Author: Shelley Schlender

Lancet Countdown on Climate Change (starts 3:45) Respectable science journals no longer debate whether human activity causes climate change, or even if it can be reversed to prevent human suffering.  They now scramble to figure out what will be the cost and who will pay.  The bill will be payable in lost lives and livelihoods.  The British Medical Journal, The Lancet has assembled an interdisciplinary team of scientists to help tally this enormous global bill.  On October 30th they released their 2017 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.  The report concludes that the delayed response to climate change over the past 25 years has already jeopardized human lives and livelihoods, and the impacts must be assessed in terms of global public health.  One of the contributors to that report is local climate scientist, Max Boykoff, a fellow at CIRES in Boulder, where he directs the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research.  

Hosts: Shelley Schlender and Chip Grandits
Producer: Shelley Schlender and Chip Grandits
Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Beth Bennett
Executive Producer:Beth Bennett

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:14 — 31.2MB)

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Mutant Proteins and Protein Evolution (starts 4:42) CU School of Medicine professor David Pollock explains why he has devised a new way to identify and predict both the evolution of proteins and disease causing protein mutations.    Pollock’s highly technical model uses an analogy about a physical model called the Stokes Shift to help explain the biochemical properties of how proteins change, for better or worse.  Pollock’s study has just been published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.  Its title is “Sequence entropy of folding and the absolute rate of amino acid substitutions.”  Additionally, he has written a “behind the paper” explanation for a more general audience to explain the concepts being explored in his ground-breaking research.

Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything (starts 15:00) Dr. Kelly Weinersmith is an adjunct assistant professor in the BioSciences Department at Rice University. She specializes in the study of parasites.  But her curiosity has taken her well beyond parasites to ask all-encompassing questions, such as, what will the future will look like – the future of space research, medicine, robots, and, well, humans.  These topics are all part of Weinersmith’s new funny-serious book.  It’s called Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything. Weinersmith co-authored the book with her husband, Zach.  They’ll be at book signings this week Denver and Boulder.

Hosts: Shelley Schlender, Susan Moran
Producer, Engineer: Shelley
Additional Contributions: Beth Bennett
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:09 — 24.0MB)

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Gold Lab Symposium (starts 1:00) Scientist and Entrepreneur Larry Gold shares what to expect in science and health at the annual Gold Lab Symposium, taking place this weekend at CU Boulder.  This year’s theme is “From Lab to Living Room.”  Go to the Gold Lab Symposium website to register for the conference and to hear recordings of the talks afterward.

Marc Bekoff – The Animals’ Agenda (starts 12:00) – Ecologist and philosopher Marc Bekoff talks about his new book, co-authored with bioethicist Jessica Pierce, titled, The Animals’ Agenda  – Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age.

Host/Producer/Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer:Susan Moran

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:36 — 25.3MB)

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500 Women Scientists (starts 3:01) Ecologist Jane Zelikova explains how an acquaintance while at CU-Boulder led to an open letter she co-authored with Kelly Ramirez about science . . . and this ultimately launched an advocacy group.  Over 19,000 women scientists have joined 500 Women Scientists.  They have on line and also local community face-to-face discussions, and they plan to be part of Earth Day’s March for Science.

Tracking Methane Leaks with Google Street View Cars (starts 10:00) Colorado State University biologist Joe Von Fischer is on a mission to reduce pollution from leaking natural gas lines and their potent greenhouse gas, methane.  Partnering with the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund  and Google Earth Outreach, his team uses Google Street View cars for a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive inventory of urban methane leaks to display on Methane Leak Maps.  A New Jersey utility plans nearly $1 billion of leaky gas line upgrades guided in part by this CSU data.

Host/Producer/Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Additional contributions: Alejandro Soto & Susan Moran
Executive Producer:Susan Moran

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:32 — 23.4MB)

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The Nature Fix.  (starts 1:50)  In this spring pledge drive show, we revisit the science show interview about the benefits of getting out in nature.

The Case Against Sugar. (starts 9:40) Best-selling science writer Gary Taubes discusses his new book, which explains what happens when industry funds science . . . and controls the strings to science.  It’s a not so sweet story with some bitter truths.  Taube’s new book shares some cloak and dagger moments, such as when a researcher in the Denver Metro area uncovered a load of documents from the mid-20th century about tooth decay.  The documents showed how the sugar and processed food industry funded dental studies – – and worked with national dental associations to  publish research that determined that sugar does not cause cavities.  Additionally, Taubes’s new book includes well-documented reasons he argues that it’s sugar consumption, not salt, that leads to high blood pressure.  And Taubes contends that sugar consumption, not eating fat, leads to obesity and diabetes. 

Hosts: Shelley Schlender and Susan Moran
Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Joel Parker

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:18 — 25.9MB)

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When Sylvia Tara had more trouble fitting into her skinny jeans than her friends, she decided to learn why she was prone to being fat.  Her new book is –  The Secret Life of Fat: The Science Behind the Body’s Least Understood Organ and What It Means for You.

Host: Shelley Schlender
Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Joel Parker

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 26.6MB)

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Regenerative Economics (starts 3:20) Natural Capitalism Solutions leader, Hunter Lovins, will share an economic argument for why now’s the time for cleaner energy.  Lovins, who lives near Niwot, Colorado, has presented this speech to government leaders and organizations throughout the world.  This is an excerpt from that speech.  Go here for extended version)

Logicomix (starts 8:52) Can a comic book teach kids about science?  Two grade school children talk with a leading computational logic scientist about his graphic novel comic book, Logicomix.

Host/Producer/Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional Contributions:  Alejandro de Soto, Joel Parker

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:34 — 25.2MB)

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Max Boykoff – Global Climate Talks – Moving Ahead With or Without US –  (entire show) While the world has held climate talks for 22 years (This is COP – Conference of the Parties — 22) and the Kyoto Protocol talks about climate change have been held for 12 years, this year’s October’s climate talks in Paris mark the first time that  “entry into force” has been achieved.  You might think of “entry into force” as the time when a critical number of nations are ready to develop global treaties regarding climate and pollution and its effects around the world.  The 1st world meeting ever to talk about “Entry into Force” on climate issues is taking place right now, in Marrakech, Morocco.  200 nations have gathered to discuss these issues.  The meetings began just before the US elections.  Now Donald Trump is President Elect, and he has signaled that he will pull back from many of the nation’s current plans to reduce pollution and combat climate change.

To find out how this affects the world climate talks, up next we talk with Max Boykoff, speaking via Skype from the world climate talks in Marrakech Morocco.  Max Boykoff is a scientist at CU Boulder and director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, which is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies at CU-Boulder.  He’s the author of a book on climate science and social response, titled, “Who Speaks for the Climate?”  

Host/Producer/Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

 

 

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

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Denver Permaculture Guild (starts 3:30) staff and board members explain the goal of permaculture and guild’s annual workshops program taking place this weekend.

 

 

 

Ron Rosedale, MD, Explains Autophagy (starts 17:50)   The Nobel Peace Prize in Medicine has just been awarded to Japanese Scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi  for his discoveries about a process inside our cells known as autophagy.  Autophagy explains how a cell “cleans house” by recycling unessential components, either for food or for building blocks.   Mutations in autophagy genes can cause cells to keep fixing themselves up and living too long.  Think cancer cells.  Conversely, problems that get in the way of autophagy can lead cells to die too soon, such as in the neurologic diseases of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.  The winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine was not available to discuss autophagy with us.  However, Shelley Schlender did speak with Ron Rosedale, a medical doctor who has been giving presentations about autophagy at science and health conferences for well over a decade.

Hosts: Shelley Schlender, Kendra Krueger
Producer and Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:27 — 32.6MB)

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