April 28, 2000

Sandhill Cranes: Success Story

The Sandhill crane population in Wisconsin is thriving, thanks to restoration of their wetland habitat.

April 27, 2000

Sandhill Cranes: Count

A Pulse of the Planet listener in Wisconsin is teaching his three young daughters how to spot Sandhill cranes, so they can participate in the annual crane count.

April 26, 2000

Hummingbirds: Antisocial

Hummingbirds are antisocial, and that’s just one thing that sets them apart from other birds.

April 25, 2000

Hummingbirds: Physiology

A scientist who studies hummingbirds in Peru has found that different hummingbirds’ physiques are matched to their style of foraging for nectar.

April 24, 2000

Hummingbirds: Intro

Hummingbirds are the only birds capable of sustained hovering, a form of flight they need to get nectar from flowers that don’t provide perches.

April 21, 2000

Waila: Nourishing Legacy

The Tohono O’odham have strayed from their traditional diet of desert plants, and the result is a rising rate of diabetes.

April 20, 2000

Waila: Chicken Scratch

The Tohono O’odham people of Southwest Arizona have taken European dance styles, like the polka, and adapted them to the hot desert climate.

April 19, 2000

Waila: Genesis

The Waila music of the Tohono O’odham Native Americans in southern Arizona sounds surprisingly like German polka music, and there’s a good reason why.

April 18, 2000

Waila: Party

When the Tohono O’odham Native Americans dance to Waila, their traditional social music, the party lasts all night.

April 17, 2000

Waila: Tradition

The Tohono O’odham Native Americans of southern Arizona believe that everything in the desert – humans, animals and plants – must be treated with reverence.

April 14, 2000

Listening to the Universe: Computers and Ears

Computers and human ears share the tasks of listening for signs of intelligent life in outer space.

April 13, 2000

Listening to the Universe: Exploring with Sound

Kent Cullers, the blind astronomer who was the basis for a character in the movie “Contact”, became fascinated with listening to outer space as a child amateur radio operator.

April 12, 2000

Listening to the Universe: Simulation

To human ears, the kind of signal that would come from an intelligent life form in outer space would have a distinctive sound.

April 11, 2000

Listening to the Universe: False Alarms

Scientists monitoring electromagnetic signals from outer space are sometime tricked into thinking that a complex sound is a coded message from intelligent beings.

April 10, 2000

Listening to the Universe: Intro

Scientists at the SETI Institute listen to the “sounds” of outer space, searching for intelligent life.

April 7, 2000

Biological Clocks: Compass

In some animals, the biological clock that regulates internal processes serves as a compass as well as a timekeeper.

April 6, 2000

Biological Clocks: Scale

Most organisms follow a 24 hour inner biological clock, but life on earth marches to the drum beat of other cyclical rhythms.

April 5, 2000

Biological Clocks: Resetting the Clock

An animal’s biological clock can sometimes be reset. For example, rats have been trained to eat at unorthodox times of day.

April 4, 2000

Biological Clocks: Intro

A part of almost every plant and animal is a biological clock that regulates many of the organisms’ vital processes.

April 3, 2000

Ancient Flute: Carbon Dating

Scientists used carbon dating to determine the age of what may be the oldest playable musical instrument in the world.