Maine, also called Vacationland, is a favorite destination for visitors. But what impact will the pandemic have on tourism, tax revenue and the overall economy? Those are topics on this week’s “The Maine Question” podcast. Andrew Crawley, a University of Maine assistant professor of regional economic development, is developing forecasts to evaluate possible financial fallout, as well as examine prospects for recovery.

Research conducted at the University of Maine is vital to the state's economy and workforce. And mentoring undergraduate students to be effective researchers is a major focus. But how do students develop their research chops? Professor Ali Abedi explains in this episode of “The Maine Question.”

Tick-borne diseases, some of which are debilitating, are on the rise.

Allison Gardner investigates environmental factors that could limit the geographic spread of blacklegged ticks. And Elissa Ballman coordinates a tick surveillance citizen scientist program to learn more about which tick species are where and what pathogens they carry.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the fast pace of the business world required companies to make good decisions quickly in order to survive and thrive. Two UMaine business professors have done research on the decision-making process and how the business world can follow the example of the military to make that process faster and better.

Beyond the devastating health threat caused by the coronavirus, the world's economy has been slowed to a crawl for months now. That pause in economic output has brought about some profound changes, including significant reductions in soot, particles in the air and many other sources of pollution. In this episode of The Maine Question, Sean Birkel, Maine State Climatologist and a research assistant professor at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, examines the changes that this unfortunate experiment has created.

It's one of the fastest growing and changing fields in the world of engineering. Bioengineering, or biomedical engineering, is changing the way we do everything from producing fuel and paper to unlocking new ways to improve animal and human health. It's a growing field — particularly for young women aspiring to be engineers. Karissa Tilbury, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at UMaine, helps us explore this relative newcomer to the world of engineering.

The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has led to a pandemic that swept the globe, halted economies and upended life as we know it.

How and why infections like this occur is something that Melissa Maginnis, an assistant professor of microbiology at UMaine, thinks about every day. How do viruses work? How and why do they go viral? What is the best way to stop their spread and how might scientists learn from this ordeal? That and more on this episode of The Maine Question.

The word fat evokes a certain reaction in our culture. For associate professor of neurobiology Kristy Townsend and her students it's the subject of research on many levels. Fat communicates with the brain, it battles disease, it plays a role in the aging process. It also comes in a variety of colors with differing functions. Townsend talks about her work on this connection and how it relates to obesity and diabetes — diseases that are becoming pandemics. She also talks about the role of basic research and the growing biotech industry in Maine.

Maine marks its 200th birthday March 15, 2020. So for this episode of “The Maine Question,” host Ron Lisnet talks with University of Maine history professor Liam Riordan about some of the key people involved in the drive to statehood, what life was like 200 years ago, and what themes from those early days are still recognizable today.

We visit with paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill. She studies plants and animals that have been gone a long time- sometimes millions of years. She also studies our natural world today with the goal of trying to understand how and why some species have gone extinct while others have survived and what it means for how we and our planet adapt to the rapidly changing world we find ourselves in.