biology

SciWorks Radio is a production of 88.5 WFDD and SciWorks, the Science Center and Environmental Park of Forsyth C

Lurking in the Eastern forests, from Mississippi to Maine, is a living hybrid. With the combined genetics of three distinct animals, it's a survivor, and a better predator. How is this animal a lot like you and me? 

You are a paleontologist on expedition hunting dinosaur fossils.  For all your efforts, you've unearthed just a few bone fragments. Back at the lab, you and your team determine that, based on their shape and size, you're looking at a colossal waste of time and resources. But a new tool is emerging which allows us to use dinosaur DNA to better understand prehistoric evolutionary trees. It may also help to find life on Mars, or treat human diseases. 

 

A Duke University scientist is cracking the mystery of microcephaly. How might this help in Zika research?

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to a Japanese scientist who explained that cells have their own versions of recycling plants, how they work, and the role of this process in diseases.

The fall is a beautiful time of year here on the East Coast, and in North Carolina, we have a resident expert who has long been the go-to scientist for local leaf-peepers: Dr. Howard Neufeld, professor of biological sciences at Appalachian State University. He is learning how and why trees turn color in the fall, as well as why some turn red, while others turn yellow. 

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs, otherwise known as drones, are aircraft piloted by remote control or programmed to follow a flight path using GPS as a guide. They can be as small as a book or as large as a commercial airliner. From toys to weapons, they are filling a range of niches, including research and conservation efforts.

We spoke with Max Messinger, Founder of Linn Aerospace and Research Fellow with Wake Forest University Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. He has spent the past several years developing, building, and flying a variety of drones to monitor the health of the Peruvian Amazon rainforests.

To make enough of the elements to support the chemical complexity of biology, we need an enormously old universe. Stars truly are the factories of life. But for you or your cat to exist, several generations of stars need to have come and gone - each born from the atoms of previous generations, like the babies of the Orion Nebula.