Davisville, Sept. 12, 2022: Searching deepest space, while working from Davis

Mon, 09/12/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill Buchanan

In a remote Chilean desert, the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization is building a huge telescope that promises to see deeper into space than any optical telescope now existing. The work involves five countries and more than a dozen leading universities and institutes — and the president of the nonprofit that’s building it, Robert Shelton, lives in Davis. He joins us today on Davisville to talk about this huge new eye on the distant reaches of space and what it might show us, like whether we’re alone in the universe.

(The rendering depicts the Giant Magellan Telescope, now being built in Chile.)

The Folk Brothers for Sept. 7, 2022: Far-flung folk

Wed, 09/07/2022 - 11:10am | Peter Schiffman

While Brother Bill is away for the next few weeks finding new sounds in faraway lands, I decided to explore the sonic landscape a bit farther afield this week myself. So in addition to the usual fiddle and banjo stuff from Appalachia and the UK/Ireland, I dipped into some goth folk from Canada's Mama's Broke, some Americana from Australia's Weeping Willows, and how about some electronic dance folk from France's Green Lads (pictured here). And how about that heat wave, Davis!

The Folk Brothers playlist for 09/07/2022

The Folk Brothers for Aug. 31, 2022: More songs about miners

Wed, 08/31/2022 - 11:10am | Peter Schiffman

Last week, we played a few sets of songs about coal mining. Then the folk music police saw our playlist and informed us that we needed to be more inclusive, so this week we've diversified a bit and included a few songs about hard rock miners too. But mostly more songs about coal from the likes of Jean Ritchie (pictured), Jez Lowe, Caroline Herring, Doc and Merle Watson, Merle Travis, and Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard.

The Folk Brothers playlist for 08/31/2022

Davisville, Aug. 29, 2022: At UC Davis, researchers work on restoring the ability to speak

Mon, 08/29/2022 - 5:30pm | Bill Buchanan

Imagine that you want to speak, but you can’t, because a stroke or disease has robbed you of the ability. Two researchers at UC Davis are helping to create a “brain-machine interface” that would use a brain implant and technology to recreate an individual's ability to talk. That advance would be profoundly important to the individual, of course, and for all of us, it’s a promising use of technology.

Today on Davisville we talk with Drs. David Brandman and Sergey Stavisky about their research, how the interface would work, who it can help, recent advances in neuroprosthetics, the novel leadership set-up of their lab, and what brought them to UC Davis.

(This UC Davis Health photo shows members of the UC Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab, with Sergey Stavisky at the far left, and David Brandman second from right.)

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