How On Earth

Stay Young – If You’re a Worm

Filed under Episodes by Beth Bennett on August 15, 2017 at 7:54 pm {no comments}

Age

This week on How on Earth, Beth spoke with Dr Gordon Lithgow, a researcher at the Buck Institute for Aging in California who studies aging in nematode worms. Stress actually keeps us young by activating systems that repair and maintain cells. These stresses can be things like caloric restriction and exercise. Eventually the molecular bases of these stresses will be identified and may lead to interventions to slow aging.

Hosts: Beth Bennett & Joel Parker
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Joel Parker
Additional Contributions: Beth Bennett
Executive Producer: Alejandro Soto

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:10 — 25.8MB)

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Mortality Trends in America // Life Expectancy in America

Filed under Episodes by Alejandro Soto on August 13, 2017 at 9:16 pm {no comments}

This week on How on Earth we look at the scientific research into the lifespans of Americans.

Andrea Tilstra

Mortality trends in America (start time 4:05): We speak with Andrea Tilstra, who co-authored a recent paper on mortality trends in America. Tilstra is a co-author of a recent study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Her team’s paper is titled “Explaining recent mortality trends among younger and middle-aged White Americans.”

S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D.

Life expectancy in America (start time 12:40): Next, we speak with Jay Olshansky, who ten years ago first predicted the recently observed drop in life expectancy in America. Olshansky is a world renowned expert in the Science of Aging. As for his crystal ball – well, it has little to do with magic, and more to do with his understanding about how our cells work, and how they age. It also helps that he understands statistics.

Hosts: Alejandro Soto, Joel Parker, Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Beth Bennett
Producer: Alejandro Soto
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Alejandro Soto

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:49 — 24.5MB)

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Chasing Shadows – Stellar Occultations and the Outer Solar System

Filed under Episodes by Joel Parker on August 1, 2017 at 2:25 pm {no comments}

Shadow Chasers
(Photo: Jack Jewell)

Chasing Shadows [starts at 9:40] Astronomy is a science that depends on watching things happen in the universe that we don’t have control over: supernovae, formation of stars, orbits of planets, and the spectacle of solar eclipses. You can’t grab a distant galaxy and bring it into the lab for experiments, so astronomers have to depend on studying the light that fortuitously comes to them from distant objects. However, by studying just that light, we can learn much about the objects in the universe and how they formed and evolved. For example, studying solar eclipses have taught us about the corona of the sun and about general relativity. To make those observations and measurements, scientists have to chase the shadow and set up their laboratory in remote places to catch it. In this edition of How on Earth we talk with one such shadow-chaser: astronomer Dr. Marc Buie from the Boulder office of the Southwest Research Institute. Marc organized a set of expeditions around the Earth to observe occultations of the Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69, which is is the next flyby target of the New Horizons space mission that flew past Pluto in July 2015. He explains the science of occultations, what can be gleaned from these shadowy observations of 2014 MU69, and talks about planning for observation expeditions to remote places around the world.

Hosts: Joel Parker, Chip Grandits
Producer / Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Alejandro Soto

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:53 — 25.5MB)

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Space Shield for Satellites // Virtual Colonoscopy

Filed under Episodes by Shelley Schlender on July 25, 2017 at 2:30 pm {no comments}

Van Allen Belts – Courtesy NASA

Space Shield for Satellites (starts 1:00) An invisible radio wave pollution makes a “space shield” that protects orbiting satellites from Van Allen Belt radiation. Dan Baker, head of CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) explains how his team figured out the man-made source of the mysterious space shield.

Virtual Colonoscopy Option Improves Cancer Screening Rates (starts 6:32) Colon cancer kills 50,000 Americans each year. Death rates would go down if more people did preventative screenings. But one out of three people balk at the traditional colonoscopy. According to a new study in the journal, Radiology, when insurance pays for either a regular OR a virtual colonoscopy, 48% of the people who avoid screenings agree to get tested. Lead author, University of Madison’s Dr. Maureen Smith, explains.

Virtual Colonoscopy – Dr. Bill Blanchet (starts 10:10) One of the earliest providers of virtual colonoscopies in the Rocky Mountain region is Bill Blanchet, Front Range Preventative Imaging. Blanchet explains why he offers this modern form of colon cancer screening to his patients.

Host / Producer : Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Alejandro Soto

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:39 — 25.3MB)

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The Alien Hunter & SETI

Filed under Episodes by Susan Moran on July 18, 2017 at 3:20 pm {no comments}

Today’s show offers the following feature:
Extraterrestrial intelligence? (start time: 6:30): It’s mid-summer, a time when many of us like to spend leisurely time outside at night, gazing at the stars and planets, and asking the big existential questions, such as, Are we alone? Is there intelligent life waaay out there? Our guest today, science writer Sarah Scoles, has pondered these questions for several years. She discusses with hosts Susan Moran and Joel Parker her just-published biography, Making Contact: Jill Tarter and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Tarter, an astronomer, directed the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research. Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel Contact” illustrates Tarter’s astronomical work. In the 1997 movie Contact (stemming from Sagan’s novel) actor Jodi Foster played a character who was loosely based on Tarter.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Alejandro Soto

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:30 — 25.2MB)

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Is Your Oral Microbiome Affected by Your Genes?

Filed under Our Microbes, Ourselves by Beth Bennett on July 13, 2017 at 8:03 pm {no comments}

Twins face to face

On the first day of the summer pledge drive, Beth interviews Dr Brittany Demmitt, a behavioral molecular geneticist. Her recent study used a powerful genetic tool, identical twins, to show that the micro biome in the mouth is influenced by both genes and environment.

Hosts:Beth Bennett, Chip Grantis, Joel Parker
Producer:Beth Bennett
Engineer:Joel Parker
Additional Contributions:Beth Bennett
Executive Producer:Alejandro Soto

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:05 — 31.0MB)

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The American Eclipse of 1878

Filed under Episodes by Joel Parker on June 27, 2017 at 4:51 pm {no comments}

This August 21st, some parts of the Earth will be plunged into darkness in the middle of the day. It will be a solar eclipse; the moon’s shadow will cross the United States from Oregon to South Carolina, with the path closest to Colorado passing through Wyoming and Nebraska.

There have been many eclipses across the US, but there was a particularly special one nearly 140 years ago on July 29th, 1878. That eclipse came at a time in American history of western expansion, industrial growth, new inventions and World’s Fairs, and a young country wanting to establish itself on the international stage of science and technology.

Our guest today is David Baron, author of a book about that eclipse. The book is “American Eclipse: A Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World”. David joins us to talk about that eclipse, the people involved in observing it, and its part in Colorado history.

Hosts: Joel Parker, Susan Moran
Producer / Engineer : Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:38 — 25.3MB)

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome // Renewables

Filed under Episodes by Susan Moran on June 20, 2017 at 10:19 pm {one comment}

We offer two feature interviews on today’s show.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (start time: 11:49) Imagine spending years waking up so sore and fatigued many mornings that you can barely move. And traversing the country to find doctors who could offer a clear diagnosis, only to find out they don’t really know. And feeling your friendships and professional relationships start to fray, as people question whether you’re making up your illness. For those who have suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS, or ME), or a similar disease, Julie Rehmeyer’s story may sound painfully familiar. The science and math writer talks with host Susan Moran about her new book about the illness, called Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer’s Odyssey Into an Illness Science Doesn’t Understand. Rehmeyer will speak about her book on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Boulder Book Store.

Nevada Solar One plant, Photo credit: Tom McKinnon

Renewable Energy Debate (start time: 3:20): A bitter scientific debate, as reported in the Washington Post, has surfaced among two scientific groups that are both pushing to decarbonize U.S. electricity generation. On one side are experts such as Boulder mathematician Christopher Clack, who contends in a new analysis that the U.S. can cut its carbon emissions by nearly 80%, using existing technologies, by 2030. On the other side of this feud is Mark Jacobson, an atmospheric scientist and engineer at Stanford University. He claims the nation can move to 100% renewable energy by 2055. This week, in a peer-reviewed analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, Clack and colleagues call Jacobson’s vision of 100% renewables unrealistic, and says his calculations and modeling are full of errors. Jacobson and his group have countered Clack et al’s analysis is full of errors. Dr. Clack, founder of Vibrant Clean Energy and with NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder when he conducted this research, talks with host Shelley Schlender about the science, the debate, and what it means for the pursuit of clean energy.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Shelley Schlender
Producer: Susan Moran
Engineers: Maeve Conran, Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:40 — 25.3MB)

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Protecting Pollinators // Testing Drinking Water

Filed under Episodes by Susan Moran on June 13, 2017 at 11:20 am {no comments}

Photo credit: Douglas Mills

We offer two features on today’s show:
Protecting Pollinators (start time: 0:58): Hills, prairies and gardens are neon green and in full bloom. A pollinator’s paradise, at least it should be. Birds, bees, butterflies, beetles and other pollinators rely on the nectar from flowering plants. We humans rely on them; roughly one out of every three bites we take comes from food that would not exist if not for pollinators. National Pollinator Week is June 19 – 25. It will celebrate pollinators and promote how humans can help protect them. Vicki Wojcik, research director at Pollinator Partnership, an organization that focuses on conservation, scientific research and education aimed at preserving pollinators, talks with host Susan Moran. Resources: Bee Safe Boulder (People and Pollinators Action Network), Colorado State Beekeeper Association, and Butterfly Pavilion.

Testing Drinking Water (start time: 14:00): Two years ago Flint, Mich., turned the issue of lead in drinking water from a little known, or distant-past, hazard into a national scandal. Human error and coverups resulted in many Flint homes showing staggeringly high levels of lead in their drinking water. What happened in Flint has afflicted other cities. Water districts, which are required to monitor a sampling of homes in their districts for lead in drinking water, are stepping up efforts to prevent more Flints from happening. Here in Colorado, water districts use soda ash and other chemicals to keep their water from being overly corrosive, which was the problem in Flint. How On Earth’s Shelley Schlender interviews Michael Cook, district manager of the Little Thompson Water District at the Carter Lake Water Filtration Plant near Loveland. The plant was recently out of compliance, meaning that samples from water district have shown higher levels of lead than what the state health department considers safe. Cook discusses what the district has done. (Boulder has its own water-filtration plant and has not been out of compliance at least in recent years. But all water districts must address similar concerns.)

Hosts: Maeve Conran, Susan Moran
Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Maeve Conran
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:48 — 21.8MB)

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2017 Graduation Special (part 2)

Filed under Episodes by Joel Parker on June 6, 2017 at 12:28 pm {no comments}

With graduation season is upon us, or in many cases in the rearview mirror, today’s edition of How on Earth is the second of a two-part “Graduation Special”. Our guests in the studio today are scientists who recently graduated with – or soon will receive – their Ph.D. They talk about their thesis research, their grad school experiences, and what they have planned next.

Abby Koss – CU Boulder, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Topic: New Insights into Fossil Fuel Volatile Organic Compound Emissions and Chemistry using H3O+ and NO+ Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Matteo Crismani – CU Boulder, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
Topic: Cometary Gas and Dust Delivered to Mars

Callie Fiedler – CU Boulder, Electrical Engineering
Topic: Characterizing the Properties of 3D Printed Hydrogels for Regenerative Medicine

Host / Producer / Engineer : Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:22 — 25.1MB)

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The KGNU Science Show

Stay Young – If You’re a Worm

Mortality Trends in America // Life Expectancy in America

Chasing Shadows – Stellar Occultations and the Outer Solar System

Space Shield for Satellites // Virtual Colonoscopy

The Alien Hunter & SETI

Is Your Oral Microbiome Affected by Your Genes?

The American Eclipse of 1878

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome // Renewables

Protecting Pollinators // Testing Drinking Water

2017 Graduation Special (part 2)

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