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I attended an outdoor lecture at the Congaree National Park last month, an appropriate site as Dave Stahle, Professor of Geography at the University of Arkansas, and the world’s authority on bald cypress gave the talk, and the Park is home to the state-record holding cypress tree. Stahle takes very small and minimally damaging core samples from trees and studies them to age trees and document climate change -- he has sampled trees that are two thousand years old.

When Hurricane Hugo came through South Carolina, Sumter County was really hit hard. The magnificent Swan Lake Gardens lost several hundred pine trees exposing camellias and azaleas to unwelcome sunlight. But only a few bald cypresses were lost. If you come across a young bald cypress, shake it and you’ll find that is flexible, even adult trees are not brittle like pines. The ones in water with their interlacing knees have a giant support system in play protecting them against strong winds, even hurricanes. In ice storms, they again have an advantage over pines as they are deciduous and have no needles for the ice to accumulate on and cause the trunks to break. You can grow bald cypress in a regular landscape – they don’t make knees in ordinary soils – just buy a bale of long-leaf pinestraw for mulch.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, our country could see a significant shortage of physicians over the next decade. Over the past decade, our next guest’s institution has been working hard to keep that from happening in our state. Mike Switzer interviews Marjorie Jenkins, dean of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville, SC.

This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Christine Cooper about research suggesting that certain healthy lifestyle choices can help reduce risk of dementia. Dr. Cooper is an Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine and she’s a neurologist at MUSC.

This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Wendy Balliet about mindfulness, as a tool to help cancer survivors deal with stress or worry. Dr. Balliet is a psychologist who works with patients with chronic health problems, through the Division of Bio-behavioral Medicine at MUSC.

The eastern hog-nosed snake (Heterodon platirhinos), also known as the spreading adder and by various other common names, is a species of mildly venomous rear-fanged snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to North America. There are no subspecies that are recognized as being valid.

The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida, Phasmatoptera or Spectra) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick-bugs, walking sticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as Devil's darning needles, although this name is shared by both dragonflies and crane flies.

Rudy shares some words about fall from Nathaniel Hawthorne, from The American Notebooks.

The scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) is a medium-sized American songbird. The species' plumage and vocalizations are similar to other members of the cardinal family, although the Piranga species lacks the thick conical bill (well suited to seed and insect eating) that many cardinals possess. The species resides in thick deciduous woodlands and suburbs.Females are yellowish on the underparts and olive on top, with yellow-olive-toned wings and tail. The adult male's winter plumage is similar to the female's, but the wings and tail remain darker.

We continue to hear about new options to improve outcomes for cancer patients and one of those we learned about recently is coming from a South Carolina company utilizing 3D cell culture research from Clemson University. Mike Switzer interviews Dr. Matt Gevaert, CEO and founder of Kiyatek in Greenville, SC.