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Just as humans utilize roads and freeways to move cars and resources around our cities, fungus utilize fluid networks to move nutrients and nuclei through their cells. Dr. Marcus Roper of UCLA explains how these networks function with remarkable efficiency and prevent microscopic traffic jams.
Produced by Christian Baker
Music by Audio Network
Additional Footage Courtesy of Marcus Roper and UCLA

For most people, getting stuck in a traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike is a grueling lesson in futility. But if you're Simon Garnier of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, you often view it as an opportunity to examine our collective behavior and ponder how we became so inefficient compared to other species. Having studied the expansive food trails of army ants and the seemingly mindless exploration of slime mold, Garnier hopes to model the systems of their behavior in order to understand how and why relatively simple organisms organize themselves so dynamically.
Produced by Luke Groskin
Music by Audio Network
Additional Stills and Video Provided by:
Sean McCann, Matthew Lutz, Simon Garnier, Aladin Casino (C.C. 3.0), Phy Chip (C.C. 2.0), Un Poco Del Choco (C.C. 3.0),
Jeff Gerber PD (C.C. 3.0), Vimeo User Implicate Order (C.C. 3.0), Murray Gans (C.C. 3.0)
S.P Sullivan (C.C. 3.0)

So you want to jam like a rock star, but you don't want to shell out for an electric guitar? Make one yourself. Sound artist Ranjit Bhatnagar explains the art of a DIY instrument he calls a "junk guitar." You can piece one together using little more than a plank of wood, some wire, a magnet and a guitar string. Forget the air guitar solos. Plug in. Rock out.

75% of Southern California's water supply comes from the snowpack that adorns the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Keeping track of how much water is contained within the snowpack is a monumental task. Thankfully, NASA has developed the Airborne Snow Observatory, a relatively new program that uses specialized instrumentation to carefully measure the water content.
Produced by Christian Baker
Additional Footage by NASA/JPL-Caltech
Color Correction by Luke Cahill
Music by Audio Network

http://www.sciencefriday.com
Medieval stained glass reveals a lot about life in the Middle Ages, but keeping these artistic works from falling apart is a detailed process. Hanne Roemich from New York University's Conservation Center and Brooklyn-based conservator Mary Clerkin Higgins discuss the science behind glass conservation, and how these centuries-old relics are protected from the natural elements so we can enjoy them for years to come!
Produced by Katie Free and Neel V. Patel
Music by Kevin Macloed via incompetech.com

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“If you're a cephalopod, you're super easy to eat,” says Sarah McAnulty, a squid biologist. “You're basically a swimming protein bar.” McAnulty studies a species of cephalopod called the Hawaiian bobtail squid. While most cephalopods have flashy adaptations to stay off predators’ dinner menus this particular squid relies on something that many other cephalopods don’t—its bacteria BFF.



Produced by Luke Groskin
Edited by Erika Sutter
Music by Audio Network
Additional Footage and Stills Provided by Sarah McAnulty, Nyholm Lab, Pond5
Sacrificial Hemocyte Research Conducted by the Ruby-McFall-Ngai Lab

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For writer Michael Pollan, the contents of his refrigerator is often on the forefront of his mind: "I do think about food a lot, and if I'm distracted it's with thoughts of what's in the fridge." In the latest installment of our Desktop Diaries video series, we'll take you into the home office (and garden) of the famous food and nature author to see how edible ornamentations can sometimes provide inspiration.  
Produced by Luke Groskin
Filmed by Christian Baker
Produced by Luke Groskin
Filmed by Christian Baker
Music by Claude Debussey as performed by Teppei Yamada-Scriba

http://www.sciencefriday.com
Since the founding of colonial Jamestown, cockroaches have scuttled through the dark spaces of our homes and our nightmares. But just recently, a new roach has appeared on the New York scene; one with ability to tolerate the cold. What is this hearty roach and where did it come from? Join Rutgers University roach researchers as they unravel the clues to identify this intruder and what its emergence represents.
Produced by Emily Driscoll
Filmed by Stavros Basis
Lighting by Ben Effinger
Music by Audio Network
Narration by Travis
Additional video and Still courtesy of
Oswin Ambrice , Barcode of Life Data Systems , ELearningExamples.com, Joseph Evangelista, Shutterstock
Sydney King and National Park Service, Reto Stockli, NASA Earth Observatory, Peter Vransky, and Dusan Chorvat

Our skin is teeming with microbes. Visit a lab to find out what's living on you.

Learn more and find out how you can take part at wnyc.org/streets.
Find out about this National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Study here :
Avoiding belligerent bus drivers or unwitting tourists popping out of taxis are just a few of the more obvious risks of riding a bike through city streets.Yet there could be another inconspicuous and nearly unavoidable danger that could take a toll on your health: air pollution. Identifying how hazardous exercise can be in an urban environment filled with noxious particles in the air is the goal of a new study by Columbia University researchers Steven Chillrud and Darby Jack. Using biometric sensors, a wearable pollution monitor, and GPS, the study will detail participants' exposure to toxins as they cycle through city streets.
Produced by Luke Groskin
Music by Audio Network
Additional Stills and Video Provided by Zev Ross Spatial Analysis, Jen Connor, Recios Media Crew (C.C. 3.0), NACTO (C.C. 3.0), Vimeo User GCM (C.C. 3.0) , WNYC , Michael Phillips (C.C. 3.0), Darby Jack, Brewbooks EPA, Edison-Hannigan Lab

Based outside of Seattle, Valid Cycles specializes in handcrafted bamboo bicycle frames. For bamboo to be bike-ready, it must be cooked in an oven, stripped, and sealed. But after that, the founders of Valid Cycles say the bikes last as long as metal ones. We stopped by their workshop -- a barn in Woodinville, Washington -- to see how the bikes are put together.

http://www.sciencefriday.com
For many of us, there are few creatures more nefarious and loathsome as leeches. But do these parasites deserve their bad reputation as mindless bloodsuckers? Dr. Mark Siddall a.k.a. "The Leech Guy," exposes our many misconceptions of these carnivorous worms and details his on-going research at the American Museum of Natural History into each species' unique cocktail of anti-clotting blood poisons.
Produced by Luke Groskin
Music by Audio Network
Additional Footage and Stills by Dr. Mark Siddall Shutterstock, Derek Morisson (C.C. 3.0), Alan Kuehner (C.C. 3.0), Rebecca VO (C.C. 3.0) Leo Kenney / Vernal Pool Association Steven Johnson, William Moser, Landcare Research – Manaaki Whenua

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MORE CEPHALOPOD VIDEOS - https://www.youtube.com/playli....st?list=PLB2w1JNHV4H
Deep below the sea surface, giant squid fight off predatory sperm whales--stirring legendary tales of epic battles. Yet for all it's infamy, discovering how many of these enormous cephalopods are lurking in the ocean has remained impossible...until now. Using simple arithmetic, Elizabeth Shea, Curator of Mollusks at the Delaware Museum of Natural History, along with colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution try to solve the mystery – with unfathomable results!
Produced by Luke Groskin
Music by Audio Network
Intro Giant Squid Footage by Akinobu Kimura
Additional Stills and Video by
Clyde and Ingrid Roper, Don Hurlbert/Smithsonian Institution, Getty/Oxford Scientific, J.J. King (C.C. BY 3.0), Liz Shea, Mike Goren (C.C. BY 3.0), NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Oceana Canada, Pond5, Shutterstock, Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori, Discovery / NHK
Special Thanks to Danna Staaf whose blog post inspired the video.

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Shots of Sandra Bullock floating through the Internation Space Station in "Gravity," inspired astronaut Don Pettit to share some of his own ISS footage.

http://www.sciencefriday.com
What's the right way to hard-boil eggs?Just don't boil them! Jeff Potter, author of Cooking for Geeks, explains how steaming eggs, even massive ostrich eggs, makes them easier to peel.

Ira Flatow reads fan mail from Larkspur, Ca. He's in for a sweet surprise.

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MORE CEPHALOPOD VIDEOS - https://www.youtube.com/playli....st?list=PLB2w1JNHV4H
It's small. It's striped. It's looking for love. Meet the lesser Pacific striped octopus. Full-time biologist—part-time cephalopod matchmaker, Richard Ross invites us into his secret home lab where he studies the mating rituals of these tiny cephalopods.

Produced by Christian Baker

Music by Audio Network

Additional footage courtesy of Richard Ross

Reporting in Science, Gabriel Villar and colleagues say that tiny water droplets can be engineered to work together sort of like cells -- moving in concert, passing electrical signals. Villar built a machine that fabricates these pseudo-cellular networks while he was getting his Ph.D. in the departments of chemistry and physics at Oxford. He says that water droplet networks (with some major advancements) could be made into artificial tissues.

Study: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6128/48

More videos
Dive into the Physics of Splashing: http://www.sciencefriday.com/v....ideo/02/06/2009/dive
Lab-Raised Heart: http://www.sciencefriday.com/v....ideo/06/10/2011/lab-
March of the Immune Cells: http://www.sciencefriday.com/v....ideo/10/15/2010/marc

Bridging the Rift: Oculus' Answer to Virtual Reality-- With their clunky designs and nauseating displays, truly immersive virtual reality devices used to be the stuff of science fiction—think The Matrix or Tron. However, recent technological and design advances by Oculus VR allow for dynamic and enjoyable virtual reality experiences (in the real world). Oculus VR’s founder, Palmer Luckey, details some of the key innovations inside the company’s headset, the Rift, and explains why virtual reality is finally ready for a mass-market debut.
Produced by Christian Baker and Luke Groskin.
Music by Audio Network.
Game Footage by Elite: Dangerous provided by Frontier Developments
World of Diving provided by Vertigo Games
Lucky's Tale provided by Playful Corp
Additional footage by MIT's Lincoln Laboratory

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Within sight of the famous New York skyline, you might see something unexpected—whales. Vast schools of menhaden baitfish swirl in the New York Bight, just a few short miles from downtown Manhattan, luring numerous whale species to feed.. Although breathtaking sights like these were unheard of just a decade ago in the waters off New York City, scientists say they signal a wildlife resurgence underway. Howard Rosenbaum, senior scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society, explains why the whales have returned and how researchers are tracking the phenomenon in real time.
NOTE: The minke whale photo featured in this video is the dwarf minke whale, a subspecies not found in New York waters.
Produced by Luke Groskin
Music by Audio Network.com
Additional Footage and Stills Provided by
Timothy Del Grosso, The Wildlife Conservation Society,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
NOAA, Christan Khan, Pond5, Shutterstock,
Certain whale video collected under NMFS MMPA/ESA Permit No. 14809
Right Whale Footage courtesy of NOAA Fisheries and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
under NMFS ESA/MMPA Research/Enhancement Permit #0932-1489-9