KGNU - How On Earth

Scratch & Sniff COVID Test (starts 1:00) CU Scientist Dan Larremore explains how a smell test app might offer an affordable COVID screening that’s way more accurate than a temperature check.       Ice Age BONE Fire  (starts 6:00)  Archeologist John Hoffecker and local volunteers recreate a Paleolithic “campfire” that used bones as the primary fuel. Volunteers who helped with this project — […]

This week on How on Earth, Beth gives an update on the efficacy, safety, and availability of the mRNA vaccines for the corona virus. You hear from Drs Tony Fauci, Michael Diamond, and Roger Seheult. Host: Beth Bennett Producer: Beth Bennett Engineer: Sam Fuqua Executive Producer: Beth Bennett Listen to the show:

This week we review the hit movie “My Octopus Teacher,” the story about a man who goes diving in a kelp forest off the Western Cape of South Africa, and becomes acquainted with an octopus.   We review the movie with Roger Hanlon, a diving biologist, cephalopod expert and senior scientist at the Marine Biological […]

CU COVID TESTING UPDATE  (starts 1:00) We join CU Engineering Professor Cresten Mansfeldt as he and his students open a sewer manhole and do maintenance on their wastewater COVID early warning system.  We also get an update on COVID status at CU Boulder.     ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPOTTED FEVER & CLIMATE CHANGE (starts 11:15) Brown dog ticks […]

This week on How on Earth, Beth interviews author Judith Schwartz. In her new book, the Reindeer Chronicles, she takes the reader on a tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization. This optimistic book describes solutions […]

In this week’s show Beth talks to Dr. Dominik Nischwitz about his new book, It’s All in Your Mouth, to learn more about the relationship between our mouths and the rest of the body. Many European dentists have practiced holistic dentistry for decades. The practice is now becoming more common in the US. This idea […]

CU-Boulder Sociologist Andrea Tilstra discusses how this decade’s reduction of lifespan in the US  ties closely with two factors 1) easier access to painkillers and opioids, and 2) the obesity epidemic and the related health problems that come with it.  Tilstra also explains the quesitons a social scientist/demographer asks when examining the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVID-19 Boulder County local tracking of […]

How clean is “clean”?  How do you get clean, and how important is it…could it actually be advantageous to your skin and general health to not try to get too clean?  We talk with medical doctor and author Dr. James Hamblin about his new book “Clean:  The New Science Of Skin“. Hosts: Chip Grandits, Joel Parker Executive Producer: Jill Sjong […]

In Part Two of the Shale Revolution, we look at the environmental concerns associated with hydraulic fracturing, particularly the air quality along the Front Range.    We interview Detlev Helmig, an atmospheric scientist, who monitors the air quality along the front range.    We also discuss why well setbacks are such a contentious issue in Colorado. […]

This week on How on Earth, we look at the shale industry, which has transformed this country in ways we could not have imagined a decade ago.    How did this happen?   Where do experts think the fracking industry might be going?     In this two-part series, we consider why Wall Street and environmentalists are […]

In this final show in our four-part series on CU Boulder & COVID, we look at how CU Boulder Contact Tracing and CU data collection has revealed that the biggest spreader of COVID-19 on CU Boulder’s campus is students “socializing” in risky ways, particularly in off-campus parties at sororities, fraternities and large student apartment buildings on “The Hill” near […]

PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES IN COVID-19 TESTS  (starts 1:00)  Beth Bennett reviews the years progress and challenges in COVID-19 Tests, including the latest tests at CU Boulder. CU UPDATE ON COVID-19 (starts 4:15) CU Media Relations spokesperson Candace Smith gives an update on the CU COVID-READY DASHBOARD including progress on getting the Sawyer Lab ultrafast test back in action […]

Ultrafast COVID Test Update (starts 1:00)  Sara Sawyer’s ultrafast COVID saliva test might be an option sometime soon for allowing visits inside senior care facilities. CU COVID-READY DASHBOARD (starts3:35) CU Media Relations spokesperson Candace Smith gives an update, and How on Earth’s Beth Bennett shares comparisons with other university successes and failures at opening up. […]

CU Boulder has just opened up dorms and in-person classes.  The CU Boulder Covid Research Strategies Webinar presents innovative testing plans that include ultra-fast COVID tests from the Sara Sawyer Lab and an automated sewage sampling system from Creston Mansfeldt.  Both tests may speed early warning of Covid.  Both testing strategies are innovative and ambitious.  But funding and testing capacity mean […]

Chronic pain is a debilitating condition for millions of people worldwide.   But what role does our brain play in processing pain?    Cognitive neuroscientists, using advanced imaging techniques, are gaining a better understanding of how our brain processes pain.   They can now measure and model brain systems linked to our pain and emotions.   […]