The KGNU Science Show
(Whole Show) Longer “healthspan” might be why the most popular Non-COVID story in Science Magazine last year involved the body-building supplement alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG), fed to middle-aged mice. Buck Institute of Research on Aging Scientist Gordon Lithgow explains.
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Producer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Music: Stop This Train – by John Mayer.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:55 — 24.7MB)
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In today’s show, Beth talks with science writer and journalist Gary Taubes about his new, and more personal book (The Case for Keto) on his experience with the low-carb, high fat or ketogenic diet. He interviewed hundreds of people, physicians, scientists, and ordinary folks, about their experiences on this diet. The keto diet produces consistency weight loss because it circumvents the insulin system, activated by carbs, which promotes fat storage. And yet, this diet also produces good health metrics in terms of cholesterol and other outcome measures. The interview starts at about 9 minutes in.
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Producer:Beth Bennett
Additional Contributions: Joel Parker
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:19 — 26.8MB)
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Our lives have been changed by lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries which are everywhere: in our cell phones, cars, toys, power tools and grid energy storage. Indeed, the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the three scientists who invented and developed them. As the world manufactures more and more Li-ion batteries, what are the challenges and opportunities for recycling them? How can we prevent the batteries from ending up in landfills where the toxic metals inside can leak out? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Zheng Chen, a professor of nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego, and co-author on the paper “Efficient Direct Recycling of Lithium-Ion Battery Cathodes by Targeted Healing” published a few weeks ago in the journal Joule.
Hosts: Jill Sjong, Joel Parker
Feature: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producer: Joel Parker
Engineer: Sam Fuqua
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:14 — 37.4MB)
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Scratch & Sniff COVID Test (starts 1:00) CU Scientist Dan Larremore explains how a smell test app might offer an affordable COVID screening that’s way more accurate than a temperature check.
Ice Age BONE Fire (starts 6:00) Archeologist John Hoffecker and local volunteers recreate a Paleolithic “campfire” that used bones as the primary fuel. Volunteers who helped with this project — Josh Steinsiek, Dustin Goodew of Arapahoe Meat Company, Outdoorspeople Lin and Henry Ballard, Amber O’Hearn and Siobhan Huggins.
Engineer Sam Fuqua
Host/Producer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Edie Hill, Composer
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:09 — 24.9MB)
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This week on How on Earth, Beth gives an update on the efficacy, safety, and availability of the mRNA vaccines for the corona virus. You hear from Drs Tony Fauci, Michael Diamond, and Roger Seheult.
Host: Beth Bennett
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Sam Fuqua
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:15 — 23.1MB)
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This week we review the hit movie “My Octopus Teacher,” the story about a man who goes diving in a kelp forest off the Western Cape of South Africa, and becomes acquainted with an octopus. We review the movie with Roger Hanlon, a diving biologist, cephalopod expert and senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. We discuss the octopus’ elaborate camouflage and complex behavior. We’ll get some answers to our octopus questions: Do they dream? Do they play? Use tools? Are octopuses a second form of intelligent life on earth?
You can learn more about the South African sea forest at the Sea Change Project. You can learn more about octopuses at Roger Hanlon’s research.
Host & Producer: Jill Sjong
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Sam Fuqua
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:30 — 37.8MB)
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CU COVID TESTING UPDATE (starts 1:00) We join CU Engineering Professor Cresten Mansfeldt as he and his students open a sewer manhole and do maintenance on their wastewater COVID early warning system. We also get an update on COVID status at CU Boulder.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPOTTED FEVER & CLIMATE CHANGE (starts 11:15) Brown dog ticks that carry Rocky Mountain Spotted fever usually bite dogs. But they prefer to bite people over dogs when temperature rise to 100 degrees. UC-Davis scientist Laura Backus explains her new study and its implications in a time of climate change.
Host: Shelley Schlender
Producer:Shelley Schlender
Engineer:Sam Fuqua
Additional contribution: Music from Lynn Patrick
Executive Producer:Beth Bennett
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:37 — 25.3MB)
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This week on How on Earth, Beth interviews author Judith Schwartz. In her new book, the Reindeer Chronicles, she takes the reader on a tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization. This optimistic book describes solutions to seemingly intractable problems that can restore local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles.
Host: Beth Bennett
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Sam Fuqua
Additional contribution: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:27 — 26.0MB)
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Host: Beth Bennett
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Maeve Conran
Additional Contributions: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:54 — 28.3MB)
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CU-Boulder Sociologist Andrea Tilstra discusses how this decade’s reduction of lifespan in the US ties closely with two factors 1) easier access to painkillers and opioids, and 2) the obesity epidemic and the related health problems that come with it. Tilstra also explains the quesitons a social scientist/demographer asks when examining the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVID-19 Boulder County local tracking of the pandemic, and the human factors to consider as people face the stresses of social distancing and trying to stay connected.
Producer and Host: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Maeve Conran
Executive Producer: Jill Sjong
Additional Contributions: Music from Lynn Patrick
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:11 — 24.9MB)
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