Science Friday: Volcanic Eruptions, Jovian Moon, Urban Ecosystems and More
Holuhraun lava field in Iceland. NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Keeping an Eye on Eruptions Around the World
While volcanic activity in Iceland, Papua New Guinea, and Hawaii may have caught the public’s attention in recent weeks, such phenomena aren’t that unusual. In fact, there may be as many as 75 volcanoes erupting on land every year, and thousands more on the seafloor. Geophysicist Cynthia Ebinger and Elizabeth Cottrell, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program, talk about the world’s volcanoes and what’s known about the processes that drive them, deep beneath the planet’s surface.
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Produced by Charles Bergquist, Director and Contributing Producer
GUESTS
- Elizabeth Cottrell
Geologist and Director, Global Volcanism Program
Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History
Washington, DC
- Cynthia Ebinger
Professor of Geophysics
Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Rochester
Rochester, New York
A Jovian Moon With Earth-Like Tectonics
A paper on Jupiter’s moon Europa published this week in Nature Geosciencesays that the moon’s surface may undergo processes similar to plate tectonics on Earth, with sheets of icy crust moving around and sometimes diving beneath each other. Simon Kattenhorn, an author on the paper, says that finding active plate tectonics on Europa could have important implications for thinking about new, habitable worlds.
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Produced by Charles Bergquist, Director and Contributing Producer
GUESTS
- Simon Kattenhorn
Former Professor, Department of Geological Sciences
University of Idaho
Conoco-Phillips Company
Moscow, Idaho
Understanding the Urban Ecosystem
When you think of ecosystems, the Amazon’s tropical rainforests or the Arctic’s icy tundra might come to mind. But what about our urban environments? Geologist Sujay Kaushal and ecologist William McDowell discuss how scientists might define an urban ecosystem and what impacts cities have on the surrounding environment.
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Produced by Alexa Lim, Associate Producer
GUESTS
- Sujay Kaushal
Associate Professor, Geology
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland
- William McDowell
Director, New Hampshire Water Resources Research Center
Professor, Environmental Science
University of New Hampshire
Durham, New Hampshire
Can Conservation Efforts Save the Birds?
It’s been 100 years since the last passenger pigeon died. Would we have been able to save the bird today? What is the state of bird conservation in North America? Gary Langham of the National Audubon Society and Ken Rosenberg from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology discuss which species are under threat and how climate change might affect birds in the future.
After 40 Years, a Blue Whale Population Bounces Back
It took four decades, but after being hunted to near-extinction, the California blue whale population has finally bounced back. According to a new paper in Marine Mammal Science, these behemoths (found primarily along the coasts of California and Mexico) have reached 97 percent of their original population size. Researcher Trevor Brand discusses the conservation strategies that helped bolster the population and whether they can be applied to other threatened species.
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Produced by Becky Fogel, Production Assistant
GUESTS
- Trevor Branch
Assistant Professor, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
The Science of ‘Sameness’: Developing Generic Medications
Are generic and brand-name medications ever really the same? Medical historian and physician Jeremy A. Greene tackles this question in his new book, Generic: The Unbranding of Modern Medicine. Greene traces the development of generic medications, from suspect substances to American healthcare mainstay. He also explains how the notion and measure of “sameness” have evolved since generic drugs were first introduced. (Readn an exerpt fro the book here.)
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Produced by Becky Fogel, Production Assistant
GUESTS
- Jeremy A. Greene
Author, Generic: The Unbranding of Modern Medicine
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014)
Associate Professor, Medicine and History of Medicine
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland
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