Image of Gulf Dead Zone: NASA and NOAA

Host: Jorge Salazar
Lead Producer: Mike Brennan

ES 22 Producers: Deborah Byrd, Beth Lebwohl, Ryan Britton, Emily Howard

This week’s lineup:

Dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Jorge Salazar speaks with Nancy Rabalais, a biological oceanographer at the Louisiana Marine Consortium, about hypoxia, a low-oxygen zone in the ocean that’s commonly referred to as a “dead zone”. 2011 is predicted to see the biggest Gulf “dead zone” ever recorded. Rabalais explains why.

Weird Science. Embarrassment centers in the brain. Ryan Britton reports … and sings.

PTSD. Dr. Paula Schnurr, Deputy Executive Director of the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the U.S. Veteran’s Administration, explains how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder effects soldiers returning from war.

NASA’s Dawn satellite flying through the asteroid Belt: NASA

NASA’s Dawn mission. Jorge Salazar speaks with Dr. Chris Russell of UCLA about a space mission to Ceres and Vesta – objects in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dr. Russell is Principal Investigator of NASA’s Dawn mission, scheduled to go into orbit around Vesta – the most geologically diverse of the big asteroids – in July 2011. It’ll stay there, mapping Vesta, for one year. Then Dawn will head toward a 2015 orbit of Ceres – formerly the biggest asteroid, now called a dwarf planet.

This week’s musical contributors:

Mother Falcon

The Black and White Years

One Hundred Flowers

Built By Snow

EarthSky 22

Thanks for the great response to EarthSky 22! Tell your friends about the best new science podcast on the Internet - 22 minutes of science and music - direct to you from Austin, Texas. Join producer/host Mike Brennan right here every week for EarthSky 22, brought to you by EarthSky: A Clear Voice for Science.