April 2, 2004, Hour One: Alternative Fuel Vehicles / Science of Lewis and Clark

Science Friday > Archives > 2004 > April > April 2, 2004:
Hour Two: Alternative Fuel Vehicles / Science of Lewis and Clark

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the start of Lewis and Clark's expedition west. President Thomas Jefferson told Captain Meriwether Lewis that "the object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by it's course & communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan, Colorado or and other river may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce. "

However, the exploration team had other instructions as well. In addition to mapping their path and chronicling their encounters with native peoples on their way west, Lewis and Clark were given a scientific mission. Wrote Jefferson:

"Other objects worthy of notice will be

the soil & face of the country, it's growth & vegetable productions, especially those not of the U.S.

the animals of the country generally, & especially those not known in the U.S. the remains or accounts of any which may be deemed rare or extinct;

the mineral productions of every kind; but more particularly metals, limestone, pit coal, & saltpetre; salines & mineral waters, noting the temperature of the last, & such circumstances as may indicate their character;

volcanic appearances;

climate, as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion of rainy, cloudy, & clear days, by lightening, hail, snow, ice, by the access & recess of frost, by the winds prevailing at different seasons, the dates at which particular plants put forth or lose their flower, or leaf, times of appearance of particular birds, reptiles or insects."

Biological samples collected by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1806, and now part of the Lewis and Clark Herbarium. Image courtesy of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

In this hour, we'll look at the plants collected by Lewis and Clark, and the contributions the expedition made to botany. Plus, this Friday is National Alternative Fuel Vehicles day, so we'll talk about the latest green car technology. With gas prices on the rise, is it time to trade in the old gas guzzler for a car powered by electricity or ethanol? Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (3-4 Eastern), and share your opinions online in our Listeners' Lounge (registration required).

Guests:
Al Ebron
Executive Director
National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium
West Virginia University
Morgantown, West Virginia

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Richard McCourt
Associate Curator of Botany
Academy of Natural Sciences
Philadelphia, PA

James Reveal
Honorary Curator, New York Botanical Garden
Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
Research Associate, Academy of Natural Sciences
Montrose, Colorado

Carolyn Gilman
Curator, Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Exhibition
Missouri Historical Society
St. Louis, Missouri

This segment produced by Annette Heist and Erica Altman

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Books/Articles Discussed:
Earle E. Spamer and Richard M. McCourt. 2002a. The Lewis and Clark Herbarium, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (PH-LC): Digital imagery study set. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Special Publication 19. CD-ROM. (Available at the website http://www.acnatsci.org/library/scipubs/index.html).

Spamer, E. E., and R. M. McCourt. 2002b. The Lewis and Clark Herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Part 1. History. Notulae Naturae, no. 475. (Available at the website http://www.acnatsci.org/library/scipubs/index.html)

A. Scott Earle and James L. Reveal. 2003. Lewis and Clark's Green World: The Expedition and its Plants. Farcountry Press, Helena, Montana.

H. Wayne Phillips. 2003. Plants of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana.

Susan H. Munger and Charlotte Staub Thomas. Common to This Country: Botanical Discoveries of Lewis and Clark. Artisan, New York.

Forthcoming: Jefferson's Botanists: Lewis and Clark Discover the Plants of the West. Rick McCourt and Earle E. Spamer, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

(find books discussed on previous broadcasts)