Search Results for Chemistry
What happens when something explodes? Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are now getting a first glimpse of the microscopic properties of an explosion.
Play this TV Story Air Date: Nov 12, 2008
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.
Play this TV Story Air Date: Aug 12, 2008
Melting glaciers, rising temperatures and droughts - all are impacts of global warming. What receives much less attention is the toll that climate change is taking on the health of our oceans. The sea, it turns out, absorbs carbon dioxide emissions, which are causing it to become more acidic. Changing pH levels threaten the entire marine food chain from coral reefs to salmon.
Play this Radio Report Air Date: Aug 8, 2008
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.
Play this TV Story Air Date: Jul 22, 2008
Earlier this year a report came out showing that trace amounts of pharmaceuticals -- everything from ibuprofen to birth control pills -- are showing up in America's drinking water. Today, water agencies and consumers are still grappling with some unanswered questions: Do these tiny amounts of drugs pose any health risk? And if so, what can we do about them?
Play this Radio Report Air Date: Jul 11, 2008
What does our use of bottled water say about us? Take a look from the perspective of an anthropologist from the distant future.
Play this TV Story Air Date: Apr 28, 2008
You might not know it from the textbooks, but California's gold rush was also a mercury rush. Quicksilver mines near San Jose provided gold miners with the mercury they needed to separate gold from ore. 150 years later, we're still facing the consequences of gold-rush era mercury.
Play this TV Story Air Date: Apr 18, 2008
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.
Play this TV Story Air Date: Apr 15, 2008
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.
Play this TV Story Air Date: Apr 8, 2008
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.
Play this TV Story Air Date: Apr 8, 2008
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