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When we broadcast Dreamland from our office at home for the first time on Sunday, February 25, there were some unexpected problems.

Our office is connected to our kitchen, and as I waited impatiently for the dishwasher to finish noisily sloshing the dinner dishes, I worried that I would have to turn it off in mid- cycle if it wasn’t done by the time the show started. I even considered running over and turning it on again during the news.

I did remember to turn down the ringers on all the phones. Since only the first hour of Dreamland is broadcast here in our hometown, followed by 3 hours of paid religious programming, I thought our friends might forget we were still on the air.
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The worst earthquake to strike Washington state in 52 years hit today at 10:55AM PST. Measuring 6.8 on the on Richter Scale, the quake was felt in Seattle for about 30 seconds. An earthquake of this magnitude is capable of doing serious damage.

Three people were reported seriously injured, and 17,000 homes were without power. Extensive structural damage is being reported from the quake zone. A column on the state capital building in Olympia cracked. Governor Gary Locke declared a state of emergency at 3PM PST.

The quake was extremely deep and seismologists consider that aftershocks are unlikely. Centered 35 miles south of Seattle, the jolt was felt from Portland to Salt Lake City.
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As a result of January’s devastating earthquake, water has suddenly reappeared in the middle of an arid section of India.

Water sprung up after the earthquake liquefied the clay and sand in ancient river beds. Underground water quickly rose to the surface to flood the channels.

This is an area of India that is regularly hit by earthquakes. “The Indian plate is colliding with the Asian plate, so the land is crumpling up,” says Roger Musson of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Thousands of years ago, this dry region was a lush grassland, but over the years, all the earthquakes diverted the water and dried up the rivers, creating a barren wasteland. The latest earthquake may start to reverse this process.
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U.S. scientists have produced laboratory mice which have one fourth of their brains made up of human brain cells. They now want to create mice with brains almost entirely made up of human cells, but some are worried about the ethics of creating such a “frankenmouse.”

“We are not recreating a human brain. We’re really just trying to understand how these stem cells can function, and how they can be used in the treatment of specific diseases,” says Ann Tsukamoto of StemCells Inc. in California.
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