Science Straight Up

American agriculture contributes about 10 percent of this country's greenhouse gas emissions, but done right, it can absorb rather than produce carbon and help overcome the problem of man-made climate change.  This exciting possibility is the subject of a Telluride Science panel moderated by Adam Chambers of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Panelists include Tony and Barclay Daranyi, who practice regenerative agriculture at their farm 33 miles northwest of Telluride; Chris Hazen, from the San Miguel County Payment for Ecosystem Services Program and Cindy Lair, deputy director of the Colorado STAR (Saving Tomorrow's Agricultural Resources) program.
Our podcast is hosted by award-winning broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

Dr. Omar Farha of Northwestern University and NuMat Technologies talks about Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF's) that he prefers to call "programmable sponges." Hailed as a potential defining material of the 21st century, these nano-sized structures can be used to neutralize toxic materials, pull water out of the moisture in the air and eventually, capture carbon emissions that threaten the planet.  The Pentagon is investing in this technology to create military clothing that can be used on chemical warfare battlefields.  "The sky's the limit," says Dr. Farha, in discussing the potential uses of programmable sponges.  Dr Farha's personal story is a classic: the immigrant from a poor family in the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories who overcomes big obstacles and achieves great things that could change our world.

We've long thought that aging was just a part of life but now science is beginning to view aging as a disease that can be treated. This, as research on aging is exploding and some scientists speculate people could live 150 years or more.  Our aging expert, Dr. Kristin Slade, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York says, "We already know what is going on with aging at the people level, but I was determined to get inside the cell and discover what was going on at the molecular level.” Indeed, that could be the key to slowing down the aging process. She spoke before an audience at the Conference Center in Mountain Village, Colorado and the discussion was moderated by noted journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

We talk about chirality, how some molecules have left-handed properties and others have right-handed properties.  It turns out that electrons, carrying energy and information vital to life, spin in different directions when interacting with these two types of molecules and harnessing that effect could lead to big advances in energy production, agriculture and medicine.  Our panelists are two of the leading researchers in the field:  Dr. Ron Naaman of the Weizman Institute of Science and Dr. Moh El Naggar of the University of Southern California.  In a “Town Talk” at the Transfer Warehouse in Telluride, they were interviewed by award-winning broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

Dr. Jayajit Das of the Ohio State University and Nationwide Childrens Hospital talks about harnessing the power of immunity using powerful computer technology to orchestrate the body’s response to disease.  He is interviewed by noted broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis during a “town talk” at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village, CO.

A guy named Jon Snow came to Telluride to talk about ice and fire.  No, not the Jon Snow from Game of Thrones, but rather Dr. Jonathan Snow, arctic explorer, professor and chair of geology and geophysics at Louisiana State University.  He says there’s all sorts of fascinating stuff going on with the undersea volcanoes deep beneath the Arctic ice.  Dr. Snow is joined by award-winning broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

"Hey, Siri, what's the lowdown on A.I.?"  Every time we use an electronic assistant like Siri or Alexa, we're tapping into the burgeoning world of artificial intelligence.  We've assembled a panel of three people with plenty of real intelligence to talk about how AI is helping scientists sift through data in a wide variety of fields.  

Our panel this episode: Amy Mueller, Assistant Professor at Northeastern University's College of Engineering, Jon Tapson, Chief Technology Officer at Iona tech and a member of the Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop,   and Mark Kozak, Executive Director of the Telluride Science Research Center.

This year, the summer months have brought record high temperatures, fires, floods and other climate extremes.  A U.N. climate change report has sounded a "red alert" for humanity.  We're joined by one of the contributors to that report, Kevin Gurney of Northern Arizona University's school of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems.  Also joining us, Ron Cohen from the University of California, Berkeley, professor of chemistry who studies air quality and climate, and Amy Mueller from Northeastern University's College of engineering, who develops new instruments for studying the environment.  Hosts Judy Muller and George Lewis lead our panel in a discussion of this unfortunately "hot" topic and the role that cities can play in solving the problem.