At a protest outside NOAA in Boulder. Credit: Susan Moran Tackling Climate Change and Science Cutbacks (start time: 7:03) In this week’s show we discuss the ongoing barrage of executive orders by the Trump administration; and the impacts of defunding of federal agencies, scientific research and scientists focusing on climate change and the environm…

Teens are in Crisis – Some people warn that Cell Phones are to blame. But Colorado Native and Pulitzer prize winner Matt Richtel says our tech can be a useful tool, IF we better understand the purpose of adolescence, That’s the focus of Richtel’s brand new book – How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker Show Produce…

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 Conservan…

In this week’s science show Beth talks with genome biologist Ed Chuong of CU Boulder’s innovation incubator, the Biofrontiers Institute. Ed takes us for a whirlwind tour of the evolutionary history of these viral invaders of our genome, and some examples of how they can simultaneously be friend and foe. Teaser, did you realize that the genes that a…

With 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 recently received 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 …

photo of intermediate macular degeneration c National Institutes of Health We talk with scientists who report that a common weight loss/diabetes drug known as a GLP-1 receptor agonist (Wegovy, Ozempic for instance) is associated with an increased risk of blindness. The study was published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association…

On this week’s How on Earth, Beth talks with author and science journalist Liz Kalaugher, about her new book, The Elephant in the room:How to Stop Making Ourselves and Other Animals Sick. Think about it this way: When new diseases spread, news reports often focus on wildlife culprits–rodents, monkeys and mpox; bats and COVID-19; waterfowl and avian…

Scientists speak out for science (start time: 1:00) The Trump administration has been on a dizzying streak of slashing federal funding for scientific research, and firing thousands of federal scientists. Among the casualties is the National Weather Service, which supplies critical data from air balloons and climate models to develop weather forecas…

Arvind Panjabi releasing a banded grasshopper sparrow in Chihuahua state, Mexico. Photo credit: Sujata Gupta Birds: Risk and Resilience (start time: 5:55) What speaks of Spring more than the songs of American robins, yellow warblers, spotted towhees and other birds in the early morning? As we relish in these avians choruses, it’s also an important …

Nelson Trujillo – Boulder Heart This is an extended version of our interview with Boulder Cardiologist Nelson Trujillo. For the broadcast version, go here. Producer: Shelley SchlenderBy KGNU - How On Earth

This is Shelley Schlender’s extended interview of Larry Gold, founder of the GoldLab Symposium. For the broadcast version, go here. Producer: Shelley Schlender Larry GoldBy KGNU - How On Earth

With 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 Masters or Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in a STEM-related field. They talk about their thesis research, their grad school experiences, …

Sweet in Tooth and Claw (start time: 0:59) Since the 1800s, science has been obsessed with the notion, stemming from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection, that only the “fittest” can survive and pass on their strong genes. As in, it’s a ruthless, violent world. And today, we humans find ourselves mired in a hyper-polarized…

Alexander Kramida – NIST Atomic Spectroscopy Group – phote from NIST Federal cutbacks have led the National Institute of Standards and Technology to shut down a long-running, highly prized information center used by scientists around the world, for projects ranging from searching for exoplanets, to making better microchips, to detecting atomic miss…

image credit: NASA Our guest today is Dr. Simone Marchi, Institute Scientist in the Solar System Science & Exploration Division at the Boulder office of Southwest Research Institute. Dr. Marchi is the Deputy Principal Investigator for NASA’s Lucy mission. Lucy will be the first space mission to explore a population of small bodies known as the Troj…

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,…

Today is April Fools’ day, when jokes and pranks are played, sometimes among friends and family, sometimes on a more public scale. But why is there such a day for culturally-accepted foolishness? To delve into the origins and history of April Fools’ Day, we talk with Dr. Angus Kress Gillespie, folklorist and professor of American studies at Rutgers…

oil and gas rig Image courtesy of USGS NEPA rollbacks, environmental impacts (start time: 6:25) Amidst a flurry of moves by the Trump administration to roll back environmental regulations, last month a White House agency proposed a rule to rescind a landmark law meant to protect wildlife, their habitat, and human communities from unchecked developm…

On this week’s show, Beth talks with Brianne Barker, Associate Professor of Biology and Director of Undergraduate Research at Drew University. Dr Barker studies innate immune responses – these are the initial, non-specific actions taken by the immune system – to fight off retroviruses such as HIV (the AIDS virus). We discuss the measles virus, how …

We speak with Environmental Scientist Alan Townsend about his new book, This Ordinary Stardust: A Scientist’s Path from Grief to Wonder. It chronicles what happened when his family received two unthinkable, catastrophic diagnoses: his 4-year-old daughter and his brilliant scientist wife developed unrelated, life-threatening forms of brain cancer. A…

Source: patrice schoefolt / PexelsOn today’s show, Beth speaks with two experts on animal behavior and training about the wolf reintroduction project in Colorado – wins and losses. Mary Angilly is an advocate for force-free, evidence-based training in dogs and other animals. For decades Marc Bekoff has researched animal behavior, cognitive ethology…

Tom Cech’s New Book The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets CU Boulder Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Tom Cech says that RNA has long been the biochemical backup singer that slaves away in the shadows of the diva. In his new book, The Catalyst, Cech puts RNA in the spotlight, along with dazzling and determined scientists who…

Landfill photo credit: iStock Tackling CH4 emissions from landfills (start time: 5:59) Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, and its emissions have been rising recently in the U.S. The largest source of methane emissions is oil and gas production, followed by livestock farming. The third largest source of methane emissions is landfills. Fo…

On today’s show, Beth speaks with CU scientist Christopher Lowry. Dr. Lowry’s research program at CU Boulder focuses on understanding stress-related physiology and behavior with an emphasis on the microbiome-gut-brain axis. He describes his recent finding that exposure to a harmless soil bacterium protects mice from the weight gain and inflammation…

Concrete mixer truck Tackling Cement’s Huge Carbon Footprint (start time: 0:58) It’s hard to imagine modern society without a key material that so many structures depend on–cement. Think of our houses, apartment and office buildings, hospitals, parking lots, bridges, and, increasingly, massive data centers of big-tech companies. But that societal g…