Gulf Coast Life

One in every 44 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with some form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). And while screening techniques have improved, diagnosis and cause are still far from straightforward.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Sea Turtle Monitoring Project is now in its 40th year, making it one of the longest continuously running sea turtle monitoring programs of its kind in the country. We’ll explore the history of this sea turtle monitoring project and its challenges, successes and findings with the Conservancy’s Director of Environmental Science Kathy Worley.

Can solving specially designed brain games on a computer or tablet reduce the chances of developing dementia, like Alzheimer’s, or delay the loss of function associated with the disease and other forms of dementia? That is the primary question being tested by researchers at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Earlier stages of the study have demonstrated promising results. For instance, healthy older adults who have received this targeted computerized training had a 29% lower risk of dementia after 10 years, and those completing additional training were 48% less likely to show signs of dementia 10 years later.

A statewide phone line is helping thousands of people each year cope with their stress, anxiety and negative feelings.

Astronomers, space scientists, and space enthusiasts around the world got their first look on Tuesday, July 12 at the first images collected by the James Webb Space Telescope. To get an initial take on these new images and better understand what they’re showing we talked with astronomer and FGCU Whitaker Eminent Scholar Dr. Derek Buzasi shortly after they were released.

Dr. Michael Burton is the new director of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Southwest Florida Research and Education Center. He leads a team of researchers who work to provide farmers with the best information possible for them to be successful from their 320-acre facility in Immokalee.

In its final decision of the term, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to set limits on carbon emissions from existing power plants, limiting the federal government’s regulatory authority to force power plants to shift away from generating power through the burning of fossil fuels that release greenhouse gasses that cause global warming.We’ll explore the Supreme Court ruling and what it could mean for Florida with Director of the Center for Environment and Society at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School, Jennifer Jones, Ph.D.

While the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in Florida hasn’t changed much in the last two weeks, Lee Health and Sarasota Memorial Health Care System officials have been reporting a slight increase in hospitalized coronavirus patients in recent months. We’ll explore the latest pandemic trends, vaccinations and available treatments including antivirals and monoclonal antibody treatments.

A recently published review in the journal Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries brings together more than 150 years of data collected by researchers from all over the world. A team of researchers reviewed more than 3,000 documents and extracted data from 834 studies to determine that 989 fish species have been shown to produce active sounds.All that data has now been compiled on a website called FishSounds.net. This new repository acts as a global inventory of fish sounds easily accessed and added to by contributors around the world, and members of the public who are curious or have an interest in fish species.

Welcome to Three Song Stories, home of the ‘song story’ and exploration of the fascinating way music connects us to our lives and memories. Our guest this episode is actor, artist, and theatre-maker Juliana Morgan Alvarez.