Author: Joel Parker

Sweet in Tooth and Claw // Fund Drive Show

We talk with author Kristin Ohlson about her recent book: “Sweet in Tooth and Claw”.  In it, Ohlson examines cooperative relationships found in the natural world and in human civilization. She says this view is missing from many of our cultural and scientific narratives because of a tendency to apply Darwin’s idea of survival of the fittest into every examination of wildlife and mankind.

Hosts: Joel Parker, Shelley Schlender
Show Producer and Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Feature Contributors: Benita Lee, Susan Moran

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Pollution Impacts on Gut Microbiome // Folding Proteins

Pollution Impacts on Gut Microbiome (starts at 1:00) The Environmental Protection Agency has downgraded the air quality in the Denver Metro and Northern Front Range area to “severe” nonattainment for ground level ozone.  Shannon Young talks with Dr. Tanya Alderete (University of Colorado Integrative Physiology Department) about a recent study showing how air pollution may also affect the gut microbiome in people as young as infants.

Folding Proteins (starts at 15:53) Proteins are essential for the function of our bodies and other biological systems.  One mystery is how proteins containing hundreds of amino acids are able to quickly and efficiently fold into  the necessary complex structures.  How on Earth’s Shelley Schlender talks with Dr. Larry Gold about this origami mystery and how the Deep Mind artificial intelligence consortium created the AlphaFold program, which predicts the 3D structure of proteins and won a Breakthrough prize.  Also check out this presentation about identification of protein structures given by Dr. Krzysztof Fidelis.

Host: Joel Parker
Show Producer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Feature Contributors: Shannon Young, Shelley Schlender

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Skin Cancer // Methane Leaks // Engineering Happiness // Black holes

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) Book cover for Engineering Happiness: A New Approach for Building a Joyful Lie Today’s show features headline news about new methods for detecting skin cancer and using “frequency comb” lasers to sniff out even the faintest traces of methane leaks.  And then we have an encore presentation of How on Earth features about “Engineering Happiness” and a black holes.

Hosts: Joel Parker, Susan Moran, Beth Bartel
Producer: Joel Parker, Beth Bartel
Additional contributions:  Shelley Schlender, Jim Pullen

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2022 Graduation Special (part 2)

With graduation season upon us, today’s edition of How on Earth is Part 2 of our annual “Graduation Special” (you can listen to Part 1). Our guests in the studio today are scientists who have or will soon receive their Ph.D. in a STEM-related field.  They talk about their thesis research, their grad school experiences, and what they have planned next.

Loren Matilsky – University of Colorado, JILA & Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
Topic: Dynamics of Rotation and Magnetism in the Sun’s Convection Zone and Tachocline

Katie Gach – University of Colorado, ATLAS Institute
Topic: How to Delete the Dead: Honoring Affective Connections to Post-mortem Data

 

Jet Mante – University of Colorado, Biomedical Engineering
Topic: Promotion of Data Reuse in Synthetic Biology

 

Abhijit Suresh – University of Colorado, Computer Science
Topic: Automating Feedback to Improve Teachers’ Effective Use of Instructional Discourse in K-12 Mathematics Classrooms


Host / Producer : Joel Parker

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2022 Graduation Special (part 1)

diploma-and-graduation-hatWith graduation season upon us, today’s edition of How on Earth is Part 1 of our annual “Graduation Special” (you can listen to Part 2). Our guests in the studio today are scientists who have or will soon receive their Ph.D. in a STEM-related field.  They talk about their thesis research, their grad school experiences, and what they have planned next.

Varsha Koushik – University of Colorado, Computer Science
Topic: Designing Customizable Smart Interfaces to Support People with Cognitive Disabilities in Daily Activities

 

Sarah Aguasvivas – University of Colorado, Computer Science
Topic: Material-integrated Prediction, Control, and Distributed Learning in Soft Robots

Jessie Finocchiaro – University of Colorado, Computer Science
Topic: Designing Consistent Convex Surrogate Losses for General Prediction Tasks

Host / Producer : Joel Parker

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:02 — 37.1MB)

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The Last Stargazers, Part 2

We feature an interview with astronomer and author Dr. Emily Levesque about her book, The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy’s Vanishing Explorers.  In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Levesque about the history and future of astronomy.  We hear about how astronomical observing at some of the premier telescopes in the world has changed over the decades, and we get a preview of what the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory has in store for the next generation of astronomers.

Host, Producer, Engineer: Joel Parker

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The Last Stargazers, Part 1

We feature an interview with astronomer and author Dr. Emily Levesque about her book, The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy’s Vanishing Explorers.  In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Levesque about how one becomes an astronomer and what a typical – and sometimes not so typical – night’s work is like at an observatory with highly sophisticated scientific instruments in very remote and difficult locations.

Host, Producer, Engineer: Joel Parker

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:27 — 37.7MB)

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KGNU Fund Drive with The Last Stargazers

On this week’s show  – part of the annual KGNU Spring Fund Drive – we play excerpts of an upcoming interview with astronomer and author Dr. Emily Levesque about her book, The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy’s Vanishing Explorers. The book is a modern history of observational astronomy, and shares an inside look at the lives and stories of astronomers past, present, and possible future.

Thanks to independent publisher Source Books for offering several copies to KGNU to help with the fund drive, and to those listeners who donated and received copies of the book.

Hosts: Joel Parker, Susan Moran
Headlines: Benita Lee, Beth Bennett
Show Producer & Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive producer: Susan Moran

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2021 Graduation Special

diploma-and-graduation-hatWith graduation season upon us, today’s edition of How on Earth is our annual “Graduation Special”. Our guests in the studio today are scientists who have or will soon receive their Ph.D. in a STEM-related field.  They talk about their thesis research, their grad school experiences, and what they have planned next.

(Photo by Patrick Campbell/University of Colorado)

Kate Doubleday – CU Boulder, Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering
Topic: Development and Application of Probabilistic Solar Power Forecasts for the Day-Ahead Unit Commitment

 

IMG_5538Jason Silver – CU Boulder, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Topic: The Role of Stiffness and YAP/TAZ Mechanotransduction during Muscle Regeneration

 

ulibarri_headshotZach Ulibarri – CU Boulder, Physics
Topic: Experimental Studies of the Genesis and Detectability of Complex Organic Molecules and Isotopic Ratios in Hypervelocity Impact Ice Spectra

Host / Producer : Joel Parker

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:23 — 37.6MB)

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Science On Stage

ScienceShorts800x400

Sometimes it seems that science and art are completely different worlds but that has not always been the case. There is a long history of artistic scientists and scientific artists.  In this edition of How on Earth, we talk about the alchemy of transmogrifying science into theatre.

Our guests include two scientists and two playwrights who collaborated to create plays inspired by scientific research as part of a theatre project produced by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company.  The production is called “Science Shorts“, which will be streaming the performances online Thursday through Sunday this week, January 21-24.  The production will feature readings of four short plays by Colorado playwrights, and four short talks by the local scientists who inspired their work.

Our science guests are geophysicist Dr. Neesha Schnepf and biologist Ashley Whipple, and our playwrights are Nigel Knutzen and Ellen K. Graham.  Neesha and Nigel collaborated on creating the play Trinal, which takes three different perspectives on tsunamis and their impact.   Ashley’s and Ellen’s play, On The Rocks, follows American pikas and what they have to teach us about resilience in the face of environmental and other stress.

Host & Producer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:54 — 37.0MB)

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