As Science Friday’s director and senior producer, Charles Bergquist channels the chaos of a live production studio into something sounding like a radio program. He coordinates in-studio activities each week from 1-4. And then collapses. He also produces pieces for the radio show. His favorite topics involve planetary sciences, chemistry, materials, and shiny things with blinking lights.
Charles has been at Science Friday longer than anyone on staff except Ira, and so serves as a repository of sometimes useful, sometimes useless knowledge about the program. He remembers the time an audience member decided to recite a love poem during a live remote broadcast, the time the whole staff went for ice cream at midnight in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the name of that guy Ira is trying to remember from a few years back who did something with space.
He hails from southeastern Pennsylvania and worked for a while as a demonstrator at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia’s science museum (favorite devices: Maillardet’s Automaton, the stream table, the Chladni plates). He has a degree in chemistry from the University of Delaware, home of the Fighting Blue Hens, and a master’s in journalism from New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. However, he attended the program prior to the addition of ‘Health’ to its name, which may explain his slight unease when covering medical topics.
Outside the walls of Science Friday, he enjoys backpacking, camping, cooking not-entirely-healthy things, reading escapist fiction, and trying to unravel his children’s complicated stories.
32:20
Staying Green, From Point A To B
How could new policies and technologies make getting around more eco-friendly?
4:44
Plastic, Plastic, Everywhere
A report finds that recycling rates in Oregon are in decline, due in part to increased use of non-recyclable plastics.
46:23
Science Awards Of The Sillier Sort
The 2019 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony is a tribute to offbeat and quirky scientific studies.
11:58
An Undersea Forest In Decline
Off the coast of California, forests of kelp are being decimated by warming temperatures and hungry sea urchins.
7:29
The US Is Abandoning The Paris Climate Agreement
The Trump administration has begun a year-long process to exit the agreement—which would complete the day after the next presidential election.
4:39
Leaf Data, In Your Family Albums
Researchers are collecting snapshots of Acadia National Park to supplement satellite data on fall leaf colors.
6:30
Measles Vaccine Helps Protect Against More Than Just Measles
People infected with measles can develop an immune system ‘amnesia,’ losing antibodies to other pathogens.
4:42
Reducing Runoff To Protect The Gulf
A ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico has states along the Mississippi working to reduce nutrient runoff.
8:54
Digging Into Ancient Clam Aquaculture
What the clam gardens of Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest can teach us about sustainable aquaculture
12:05
The Decision-Making Puzzle
What observing champion Tetris players can teach researchers about how the brain makes snap decisions.