If plants could talk, what would they say? What if they could sing? Sam Nester, Yassmin Salem, and Donald Russell explain how George Mason University’s Arcadia installation turns a greenhouse into an orchestra. And: Fossils give away the secrets of the past, but they can also tell the future. Rowan Lockwood is taking a closer look at the fossils of giant oysters to learn how to rebuild oyster reefs today. Lockwood was named a 2019 Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award recipient.

Later in the show: Crystal blue lakes might make for a popular tourist spot, but they’re starting to disappear. Dina Leech is studying what gives lakes their color and why they’re changing. Plus: While forests are a deep green right now, in just a few months leaves will be changing colors--thanks, in part, to caterpillars. Rebecca Forkner shares how these tiny insects change their environments and what we can learn from them.