Spawning Hopes
Scientists are still working feverishly to learn what they can do to guarantee the Chesapeake oyster’s survival in what has become, over the years, an inhospitable environment. Pollution, overfishing and water-borne shellfish diseases like MSX and Dermo have made the Chesapeake oyster’s long-term survival questionable. Now, researchers are not only trying to breed a stronger, more disease-resistant oyster here in Maryland, but labs in Virginia are also looking at a species of oyster from Asia that may supplant, or replace, the shellfish that now lives here.

Preying in the Garden
They harken back to the Age of Dinosaurs....They’ve inspired decades of B-movies starring extraterrestrials....Big and bizarre beyond your average bug, preying mantises prey on the imagination. Mantises are insects, that in general belong to the same large collection of insects that includes things like grasshoppers and crickets and katydids. And also cockroaches. In fact, in many senses, a mantis is just a predatory cockroach. A look at these fascinating creatures and their lives in our own backyards.

Search and Rescue
The stories of smart handlers – and smarter dogs – as they train to locate and rescue the lost and missing in Maryland.