Birds & Habitat Preservation

Birds of Spring, Habitat Preservation (start time: 3:08)  It’s springtime, when many of us are woken up at the crack of dawn by a chorus of chickadees or other songbirds outside. To celebrate these emblems of spring, and World Migratory Bird Day (May 18), How On Earth’s Susan Moran interviews two bird/nature experts about the state of affairs for the North America bird population , including threats to their survival, efforts to preserve their habitats, and how we humans can get outside and appreciate the natural world while helping to give birds, insects and other wildlife a leg up.  Terri Schulz is senior conservation ecologist at The Nature Conservancy Colorado, focusing on preserving habitats throughout Colorado.  Dave Sutherland is a naturalist in Boulder who worked for many years as environmental education coordinator at the City of Boulder’s Open Space Mountain Parks. He leads frequent nature hikes.

Host/Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Jackie Sedley
Executive Producer/Contributor: Shelley Schlender

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Gold Lab Symposium – 2024 – Health, Intelligence & Culture

Gold Lab Foundation 2024 Illustration

Gold Lab Symposium on Science and Health.  (starts 6:40) Boulder scientist and entrepreneur, Larry Gold, shares a sneak preview of this year’s Gold Lab Symposium at CU-Boulder Muenzinger Auditorium this Thursday and Friday.  This year’s symposium focuses on Pain, Culture and Intelligence.

The symposium includes discussion of the paper, Organ aging signatures in the plasma proteome track health and disease

CU-Wizards (starts 1:00) and the upcoming show with CU-Boulder Nobel Prize Winner Eric Cornell

Scott Falci – Denver Neurosurgeon (starts 2:45) and the quest to solve suicidal pain in people who have been paralyzed.  Falci will speak live at the Gold Lab Symposium.

 

Executive & Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Joel Parker

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Indigenous + Ingenuity = Indigenuity

 

Dr. Danile Wildcat c Indian Leader

Rising Voices Changing Coasts – Indigenuity Science leader Daniel Wildcat, talks about the Rising Voices/Changing Coasts symposium taking place this week Boulder.  The symposium connects Indigenous Leaders with climate scientists to solve pressing climate and environmental challenges..

Science Moab – Our “sister science program” features two Native American students, who tap the wisdom of Western scientists and Native American elders as they explore desert biocrusts and how to clean up uranium mines.  Go here for the full interview.

Executive & Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Esther Frost, Benita Lee, Science Moab

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The Curious World of Seahorses

Seahorses (starts 4:10) Science Writer Till Hein explains his new book, The Curious World of Seahorses:  The Life and Lore of a Marine Marvel.

Also in this episode, we share this week’s DomeFest West at CU-Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium (starts 2:00).  And we share congratulations to three new CU-Boulder members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (starts 1:00)

Executive Producer & Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Esther Franke, Joel Parker

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A History of Wolves

In this week’s show, Beth speaks with rewilder Derek Gow about his new book, Hunt for the Shadow Wolf, in which he explores the mythology, mystery and history of wolves in Europe, and their speckled history with our species.

Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional Contributions: Esther Franke, Joel Parker
Engineer: Sam Fuqua

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Science of Deathbed Visions

Dr. Christopher Kerr

The Science of Deathbed Visions  Many people have visions and dreams as they near the end of their life in which they reunite with loved ones who have gone before them. What can science tell us about these mysterious and common experiences? And how do they affect those who have them? These are questions that Chris Kerr, a hospice physician and neurobiologist, set out to answer  through research decades after he witnessed his dying father having one when Kerr was an adolescent.  Dr. Kerr, is the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer of Hospice & Palliative Care  Buffalo. He was featured in a recent New York Times magazine article .  He is also the author of the book Death is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning in End-of-Life Dreams.

Host: Susan Moran
Producers: Susan Moran, Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender

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Colorado – The Quantum State

Corban Tillemann Dick c Mabell Quantum
Corban Tillemann Dick c Maybell Quantum

Colorado – The Quantum StateWe speak with Corban Tillemann-Dick about how Colorado has emerged as a world leader in Quantum Technologies.  Tillemann-Dick will speak at CU-Boulder’s Conference on World Affairs, Thursday, 10:30, at the UMC Central Ballroom.  Tillemann-Dick heads up Elevate Quantum, a consortium of over 85 quantum-focused organizations in Colorado and the Mountain West.   He’s also the founder and a CEO of the Denver company, Maybell Quantum.  It’s named after the tiny town of Maybell, Colorado, which  holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in Colorado – Minus 61 Degrees Fahrenheit.  Maybell Quantum honors the little town’s record-breaking cold with a refrigerator the company calls “The Icebox”    Quantum computers can only operate at the incredibly cold temperature of -441 F.   Maybell Quantum’s  Icebox” is designed to help quantum processors stay that supercold – which is one of the many keys to unlocking the quantum breakthroughs up ahead.

Show Producer, Executive Producer and Host: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Pam Johnson

 

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Solar Eclipse 2024!

In this episode of How on Earth, we talk about the upcoming 2024 April 8th solar eclipse.  Our guests are science writer David Baron, author of American Eclipse, and Dr. Doug Duncan, served as Director of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium.

Show Producer and Host: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender

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Colorado River: new deals, old tensions

Lake Mead’s water level
Credit: Research Gate

Colorado River: Promise and Peril  (start time: 6:28)  For more than two decades the Colorado River has been shrinking, afflicted by climate change-induced drought, population growth, and water politics. Some 40 million people living in seven states, and 30 tribes, depend on the river.  The Upper Basin — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico– have been at odds with Lower Basin states – California, Nevada and Arizona — over who should do more to cut back on water use.  Meanwhile, here in Colorado, cities and towns on the Front Range have been clashing with those on the Western Slope over water from the river. After all, Front Range cities get almost half of their water from the Western Slope, through transmountain diversions. In this week’s show, host Susan Moran interviews two journalists who have been covering water issues in the West.  They recently produced a feature on a surprising new water-rights purchase that could ease west-vs-east tensions, while giving endangered fish a leg up.   Alex Hager is a reporter covering the Colorado River Basin for  KUNC and many NPR network stations. Luke Runyon is co-director of The Water Desk, an initiative of the Center for Environmental Journalism at CU Boulder. Previously he was managing editor and a reporter at KUNC.

Host/Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Sam Fuqua
Headline contributors: Joel Parker, Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Joel Parker

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Astronomy Highlights: Habitable Worlds Observatory, Impostor Phenomenon

This is the third and final episode of a series where we hear about recent research presented at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) January 2024 meeting.

Habitable Worlds Observatory (starts at 5:15) Dr. Megan Ansdell, Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters in the Astrophysics Division and the Planetary Science Division, talks about the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a proposed mission for a large ultraviolet, optical, infrared space telescope.

iStock/dane_mark

Impostor Phenomenon (starts at 14:28) Jennifer Bates, a licensed clinical social worker, the Broadening Participation Program manager at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and the project lead for the Radio Astronomy Data Imaging and Analysis Lab discusses Imposter Phenomenon and how it affects science researchers.

Executive Producer: Joel Parker
Show Producer and Host: Joel Parker
Additional Contributions: Shelley Schlender

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