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, University of Connecticut Nature has its own method for keeping carbon dioxide levels in check. Plants absorb it for fuel. It’s just that the Earth’s forests aren’t keeping with all the CO2 we’re putting into the atmosphere. So there are a lot of global plans in place to restore the planet’s forests in hopes of slowing climate change. But it’s not as simple as just planting trees anywhere they’ll fit.  Actor George Takei’s Firsthand Account of His Childhood in an Internment Camp for Japanese Americans Guest: George Takei, Actor, Activist and Author of “They Called Us Enemy” George Takei shot to fame aboard the starship Enterprise –even taking the captain’s chair on occasion. But before Takei was Star Trek’s Sulu, he was a child, imprisoned with his family because of their Japanese heritage. By the time Takei left the World War II internment camps, he was 9 years old and had spent nearly half his life behind barbed-wire. Takei’s story was the basis of a hit Broadway musical in which he co-starred with Lea Salonga called Allegiance. “They Called Us Enemy” is the title of George Takei’s new memoir about his childhood in the “relocation camps.” It’s a graphic novel, illustrated by Harmony Becker and co-authored by Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott. Kid Adventure Movies Parents Won’t Hate Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com Is there an adventure movie out for kids, about kids, that adults can watch without lapsing into a boredom coma? That’s the challenge Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com set out for herself.