November 3, 1979 - Dr. Gerald Webers, a geologist at Macalester College in Saint Paul, talks about his upcoming three-month expedition to Antarctica, studying everything from seal behavior to upper atmospheric radiation. The expedition is being funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and will be based at Camp Macalester in the Ellsworth Mountains. Webers has agreed to send back his observations on tape from time to time so that we can hear firsthand how things are going.
January 4, 1980 - Donald Anderson, director of the Mid-American Solar Energy Complex, speaking at a conference on alternative energy and energy conservation held in Mankato, and sponsored by the Region Nine Development Commission. Donald Anderson is a former professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota and helped develop solar energy products at the Sheldahl Company in Northfield. Mid-American Solar Energy Complex is a 12 state Midwestern group which is working on the technical, financial, and political aspects of solar energy.
January 26, 1980 - Dr. Gerry Webers, a geology professor from Macalester College in Saint Paul, led a scientific expedition of over 150 researchers to the in the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. There, using Camp Macalester as a base of operations, the scientists gathered information on the continents weather, magnetic structure and past life. Webers and others believe that Antarctica was once a part of Africa. And, to support their belief, they have found fossils of animals and plants that could only have lived in a climate much warmer than that of the South Pole's. For about the next 18 minutes, we hear a portion of a tape journal that Webers sent back from the Antarctic.
March 6, 1980 - On this segment of People On Books, a review of The Epilepsy Fact Book by Harry Sands.
April 4, 1980 - On this segment of People On Books, Mary Gardner, a poet and Bates method teacher, reviews Eye Power by Ann & Townsend Hoopes.
April 26, 1980 - On this Weekend program, MPR’s Rich Dietman interviews Ruth Mattson Taylor about speaking with the dead. Through the help of British clairvoyant Margaret Flavell Tweddell, Ms. Taylor says she communicated with her deceased father, A.D. Mattson, who was a Lutheran minister, on numerous occasions during which time he told her some of what it is like "on the other side.” Ms. Taylor recently finished editing a book entitled, "Witness from Beyond."
May 30, 1980 - On this segment of People on Books, local educator Tom King reviews Breakthroughs: Astonishing Advances in Your Lifetime in Medicine, Science, and Technology by Tom King.
August 27, 1980 - On this segment of People on Books, a review of The Reserve Mining Controversy: Science, Technology, and Environmental Quality by Robert V. Bartlett. [?]
January 22, 1981 - Dr. Bevan French, National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s discipline scientist for planetary materials, discusses the space program. Topics include data from Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft, and the new space shuttle program. French also answers listener questions. Dr. French analyzed rocks brought back from the moon. He also helped train NASA Apollo astronauts in geology.
February 7, 1981 - On this Weekend program, Robert Dunn, of the Minnesota Waste Management Control Board, discusses waste and hazardous waste sites control in Minnesota. Topics include burial of waste and recycling options. Dunn also answer listener questions.