You are browsing the archive for Field Work Archives - Third Pod from the Sun.
April 15, 2019
When the Sahara was Green
In this centennial episode, she reveals the secrets of the mud, how humans may have weathered climate swings of the past, and what the past can tell us about our warming world.
April 1, 2019
E16 – Gunslingers of the Sea
Snapping shrimp are small but mighty creatures: they’re only a few inches long but are among the noisiest animals in the ocean. The loud cracking noise they make when snapping their claws sounds almost like a gunshot, and when enough shrimp snap at once, the din can be louder than the roar of a passenger jet flying overhead.
March 22, 2019
Special Release: Hawaii’s Volcanoes, Water, and…Vog?
Hawaii is frequently described as a paradise in the Pacific Ocean, but for some scientists conducting field work, there can be some challenges to overcome. In this special episode, Kate Brauman, the lead scientist at the Global Water Initiative at the University of Minnesota, describes her field work experiences in Kona on the big island of Hawaii. Kate’s research into land use and its impact on the ground water supply …
March 18, 2019
Centennial E4 – Toxic City Under the Ice
In 1959, the United States built an unusual military base under the surface of the Greenland ice Sheet. Camp Century was a hub for scientific research, but it also doubled as a top-secret site for testing the feasibility of deploying nuclear missiles from the Arctic. When Camp Century was decommissioned in 1967, its infrastructure and waste were abandoned under the assumption they would be forever entombed beneath the colossal sheet of ice.
March 8, 2019
Third Pod Live: James Balog, Climate Activist
In part three of this three-part series, we were fortunate to be able to sit down with James Balog to talk about how his work and experiences have shaped him into the climate activist he is now.
March 6, 2019
Third Pod Live: James Balog, Adventurer
In part two of this three-part series, we were fortunate to be able to sit down with James Balog to talk about some of his most memorable (and dangerous) moments in the field.
March 4, 2019
Third Pod Live: James Balog, Photographer
In part one of this three-part series, we were fortunate to be able to sit down with James Balog to talk about how he became a photographer.
February 4, 2019
E14 – Footprints from an Ancient World
Renata Netto spends a lot of time on beaches. The Brazilian scientist is an ichnologist, a specialist in the traces of ancient animal behaviors preserved in fossilized footprints, trackways, burrows, nests and other impressions.
January 2, 2019
E13 – Waiting for Poop
There are lots of weird, dirty jobs out there. Roadkill collector. Deodorant tester. Catfish noodler. Chicken sexer. But what about… whale poop collector?
October 1, 2018
E10 – Tracking Adorable Chainsaws
Northern fur seals spend more than half their lives at sea. But every summer, they congregate on the rocky, charcoal-colored beaches of Alaska’s Pribilof Islands to mate and give birth to tiny, black-furred pups. Researchers take advantage of the seals’ short time on land to learn more about them by placing GPS trackers on the seals’ bodies. But it’s not easy walking into a fur seal breeding colony full of aggressive, 500-pound males – not to mention getting close enough to attach a satellite tag.
Third Pod from the Sun is the American Geophysical Union’s podcast about the scientists and methods behind the science. These are stories that you won’t read in a manuscript or hear in a lecture.
