Category: Pulse of the Planet

This is the next in a series of segments I produced for Jim Metzner’s Kids’ Science Challenge, based on Jim’s interview with UC Merced engineering professor Christopher Viney.

New from Nature: A 5th-grade winner of the Kids’ Science Challenge comes up with a great idea, inspired by nature.

This is a series I helped write and produce for Jim Metzner’s Kid Science Challenge, a national competition for 3rd to 6th graders. The theme for this challenge was bio-inspired design, and the winner was Delaware 5th grader Olivia Smith-Donovan. She traveled to California to meet with UC Merced professor Christopher Viney to help make her maple seed helicopter design a reality. I produced four segments from their time together, using audio and video interviews to pull together the sound of their experience. This is the first:

Floppy flier: Maple tree seed pods are the inspiration for a new way to deliver relief supplies via airplane.

The third and final segment I produced for Jim Metzner from his interview with Richard Gross, professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Carbon-Friendly Plastic: Not only does bio-based plastic degrade in the environment, but when it does, no extra carbon dioxide is released.

The second piece I produced for Jim Metzner from his interview with Richard Gross, professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Microbe Fermentation: With a little coaxing, microbes can be trained to create a variety of useful materials.

I recently started doing some production work for Jim Metzner, creator and host of Pulse of the Planet, daily “two-minute sound portraits of the planet” that air on radio programs across the country. Jim would essentially hand me a raw interview he’d recorded and say “find me some stories.” My first assignment was an interview with Richard Gross, a professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

Compostable Plastic: Conventional plastic can persist for hundreds of years, but bag your produce in bio-based plastic, and you can toss the scraps AND the bag right into the compost bin.