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Outfitted with microphones and recorders, scientists give us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the frontiers of discovery, on Pulse of the Planet's Science Diaries. If you've heard the programs, here's where you can get updates on the latest news and pictures from our diarists. Share your own stories, pictures and sounds, on the Listeners' Feedback Loop!
August 2008
This is been a busy field year for me and the volunteers with regard to koala research and – surprisingly this is the first time I have had the peace of mind to update the science diary. Even now I am writing this entry four days before setting out on a 15 day expedition [...]
Milton Garces : Voices of Volcanoes
Volcanoes talk to those who know how to listen! Geophysicist Milton Garces tunes in to the infrasounds that volcanoes make, low frequency sounds that are inaudible to the human ear. The rumbles and roars that Milton hears let him learn more about the underground activity of a volcano. Knowing more about volcano behavior could lead to more accurate prediction of volcano eruptions and intensity.
Justin Boyles : Hibernating Bats: A Crisis Unfolds
A mysterious syndrome is killing thousands of hibernating bats in the Eastern United States. Called White Nose Syndrome for the white fungus found growing on affected bats' faces, the illness is having a devastating effect on endangered bat populations. Justin Boyles is a graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Organismal Biology at Indiana State University.
Forrest Mims III : Experimental Science with Sun and Sky
In college, Forrest Mims was passionate about electrical engineering, but discovering that his homegrown projects surpassed anything being taught in the engineering school, he majored in government and set out on his own explorations into electrical engineering. Mims is a citizen scientist and innovator who studies sun and sky data, including everything from UV rays, to ozone, to water vapor, to sun-induced variations in tree ring color.
Joni James: Bird Watch
Most of us notice the first spring robin, or geese flying south for the winter, but there is a lot that happens in the world of birds in between. For Joni James, a photographer, teacher, and avid birdwatcher, noticing the movements of birds is more than a bi-annual event.
Carl Safina: Ocean Ecosystems
A healthy sea is a busy sea, one that is teeming with fish, plants, turtles, and the occasional diving bird. According to ecologist Carl Safina, those busy ocean scenes are becoming less common as over fishing and irresponsible fishing techniques deplete many ocean populations. What can we do to maintain and restore the health of the ocean ecosystem? Carl Safina hopes to find out.
Kevina Vulinec: Bats, Beetles, and Biodiversity
What do bats and dung beetles have in common? Both help to promote biological diversity in tropical rainforests. Kevina Vulinec, a professor of wildlife biology at Delaware State University studies the role that different organisms play in dispersing plant seeds throughout the forest. She also examines how human disturbance might impact this crucial function.
Stuart Gage: Listening to the Natural World
What do your ears really tell you about your environment? Quite a lot, says Michigan State University professor Stuart Gage. At MSU's Center for Global Change and Earth Observation, Gage is at work mapping the acoustics of the natural world, to determine what sound can tell us about the ecology of a place.
Declan Hanniffy: Secrets of Seaweed
For centuries, people who live on the coastal areas of Ireland have gathered seaweed. It's been used as a fertilizer, a food and a home remedy. Declan Hanniffy and other scientists at the Irish Seaweed Center are searching for new ways to grow and harvest seaweed as a commercial commodity, keeping this traditional industry alive.
Tigga Kingston: Saving Bats
In the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia, bats can make up more than half of all the mammal species, yet by the end of this century as many as 23% may be globally extinct. Tigga Kingston studies the factors that affect the bats' survival in the rainforests of Malaysia.
Richard Sonnenfeld: Understanding Lightning
Lightning is both awe-inspiring and frightening. It is also extremely complex, so some basic questions about lightning remain unanswered. While braving the elements at Langmuir Laboratory in the Magdalena mountains, Dr. Richard Sonnenfeld and his students at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology try to answer these questions by measuring, in detail, how a lightning flash progresses.
Jules Jaffe: Exploring Underwater Worlds
Vast and deep, the world's oceans hold many hidden forms of life. Oceanographer Jules Jaffe of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography creates instruments that allow him to see microbial and other ocean life as it has never been seen before. Although ocean microbes produce more than 50% of the world's oxygen, very little is known about their life and ecology. Jules and his team hope that their latest instrument may shed a little light - literally - on the lives of these important creatures.
Michael Hochella: Searching for Nanoparticles
Trekking through some of the same country as Lewis and Clark, Virginia Tech Geochemist Michael Hochella is trying to solve a mystery. How did heavy metal pollution from mines spread further and faster downstream than expected, creating the largest polluted area in the United States? Dr. Hochella thinks the answer might lie in little-understood nanoparticles.
Alistair Melzer: Giving Voice to the Koalas
Keeping a koala population in balance is a bit of a challenge, but less so now, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Alistair Melzer. Melzer, Director of the Centre for Environmental Management at Australia's Central Queensland University, monitors koala ecology--everything from their mating habits to what they like to eat in the morning--on St. Bees Island, off the country's southeastern coast.
John Beggs: Electric Brain Activity
Earthquakes, traffic jams, "the wave" at a sports stadium... what do they all have in common? According to Indiana University biophysicist John Beggs, they all can teach us something about how our brains work.
Summer Arrigo-Nelson: Lemurs in Madagascar
Understanding the impact of habitat disturbance on non-human primate populations is becoming increasingly important to their long-term survival. Selective logging, deforestation and hunting are changing primates' "natural" habitats at a rapidly accelerating pace. Summer Arrigo-Nelson's research focuses on the way that disturbance has altered the behavior and ecology of the endangered Milne-Edwards' sifaka (Propithecus edwardsi), which lives in Madagascar's eastern rainforests.
Jim Metzner: Behind the Microphone
Tag along on the latest recording adventures of producer Jim Metzner, and get a sneak preview of upcoming Pulse of the Planet programs.
FEEDBACK LOOP: The Listeners's Blog
We were pleased at the high level of interest in Carrie Hamby's Wild Persimmon Pudding recipe, for the winter holidays. Our Pulse of the Planet studios are nestled in the heart of the Catskills. It's been snowing quite a bit and the winter weather has us throwing another log on the fire and thinking about cooking! We wondered if you might be interested in sharing more of your recipes, in particular - seasonal recipes from all around the world. We'll be announcing a new listener challenge soon, so stay tuned!
Collectively, they’re the biggest herbivores on the planet. Go out and try and find one, I dare you. I just spent a week trying to find caterpillars in the company of people who are very good at it - Lee Dyer, Grant Gentry and Tara Massad. A sobering experience. The trick is to look for [...]
read more »WNS was discovered about a year and half ago, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service and New York Department of Environmental Conservation have done a great job of involving researchers from a variety of disciplines and locations. Mycologists, virologists, toxicologists, immunologists, physiologists, ecologists, and pathologists (and this is surely only a partial list) have [...]
read more »We don’t know exactly how many bats will die this year, but we are increasingly confident that we will see a population crash in bats in the northeast. As a biologist working on bats, I have academic and scientific reasons to worry about such a population crash, but many of the researchers involved with studying [...]
read more »Kilauea Volcano has made a fantastic transformation over the last year, with the Puu Oo crater complex falling apart in June 07, a new fissure zone and lava flow emerging in July 07, and the reawakening of Halemaumau crater in March 08. We are thrilled to have recorded the unique eruptive signature from the first eruption in [...]
read more »In January 2007, Al Hicks of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation discovered an unusual fungus growing on bats hibernating in four caves near Albany, New York. It quickly became apparent that the fungus was associated with very high mortality—probably higher than 90%—in all of the affected caves. Al dubbed the infliction White Nose [...]
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