Into The Unknown (Part 2)

Into The Unknown (starts at 9:05) What do we know about the universe, and how do we know we know it? Conversely, what do we know we don’t know, what don’t we know that we don’t know, and why not?

To help us unravel these age-old philosophical questions in the context of current science, our guest is Dr. Kelsey Johnson, who received her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado.  Dr. Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, and the former president of the American Astronomical Society. She is the founder of the Dark Skies, Bright Kids program, and wrote the children’s book Constellations for Kids. Her most recent book is Into The Unknown: The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos. In this episode, Dr. Johnson takes us into that unknown, and talks about what we know, what we might know, and what we might never know.

Part 1 of this interview is available here.

We begin this show with some pre-Halloween spooky science news.

Host: Joel Parker
Show Producer/Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Additional contributions:Benita Lee, Jack Armstrong, Shelley Schlender

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Into The Unknown (Part 1)

Into The Unknown (starts at 7:57) What do we know about the universe, and how do we know we know it? Conversely, what do we know we don’t know, what don’t we know that we don’t know, and why not?

To help us unravel these age-old philosophical questions in the context of current science, our guest is Dr. Kelsey Johnson, who received her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado.  Dr. Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, and the former president of the American Astronomical Society. She is the founder of the Dark Skies, Bright Kids program, and wrote the children’s book Constellations for Kids. Her most recent book is Into The Unknown: The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos. In this episode, Dr. Johnson takes us into that unknown, and talks about what we know, what we might know, and what we might never know.

Part 2 of this interview is available here.

Host: Joel Parker
Show Producer/Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Additional contributions: Shelley Schlender, Mac Hebebrand, Lorraine Healy

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Bird Conservancy of the Rockies – Eric DeFonso

C Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Merlin Bird ID App (starts 1:00) Boulder Naturalists Steve Jones and Ruth Carol Cushman explore the benefits of the Merlin smartphone app, along with its sometimes hilarious mistakes.

Eric Defonso – c Highplainssnowgoose.com

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (Start 5:48) Crew Leader Eric DeFonso explains how the Conservancy’s Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions Program  provides detailed data about birds and their habitat, to better understand the steep decline in bird populations  and what birds need to thrive.

Executive Producer: Joel Parker
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Elena Klaver, Eric DeFonso, Steve Jones, Ruth Carol Cushman

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Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America. 

Poisoning the Well (starts 2:00)  Boulder science writer Sharon Udasin discusses her new book,  Poisoning the Well:  How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America.  The book chronicles how these chemicals have ended up in our soil , drinking water, our bloodstreams . . . including in Colorado.  She also explains what we can do about these sometimes useful, but far too often, health-endangering chemicals.

Sharon will speak April 8th at the Boulder Bookstore.

Other events discussed in this show are the CU-Boulder Conference on World Affairs and the Dinosaur Ridge Raptorthon

Special thanks to Simon Roberts and his youtube channel, Environmental Chemistry Explained, for the song, “Forever Chemicals.”

Producer and Host: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Joel Parker

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Science Stories from 2024

cc NOAA Science Graphic

 

We share the How on Earth team’s picks for of science stories of 2024:

    • Tom Cech Talks RNA (starts at 1:56)
    • Avian Flu (starts at 9:33)
    • Artificial Intelligence (starts at 13:13)
    • Colorado, the Quantum State (starts at 19:19)

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

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Ibogaine // Ice Cores // Neurospsychologist June Gruber & Awe Walks

Eboga Plant – Source of Ibogaine

Ibogaine (starts 1:00) The New York Times just featured Ibogaine for PTSD.  We revisit a discussion of Ibogaine with Boulder Trauma Therapist Andrew Linares.

 

 

Stored Ice Cores

Ice Cores (starts 10:00) The National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility in Lakewood houses thousands of ice cores collected from around the world.  Ellen Mahoney takes us there for a first person look.

 

CU Boulder Neuroscientist June Gruber teaches “Science of Happiness”

CU-Boulder Neuroscientist June Gruber (starts 16:15) June Gruber leads one of CU-Boulder’s most popular classes about the science of happiness.  Now Gruber discusses ways to care for health during the darker days of winter, including an ongoing study of “Awe-Walks.”

 

 

Executive Producer/Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Host: Benita Lee
Additional Contributions: Ellen Mahoney
Engineer: Jackie Sedley

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Fire Resistant Homes

In this fire prone season, we talk with experts about an ancient building technique that might reduce the chance that a building’s going to burn. Unfired, compressed earth blocks are a building material that involves clay, sand and lime.  Our guests are architect-engineer Lisa Morey and one of her clients, Matteo Rabescini, who had such a home built in Superior, Colorado after the 2021 Marshall fire.  You can read more at Colorado Earth/Nova Terra, Heart of A Building, and Lisa Morey’s substack.

Hosts: Esther Frost, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender, Joel Parker
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

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Traumatic Brain Injury & Ibogaine – Andrew Linares

Tabernath Iboga Plant – courtesy Marco Schmidt, Wiki Commons

Ibogaine for Traumatic Brain Injury – The Science journal Nature has published a small case study about Special Forces veterans who suffer from traumatic brain injury . . . they report good results from one single dose of the illegal psychedelic Ibogaine . . . with careful supervision.

Andrew Linares – Boulder Therapist

IbogaineHuberman Lab discussion with Nolan Williams (Starts 3:45)  Stanford scientists discuss therapeutic use of Ibogaine.

Ibogaine Boulder Therapist Andrew Linares  (Starts 7:00) shares his experiences working with special forces veterans who are taking Ibogaine at a clinic in Mexico, where it is a legal drug.

Lynx – from Endangered Species.org

Lynx Habitat battle this Wednesday (starts 1:00) Denver’s US 10th District Court of Appeals will hear a case about U.S. Forest Service plans for environmental rollbacks in southern Colorado’s Rio Grande National Forest.  They plan to log beetle-killed trees -which may disrupt old growth forest that the endangered lynx needs.  Environmentalists are pushing for more study about the impact of these plans.

Ibogaine Song by Lord Ekomy Ndong

Host/Producer/Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Joel Parker
Contributors: Beth Bennett

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Science Stories from 2023

cc NOAA Science Graphic

 

We share the How on Earth team’s picks for of science stories of 2023:

    • Superconductor Hopes And Failures (starts at 1:47)
    • New Weight Loss Drugs (starts at 5:56)
    • Hot Temperatures (starts at 9:27)
    • Asteroid Autumn (starts at 12:29)
    • Bird Population Decline (starts at 16:51)
    • Sickle Cell Disease Treatment (starts at 22:29)

Executive Producer: Joel Parker
Show Producer and Host: Joel Parker
Additional Contributions: Shelley Schlender, Beth Bennett, Susan Moran

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Ghosts of Thanksgiving Past

Wild turkeys in Utah
Merriam’s turkey, courtesy of Flickr user “Fool-On-The-Hill.”

In addition to recent news about possible therapies to restore lost sense of smell due to COVID, we do a deep dive into the How on Earth archives to bring you some still-relevant stories from past Thanksgiving episodes:

Host/Producer/Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Contributors: Shelley Schlender, Beth Bartel, Benita Lee, Stacie Johnson

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