Innovators and scientists recently traveled from around the world to Fort Myers hoping to earn top honors at the Edison Awards for their inventions and new products. This year the Edison Awards also honor important Black innovators as they present the inaugural class of the Lewis Latimer Fellowship Program.

The risk of harm from pesticide exposure in the U.S. is up to five times greater for people of color and that a weak regulatory environment and lax enforcement of existing protections play a significant role in the disproportionate risk faced by Black, Indigenous and people of color, as well as people in low-income communities. We’ll explore the comprehensive study’s findings and recommendations.

For more than a decade researchers and growers have been exploring the potential efficacy and economic impact of developing a commercial-scale olive industry in Florida. In recent years, they’ve been making advances in identifying olive varieties that can thrive even in Florida’s warmer southern regions. We’ll explore the latest research findings with Florida Olive Council founder and President Michael O’Hara Garcia.

Wildlife biologist, photographer, journalist and author Douglas Chadwick shares his philosophy on the interconnectedness between humans and nature. His latest book is titled, "Four Fifths a Grizzly: A New Perspective on Nature that Just Might Save Us All."

Pollinators are responsible for assisting about 80% of the world's flowering plants to reproduce, and that includes quite a few crops grown for food. We learn about the work being done by pollinators all around us, and get some tips on how to attract them to our yard, and how to keep from harming them by misusing pesticides.

We're marking Parkinson’s Awareness Month by talking with two people devoted to helping people living with the neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Ramon Gil is a neurologist at the Parkinson’s Treatment Center Of Southwest Florida, and Mary Spremulli is a medical speech-language pathologist and owner of Voice Aerobics Speech Language Therapy in Punta Gorda. We also talk with one of her clients, a 78-year-old man named Mike Davidson who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2016.

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.

We listen back to our 2012 conversation with autism advocate, speaker and author Temple Grandin. She’ll be the keynote speaker at the Promising Pathways: The Road to Best Practice in Autism Spectrum Disorder Conference at FGCU on Saturday, April 9.

Next week on Thursday, April 7 and Friday, April 8 the Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership is hosting the 2022 Southwest Florida Climate Summit. This year it will be held as a two-day hybrid event so people can attend virtually or in person at the Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers. This public event will feature innovative thinkers to exchange dialogue and ideas on expanding the region’s capacity to respond to climate challenges, and towards building increased community resiliency.

There is an exhibit on display now at the Barron Library in LaBelle called Water/Ways which explores the relationship between people and water. It explores the centrality of water in our lives including its effect on the environment and climate, its practical role in agriculture and economic planning, and its impact on culture and spirituality. We learn about it with Nicole Hellard, director of the Barron Library; and Dr. Brandon Jett, professor of history at Florida SouthWestern State College.