KQED Science Video Podcast

One of the great things about my job is to be able to talk to some of the world's greatest and most charismatic scientists, like Professor Dan Costa of UC Santa Cruz.

Once an exotic product associated with royalty and overfishing, caviar is now being farmed sustainably right here in California.

They are an icon of the Pacific Northwest, stirring a mix of fascination, awe and affection. Thousands of people come to the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound just to catch a glimpse of the Southern Resident orcas that call these waters home.

QUEST treks 3486 feet to the peak of Mt. Umunhum rising steeply above the Silicon Valley. During the Cold War the Air Force installed a sprawling radar station at the top of this mountain. For over 50 years the summit has been off limits to the public. Now it’s being cleaned up and will soon be opened again as open space.

Mount Umunhum gets its name from the Ohlone word for hummingbird or "resting place of the hummingbird." Hummingbird is a central figure in the Ohlone creation story and an important part of their culture. Valentin Lopez, Chairman of the Amah-Mutsun Ohlone tribal band, reads the legend of how Hummingbird got fire from the Badger People.

QUEST visits with a rescued North American Gray Fox at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek. This elusive species is native to the Bay Area and happens to be the only member of the dog family who can climb trees.

A dedicated group of outdoor lovers and trail planners is working to build a 500-mile trail around San Francisco Bay. Come along as QUEST hikes and bikes the newest section.

In 2005, a partial skeleton of a juvenile mammoth was discovered along the Guadalupe River near downtown San Jose. Those bones and a full-scale replica will be featured in The Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose's mammoth exhibit, set to open June 11th. Learn more about these majestic creatures that roamed the Bay Area during the Ice Age with UC Museum of Paleontology's Kaitlin Maguire.

QUEST follows a group of UC Berkeley scientists to the top of a 320-foot redwood in Mendocino County. Only 5 percent of these ancient redwoods survived our voracious desire for their hardy and plentiful wood. Now scientists are trying to predict how the remaining ones and their descendants might fare in the face of climate change in the decades to come.

Exploratorium Staff Scientist Julie Yu changes and manipulates the physical and chemical properties of plastic bottles by exposing them to heat. This is how plastic bags and bottles can be recycled and used over and over again.