KGNU - How On Earth

Critical Earth Minerals  Hiding in Plain Site – Colorado School of Mines professor Elizabeth Holley shares  how the US could break its dependency on critical earth mineral imports, and lead the world in environmentally safe ways to do it.

Show Producer/Host/Engineer: Shelley Schlender

Great Steam . . . from a Heat Pump (starts 1:00)  Time Magazine named CSU Engineer Todd Bandhauer one of 2025’s top climate innovators.   His heat pump makes steam better than fossil fuel steam boilers.  Interview thanks to Rocky Mountain Community Radio and Aspen Public Radio.

CU-Boulder at COP30 Climate Conference  (Starts 7:05) CU Boulder’s Max Boykoff attended the world climate conference –the first in 30 years without an official US delegation .  He describes China filling the vacuum left by the US , and also oil and gas lobbyists attending “Blue Zone” talks where indigenous groups – who often are suffering the worst effects of climate change, being banned.  For the CU-Boulder report Go here.

Show Producer/Host/Engineer: Shelley Schlender

Dustbowl Days Today (starts 5:00)  Colorado State University grasslands scientist Melinda Smith explains the study she conducted with the grassroots help of nearly 200 scientists around the world. Their research indicates grasslands are vulnerable to Megadroughts, which climate change is making more common.  Just 4 years of drought in a row may trigger Dust Bowls on the scale of the Midwestern dustbowls of the 1930s.  Smith explains why and what can be done to save regions around the world from dustbowls.

Hosts: Abby O’Brien, Lorraine Healy, Mac Hebebrand
Show Producer/Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

The physiology of deciduous trees (start time: 11:09) For many people living in places with four distinct seasons, such as here in Colorado, a favorite pastime at this midpoint in autumn is watching the faded leaves fall from their branches, and listening to the crackling sound while raking up the dried leaves. In this week’s How On Earth show, we explore questions like, Why do the leaves of aspen, ash and other deciduous trees “change” color in the fall?  (Spoiler alert: They actually reveal their true colors.) Why do they shed their leaves every fall? And what happens to the naked trees in the winter? Host Susan Moran interviews Dr. Stephanie Mayer, a senior instructor emerita in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Host/ Show Producer: Susan Moran

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Five years ago, Beth spoke with Dr Marc Bubbs about his best-selling hardcover book, PEAK: THE NEW SCIENCE OF ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE. Since then, Bubbs has been on the leading edge of new developments in the physiology and psychology of athletic performance. Bubbs helps athletes and other clients in Canada and England cope with metabolic diseases, Bubbs is also the performance nutritionist for the Canadian men’s national basketball team, In addition, he consults with teams in the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB. On this week’s show, Beth talks to Marc about his revised edition of the book, just published, and some of the new developments and strategies he describes.

Executive Producer: Susan Moran

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Into The Unknown (starts at 9:05) What do we know about the universe, and how do we know we know it? Conversely, what do we know we don’t know, what don’t we know that we don’t know, and why not?

To help us unravel these age-old philosophical questions in the context of current science, our guest is Dr. Kelsey Johnson, who received her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado.  Dr. Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, and the former president of the American Astronomical Society. She is the founder of the Dark Skies, Bright Kids program, and wrote the children’s book Constellations for Kids. Her most recent book is Into The Unknown: The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos. In this episode, Dr. Johnson takes us into that unknown, and talks about what we know, what we might know, and what we might never know.

Part 1 of this interview is available here.

We begin this show with some pre-Halloween spooky science news.

Host: Joel Parker

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Into The Unknown (starts at 7:57) What do we know about the universe, and how do we know we know it? Conversely, what do we know we don’t know, what don’t we know that we don’t know, and why not?

To help us unravel these age-old philosophical questions in the context of current science, our guest is Dr. Kelsey Johnson, who received her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado.  Dr. Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, and the former president of the American Astronomical Society. She is the founder of the Dark Skies, Bright Kids program, and wrote the children’s book Constellations for Kids. Her most recent book is Into The Unknown: The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos. In this episode, Dr. Johnson takes us into that unknown, and talks about what we know, what we might know, and what we might never know.

Part 2 of this interview is available here.

Host: Joel Parker

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Science & Songs of Katydids, Cicadas, etc. (start time: 3:08)  It’s the time of year to savor listening each night to the pulsating and clicking sounds of katydids, cicadas, crickets and other straight-winged insects, all crying out for a mate. Soon, with the first big frost, the songs, along with the arthropods themselves, will disappear. In this week’s show, a longtime arthropod expert, Tim McNary, talks with host Susan Moran about things like, who are these small yet very vocal insects? What’s their life cycle like? What body parts make those noises? What role do these vocal insects play in the broader ecosystem? McNary is a curator at the Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Previously, he worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the field of grasshopper and locust management.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker

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Helping Wild Animals Roam (start time: 3:29) Wild animals, whether  buffalos or bats,  need space to move around–not just to survive, but to forage,  reproduce, migrate, and generally thrive as a species.  But it’s getting increasingly difficult for so many species to do this, thanks to humans breaking up their habitats to build roads, fences, housing developments, croplands, etc. Of course, climate change, pesticides, and other stressors compound the problem. In this week’s (fall fund drive) show, host Susan Moran interviews Hillary Rosner, a local environmental journalist and University of Colorado Boulder assistant teaching professor of journalism. Her debut book, called Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World (Patagonia Works), will be released next week. In her reporting, Hillary digs into some of the threats to wildlife here in the U.S. and elsewhere, as well as bold efforts by individual humans and communities to repair and connect landscapes enough to let many animal populations thrive. And in many cases, helping wildlife move also helps human communities become economically and socially stronger.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker

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This episode features Miles O’Brien, a science journalist who has been a correspondent for PBS News and CNN. He talks about his experience breaking in to science journalism, past and current science reporting, public and political views of science, the value of scientific research, and some particular stories including beavers, prostheses, and climate change research in Antarctica. This feature is an interview by KBUT‘s Toni Todd and shared with us via Rocky Mountain Community Radio.

And we also have a report on the recent government claims about autism and use of acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) during pregnancy, which is disputed by researchers and medical groups.   We provide the full transcript of the press conference held by SciLine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science with Brian Lee, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University.

Host: Joel Parker

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