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Science in the City
Journey to the Farallones (Clip)
Date: January 26, 2011
Running Time: 00:04:07

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Twenty-seven miles beyond the Golden Gate, the craggy Farallon Islands have been home to fur-seal hunters from Russia, a gold-rush-era egg business, and even a nuclear waste dump. Today they’re home to 250,000 sea birds, not to mention seals, sea lions, whales, and sharks. What makes these stark-looking islands so attractive to wildlife?
Urban environments like San Francisco are full of mysterious natural and human-made phenomena. Why are there so many one-footed pigeons? Where does the sewage go? Why is our “summer” in May and September? The Exploratorium is “taking it outside" to explore these and other questions in engineering, ecology, optics, waves, geology, architecture, weather, and more. Look for new episodes once a month.

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