Charles Lee (above, at left) and Frank Ling will be
taking their show on the road to China this summer.

Grok Jocks

While science journalism has turned into a full-time profession for most of the Caltech alumni who practice it, a handful of Institute graduates have found ways to combine research careers with popular-science reporting. There was Paul Saltman ’49, PhD ’53, a biology professor at UC San Diego. Saltman, who died in 1999, created the series “Patterns of Life” for National Educational Television and an additional six-part series for PBS, and wrote the first of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Courses by Newspapers, “America and the Future of Man.” And while he was an astron-omy professor at the University of Chicago, Doug Duncan ’73 served for six years as science commentator for public radio station WBEZ, until he left for the University of Colorado last summer.

The latest Caltech alumni to simultaneously try their hands at science and science communication are Charles Lee ’96 and Frank Ling ’97. Lee and Ling, who are both pursuing PhDs at UC Berkeley, are cohosts of a weekly science radio show, “Berkeley Groks,”on KALX (90.7 FM), the campus radio station. (Grok, a neologism from Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, means a thorough understanding.)

Lee and Ling didn’t know each other at Caltech, but became friends when they got to Berkeley. Lee, whose research is in neurobiology, is studying the anatomy of neuronal connections in the auditory cortex and hopes to contribute to the development of devices that could allow paralyzed victims to regain motor function, or restore sight to the blind. Ling, a chemist, is working on materials that separate enantiomers —compounds that are mirror images of each other—so that drug molecules or other biomolecules that have this property can be purified. His interest is in studying and developing materials that could help break down pollutants in the air.

Although they are equal partners in the radio program, Lee led the way. In 1999, he started volunteering at KALX, which primarily airs alternative music and some news, and which can be heard throughout the San Francisco Bay area. With a staff consisting mostly of students, the station immediately put Lee on the air.

“I started as a reporter and then became a producer and anchor,” says Lee, who has the mellifluous voice of a seasoned radio broadcaster. “At some point, I called up Frank,” suggesting that he volunteer at the station as well.

“So then I started reporting,” says Ling. “The first time I was on the air, I was surprised at how easy it was. You sit down and talk in the mike. Those first two minutes were exhilarating. I wanted to do more after that. It felt good trying to help people understand things.”

Soon they were both assigning other reporters to do stories, anchoring the news, and engineering broadcasts. They came up with the idea for a science news program in November 2000 and approached the station's public affairs director, who was looking for new shows. In March 2001, “Berkeley Groks” took to the airwaves.

The half-hour show, which airs on Wednesdays at noon, has a three-part format. In the opening minutes, Lee and Ling discuss a few topical science stories, often culled from science journals. Then comes an interview session, usually with a scientist, about a particular aspect of his or her research. They’ve done programs on genetically engineered crops, the use of animals in scientific experiments, and stem-cell research, among other subjects. Sometimes they stray from hardcore science stories, such as when they interviewed the comedic juggling group known as the Flying Karamazov Brothers. They’ve also interviewed Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind, the biography of Nobel Laureate John Forbes Nash. Each broadcast concludes with a “question of the week,” in which they challenge listeners to explain a basic phenomenon of science. Listeners can e-mail answers by logging onto http://www.groks.net.

“Our goal is to make the science understandable,” says Lee. “The more informed the public is about issues, the better it is for science in general and also general education.”

Given the academic pressures on graduate students, it may seem surprising that Ling and Lee have time for their radio show. They admit that their peers wonder how they do it.

“It’s creative scheduling,” says Lee. “You make time for things you enjoy doing. This show is all taped, so we do a lot of recording at night.”

Lee and Ling will sign off as hosts of “Berkeley Groks” this year, when they hope to get their PhDs. But that won’t end their partnership. They received a grant last year from the R. Stanton Avery Foundation to travel to China this summer. The grant, part of a China study program available to recent Caltech alumni, among others, will allow them to observe the operations of radio stations in China. They plan to produce audio segments on science and technology in China and on their experiences there. These spots will be transmitted back to KALX via the Internet to be aired as a regular feature on “Berkeley Groks,” which will continue to be produced by the station in their absence.

“We’ll start in Beijing and hook up with a radio station to find out how it works and to see if censorship is as prevalent as the media claims,” says Lee. “We’ll be there for eight months.”

After that, their futures depend on where they end up as postdocs. Both would like to stay in the Bay Area, and they talk of hosting the radio program when they come back from China. Even if they end up in different cities, they might still find a way to produce their program together.

“With today’s technology, we don’t have to be in the same room” to do the show, Ling says. “We could do it in a conference call.”

And they see no reason why they couldn’t continue pursuing both science and radio. “Like Frank, I’m interested in science because of the benefits it can bring to the community,” says Lee. “Communicating science is one benefit, but doing it is important as well.”

“Doing science and communicating is all part of the same package,” says Ling. “If we’re not doing a radio show, it might be another medium.”

“Berkeley Groks” can be heard over the Web using the most recent version of Realplayer at http://kalx.berkeley.edu/kalx.ram.