Mar 28, 2013 — An artist and a scientist will unveil a new exhibit Saturday afternoon at the Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek. AntARTica includes works by artist Laura Von Rosk and cell biologist Sam Bowser. The exhibit will include Von Rosk's landscape paintings and Bowser's watercolor paintings of tiny, single-celled organisms called Foraminifera that live under the ice. The two were part of a team of biologists and artists that traveled to antarctica in 2011.

Todd Moe spoke with Bowser and Von Rosk about how artists and scientists can inspire each other and collaborate on projects.  Go to full article

Buffalo, NY, Aug 09, 2012 — A 130,000 year old jawbone is providing a glimpse into how Polar Bears might react to the earth's rising temperature, thanks to researchers in Buffalo who recently investigated how polar bears responded to climate change in the past. Daniel Robison of the Innovation Trail reports.  Go to full article

Jun 05, 2012 — Every 10 years or so, the Department of Environmental Conservation goes out to Little Galloo Island, which is 20 miles off the coast of Cape Vincent in Lake Ontario, to survey waterbird populations there.

The island, with a few dead trees, some grass and a rocky shoreline, is a haven for colonial waterbirds. It has nests of Caspian terns, herring gulls and tens of thousands of ring-billed gulls, the standard seagull seen throughout the north country.

It's a wildlife management area owned by the DEC. Reporter Joanna Richards accompanied the state biologists out to the island this spring to get a look at this special nesting ground and see how the DEC does its work.  Go to full article

Canton, NY, May 18, 2012 — Dr. Alexander Schreiber studies change--the metamorphosis of amphibians and flatfish. His St. Lawrence University biology lab teems with frogs and fish in various stages of development.

His enthusiasm for his subject sends him off campus to local grade schools. And at SLU, it attracts even English majors like our intern, Roger Miller. Schreiber told Roger he just never stopped being a kid.

Roger Miller is a senior at St. Lawrence University. He's worked as an intern in our news and web departments for the last couple of years. We'll miss him, and wish him well after graduation this weekend.  Go to full article

Paul Smiths, NY, Mar 08, 2012 — We all take thousands of breaths each day without thinking about it, yet it's one of the human body's most complex and interesting functions. Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss what is actually happening when we breathe.  Go to full article

Paul Smiths, NY, Jan 26, 2012 — With our bodies replacing most cells over a period of a few years, it raises the question "Is any part of us original equipment?" According to Curt Stager and Martha Foley, the answer is yes--parts of the eyes and teeth, as well as many nerve and (bad news for dieters) fat cells.  Go to full article

Paul Smiths, NY, Oct 20, 2011 — Scientists use isotopes of carbon--carbon-13 and carbon-14-- to study the age of organic material. But the activity of humans is distorting the clock. Curt Stager tells Martha Foley how added carbon in the atmosphere, pollution, and nuclear testing have made it harder to study the natural world.  Go to full article

Saranac Lake, NY, Oct 04, 2011 — A pioneering researcher and long-time board member of the Saranac Lake-based biomedical research center the Trudeau Institute, was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday--three days after his death from pancreatic cancer.

The Nobel committee says it didn't know Canadian-born cell biologist Ralph Steinman had died when it awarded the prize to him and two other scientists. The committee is only supposed to consider living scientists--but it said Monday the decision to award Steinman the prize will remain unchanged.

Steinman served on the Trudeau Institute board of trustees for nearly 30 years. As Chris Knight reports, those who knew Steinman describe him as a brilliant scientist who blazed new trails in the field of immunology.  Go to full article

Paul Smiths, NY, Apr 08, 2011 — A group of Paul Smiths College students has spent the last few years studying one of the region's smallest mammals. Bears, moose and loons usually come to mind when you think of wildlife in the Adirondacks. But biology and ecology students at Paul Smiths are tracking and monitoring the behavior of snowshoe hares. They're small, furry and cute, but also a big part of the region's ecosystem. Wildlife experts say hares are important because they're prey for almost everything in the forest that eats meat, including raptors, foxes and coyotes.

The data collected from school field trips will help wildlife managers better understand the food cycle in the Adirondacks from predators to prey and plants.

Todd Moe tagged along with Paul Smiths biology students as they tracked snowshoe hares to find out what they're eating and how they choose their habitat in the woods near campus.  Go to full article

Paul Smiths, NY, Apr 07, 2011 — Dr. Curt Stager describes the differences between two variations of the white-throated sparrow - the white-striped form and the tan-striped form. Though the birds are from the same species and are complementary in some ways, their looks and behaviors are very different. Martha Foley asks: which is more competent?  Go to full article