George Takei, Food and Germs, Rock Mollusks

Hurricane Barry Was the Season's First. What Else is in Store for the Atlantic?  Guest: Phil Klotzbach, Research Scientist, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University The first Hurricane of the season –Barry –didn’t cause as much damage as expected when it hit Louisiana as a category 1 storm over the weekend. Shortly after landing, it lessened to a tropical storm, bringing rain and some flooding, but not the widespread destruction originally feared. Barry was the first of six hurricanes Colorado State University researchers predict will make landfall this hurricane season –which ends in October.  Did You Just Eat That? Guest: Paul Dawson, Professor of Food Science, Clemson University, Co-author of “Did You Just Eat That?” You’ve got a delicious cookie in your hand when you accidentally drop it on the ground. Are you the person that yells, “Five second rule!”, picks it up, dusts it off, and eats it anyway? Or do you think that is disgusting? I’ll admit that I’ve used this rule before. If you haven’t heard of it, the five-second rule is the theory that bacteria on the ground won’t stick to food if you grab it within seconds. Well, some researchers at Clemson University put the rule to the test. Rock-eating Shipworms Guest: Dan Distel, Research Professor of Marine Science and Director of the Ocean Genome Legacy Center, Northeastern University There’s a kind of worm-like clam that has plagued wooden ships and wharves for centuries. The shipworm bores into and digests wood, making little tunnels that permanently weaken the structure. The burrowing methods of the shipworm even inspired the first successful attempt to tunnel under a major river in the 1800s. Dan Distel is an expert in how shipworms operate. But recently he and his team at Northeastern University made a truly surprising shipworm discovery: they found one that burrows in –and maybe even eats –rock, instead of wood. The Complicated Truth About Forest Restoration Guest: Robin Chazdon, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology,