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NCPR Programs: Natural SelectionsEach week join Martha Foley and Professor Curt Stager from Paul Smith's College as they discuss various topics from the world of nature. You can hear Natural Selections on Thursdays at 8:35 am, and on Sundays at 8:55 am.
Once so numerous they darkened the sky for days while migrating, passenger pigeons arrived in this region in early May each year. Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley remember this once ubiquitous species wiped out by human hunting in the nineteenth century.
Chipmunks aren't exactly shy—their metabolism runs too high to turn down a free lunch—but neither are they social among themselves, once beyond the nest. Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley talk about this aggressively territorial backyard fixture.
Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about the role of individuals once they are past fertility. Elders help hold communities together by acting as the living histories and resource libraries.
An astonishing variety of warblers return with the northern spring from tropical climes. Some cross the Gulf of Mexico without a rest stop. Martha Foley asks Dr. Curt Stager, why? What do we have here that can't be found in Mexico or Martinique?
Homo floresiensis, left, and Homo Sapiens
Dr. Curt Stager and Marth Foley talk about a new hominid species, Homo floresiensis, whose 18,000-year-old remains have been unearthed on an Indonesian island. The diminutive stature of this close relative of modern humans has earned it the nickname "hobbit."
Herring doing the deed.
Naturalists have observed telltale bubbles emitted by some fish and have even provided recordings. Others have detected secret alarm sounds in the cries of ground squirrels. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about the hidden sounds of nature.
Natural Selections tackles questions about the origins of life—from a tree to an entire planet. How does life start? Are the beginnings biological, chemical or something else? Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager wonder if we will recognize it when we see it.
Giant beaver skull compared with modern specimen.
During the last Ice Age North America was home to many varieties of "super-sized" mammals, megafauna. Giant beaver, 'possums, bear, sloths and other creatures joined the more familair wooly mammoth in the land bridge migration. Dr Curt Stager and Martha Foley look at the question, "Why so big?"
Gecko with photo micrograph of foot
Geckos have a remarkable ability to run up vertical surfaces, and even across ceilings. But their feet do not form suction cups, nor are they sticky with any kind of secreted glue. Dr. Curt Stager tells Martha Foley the secret of the lizard's gravity-defying feet, which has as much to with atomic physics as biology.
Solar weather does more than create light shows at polar latitudes. When the sun acts up, the effects can range from communications interference on earth to lethal doses of radiation for unprotected astronauts. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about heavenly weather.
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(7/18/02)
Natural History
