We talk with biologist Douglas Emlen, who says that the evolution of animal weapons, in everything from dung beetles to saber tooth tigers, has him very worried about our HUMAN weapons (starts 4:20)

. . . and listeners are invited to join the Sunday, December 14th  73rd Boulder Audubon Christmas Bird Count

Hosts: Jane Palmer, Beth Bennett
Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producers: Kendra Krueger, Jane Palmer

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:49 — 20.9MB)

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(4:00) Kendra talks with local organizers about the upcoming Front Range Bioneers conference

(11:20) Shelley talks with Tim Schoechle about his new position paper for the National Law and Policy Institute, Green Electricity or Green Money?

Hosts: Shelley Schlender, Kendra Krueger
Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producers: Jane Palmer and Kendra Krueger

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:46 — 20.9MB)

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Coronal Mass Ejection (Solar Flare) courtesy NASA

Recent headlines  warn that Coronal Mass Ejections, better known as Solar Flares, could trigger a high-tech Armageddon, disabling power and communication on a global scale, for months.  Today we talk with Boulder scientists Dan Baker, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and Doug Biesecker,  National Space Weather Prediction Center, about the risks from Solar Flares, what to worry about, and what is being done to protect us.

In today’s science show, we also feature upcoming talks on Science.
* This Wednesday at 7 PM, How on Earth’s Joel Parker will talk about Chasing Comets: The Rosetta Mission, at the Denver Science Museum.
* This Friday at 7:30, Conservative Christian and Prominent Atmospheric Scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, will talk about, “Climate Change with Mind & Heart,” at Boulder’s Chautauqua Auditorium.

Hosts: Shelley Schlender
Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributors: Susan Moran, Jane Palmer
Executive Producer: Joel Parker

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:30 — 22.4MB)

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Brain Radiation from a Cellphone courtesy wiki/my broadband

(1:00) Cell Phone Radiation – Headphones please?  Chris Farnsworth uses a microwave meter to measure cell phone radiation, to urges people to at least use headphones with a mobile phone.

(7:50) CU Engineering Emeritus Professor Frank Barnes talks with  Katie Singer, author of An Electronic Silent Spring.  We also offer an extended interview.

Producer, Engineer, Host: Shelley Schlender

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:34 — 23.4MB)

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Fireproofing Mountain Homes (starts at 3:20) We discuss a new study from the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Montana.  It warns that  thinning forests may help prevent property damage from the “typical” wildfires, fire suppression can’t stand up against the 3% of fires that burn super-hot and spread super fast.  What’s more, the Missoula study warns that superhot wildfires are just the ones that burn the most homes.  The researchers conclude that the main responsibility for preventing home destruction from wildfires, lies with homeowners rather than public land managers.  They say that homeowners should do more to design homes that stand up to a super wildfire.  To find out ways to to that, we talk with Disaster Safety Senior Scientist Steve Quarles, who is with an insurance industry funded fire prevention think tank.  Quarles says that small changes in home building can reduce the chance that tiny, glowing embers blowing in the wind, will get in under the eaves and turn into a raging fire that burns down a house.

Winter Solstice (starts at 13:44) As a chart of sunrise and sunset makes clear, although the shortest day of the year is at the winter solstice, the latest sunrise occurs *after* the solstice and the earliest sunset occurs *before* the solstice… The sunset is going to get later faster and faster now, while the sunset time is going to also get later until after the solstice, then start creeping earlier.  What’s going on here?  How on Earth’s Jim Pullen explains.

Hosts: Shelley Schlender, Jim Pullen
Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Jim Pullen
Executive Producer: Beth Bartel

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:51 — 22.8MB)

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THE SPORTS GENE:  Running has become a great elite sport, thanks in part to the amazing sprinters from Jamaica  and the long distance runners from the African equator.  How much is all that running talent nature, and what’s the power of nurture?  In his book, The Sports Gene, David Epstein says it’s definitely both.

THESE SHINING LIVES:   Now playing at CU Boulder, is a story about one of the most stunning technologies to ever harm U-S workers.  It involves a technique from the early 1900s that made it possible for the hands of watches to glow in the dark.  The “Glow” came from radium-laced paint, which killed many of the young women who were told to lick their paint brushes to make sure that the dials were painted properly.  The new play is titled, “These Shining Lives.” and it’s fitting that it will open at CU just 10 miles from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, where controversy still rages over radioactive contamination.  Here to tell us more is the director of “These Shining Lives,” Elizabeth Dowd.

Hosts: Shelley Schlender, Jim Pullen
Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bartel
Additional Contributions: Jim Pullen

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:59 — 22.0MB)

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