Category Archives: History

Arizona Utility Looks Into Robots to Maintain Canals

Maintaining water quality across Salt River Project’s 131 miles of canals, connected by more than 1,000 miles of lateral ditches and pipes, poses unique technical and workforce problems.

Now, SRP is working with Arizona State University robot experts to develop robotic solutions to the problem.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Lifeblood Of The Desert: Salt River Project Teams Turn To ASU Robots To Maintain Canal System

Citrus Roots Reach Back to the Himalayas

Citrus originated at the foot of the Himalayas. Artist’s conception by Manuel Talon, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Spain.

They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But what if life hands you sour oranges and citrons?

Simple: You make lemons.

So says a new genetic analysis by an international team of scientists that seeks to clear up citrus’ tangled backstory.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Study Traces Citrus Family Tree To Foot Of The Himalayas

The Untold Story of Arizona Turquoise

Collectors know the names: Blue Bird, Sleeping Beauty, Birdseye. Each evokes a color and pattern, from jade green to deepest robin’s egg blue, lightly freckled or shot through with pyrite spider webs of gold and black.

In this edition of KJZZ’s Untold Arizona series, I trace Arizona’s turquoise legacy through time, from new archaeological finds to the mineral’s uncertain future.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Untold Arizona: Tracing Arizona’s Turquoise Legacy Through Time

Scientific Glassblowing Fuses Art, Science and Innovation

Christine Roeger of the ASU glass shop wears sodium flare eye protection that filters out the orange flame of her torch.

Go to any major research university, and you’ll find the most advanced science relies on an art older than alchemy: glassblowing.

In this piece, we meet a third-generation scientific glassblower and go behind the scenes with some of her chief clients to see how this ancient art helps make cutting-edge research possible.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
At ASU, Third-Generation Scientific Glassblower Blends Art And Science

First Human Embryos Edited in U.S. by Scientists

An eight-cell human embryo. Image courtesy Robert Wood Johnson Medical School IVF program.

For the first time in the U.S., scientists have genetically modified human embryos. The technique could help screen out heritable diseases, but many worry where it might ultimately lead.

As rumors spread in advance of the publication, the story sparked comparisons with films like Gattaca and books like Brave New World, with their themes of genetic discrimination, DNA-as-destiny and the social dangers of tampering with human heredity.

But the research’s most important — and, to some, troubling — aspect lies in the fact that it alters the hereditary DNA known as the germline.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
First Human Embryos Edited In U.S. By Scientists