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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Beavers: Engineers for Our Planet

Photo credit: Chris Canipe

Today’s show features:
Employing Beavers (start time: 11:12):  Some consider them pests. Others praise them as saviors of the environment. Whatever your impression of these furry swimming rodents, beavers are gaining more proponents for their ability to make landscapes, and thus humans, more resilient to climate change. Through their dams and lodges, beavers raise water levels, moisten fire-prone forest soil, slow water speed, and thus prevent flooding while storing more water. Host Susan Moran talks with Jessica Doran, a wildlife biologist with EcoMetrics Colorado; and Aaron Hall, senior aquatic biologist with Defenders of Wildlife, about the promises and complexities of employing beavers as ecosystem engineers.
Beaver resources:
iBeaver (crowdsourcing App from Defenders of Wildlife)
How On Earth 2018 interview with Eager author Ben Goldfarb
Rewilding the American West (Ripple et al, BioScience, 2022)

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Headline contributors: Beth Bennett, Shelley Schlender, Tom Yulsman

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The Amazing…Honeybee!

On today’s show Beth talks to Prof Michael Breed about honeybees. Sure, there is a little on their decline which is concerning to all of us, but we focus on many remarkable aspects of their biology. If you want to go deeper, you can visit Mike’s website or the book he mentions in the interview.

Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Shannon Young

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Nature Wants Us to Be Fat – Rick Johnson MD

Rick Johnson – CU School of Medicine

Nature Wants Us to be Fat:  The Surprising Science Behind Why we Gain Weight and How We Can Prevent and Reverse it.  University of Colorado Medical School Professor Rick Johnson shares why he thinks eating lots of fructose sugars can trigger a Survival Switch that helps bears put on weight before they hibernate . . . . and also why whales, which don’t eat any sugar, carry a lot of f to why whales are fat, and how foods affect our hunger and satiety.

GO HERE for extended interview (1 hour) and transcript.

Host/Producer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

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Testosterone – Bane or Benefit?

ON this week’s show, Beth talks with Carole Hooven about her new book: “T – The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us”. She demonstrates that the hormone acts in concert with genes and culture to produce a vast variety of male and female behavior. And, crucially, the fact that many sex differences are grounded in biology provides no support for restrictive gender norms or patriarchal values. In understanding testosterone, we better understand ourselves and one another—and how we might build a fairer, safer society.

Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional Contributions: Shelley Schlender

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Colorado River Basin Crisis: Pt. II

Colorado River Basin Crisis Pt. II (start time: 6:19): This week’s How On Earth show focuses on the implications and future prospects after the federal government in June ordered the seven Western states that rely on the river to come up with a plan to save trillions of gallons of water from the shrinking river) — and after the August 15 deadline came and passed without a deal. (Here’s the Bureau of Reclamation’s news release.) How On Earth host Susan Moran interviews Aaron Citron, senior policy advisor with The Nature Conservancy’s Colorado chapter; and journalist Jerd Smith, editor of Fresh Water News. (For background, check out our July 26th show, Pt. I on the Basin’s Basin’s climate, drought, and overuse crisis. Also, see how you can make a difference by taking advantage of this recently signed legislation that helps Colorado residents convert their grass lawns into water-saving landscapes.)

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Producer: Susan Moran
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Headline contributors: Beth Bennett, Shelley Schlender

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What’s New in Climate?

In this week’s How on Earth, we look at 3 aspects of climate change: its role in disease incidence and transmission; some effects of the new climate change legislation; and how ‘micro-forests’ can mitigate temperature and water loss. The latter comes from an interview with author Hannah Lewis and her book Mini-Forest Revolution, in which she describes the Miyawaki Method, a unique approach to reforestation devised by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki.
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producers: Beth Bennett & Benita Lee
Engineer: Shannon Young
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DNA Superconductors // Western Rewilding // What Your Food Ate

DNA Superconductors (Starts 1:00) Scientists are harnessing DNA to make electronic components at the nano-scale.

Western Rewilding Network (Starts 3:50) Researchers at Oregon State University are urging the U.S. to set aside 500,000 square kilometers for a Western Rewilding Network that would include wolves and beavers as part of ecosystem restoration.  Their research appears today in the journal BioScience.

What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health (Starts 9:05)  KGNU News Director Shannon Young speaks with authors David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé for the science behind the time-honored adage that the roots of good health start on farms . . . and how modern agriculture needs to change to restore those roots.

Hosts: Joel Parker & Benita Lee
Producers: Shelley Schlender, Joel Parker & Benita Lee
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Feature contributors:  Joel Parker, Benita Lee, Shannon Young

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Alcohol, Brain Damage & Genetics

Colorado Cafe Sci (starts 1:00)  happens monthly, in Denver.

cc Wikimedia

Alcohol and Alcoholism Recent News (starts 2:49) We look at recent science about alcohol consumption, including a study that indicates as little as 3 glasses of wine a week is associated with buildups of iron in the brain — a risk factor for brain disease, increased binge drinking among pregnant women, and a new study about genetic characteristics associated with alcoholism.

Beth Bennett Discusses the Biology of Alcoholism, Homeostasis and Allostasis (starts 5:35) Discussion includes a reference to the studies about yeast and entropy with Matthias Heinemann.  Go here to listen to the entire extended interview (45 minutes long) and go here for an extended version transcript

Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Joel Parker & Benita Lee

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Colorado River Basin Crisis

Lake Mead’s “bathtub ring” (July 2022)
Photo credit: Tom Yulsman

This week on How On Earth:
Colorado River Basin Crisis (start time: 5:31–scroll down for arrow)
The Colorado River is the life blood for about 40 million inhabitants. And it’s in dire straights. The river’s two reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are at historically low levels, due primarily to climate change and overuse. The water-supply crisis is affecting Colorado and six other states, as well as some 30 tribes, that rely on the Colorado River for water and electricity. Last month the federal government ordered the seven states to jointly come up with a plan to dramatically cut their consumption from the river. They have until mid-August to deliver–or they’ll face mandatory cuts. Host Susan Moran discusses with two guests the underlying causes of the water crisis, what’s at stake, and potential solutions. Jennifer Gimbel is a senior water policy scholar at the Colorado Water Center, located at Colorado State University. Formerly she was an undersecretary of the Department of Interior, and executive director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board.  Tom Yulsman is a science journalist focusing on climate change. He runs the ImaGeo visual blog for Discover magazine, and he is director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at CU Boulder.
Some relevant resources for more info and the basin’s water crisis:
*  2022 Science paper, What Will It Take To Stabilize the Colorado River?
* Fresh Water News (Water Education Colorado)
* The Water Desk

Show Host & Producer: Susan Moran
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Headline Contributors: Beth Bennett, Shelley Schlender

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