Month: April 2000
Pulse of the Planet Daily Audio
Sandhill Cranes: Success Story
The Sandhill crane population in Wisconsin is thriving, thanks to restoration of their wetland habitat.
April 27, 2000Sandhill 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, 2000Hummingbirds: Antisocial
Hummingbirds are antisocial, and that’s just one thing that sets them apart from other birds.
April 25, 2000Hummingbirds: 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, 2000Hummingbirds: 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, 2000Waila: 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, 2000Waila: 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, 2000Waila: 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, 2000Waila: Party
When the Tohono O’odham Native Americans dance to Waila, their traditional social music, the party lasts all night.
April 17, 2000Waila: 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, 2000Listening 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, 2000Listening 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, 2000Listening 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, 2000Listening 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, 2000Listening to the Universe: Intro
Scientists at the SETI Institute listen to the “sounds” of outer space, searching for intelligent life.
April 7, 2000Biological Clocks: Compass
In some animals, the biological clock that regulates internal processes serves as a compass as well as a timekeeper.
April 6, 2000Biological 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, 2000Biological 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, 2000Biological Clocks: Intro
A part of almost every plant and animal is a biological clock that regulates many of the organisms’ vital processes.
April 3, 2000Ancient Flute: Carbon Dating
Scientists used carbon dating to determine the age of what may be the oldest playable musical instrument in the world.