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Some of the most common building materials - drywall, steel, cement - are among the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing them requires vast amounts of energy. Now, several Silicon Valley start-ups are looking for cleaner solutions and some of their efforts are drawing major venture capital.

Drivers are increasingly looking to their cell phones for advice on steering clear of heavy traffic. New technology from UC Berkeley uses cell phones to plot traffic patterns, giving a real-time picture of how long it takes to get from place to place. QUEST takes a ride with an early adopter.

That black, sooty exhaust from old diesel trucks may be a thing of the past. A landmark decision expected next week at the state Air Resources Board would mean California truckers must retrofit their diesel rigs at a price tag of about $5 billion. The cost is high, but given the health complications from diesel emissions, air pollution regulators feel they can't afford not to act.

In the U.S., powerful medications are helping many HIV-positive people live longer lives. But doctors are discovering that these patients are developing diseases of old age, like heart disease and dementia, at earlier ages than their uninfected peers. Researchers now suspect that HIV-positive patients might actually be aging at an accelerated rate.

In Monterey Bay, scientists have successfully launched a deep sea laboratory that is unlike anything in the world. The $13 million dollar project is expected to revolutionize the way ocean research is done. Scientists ran 32 miles of cable out from the Monterey shoreline to power remote research equipment such as robots, seismometers and real-time video of a world deep below the ocean.

Last week, NASA declared the Mars Phoenix Lander mission completed as the lander succumbed to Martian winter and lost radio contact. NASA scientists are already preparing their next mission: to send a rover to search for evidence of life on the red planet. But to help decide what signs to look for, scientists are studying extreme life forms on our own planet.

Here's another item for President-Elect Barack Obama's to-do list when he takes office in January: food safety. Especially imported foods. Recent scares over melamine-laced cookies from China and salmonella-tainted Mexican jalapenos have raised stark questions: Who's monitoring the safety of imported food? And does the system work?

It's been a year since 53,000 gallons of oil from the Cosco Busan cargo ship spilled into the San Francisco Bay. More than half of that heavy bunker fuel is still around. Now, one challenge is trying to put the long-term effects of the spill into dollar terms, and then seek a settlement with the ship's owners. Officials say this work may set the national standard for handling man-made crises.

The Bay Area is synonymous worldwide with high-tech innovation. Meanwhile, its students have some of the lowest math and science scores in the country. Quest takes a look at the state of public school science education in California, and asks how the state can nurture a homegrown workforce equipped to take on 21st century challenges.

Fire recently scorched much of the Big Sur area - and it also threatened one of the rarest birds in the world. The California condor sanctuary in Big Sur went up in flames. Although the birds were rescued, scientists have a major job rebuilding holding pens and other equipment. But California has a lot of condor lovers, and money and volunteers have been pouring in.