In this episode of our Coast & Country podcast, host Brian Scott Smith interviews Dr. Goudarz Molaei from The CAES's Dept. of Environmental Sciences about The CAES's Tick Testing Laboratory and how the station uses the data it collects to predict future trends in tick-borne disease cases in the region, and much more!

In this edition of our Coast & Country podcast, our host Brian Scott Smith is talking with Dr. Lindsay Triplett and Dr. Stephen Taerum from The CAES's department of Plant Pathology and Ecology about the fascinating subjects they are studying. As Dr. Triplett explains, plants get sick too, and it's a plant pathologist's job to find out why in order to stop these diseases from occurring in the future. Plants have communities of microorganisms that live on them that comprise their microbiome. The organisms that are not categorized as animals, plants, fungi, or viruses are collectively called protists. At The CAES, plant pathologists are studying protists to learn about their role in plant health, and to hopefully locate beneficial protists.

In this edition of our Coast & Country podcast, Dr. Gale Ridge and entomological researcher Katherine Dugas of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station discuss and debunk bed bug myths that people have believed for generations. You may be surprised to discover that bed bugs do not transmit any diseases to humans; and although they are basically little dinosaurs since they have been around for millions of years, all you need to combat them is a vacuum cleaner. There is a lot we can learn from these misunderstood creatures, like how they have managed to adapt to survive under adverse conditions for so long.

In this podcast, Dr. Doug Brackney of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station discusses the role that he and station scientists played in finding and creating the latest saliva-based COVID-19 test, along with collaborators from Yale University. The new testing method will hopefully become a widely adopted, cost-effective way of testing people for the virus: quickly and painlessly. Check out the website mentioned in this video, covidtrackerct.com and as always, learn more at https://portal.ct.gov/caes