Biomechanics for Dummies

On today’s show Beth speaks with biomechanics Katy Bowman about her new book, Rethink Your POsition. Are you a fitness fanatic? Or a couch potato? Whichever, there’s something for you here. Katy’s biomechanics background, allows her to assess the movements of everyday life and describe how to perform them correctly, based on human anatomy. Moving from the head down, she dissects everything from sitting at the computer to running marathons and gives easy-to-follow instructions for improving. You can find video and more at her website.
Executive and Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional Contributions: Rosanna Longo-Better and Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Shannon Young
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Race Science: Then & Now

Phrenology sketch of skull, 1807 Image credit: Countway Library

Race Science’s Legacy (start time: 0.57): We like to think of science as neutral, beyond politics. But of course it isn’t. After all, science is a product of the political landscape in which it arises. Despite the fact that decades ago the United Nations declared that race has no biological basis, science has continued to be co-opted to justify racial inequality–namely, the intellectual superiority of whites. Recently scientists have been reckoning with the damaging legacy of race science. In this week’s show host Susan Moran interviews two journalists: Angela Saini, a science journalist and author of several books, including Superior: The Return of Race Science; and Ashley Smart, senior editor of Undark magazine, and associate director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT. See Undark’s Long Division Project, a series of articles exploring the persistence of race science.

Host & Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Shannon Young
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
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Boulder Society for Scientific Exploration

Paul Sperry in Egypt – c Paul Sperry

NCAR and NOAA open for visitors (Starts 1:00)  COVID pandemic rules were lifted earlier this year, so Boulder’s  National Center for Atmospheric Research and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are once again open for public tours.

LASP Artist in Residence Applications due July 21 (starts 2:12) CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics is accepting applications for an Artist in Residence program, where three artists  will shadow a scientist or engineer, to learn about the work done at LASP, and to produce artwork inspired by their time at LASP.

Boulder Society for Scientific Exploration (starts 3:05) has many fans among well-known scientists, but it also has many critics, who charge that much of the society’s work promotes pseudo-science.  We speak with Paul Sperry, Co-Founder of the Boulder Society for Scientific Exploration, about why he values “fringe science” and how be believes more intuitive approaches to Life and science can benefit scientific discovery.  We also discuss the next SSE talk on June 23rd, and how to reserve a seat.

Show Producer/Engineer:  Shelley Schlender

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Fire in a Hotter World

In this week’s How on Earth, Beth speaks with author John Vaillant about his new book, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World. He explores the phenomena of fire, the wildland urban interface, and climate change in the context of a precedent-shattering combustion in a modern city.This colossal wildfire in Alberta in 2016 almost consumed a city of nearly 100,000. In the process the fire blew up expectations and responses to wild fires. Vaillant gives an in depth exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind along with personal stories of loss and bravery on the front lines of this horrifying event.
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Headline: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Shannon Young

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2023 Graduation Special (part 2)

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

Dhruv Kedar – Physics
Topic: A Fully Crystalline Cryogenic Reference Cavity

 

Kathleen McGuire – Anthropology
Topic: Navigating the Needs of the Many and the Few: Examining the Relationship between Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) Group Function and Individual Variation on St. Catherines Island

Brian Alden – Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences
Topic: Investigating the Properties of Merging Galaxy Clusters with Radio Halos/Relics Using X-ray Derived Pressure Maps

 

You can listen to Part 1 of this year’s special or all past year Graduation Special episodes.

Host / Producer : Joel Parker
Executive Producer : Shelley Schlender

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Honeybee Trials and Tribulations

This week on How on Earth, Beth replays in interview with Professor Mike Breed, who has been studying social insects, including ants and bees, at the University of Colorado here in Boulder, for decades. She spoke with him last year about the fascinating biology of these important pollinators, in an interview that is still timely, because the many problems facing honeybees, and other bees are continuing to mount. He describes the challenges these important insects face in the modern world, and what we can do to protect them.

Executive Producer: HOE Team
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional Contributions:Benita Lee & Joel Parker
Engineer: Sam Fuqua

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Gold Lab Symposium on Science and Health

CU-Boulder’s 14th annual Gold Lab Symposium on the Science of Health takes place this Thursday and Friday at CU-Boulder’s Muenzinger Auditorium and on line.   You can sign up for the symposium  here.   In today’s show, Larry Gold, founder, scientist and entrepreneur, talks about some key scientific discoveries being discussed at this year’s symposium, along with the implications for health and health care.

This week, we focus one on of the new findings that will be discussed at the Symposium, in a talk by scientists. Andreas Beyer & Argyris Papantonis
The talk is titled, “Living in the Fast Lane: Accelerated Copying of Genetic Information with Aging.”  For more about the science paper from Nature related to this topic, go here.

Host / Producer : Shelley Schlender

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2023 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”. Our guests in the studio today are scientists and engineers who have or will soon receive their Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in a STEM-related field.  They talk about their thesis research, their grad school experiences, and what they have planned next.

Rob Streeter – Electrical Engineering
Topic: High-resolution Deep-tissue Microwave Thermometry

 

Amanda Hampton – Applied Math
Topic: On the Three-Dimensional, Quadratic Diffeomorphism: Anti-integrability, Attractors, and Chaos


Jacob Kravits – Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Topic: Balancing Cost, Water, Emissions, and Reliability in Power Systems Operations

You can listen to Part 2 of this year’s special or all past year Graduation Special episodes.

Host / Producer : Joel Parker
Executive Producer : Shelley Schlender

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Chasing Heirloom Seeds with the Seed Detective

In this week’s show Beth speaks with Adam Alexander, author of The Seed Detective, a treasure trove of stories about heirloom seeds and the plants they grow into. Not only does he entertain with his adventures in exotic places, but he also takes the reader on a journey through the history of many common cultivated plants such as peas, lettuce, brussels sprouts, and beans.
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett and Shelley Schlender
Show Producer: Beth Bennett and Colette Czarnecky
Engineer: Shannon Young

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Green Energy & Nuclear Power

Iceland Geothermal – NesjavellirPowerPlant

Energy  Technology that will Power the World (Entire Show)  We look at a climate change discussion from CU-Boulder’s Conference on World Affairs about our Energy Future – where the panelists included ideas about hydrogen, geothermal and nuclear power . . . and we get audience reaction both pro . . and con.

Go here for complete 90-minute video recorded panel discussion

Experts featured include:

Also interviewed in this episode is Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center member, Rich Andrews.

Producer/Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender

Music contributions:  Bonobo and Hydrogen Seas.

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