City Bees, Predicting Earthquakes
All over the world, disease and habitat destruction have caused honey bee numbers to plummet. Bees are crucial because they pollinate 80 percent of our fruit and vegetable crops. This week’s podcast begins with a story from Frankfurt, Germany, about how urban apiculture may give the bees a boost.
A bigger environmental problem is climate change. Everyone thinks of cars as a key contributor to global warming, but buildings are responsible for about half the total greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption around the world. One group of architects wants to change that. They call themselves Architecture 2030. By 2030, they want to design buildings that use no fossil fuels.
Last week, an earthquake hit central Italy, killing almost 300 people. One Italian scientist, Giampaolo Giuliani, a researcher at the National Physical Laboratory of Gran Sasso, predicted the earthquake on the basis of increased radon levels. Nano Seeber, a seismologist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, talks about the difficulties in predicting earthquakes. Keep an eye on other earthquakes around the world at the USGS Earthquake Center.
Also this week: chimpanzees exchange meat for sex; some birds can tell where you’re looking; and researchers propose a clever new way to stop malaria by killing only old mosquitoes (see the original research paper).
Music:
Slim Harpo, I’m a King Bee
The Hives, A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors
