...
View ArticleEPA Confirms Controversial Pesticide Can Harm Bees
If you follow bees, you’ve likely heard of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. They’re supposed to be safer for humans, because they’re often applied to seeds rather than sprayed directly on...
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These Crazy Cute Baby Turtles Want Their Lake Back
Boxed in by a freeway, a golf course and a neighborhood, it’s a miracle that San Francisco’s Mountain Lake even exists. But not only is the tiny lake—located on the south end of the city’s Presidio...
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Move Over California Poppy: This State Has a New Symbol
On New Year’s Day, lace lichen, a stringy green organism often called “Spanish moss” that hangs from oak trees around California, joined the grizzly bear, California poppy, California quail and gold as...
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Cockroach Robot Could Come to Your Rescue
Squashing a cockroach is not easy if the insect scurries away or escapes between a groove in your shoe. In fact, the pests are designed to move quickly under this type of pressure. The American...
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The Once-In-A-Lifetime Ladybug Love-In
With their charming spots and bright red bodies, ladybugs are pretty hard to miss. We’re used to seeing them alone, picking off sap-sucking aphids in the garden. But at certain times of year, ladybugs...
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This Mushroom Starts Killing You Before You Even Realize It
Donna Davis thought she had hit the jackpot with the two bags of mushrooms she collected in the woods of Sonoma County’s Salt Point State Park. Instead, she ended up in the hospital, facing the...
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Stinging Scorpion vs. Pain-Defying Mouse
There’s a chemical arms race underway in the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border. But rather than pitting two armies, it’s a showdown between a highly venomous scorpion and a particularly ferocious...
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BioDesign Studio Lets You Tinker With Biology to Make Something New
Imagine living in a mushroom. Not like a Smurf’s colorful toadstool abode, but a house built from bricks made of a mushroom’s underground root-like fibers, called mycelium. No need for screws and...
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What Californians Need to Know About Zika Virus
You’ve seen a burst of headlines in Bay Area news since January about Zika virus in California. This year, state health officials have confirmed 11 cases, three of them recently in the Bay Area. The...
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The Bombardier Beetle And Its Crazy Chemical Cannon
The bombardier beetle, named for soldiers who once operated artillery cannons, has a surprising secret weapon to use on potential predators. When attacked, the beetle mixes a cocktail of compounds...
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Meet the Dust Mites, Tiny Roommates That Feast on Your Skin
With the warming weather it’s the season for spring cleaning. But before you reach for the broom and mop, take a moment to look at who else is sharing your home with you. The number of uninvited guests...
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Conservationists Use Microphones and Big Data to Count Disappearing Frogs
The sun has just set at the Watsonville Slough. Biologist Gary Kittleson and I are putting on headlamps and waders. We are searching for California red-legged frogs. Kittleson is an expert on the...
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This Pulsating Slime Mold Comes in Peace
Flip over a rotting log and chances are you’ll see a goopy streak stuck to the wood. If you were to film this goop and play the video back in high speed, you’d see something that might remind you of...
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Opinion: It’s Time to Bring the Grizzly Bear Back to California
In the mid-19th century, there were as many as 10,000 brown bears in California — a greater population density than in Alaska today. The last documented sighting was in 1924. Now all that remains is...
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Move to Return Grizzly Bears to California Will Be an Uphill Push
Who says the grizzly bear has vanished from California? On the contrary, it’s nearly ubiquitous in the Golden State—on everything from the state flag to T-shirts and coffee mugs. Of course, the bears...
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