Do
nicotine patches really help you stop smoking? Shelley Schlender interviews a scientist who says they don’t. Lois Biener and her colleagues at the University of Massachusetts and Harvard University have done a study that indicates that out in the real world, people who use nicotine replacement therapy in the hopes of an easier “quit” don’t fare any better than people who use will power and community support. Some people who use nicotine replacements are actually MORE likely to relapse. (Extended interview version here).
Great plumes of dust rising from the desert forms an iconic image of the West, but much of that dust is a result of humans altering the desert soil structure. Several Boulder scientists are investigating a new technology that may allow us to restore the desert, and sequester large amounts of carbon at the same time. Tom McKinnon interviews Jim Sears, president of A2BE Carbon Capture and Bharath Prithiviraj, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado. They are developing a large scale deployable technology that would enable agricultural aircraft to re-inoculate and restore arid soils using indigenous strains of soil-crust-based cyanobacteria. For additional information on airborne soil crust reseeding, its research and its applications please contact jimsears@algaeatwork.com for an overview paper on the topic.
Co-hosts: Tom McKinnon and Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Joel Parker
Producer: Tom McKinnon
Executive producer: Shelley Schlender
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:31 — 22.5MB)
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