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Scientist Looks To Fish For New Technologies and Materials

Kathy Cowell
Credit Kathy Cowell

A childhood spent in downtown Manhattan did not dampen Adam Summers’ passion for the outdoors. His family took yearly trips to Canada’s woods and streams, which instilled in him a special passion for marine life. Now a comparative bio-mechanist, Summers is an expert in the evolution, anatomy and movement of fish. He has consulted with Pixar on its animated films “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory.” Summers is also leading a sweeping new initiative to scan and digitize all of the planet’s 33,000 species of ray-finned fish.Host Frank Stasio speaks with Adam Summers, professor at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories and a Nannerl-Keohane visiting distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, about how marine life could inspire solutions for human problems.

Summers is a professor at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratoriesand aNannerl-Keohanevisiting distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. Host FrankStasiotalks with Adam Summers about his passion for marine life and how it could inspire solutions for human problems.

Note: This segment is a rebroadcast. The program originally aired on 4/25/2017.

Copyright 2017 North Carolina Public Radio

Jennifer Brookland is a temporary producer for The State of Things.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.