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PODCAST

Natural Selections

NCPR: North Country Public Radio

Conversations about the natural world with Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley, from member-supported North Country Public Radio.

science & medicine

All Episodes

04:47

Back to first questions: Why do mosquitos bite?

Natural Selections ·

2020/07/30

(Jul 30, 2020) Martha Foley returns to the first question she asked Curt Stager when the program (then called "Field Notes") began decades ago. Why do mosquitos bite?

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05:15

Splake: "Frankenfish" or a manageable addition to...

Natural Selections ·

2020/07/23

(Jul 23, 2020) Martha Foley and Curt Stager continue their discussion of trout varieties in Adirondack waters. One variety that is found in streams and lakes in the region is the splake, a hybrid of the native strains of lake and brook trout. While some refer to them as "Frankenfish," fishery managers like the hybrid because it grows quickly, but does not breed well in the wild, which makes it manageable in a stocking program.

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04:41

Native Adirondack trout? No such animal, technically

Natural Selections ·

2020/07/16

(Jul 16, 2020) Four species of trout can be found in Adirondacks waters. Of the mix, two were introduced from the outside, one from Europe and one from the western United States. The two species which are native to the area are technically not trout at all, but relatives of the arctic char. Martha Foley and Curt Stager get into the genetic weeds with Adirondack sport fish.

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04:50

Why are coral reefs so rich in life compared to an...

Natural Selections ·

2020/07/02

(Jul 2, 2020) The first time Martha Foley went snorkeling on a coral reef, she was staggered by the abundance and diversity of marine life. Doing the same in an Adirondack lake one might see a lot of mud and a snail. She asks Dr. Curt Stager of Paul Smith's College what the difference might be.

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04:42

What were the Adirondacks like before the Ice Age?

Natural Selections ·

2020/06/25

(Jun 25, 2020) Before the last Ice Age, 100,000 year ago, the Adirondacks were a very different kind of place. The terrain was different, the climate, wildlife, and plant life bore little relationship to what we see today. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager go way back.

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05:07

How do you tell the age of a fossil?

Natural Selections ·

2020/04/16

(Apr 16, 2020) Unlike organic material, which can be dated using carbon-14, stone and fossils often contain no carbon, or may be older than the carbon method can track. Radioactive potassium dating measures the ratio between a radioactive variety of potassium and the substance it breaks down into, argon gas. That can age material back billions of years. One problem: you need the gas to have been trapped in bubbles of volcanic ash. Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss the problems of reading the

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05:33

When domesticated animals return to the wild

Natural Selections ·

2020/04/09

(Apr 9, 2020) What happens when certain species of domesticated animals like chickens and pigs escape to live and breed in the wild? According to Curt Stager and Martha Foley, after a few generations they start to look and act like their wild ancestors again.

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05:25

No nitrogen, no food, no life

Natural Selections ·

2020/03/12

(Mar 12, 2020) Our atmosphere is about 80 percent nitrogen. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager explore the ways this common element and necessary component of all life forms interacts with the biosphere.

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04:44

Salt: you want it because it tastes good; it tastes...

Natural Selections ·

2020/02/06

(Feb 6, 2020) Besides making our food taste better, sodium chloride (salt) is necessary for our bodies to function. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager whet their appetites on the science of salt.

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04:47

Why do we crave salt?

Natural Selections ·

2020/01/30

(Jan 30, 2020) It's a delicious flavor, for humans and deer alike, but it's also so much more. There's just something special about salt, a naturally occurring mineral that humans and many animals crave. Found naturally in its crystalline solid form, sea water and rock deposits left behind by ancient oceans, this chemical compound is among those that many of our cells need to survive. Conversation with Martha Foley and Curt Stager gets a little salty.

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05:00

Mole diversity: starry noses and hairy tails

Natural Selections ·

2020/01/09

(Jan 9, 2020) Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk more about three different types of moles that inhabit the region, and their habits. The Eastern American mole and the hairy-tailed mole prefer dryer soils and consume up to half their weight a day in worms and grubs. Their star-nosed cousin prefers a wetter environment.

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05:12

Moles: tiny sharks "swimming" under your lawn

Natural Selections ·

2020/01/02

(Jan 2, 2020) Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager reveal some interesting facts about the insectivores that tear up your lawn every year - moles. The star-nosed mole, one of three species in the region, is semi-aquatic, but all varieties are lightning-fast foragers.

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05:11

T is for turkey. . . and tryptophan

Natural Selections ·

2019/11/28

(Nov 28, 2019) Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about tryptophan, and why you may need a new excuse for falling asleep after a turkey dinner.

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04:59

Why are bats so nimble in flight?

Natural Selections ·

2019/10/31

(Oct 31, 2019) Bats are remarkably agile in flight, even more so than birds. How do they do that? Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss the aerobatic anatomy of bats.

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05:00

How do electric eels use their "juice"?

Natural Selections ·

2019/10/24

(Oct 24, 2019) Aside from their properties as biological dynamos, electric eels have other peculiarities; they are not true eels, but are a kind of fish - and a kind of fish that needs to breathe air. The South American predator of river bottoms can reach 40 pounds in size and deliver a fatal shock to humans.

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04:59

Are your tonsils as useless as they seem?

Natural Selections ·

2019/09/26

(Sep 26, 2019) When infected, your tonsils may be useful to doctors to keep up their bottom line, and to Popsicle vendors to provide the means to soothe recovering children. But when healthy, they also have a use as part of the front-line in the human immune system. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss an oft-removed portion of the human anatomy.

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04:48

A warmer future means fewer cold water refuges for...

Natural Selections ·

2019/09/12

(Sep 12, 2019) Lake trout thrive in deep, cold water with lots of oxygen, and are stressed by being in warm summer shallows with lower pressure and oxygen levels. But as the climate warms, fewer Adirondacks lakes will have the right combination of factors they need.

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05:13

Sound: It's in your head

Natural Selections ·

2019/08/29

(Aug 29, 2019) Most of the sounds in our environment are filtered out by the brain. And what we do hear can be altered in pitch and character by simply shaping the space around the ear with a hand or with a seashell. The volume and range of sounds we perceive can change dramatically, depending on whether the preceding environment was loud or quiet. And the brain is capable of generating sound where there is none.

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05:13

Camel and caribou adapt in similar ways to different...

Natural Selections ·

2019/08/22

(Aug 22, 2019) While the sub-Arctic and the Sahara are very different environments, both present extreme challenges to large mammals that live there. Martha Foley and Curt Stager compare the camel and the caribou, which, while not closely related, have made similar evolutionary adaptations to survive in barren terrain.

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05:29

What is cheese, anyway?

Natural Selections ·

2019/07/25

(Jul 25, 2019) You can make cheese from the milk of any mammal, but who wants to go out and milk the pigs? Curt Stager came back from a trip to Italy with some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. He shares a taste with Martha Foley while they run down different processes used to make a number of varieties of cheese from the same starting point, milk. The official National Cheese Lovers Day is not until January 20, but isn't every day, really?

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99 results

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