Nature

May 14, 2013

Spring has most certainly sprung, and for the many green thumbs that means getting in the garden once again. Baltimore Sun columnistSusan Reimer is back for another Midday gardening hour. She’ll share her tricks for getting the best results and why we’re in what she calls an “impatiens crisis.”  

A report out from the United Health Foundation ranks Maryland 19th out of the 50 states in terms of overall health. We talk with a United medical officer about the report, and with Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein about the challenges Maryland faces, in areas including obesity, infant mortality, and violent crime.

As New York and New Jersey recover from super-storm Sandy, scientists are sounding alarms about intense weather patterns and sea-level rise related to climate change. Midday on Science contributor John Monahan joins Rich Foot of Foot’s Forecast and Jordan Nelms, adaptive plans manager of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, to talk about how Maryland and other states prepare for a disaster-prone future.

Rona Kobell of the Bay Journal returns for our monthly environmental outlook. This hour: the delicate condition of the hellbender and other "indicator species," and measuring progress in the multi-state effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

Johns Hopkins physicist Bruce Barnett joins Midday Science contributor John Monahan to explain the discovery of the Higgs boson, or "God particle," for those who still don't get it. Also, on the heels of the recent derecho and heat wave, a look at extreme weather cycles as they relate to global warming, with University of Maryland climate scientist Raghu Murtugudde. Plus, taking electric lines underground to avoid outages like those that left hundreds of thousands of BGE and Pepco costumers without power for several days.