skip to main content

Science Nation: Lord Of The Tree Rings

2 minutes 30 seconds

Now Playing As: Captioned (English) (change)

David Stahle travels to ancient forests around the world, collecting tree rings to learn more about major climate and historical events dating back hundreds and thousands of years. With help from the National Science Foundation, he uses dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, to get a snapshot of climate change over time. Stahle runs the Tree-ring Lab at the University of Arkansas, where he and fellow tree-ring researchers are learning that a trend of global warming began in the 1800s and continues today, brought about by changes in tropical sea surface temperatures of no more than a few tenths of a degree Celsius. Today Stahle is working with hydrologists and government planners in California and throughout Mexico to plan for drought and climate change events.

Media Details

Runtime: 2 minutes 30 seconds

Computer screens with color-shaded images of a spiral shaped storm. Caption: study hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards from the inside.
Science Nation
Episode 1
3 minutes 14 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Person filling a glass from a faucet. Caption: our risk of contracting some form of cancer would go up.
Science Nation
Episode 2
3 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Green landscape with a hillside in the background. A small industrial installation is present. Caption: They don't know where to get information they can trust.
Science Nation
Episode 3
3 minutes 7 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Robotic arms manipulating a small ball. Caption: is pushing the world of robotics and prosthetics
Science Nation
Episode 4
3 minutes 47 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Bolt of lightning arcing from cloud to ground. Caption: we all want up-to-the-minute information.
Science Nation
Episode 5
3 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Cluster of nerve fibers. Caption: that can image deep into biological tissue,
Science Nation
Episode 6
3 minutes 6 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Dirty water with bubbles and PVC pipes. Caption: and reused again and again in a sustainable loop.
Science Nation
Episode 7
3 minutes 4 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Person with a fabric cap strapped to their head. The cap has metal rivets and wires attached. Captions: (female) it feels maybe like a mild itchy or tingling sensation.
Science Nation
Episode 8
3 minutes 3 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Microscopic image showing web-like structures and C shaped tubular organisms. Caption: (narrator) The soil itself is home to a vast number of tiny microbes,
Science Nation
Episode 9
3 minutes 35 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
White glowing orb against a black grid. Caption: Weakly Interacting Massive Particle
Science Nation
Episode 10
3 minutes 19 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12