http://www.vimeo.com/7457522

After spending numerous meetings with Maya Lin at the Academy and seeing how she distilled the stories told by some of the most venerable figures in the field of conservation biology into a final artwork, it seemed fitting that we should give a voice to someone who took a chance to give a different perspective to science. Shaped like a giant megaphone, the “Listening Cone” unveiled September 17, 2009 on the Academy’s East Terrace is not just an art exhibit, nor is it just a memorial. It is at once a portal to planet Earth and a sounding device to the work that is currently being done to conserve its resources. Take your shoes off and step inside!

The Listening Cone is part of a multi-site memorial called “What is Missing”. To learn more about what others are doing and what you can do to prevent species and habitat loss visit a selection of the institutions and organizations that played an advisory role to the “What is Missing” project.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
National Geographic Society
Conservation International
National Resources Defense Council
World Wildlife Fund
Freedom to Roam

-Lindsay

 

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Open access is changing the way scientific research is being published. And many say for the better. When people discover they have a serious illness, they often want free and easy access to medical research. Open access allows this. But there’s so much more to it.

Open access allows researchers to build on other research. It allows taxpayers to see what type of research the government is funding. And it allows a larger audience for the researcher’s publication.

So who pays in the open access model? The researcher. Often this can be written into their research grant. In addition, five prominent universities, including UC Berkeley, recently signed a compact promoting open access publishing and a commitment to underwriting publication fees.

PLoS is just one 0pen access publisher. Happily, it seems to be a growing movement.

 

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More information is trickling in… Images, too. But did LCROSS find water on the moon? We may have to wait until December to find out…

 

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As the Bay Area marks the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, we take a look at earthquake monitoring technology out of UC Berkeley. If you had a few second warning, what would you do?

Thanks to our partners at KQED Quest for giving us a great story to put on our screens!

 

 Earthquake Monitoring: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Is the recent dust storm that swept through Sydney a sign of climate change?

The images were too amazing to pass this story up. As we were doing our research, we found this interesting article saying that dust storms help decrease the affects of global warming. No scientists were named in the story, so we decided to dig deeper. Contacting various departments at UC Berkeley, we were put in contact with Charlie Koven, who had done his PhD thesis on dust and climate change. What a great find. Thanks to Skype, we were able to interview him in France, where he’s currently a postdoc.

 

 Dust Storms and Climate Change: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download