Search Results for Alameda County

Drivers are increasingly looking to their cell phones for advice on steering clear of heavy traffic. New technology from UC Berkeley uses cell phones to plot traffic patterns, giving a real-time picture of how long it takes to get from place to place. QUEST takes a ride with an early adopter.

Play this Radio Report Air Date: Dec 15, 2008

That black, sooty exhaust from old diesel trucks may be a thing of the past. A landmark decision expected next week at the state Air Resources Board would mean California truckers must retrofit their diesel rigs at a price tag of about $5 billion. The cost is high, but given the health complications from diesel emissions, air pollution regulators feel they can't afford not to act.

Play this Radio Report Air Date: Dec 8, 2008

What happens when something explodes? Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are now getting a first glimpse of the microscopic properties of an explosion.

Play this TV Story Air Date: Nov 25, 2008

If you're looking to buy an all-electric car you can drive on the freeway, your options are limited. $100,000 will buy you an electric sports car from Tesla. But an affordable all-electric vehicle remains elusive, due to the difficulty in making a battery that is powerful, long-lasting, and cheap. QUEST visits a local battery laboratory and investigates the odds of a breakthrough.

Play this TV Story Air Date: Nov 25, 2008

As a physics professor at UC Berkeley, Richard Muller considers what his students would need to know -- if one were elected president. In today's lesson, he demonstrates the principles of fission and the basics of a nuclear explosion -- using super balls!

Play this TV Story Air Date: Nov 12, 2008

Here's another item for President-Elect Barack Obama's to-do list when he takes office in January: food safety. Especially imported foods. Recent scares over melamine-laced cookies from China and salmonella-tainted Mexican jalapenos have raised stark questions: Who's monitoring the safety of imported food? And does the system work?

Play this Radio Report Air Date: Nov 10, 2008

For hundreds of years, scientists have been poaching design ideas from structures in nature. Now, biologists and engineers at UC Berkeley are working together to design a broad range of new products, such as life-saving milli-robots modeled on the way cockroaches run and adhesives based on the amazing design of a gecko's foot.

Play this TV Story Air Date: Oct 21, 2008

Flying Foxes are a type of fruit bat - they subsist mainly off fruit juice which they obtain by squeezing pieces of the fruit pulp in their mouths. Quest visits the Oakland Zoo to meet their Malayan & Island Flying Foxes and find out more about these fascinating and charismatic critters.

Play this TV Story Air Date: Oct 14, 2008

19 years ago the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake was a stark reminder that we live in earthquake country. Even though we generally are aloof to the possibility of a major temblor, the reality is we are surrounded by active faults and one East Bay faultline has geologists particularly worried.

Play this Radio Report Air Date: Oct 13, 2008

Proposition 7 is all about renewable energy generation. The initiative requires all utilities to generate 20 percent of their power from renewable energy by 2010 and 50 percent by 2025 and speeds up approval of renewable energy plants. You would think most leading environmental groups would be on board -- but many are not.

Play this Radio Report Air Date: Oct 9, 2008