QuestX

Within every question is a Quest …

A sample of upcoming projects …

Orangutans!

In March of 2017, the QuestX crew had the please of interviewing LeAnn Fox, a docent at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and an activist in support of wild Bornean orangutans. In this video series, LeAnn discusses the care of orangutans in the zoo, the importance of captive orangutans in maintaining breeding programs, and the plight of wild orangutans in Borneo. The video clip to the left shows Danaan entertaining Chinta the orangutan by holding up items for Chinta to look at.

Scientific method module 2

In “So what is science?”, which you can watch in the video above, the QuestX crew interviewed people on the streets of Merced, California to see what most people think about science, what it is, and its importance and impact on our lives.

In “How to do scientific research?” the QuestX crew will delve deeper into the inner workings of science, describe the scientific method, and define the elements necessary to conduct a good research project.

The Water Chronicles, Part 2

You loved the Water Chronicles! (See video above) Stay tuned to see more adventures of that lovable water droplet !

White Mountains Soils Research

The White Mountains of California and Nevada (see map left) are a triangular fault-block mountain range facing the Sierra Nevada across the upper Owens Valley. This project will present information on soil chemistry in this region, with particular emphasis on Phosphorous Biogeochemistry, and the effect of soil development on biogeochemical cycling of essential elements. The research presented focuses on understanding how soil phosphorus stock and availability respond to climate change and its implications for plant productivity, carbon sequestration and other essential ecosystem services provided by the critical zone.

The Human Colony

Did you know that a lot of you isn’t you? That is, there are at least as many bacterial cells in your body as there are human cells. These beneficial bacteria help us digest food, protect us from unfriendly bacterial invaders, and may help to balance our neurotransmitters. They may even help us to adapt to unique environmental situations by providing us with an additional source of DNA capable of undergoing generations of evolution and adaption in very short periods of time. 

In addition, there is evidence that the organelles within our cells (and all other cells, for that matter) developed by the fusion of different bacteria into one. That is, even our cells are made of other bacteria! This series of articles will explore the relationships between our human parts and our bacterial parts, how this relationship developed, and what it may mean for our health and the health of our environment.

Vertebrate Morphology, an Introduction to Evolution

This video was shot at the Fossil Discovery Center of Madera County, CA,
and provides a preview of the type of content to be presented in this series.

Early Artiodactyl 		Species change through time and adapt to their environments through the process of evolution. Evolution involves small changes in an organism that, taken over time, make it better adapted to its environment. These changes are generally not noticeable over a few generations, but accumulate over hundreds of thousands of years to create new species. Since the changes are so slow, and since many of them involve changes in soft tissue, many of the changes are not preserved in a manner that promotes direct observation and study.
Fortunately, hard tissue like bone lends itself to fossilization. When bones fossilize, the minerals in the bone are replaced with other minerals from the environment, preserving the shape of the bone perfectly. This provides a hard record of the structural changes in an animal through time. For much of history, fossils were the primary means to study evolution. In fact, Darwin compared fossils found throughout Europe and South America with modern animals he collected. This comparison was one of several factors that led to the development of the theory of evolution.

This series will explore the use of fossils in the study of evolution, and explore what the structural adaptions of organisms can reveal about the environment in which it lived.
Modern Artiodactyl
Check out these links to relevant posts on the QuestX blog!
Major Influences on Charles Darwin’s EvolutionDarwin Day & The Evolution of A Quote