Kgnu - How On Earth

  Grammy Award-winning music producer Tom Wasinger comments on the entries to the How on Earth theme song contest.  Give us comments on your favorite theme song here.  The winner will be announced on August 12, 2011. Co-hosts:  Ted Burnham and Tom McKinnon Engineer: Tom McKinnon Executive Producer: Susan Moran Producer: Tom McKinnon

This week's How On Earth offers two features: Co-host Susan Moran interviews Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor for The Atlantic magazine and author of the new book, Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology. Madrigal spins tales of the bicycle boom in the 1800s and how it paved the way for cars, ironically; of a time when gasoline emerged as a waste product of kerosene for lighting; and when crude oil was what you might call the environmentally sound alternative to oil from whales, which were nearly hunted to extinction.  Madrigal also pays tribute to Colorado's National Renewable Energy Lab and its deep history of spawning renewable energy and surviving budget cuts. And he honors green-tech (and fossil fuel) inventors and beacons of yesteryear, as he looks forward to what a greener future could be. In the second feature, Shelley Schlender interviews Warren Washington, a ground-breaking climate scientist at the National Center of Atmospheric Research in Boulder. He's a world leader in

      Feature #1: Many problems plague the oceans and the fish and other species that inhabit them: overfishing, pollution, and much more. But perhaps the greatest threat to sea life - and possibly to humans - is ocean acidification.  That’s when the chemistry of the ocean changes and causes seawater to become more acidic because the ocean is absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This increase in ocean acidity makes it difficult for many plants and animals in the ocean to make or maintain their shells or skeletons.  The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jane Lubchenco, recently said that the ocean is becoming more acidic at rates not seen for at least 20 million years, and that’s due mostly to increases in CO2 in the atmosphere.  The threat is so grave that NOAA recently created a distinct Ocean Acidification Program. In May, Dr. Libby Jewett was appointed the first director of the program. We talk with Dr. Jewett find out more about the problem and what she aims

At its most basic level, science can be considered as non-political or at least politically neutral: science is dedicated to the collection of facts and interpreting them to help us understand the universe and how it works. For that reason, many people - one may even say our culture in general - places a high value in being scientifically literate. Or at least we pay lip service to that idea. But when the results of science end up contradicting and conflicting with other ideals such as religious beliefs, personal behaviors, or vested interests, then science can become very political. Perhaps the two most visible examples of this politicization of science are in the areas of climate change and evolution, where the discussion ranges from the White House and Congress to local school boards and textbooks. Our guest today has front line experience in several aspects of science and education. Dr. Paul Strode is a biology teacher in the Boulder Valley School District, and has been an instructor of ecology and evolut

This week on How On Earth co-host Susan Moran interviews Hannah Nordhaus, Boulder-based author of the new book, The Beekeeper's Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Feed America. Nordhaus describes how one passionate, colorful and quixotic beekeeper named John Miller struggles against all odds to keep beekeeping--and bees--alive at a time when they're being slammed by a mysterious mixture of Colony Collapse Disorder, varroa mites and other maladies. Nordhaus will give a reading at the Boulder Book Store on June 30, 7:30 p.m. Hosts: Joel Parker and Susan Moran Producer: Susan Moran Engineer: Joel Parker    

The World Health Organization has officially listed cells phones as a possible carcinogen. One expert who's not surprised at the designation is University of Colorado, distinguished professor Frank Barnes. For decades, Barnes has cobbled together hard-to-find research dollars to study the biological effects of magnetic fields and radiation, including cell phone radiation. In 2008, he chaired a National Research Council report that called for more research into the health effects of all kinds of wireless technologies, including laptop computers, wireless phones, and cell phones. In today's show, Frank Barnes talks with How on Earth's Shelley Schlender about cell phone safety. Hosts: Joel Parker, Tom McKinnon Producer: Joel Parker Engineer: Tom McKinnon Listen to the show:

  Here is the extended version of the interview with CU Electrical Engineering Professor Frank Barnes about cell phone safety.  

We talk with Sandi Copeland, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at CU, about this story: Two million years ago, two-legged apes roamed the African landscape. Many of these ancient hominins,  lived in limestone caves in what is now South Africa. We know this through fossilized skull fragments and teeth from those caves. But fossils only tell us where an individual died—not where it grew up, or where it traveled during its life. Or do they? New research from the University of Colorado that’s been published in the journal Nature, reveals that male hominins in South Africa grew up in the caves where they died, while the females who died there grew up elsewhere and migrated to the caves as adults. The research not only sheds light on the behaviors of early human relatives; it makes use of a new technique, pioneered by the CU researchers, to quickly and cheaply analyze the birthplace of fossilized creatures. Producer: Shelley Schlender Co-hosts: Joel Parker, Ted Burnham Engineer: Shelley Schlender For Headline

This week co-host Susan Moran speaks with Dr. Doug Kenney, director of the Western Water Policy Program at the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado,  Boulder’s law school. Kenney sheds light on the Colorado River Compact and how population growth, climate change, and water politics, are expected to further threaten our future water supply. And Ted Burnham interviews skeptic and science writer Michael Shermer. His new book, “The Believing Brain,” presents a counter-intuitive explanation for how we form and reinforce our beliefs. Shermer draws on evidence from neuroscience, psychology and sociology to show that we often form beliefs first, and only then look for reasons to believe. Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker Producer: Susan Moran Engineer: Joel Parker Listen to the show:

We present the second part of Joel Parker's interview of Joshua Foer, author of the book "Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything" (the full interview can be found here).  To round out the "brain theme" of the show, we also include an excerpt of BBC's Science in Action where Jon Stuart talks with paleontologist Timothy Rowe about how our brains evolved and how scientists can study brains from long dead, ancient mammals. Producer: Joel Parker Hosts: Joel Parker, Susan Moran, Breanna Draxler Engineer: Ted Burnham Listen to the show:

We share excerpts from a talk about the Future of Spaceflight, presented at CU-Boulder in April, featuring Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute and Elon Musk of Space X. Producer: Shelley Schlender Co-hosts: Joel Parker, Ted Burnham Engineer: Shelley Schlender Listen to the show:

We learn about new research that indicates that the combination of exercise plus eating high cholesterol foods may help build lean body mass, even in older adults. What's more, eating high cholesterol foods such as cheese, beef fat and eggs, when combined with exercise, also seems more heart safe than most people think, according to new research published by Steve Riechman, in the Journal of Gerontology. And we talk with Larry Gold, founder of the  Gold Lab Symposium.  The 2011 symposium features scientists, researchers and policy makers discussing how health and science can intersect with healthcare policy, and how to make each one  better. The 2011 GoldLab Symposium was held at CU-Boulder's Muenzinger Auditorium May 13 - 14th.  For audio recordings of the sessions, go here.  For videos and powerpoint presentations from the sessions, go to GoldLabColorado.com Producer: Shelley Schlender Co-hosts: Joel Parker, Ted Burnham Engineer: Shelley Schlender Listen to the show:

On this How On Earth show we explore how climate change is taking a toll on human health, and then how "smart grid" technology can help reduce the carbon footprint of electrical power generation.  Co-host Susan Moran interviews Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School; and Dan Ferber, co-authors of the new book "Changing Planet, Changing Health: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do About It." Then reporter Tom McKinnon interviews Davin Lim of Tendril, a Boulder-based company that is building the electronic pipelines to make the smart grid work. Producer: Susan Moran Co-hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker Engineer: Ted Burnham

Tom McKinnon interviews, via phone, Peter Asmus of Pike Research about Virtual Power Plants.  This emerging information technology may help to integrate more renewable power onto the gird.  And even save money for customers who are willing to turn down their energy demand when the grid is stressed. At the recent Conference on World Affairs, Susan Moran sat down with Peter Hildeband, the director of the Earth Sciences Directorate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  He talked about how climate change will impact wildfires in the West. Producer:  Tom McKinnon Co-Hosts:  Tom McKinnon and Susan Moran Engineer: Ted Burnham Listen to the show:

We discuss the environmental and human costs of natural gas drilling practices, and then the human toll of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico one year after the disaster. On natural gas drilling practices, Susan Moran interviews Steve Torbit, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation's Rocky Mountain Center; and Steven Hall, communications director for the Colorado Bureau of Land Management. Ted Burnham interviews Liesel Ritchie, assistant director for research at the Natural Hazards Center, about the BP oil disaster's social costs. Click here for details of the study. Producer: Tom McKinnon Co-hosts: Tom McKinnon and Susan Moran Engineer: Ted Burnham Headlines: Breanna Draxler

Here's a longer version of my interview with Anjali Bhatara, which aired on today's program. Dr. Bhatara is with the Laboratory of the Psychology of Perception at the University of Paris, where she studies the interactions between music and the brain, the mind and the emotions. She has published several papers on music perception in people with autism—especially their ability to pick up on the emotional cues in a song, and how it might be related to their ability to detect emotional cues in speech. I began by asking her which aspects of sound are relevant to musical perception. Listen to the interview:

Today we announce a contest to find new theme music for How On Earth! Our current theme has served us well for more than 20 years, but we feel it's time to change our tune. We're looking to local musicians for that new "How On Earth" sound. Check out our Contest Page for more information, and to listen to and comment on submitted music. Joining us in the studio today is Tom Wasinger, the Grammy-winning producer of our long-standing theme. We talk with him about the history and creation of that theme, and about his hopes for this new theme music contest. We also hear from Anjali Bhatara, of the Laboratory of the Psychology of Perception in Paris. She studies the way music affects the brain, the mind, and the emotions (hear an extended version of this interview). And we'll get some advice on selecting a memorable new theme from music expert Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect and founder of the Institute for Music, Health, and Education here in Boulder. Hosts: Ted Burnham and Tom Yulsman Engineer: Shel

Welcome to a special edition of How on Earth, done in conjunction with the Conference on World Affairs, which is being held this week on the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus.  Our two guests are participants in the Conference on World Affairs.  This first part of the show is Conference Panel 2051 titled “Pseudoscience”, with guest Seth Shostak.  Dr. Shostak is a Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, California.  Our second guest is Larry Schweiger is president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, the largest conservation organization in the U.S.  We talk with him about conservation and environmental policy. Hosts: Joel Parker and Susan Moran Producer and Engineer: Joel Parker Listen to the show:

Our live guests are consultant Dr. Robert Cohen and CU scientist Kristen Averyt.  Dr. Cohen discusses ocean thermal energy -- a method to harvest some of the almost limitless solar energy captured daily by the oceans.  Dr. Averyt surveys the future of the Intermountain West as we increase temperature and put increasing population pressure on a dwindling water supply. Producer: Tom McKinnon Co-hosts: Tom McKinnon and Susan Moran Engineer: Breanna Draxler Headlines: Ted Burnham and Breanna Draxler

In-studio guests Jeff King, Director of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Program at the Colorado School of Mines, and Len Ackland, Co-Director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, discuss the recent nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan.  We look at the accident itself and how it might impact the future of nuclear power in the United States. Producer: Tom McKinnon Co-hosts: Tom McKinnon and Tom Yulsman Engineer: Ted Burnham Listen to the show: