KQED Science Video Podcast

East Bay photographer Harold Davis combines his loves of the natural world with modern digital photography to create images that show the ordinary in an extra-ordinary way. After many years as a commercial photographer, he decided to move back the Bay Area and change his focus.

In 1924 a hunter purposely released a handful of wild boar in Monterey County. Now the pigs number in the hundreds of thousands and reside in all but two of California's 58 counties. Big, fast, smart and hungry, these animals often out-compete native species and damage fragile native ecosystems. Now hunters are stepping up to be part of the solution.

Paul Doherty of the Exploratotium performs a "sit-down" lecture on one of Sir Issac Newton's most famous laws.

She's spent much of the last five decades exploring and protecting the world's oceans. Find out why She's spent much of the last five decades exploring and protecting the world's oceans. Find out why legendary marine biologist Sylvia Earle thinks that we may only have a few years left to save what she calls "the blue heart of the planet."

Could you have a career studying rare Amazon River Dolphins, tiny octopuses and endangered sea horses? Healy Hamilton does, and she works with kids to encourages them to become scientists.

Chocolate: It's been revered for millennia by cultures throughout the world. But while it's easy to appreciate all of its delicious forms, creating this confection is a complex culinary feat. Local chocolate makers explain the elaborate engineering and chemistry behind this tasty treat. And learn why it's actually good for your health!

Ever wonder why a vulture's head is bald? QUEST visits the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, CA, to meet their resident Turkey Vulture and learn about what life is like in the Bay Area for these bald "beauties."

What happens when you flush the toilet? For most of us, what's out of sight is out of mind. But large numbers of sewage spills into San Francisco Bay are forcing cities, water agencies and the public to take a closer look at wastewater and its impacts on the health of the bay. QUEST investigates the causes of the spills and what's being done to prevent them.

If you live in Oakland, how long does it take for sewage to flow from your house, through the EBMUD plant and into the bay?

Seahorses are some of the most enchanting and mysterious creatures in the ocean. They are also in trouble, struggling to survive in threatened habitats around the world, while large-scale trading of seahorses for the traditional Chinese medicine market goes unchecked. Meet the Seahorse Sleuths - local scientists who are working to unlock the secrets of these elusive creatures so that they can save them from extinction.

The rates of childhood asthma in the United States rose 160% from 1980 to 1994 and have remained high ever since, making this chronic lung illness the country's third most common pediatric disease. QUEST meets Bay Area researchers who are investigating possible environmental and social culprits. Their understanding of asthma's causes could one day lead to measures to prevent kids from developing the disease.

QUEST goes to the Exploratorium to learn how and why helium changes the sound of your voice.

Because of a sharp decline in their numbers, the entire salmon fishing season in the ocean off California and Oregon was canceled in both 2008 and 2009. At no other time in history has this salmon fishery been closed. The species in the most danger is the California coho salmon. Quest looks at efforts to protect the coho in Northern California and explores the important role salmon play in the native ecosystem.

Randy Davis and his adopted dog, Lucky, explore the far reaches of the Bay Area via mountain bike. Once there, Randy photographs spectacular locations that are typically hard to access by car or foot. His eye for light and shadow show a different side of CA’s state parks that most visitors don’t get to see.

Special web-only presentation from QUEST Radio. Fifty-five years after its construction, the Bevatron, a landmark particle accelerator at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs that helped pioneer physics discoveries and win several Nobel prizes, is about to be demolished.