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Lake Guardian studies our impact on the Great Lakes
Scientists aboard the EPA research vessel Lake Guardian document how the personal products we wash down the drain affect the health of Lake Erie

A team of scientists and educators is returning to Cleveland today after a week-long expedition aboard a research vessel sailing the width of Lake Erie. Their mission was to track the spread of plastics and pollutants in the lake and determine the impact on ecosystems. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair paid a visit to the Lake Guardian just before it shipped out.
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Third Frontier invests $89 million in Ohio's high-tech future
This years awards include the largest in the program's history supporting University Hospital's drug discovery and neurotechnology in Columbus

For more than a decade Ohio’s Third Frontier program has spurred technological innovation in the Buckeye state. Last month the state run project awarded $89 million to dozens of start-ups, institutions, and entrepreneurs.  Those awards include two of the largest grants in the fund’s history. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair talks with Third Frontier Commission chairman David Goodman.
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Turning waste-heat into energy
An Akron company has developed a technology to tap into thousands of megawatts of electricity that are literally going to waste


While federal regulators grapple with regulating carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, one local company is using it to produce electricity. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair explores the technology behind turning waste-heat into energy.
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Growing a Rhododendron breeder's dream
Breeding at the Holden Arboretum's Leach Research Station keeps a 50 year love affair with Rhododendrons alive

We’re just past the peak season for Rhododendrons, but the quest for perfect blooms continues at one of the nation’s premier research stations.  At the facility in Lake County, breeders create plants that can resist a disease threatening shrubs and trees worldwide, and also handle Ohio’s harsh winters. WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair pays a visit in this week’s Exploradio.
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Conquering light's final frontier
A Cleveland company has taken a major step forward in bringing the elusive Terahertz technology out of the lab and into the mainstream

Ohio is emerging as a global center of research in a branch of physics that’s stymied scientists for decades.  It’s called Terahertz radiation, a band of light waves with potential uses that range from detecting cancer to uncovering art forgeries. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair reports on a Cleveland company’s breakthrough in one of technology’s final frontiers.    
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The good and bad news about bats in peril
An imported fungus is wiping out bats in the Eastern U.S. -  but one species has a natural resistance to White Nose Syndrome

Researchers in Akron have discovered a species of bat that may have a built-in immunity to a disease that’s wiping out bats across the eastern U.S. White Nose Syndrome has killed millions of the flying mammals since it was first seen in 2006. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair looks at the good news, and bad news, about bats in peril.
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Microbeads and Lake Erie's floating plastic garbage patch
Initial studies show that parts of Lake Erie contain the largest amounts of floating plastic pollution of any water body yet tested by scientists

The EPA estimates that Americans throw away more than 30 million tons of plastic each year.  But not all of it ends up in a landfill or is recycled.  New research shows that floating plastic is polluting large swaths of the world’s water bodies. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair reports on Lake Erie’s hidden plastic soup.
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Sports training can stem the epidemic of knee injuries in girls
Genes, anatomy and physics combine to make girls prone to knee injuries, but proper sports training can combat the epidemic

Girls are up to 10 times more likely than boys to suffer knee injuries in sports like soccer and basketball.  Researchers in Akron have discovered that genetic differences help explain the disparity. But in this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair reports that lack of proper sports training is also partly to blame.
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Butterflies battered by both climate change and urban sprawl
The combination of warming temperatures and habitat loss is shortening the already short lives of some butterflies in Ohio

Citizen-scientists in Ohio have spent the past two decades collecting a set of data that’s unparalleled in the country. It’s a long-term study of butterflies. And in this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair reports researchers combing through the numbers have discovered an unexpected impact from the combined effects of climate change and urbanization.  
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How what we hear affects how we're wired
Partial hearing loss from chronic ear infections changes the brain's circuitry in subtle ways

Ear infections are the most common childhood illness. Three out of four kids will have at least one bout before their third birthday. Most of the time it’s nothing to worry about. But in this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair meets a Northeast Ohio researcher who finds that chronic ear infections can change the brain’s circuitry.
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High-tech physics meets hands-on medicine
Radiation therapy is an effective and expensive form of cancer treatment, but incentives could be lagging behind advances in technology

Two Northeast Ohio hospitals will be among the first in the country to offer the latest developments in radiation therapy.  In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair looks at how radiation technology is advancing -- along with its costs.
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Tracking Ohio's champion trees
Big trees across the world are threatened, but the list of giants in Ohio is growing

Ohio is home to 11 national champion trees. They’re the largest of their species in the country. On Arbor Day this Friday, four more newly discovered Ohio giants will be added to the list.  On this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair visits two of Ohio’s grand champion trees and meets the people who care for them.  
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Obesity hormone found in birds
Finding the appetite hormone leptin in birds helps scientists understand how they pull off their metabolic magic - the finding could aid human weight loss

A team of researchers in Akron have solved a long-standing scientific mystery. They’ve unlocked one of the secrets of how birds manage epic migrations. The findings could lead to discoveries that help people manage weight loss. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair looks at the search for the hormone leptin in birds and what it means for humans.
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Dining on ground sloth in Ohio
A rare find in Norwalk is the only evidence prehistoric people dined on giant ground sloth

Ancient bones that sat for 90 years in the attic of the Firelands Museum in Norwalk have given up their secrets to researchers in Cleveland.

Cut marks on the thigh bone of a giant ground sloth are the oldest evidence of prehistoric hunters in Ohio, and the only evidence in North America that people ate these now extinct animals. In this week’s Exploradio, an ancient bone brings a scene in Ice Age Ohio to life.
This story originally aired March 12, 2012.
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Rediscovering the lost promise of Thorium energy
A group of nuclear enthusiasts is resurrecting an alternate nuclear reactor design abandoned by the US government in the 1960's


A group in Cleveland is promoting an alternative form of atomic power that promises safer and cheaper nuclear reactors. But critics say it may be too late for the technology to be a real player in the quest for clean energy. In this week’s Exploradio WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair looks at the long-lost promise of energy from Thorium.
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Engineering a Chiari breakthrough
Engineers in Akron are developing the new science of neuro-hydrodynamics to better understand a rare and painful brain disorder

Mechanical engineers at the University of Akron are studying the fluid dynamics of the human body to help fight a rare brain disease. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair takes us inside the Conquer Chiari Research Center.
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