Science on the SPOT HD Video Podcast

The cobra lily (Darlingtonia californica) uses deception and patience to trick unsuspecting insect prey into its highly specialized pitcher traps.

Whether it’s a lager or ale, sour or bitter, dark or light, most beer has one thing in common: yeast. KQED Science visits a commercial yeast laboratory and a local brewery to reveal how this key ingredient is a major player in both science history and beer production.

What happens when you fill up a giant space with over 200 eager science fans from around the Bay Area for a weekend? You get Science Hack Day San Francisco, a two-day event where a diverse group of "hackers" -- from developers and designers to scientists and students -- works side-by-side to see what they can quickly create within 24 consecutive hours.

Something strange and unsettling is happening to Bay Area honeybees. Entomologists at San Francisco State University have identified the culprit: a tiny parasitic fly is causing the bees to exhibit bizarre nocturnal behaviors before suffering a gruesome demise.

Join a research team from University of California, Santa Cruz as they track, tranquilize and collar a wild puma. The special GPS collars collect data on the puma’s location and behavior, and they reveal how the big cats survive in their shrinking habitat in the Bay Area.

More than a million visitors visit Alcatraz every year, but a recent discovery has revealed another attraction that lives within the shadows of this historic prison.

The University Herbarium at the University of California - Berkeley boasts one of the largest and oldest collections of seaweed in the United States, dating back to the time of the U.S. Civil War. Kathy Ann Miller, a curator at the herbarium, is leading a massive project to digitize nearly 80,000 specimens of seaweed collected from the west coast of North America.

The rural foothills along the Santa Cruz County Coast hold an ancient secret. Deep below the redwoods, White Moon Cave extends for nearly a mile -- making it one of the longest caves in California. But few people have ever been in it. Join the KQED Science team as we squeeze through the narrow clandestine entrance, and meet the uncanny cave inhabitants to bring new light to this hidden realm.

SOFIA is more than a telescope tucked into a re-purposed commercial airliner. It's a complete flying astronomical observation platform which carries a dozen or more astronomers, observers and crew far above the clouds to observe objects and phenomena too cold to be seen in visible light.

Scientists in San Francisco have coaxed mouse hearts to repair themselves from within. The breakthrough could lead to treatments for the 5 million people in the United States living with a damaged heart.

Monarch Butterflies migrate from all over the western United States to overwinter along the California coast. Conservation Biologist Stu Weiss uses specialized photographic equipment to study what makes good Monarch overwintering habitat.

The USGS National Wildlife Health Center investigates animal die-offs and threats to endangered species through on-site investigation and necropsies--animal autopsy--at its headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.

QUEST travels to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to meet Dr. Spurlock, an anatomist and forensic reconstruction artist who uses clay to re-construct the faces of ancient humans in order to show what they looked like when alive. She also sketches more recently deceased individuals using only their remains in order to help law enforcement solve crimes.

The art and science of salt glaze pottery requires skills and techniques acquired over generations of trial and error. Ben Owen III combines his family’s experiential knowledge of ceramics and additional scientific knowledge to create and improve his unique works of art.

How does San Francisco’s 600 tons of compostable waste become a nutrient-rich material that improves the quality of our local wines? Agronomist Bob Shaffer, Northern California's "compost guy," takes QUEST into the composting process.

The Salt Creek tiger beetle is one of the most endangered species in the United States, with only 200 to 500 beetles left. They're found only in a small saline wetland area just north of Lincoln, Nebraska. QUEST Nebraska reports.

Katie Colbert, a naturalist at the Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness, shares with us how she tracked dozens of Nothern Pacific Rattlesnakes and what she learned about their movements and behaviors.

Watch as thousands of prehistoric horseshoe crabs take over a beach in Delaware.

Every summer, 250,000 bats take up residence under a freeway bridge in California's Central Valley. And each night, they exit the bridge in a stunning ribbon-like formation.

Once an exotic product associated with royalty and overfishing, caviar is now being farmed sustainably right here in California.

They are an icon of the Pacific Northwest, stirring a mix of fascination, awe and affection. Thousands of people come to the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound just to catch a glimpse of the Southern Resident orcas that call these waters home.

A dedicated group of outdoor lovers and trail planners is working to build a 500-mile trail around San Francisco Bay. Come along as QUEST hikes and bikes the newest section.

In 2005, a partial skeleton of a juvenile mammoth was discovered along the Guadalupe River near downtown San Jose. Those bones and a full-scale replica will be featured in The Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose's mammoth exhibit, set to open June 11th. Learn more about these majestic creatures that roamed the Bay Area during the Ice Age with UC Museum of Paleontology's Kaitlin Maguire.

One of the most beloved and iconic native species within the old growth redwood forests is the Pacific Banana Slug. QUEST goes on a hunt to find and introduce Ariolomax dolichophallus, a bright yellow slug with a big personality.

Since the Gold Rush days when prospectors baked loaves in their encampments, sourdough bread has been a beloved favorite of the Bay Area. But what is true sourdough bread? It's more than just the tangy flavor. Science on the SPOT visits with Maria Marco of UC Davis and baker Eduardo Morrell to learn more about the secret science of sourdough.

One day each December, Bay Area mushroom lovers fan out and collect fungi of all shapes and colors. They then display their finds at the Mycological Society of San Francisco’s annual Fungus Fair. QUEST tags along with fair organizer J.R. Blair and his San Francisco State University students as they collect mushrooms in San Francisco’s McLaren Park. Then we tour the fair in Berkeley to explore the Bay Area’s tasty, dangerous and weirdly wonderful fungi.

Stanford geneticists Ghia Euskirchen and Barry Starr trek into the Santa Cruz Mountains to uncover the genetic mystery of the rare albino redwood trees. QUEST follows along as they seek to discover the root of the mutation. Taking both albino redwood and normal - or "wild type" - samples back to their lab, they will put them through the genetic ringer and for the first time sequence the complicated redwood genome.

UC Santa Cruz plant biologist Jarmila Pitterman and her students are studying rare albino redwood trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains to better understand the inner workings of these unusual plants. By learning how albino redwoods survive, they may unlock some of the mysteries of how redwood trees live and how they will weather things such as disease, drought or climate change.

QUEST meets the San Francisco Zoo’s resident Peregrine Falcon, "Bella." Not long ago Peregrine Falcons were perched at the edge of extinction. But through the work of conservationists, they have rebounded and have been taken off the endangered species list. "This is a conservation success story." says Noelle Bidegainberry of the SF Zoo, "Our hope is that when people meet Bella they are inspired to take conservation into their own hands."

Inspired in part by the open source movement, public spaces are emerging where people congregate to share ideas, make cool projects, teach, and brainstorm with collaborators 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.

QUEST explores how the San Francisco Botanical Garden is toiling to bring one of the city's rarest native plants, the Franciscana manzanita, back from the brink of extinction.

Forest ecologist Steve Sillett is leading a team of scientists as they climb and measure every branch of some of the last and tallest old growth redwoods in California. Their goal is to learn how these ancient giants have historically responded to climatic shifts and to monitor how they are being impacted today by global warming.

Ocean tides rise and fall twice a day, influenced by the gravitational forces of the sun and moon. Studying tides' rhythmic movements helps us understand both the ocean and the cosmos. Astronomer Ben Burress explains how tides work, and QUEST visits Crissy Field in San Francisco to see the oldest continually operating tidal gauge in the Western Hemisphere.

The California Academy of Sciences has the largest collection of biological reference materials west of the Mississippi. Dating back over 100 years, the collection provides a treasure trove of biological information for scientists and researchers studying the natural world. Norman Penny, the Collections Manager of the Entomology Department, gives QUEST a small peek at The Academy’s vast butterfly collection.

Can fire save the endangered Mission Blue Butterfly? The Golden Gate National Recreation Area experiments with using controlled burns to improve habitat for this critically imperiled Bay Area native.

The Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco are a vital home to many birds and marine mammals. While the forbidding and inhospitable nature of the Farallones may be ideal for wildlife, it also makes this a difficult place for scientists to live and work. QUEST ventures out to these jagged rocks to get a glimpse of daily life on the islands and what it’s like there for the researchers from PRBO Conservation Science.

California Highway One, between Pacifica and Montara, was carved out of the steep coastal cliffs. Plagued by closures due to rockslides and land slippage, this route has earned the nickname "The Devil's Slide." Now two tunnels beneath San Pedro Mountain, each 30-feet wide and 4,200-feet long are being dug to bypass it. QUEST meets the engineers and geologists deep underground to learn how Caltrans is digging this new tunnel.

Artist Kate Nichols longed to paint with the iridescent colors of butterfly wings, but no such pigments existed. So she became the first artist-in-residence at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to synthesize nanoparticles and incorporate them into her artwork.

Meet Shelley, a car that drives itself. Researchers at Stanford University have developed an autonomous race car and plan on taking it on one of the toughest courses in the country. First, the car is taking them for a test ride at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.

Pale ghosts that hide amidst their gigantic siblings, only a few dozen Albino redwood trees are known to exist. They are genetic mutants that lack the chlorophyll needed for photosynthesis-- how and why they survive is a scientific mystery. QUEST ventures into the deep canopy of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park near Felton, California to track down these elusive phantoms of the forest.

San Francisco 's fickle summer weather has earned it the nickname "Fog City." Science on the SPOT asks UC Berkeley's Todd Dawson to clear up the mysterious origins of this weather phenomenon, and share his research on how fog is integral to our state's ecology.

The Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries cover more than 9,500 square miles of ocean habitat. While most fishing and shipping are still allowed within sanctuary waters, some activities are now regulated or prohibited. Patrolling such an immense area by boat would take days... but now sanctuary managers are taking to the air in a rugged de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter bush plane to get a bird's eye view.

In our second episode of Science on the SPOT, join us on a behind-the-scenes trip deep into the massive collection of marine mammal skulls at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. You'd be surprised how much you can learn about an animal's life– and death– by reading their bones.

In our first installment of QUEST's new Science on the SPOT web series, we go behind-the-scenes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, with the intrepid dive team who keep the enormous Outer Bay Exhibit tank spic and span-- while swimming in 40 pounds of stainless steel, shark-resitant armor.