The sounds of the natural world are changing, and not for the better. Bernie Krause (left)  has tapes that document that trend.

While Krause has been recording and tracking the changes in aural environments around the world over the past several decades for his business, Wild Sanctuary, he has also been observing the concurrent changes in the soundscape around his Glen Ellen home. And he’s been astonished by what he’s found.

Just as the soundscapes have been changing over time, so has the recording equipment Krause uses. Digitization, he says, has made his professional life much easier.

Sonoma County’s delegation to the Copenhagen Climate Summit will be heading home with some ideas they hope to apply locally.

Anderson, who is also attending the Copenhagen conference, says that while he has not been directly affected by any of the numerous protests that have been staged in and around the Danish capital, it’s impossible not to be aware of them.

Rohnert Park city councilman Jake McKenzie is one of the local elected officials attending the Copenhagen conference. In this video clip, filmed earlier this week, he shares some of his ideas and inspirations from the event.

Also attending is Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown, who explains that her primary focus there is being an advocate for local governments.

The most powerful earthquakes in American history didn’t happen in California or Alaska, but almost 200 years ago in Missouri.

As Santa Rosa novelist Sally Watson set out to research the details and circumstances surrounding the New Madrid Earthquakes, she found an important source and ally at the town museum there.

Reports vary on the number of houses destroyed in the initial quakes, Watson says, as do the accounts of the number of people who fled afterward.

  A more contemporary view of the New Madrid Fault

Nanotechnology, the tiniest stuff that human technology has been able to create, is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our everyday lives.

SRJC Chemistry professor Dr. Karen Frindell (left)  will deliver a presentation on the small science of Nanotechnology at the Science Buzz Café Dec. 10 at 7 pm in the Sebastopol Youth Annex on Morris Street. She explains that the date is one of historic significance for this branch of science.

Another new aspect of nanotechnology is the creation of tiny motors fabricated from molecules of iron. But the same powerful magnification that has enabled researchers to see what they are doing with those nano-motors has also revealed that nature has already accomplished some of those same functions, on the same micro-miniature scale.

Richard Feynman