To the Best of Our Knowledge 

PROMO       2/4/07  "Love Me Like A Rock"
*Everybody gets excited about whatever's new, but what about what's
really, really old?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we
commemorate geologic time.  We'll meet the scientists who found the
oldest object on Earth - a three point four billion year old zircon! 
And the Jazz Passengers, who helped them tell their story.  Also, a trip
far underground with a geologist who'll teach us how to read the rocks.

PROGRAM RUNDOWN:   "Love Me Like A Rock"

0:00 - 19:29        SEGMENT 1: (19:30)
            Simon Wilde is one of the scientists who found a tiny,
            four billion year old zircon in Australia. He brought it
            to his colleague Joe Skullan at the University of
            Wisconsin and they established that it's the oldest
            object on earth. This inspired musician Roy Nathanson, so
            his group, Jazz Passengers, performed the "Rock Concert"
            in Madison, Wisconsin.  Wilde, Skullan and Nathanson tell
            their story to Steve Paulson, and we hear excerpts from
            the concert recording.  Also, Dallas Abbott is a research
            scientist and a member of the Holocene Impact Working
            Group.  She tells Anne Strainchamps about the massive
            chevrons she believes are caused by mega-tsunamis which
            are in turn caused by asteroid impacts on the Earth.  She
            thinks such catastrophic events happen far more often
            than mainstream science believes, and we could be due for
            another one! 
                         
            Segment One Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

19:30 - 19:59  LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

20:00 - 35:59       SEGMENT 2: (16:00)
            TTBOOK Technical Director Caryl Owen explains why she's
            always been fascinated by rocks and the language of
            geology.  William Broad is the author of several books,
            including "The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden
            Message of Ancient Delphi."  He tells Steve Paulson how a
            multi-disciplinary scientific team recently proved that
            the secret of the ancient sisterhood of mystics in Greece
            was that the Temple of Apollo was sitting on top of soil
            saturated by petrochemical fumes that caused the Oracles 
            to go into trance. And they're finding geological bases
            to other sacred sites all over the world. 
                    
            Segment Two Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

36:00 - 36:29       LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

36:30 - 53:00       SEGMENT 3: (16:30)
            Jim Fleming explores Wisconsin's Cave of the Mounds with
            Marcia Bjornerud, author of "Reading the Rocks: The
            Autobiography of the Earth." Bjornerud explains the
            processes that formed the various types of rocks they see
            and how the consideration of deep time influenced the
            history of science. 
                    
            Segment Three Outcue: PRI Audio Logo


For cassette copies of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for
program number 2-4-A.