KGNU - How On Earth

  Here is the extended version of the interview with CU Electrical Engineering Professor Frank Barnes about cell phone safety.  

We talk with Sandi Copeland, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at CU, about this story: Two million years ago, two-legged apes roamed the African landscape. Many of these ancient hominins,  lived in limestone caves in what is now South Africa. We know this through fossilized skull fragments and teeth from those caves. But fossils only tell us where an individual died—not where it grew up, or where it traveled during its life. Or do they? New research from the University of Colorado that’s been published in the journal Nature, reveals that male hominins in South Africa grew up in the caves where they died, while the females who died there grew up elsewhere and migrated to the caves as adults. The research not only sheds light on the behaviors of early human relatives; it makes use of a new technique, pioneered by the CU researchers, to quickly and cheaply analyze the birthplace of fossilized creatures. Producer: Shelley Schlender Co-hosts: Joel Parker, Ted Burnham Engineer: Shelley Schlender For Headline Features, read on . . . STORY 1 {Virtual water cannot remedy freshwater shortage}: We all know what it’s like to drink or bathe in “real” water.  But what about “virtual” water?  “Virtual Water” is an economic calculation of the water needed to produce a certain amount of product.  For instance, producing one kilogram of beef generally requires 15 thousand litres of water.  It also takes water to grow crops such as juicy oranges. Virtual water transfers occur through trade. When desert destinations such as Quatar, or Las Vegas, buy oranges and beef they are indirectly importing water. And as the world’s population grows, virtual water transfer could, in theory, provide more equal water use between nations, insuring that everyone’s water needs are met. However, according to a study published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, banking on virtual water as a solution to global water problems could spell disaster.  The study’s lead author, David Seekell, of the University of Virginia, points out that 80% of the people on Earth are already threatened by water shortages. Seekell warns that there’s not enough virtual water transfer to provide future, larger populations have enough water.  What’s more, recent theoretical work shows that these transfers make societies more vulnerable to droughts. Without addressing population growth, Seekell says that efforts to equalize water supplies through global trade or a formal government-based virtual water market are likely end up high and dry. STORY 2 {Bat hibernation and rabies}: For North American wildlife, it’s often hard to survive the winter.  Many bats solve this problem through hibernation, but at a cost.  Hibernation allows some pathogens, such as rabies, to survive as well. To figure out the costs and benefits of hibernation, Colorado State University biologist Dylan George and colleagues designed a mathematical model to analyze data from a five  year study of Colorado’s big brown bats. Matching data about birth, mortality and rabies infection, they’ve concluded that during the chilly months of a bat’s winter hibernation, the bat’s slowed-down metabolism slows viral development enough that it doesn’t make the bats sick just yet, and this allows plenty of bat babies to be born in the spring — already infected with rabies.  Many of these young bats then live long enough to produce more generations of infected babies.  In contrast, when the scientists ran simulations that eliminated hibernation, the rabies virus killed bats so fast, populations crashed. The authors say this gives insights into how hibernation and cooler temperatures may influence many diseases in bats. STORY 3  {Glimpse Into Uncertainty}: We’re not completely certain how to explain this next story, because – well – it’s based on the “Uncertainty Principle.”  The Uncertainty Principle is one of the more well-known consequences of quantum mechanics, but in case you are uncertain about what the principle is, it is usually defined as: you can’t measure both the position and speed of a particle simultaneously, because as soon as you measure one, you irrevocably interfere with getting an accurate measure of the other. It is also related to the other well-known concept of quantum mechanics: the mysterious particle-wave duality.  One classic demonstration of these phenomena is called Young’s double-slit experiment, where particles pass through a pair of slits and interact with each other and create an interference pattern even if you send them through one particle at a time. That raises the spooky question: what is a particle interfering with if it is traveling alone unless it – somehow – passes through both slits simultaneously and interferes with itself?  And if you tried to measure the position or momentum of the particles or which slit a particle went through, the very act of measuring destroys the interference pattern. Now, Sacha Kocsis and colleagues at the University of Toronto have devised an experiment that may provide a peek at the path, or the typical path, taken by photons in the double-slit experiment. They make what are called “weak measurements” of a photon’s momentum to create an average trajectory for the particle. These weak measurements don’t disturb the particles enough to destroy the interference effect; they also don’t allow for precise measurements of individual particles, but they do make good measurements of the average paths for many particles.  The researchers suggest that the power of these weak measurements might bring a better perspective to the quantum behavior of particles than trying to pin one down and see what happens.  Though precisely how this will help our understanding of quantum mechanics is…uncertain.

Lake Mead's dipping water line. Image courtesy of futuretimeline.net. This week co-host Susan Moran speaks with Dr. Doug Kenney, director of the Western Water Policy Program at the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado,  Boulder’s law school. Kenney sheds light on the Colorado River Compact and how population growth, climate change, and water politics, are expected to further threaten our future water supply. And Ted Burnham interviews skeptic and science writer Michael Shermer. His new book, “The Believing Brain,” presents a counter-intuitive explanation for how we form and reinforce our beliefs. Shermer draws on evidence from neuroscience, psychology and sociology to show that we often form beliefs first, and only then look for reasons to believe. Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker Producer: Susan Moran Engineer: Joel Parker Listen to the show:

We present the second part of Joel Parker’s interview of Joshua Foer, author of the book “Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything” (the full interview can be found here).  To round out the “brain theme” of the show, we also include an excerpt of BBC’s Science in Action where Jon Stuart talks with paleontologist Timothy Rowe about how our brains evolved and how scientists can study brains from long dead, ancient mammals. Producer: Joel Parker Hosts: Joel Parker, Susan Moran, Breanna Draxler Engineer: Ted Burnham Listen to the show:

We share excerpts from a talk about the Future of Spaceflight, presented at CU-Boulder in April, featuring Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute and Elon Musk of Space X. Producer: Shelley Schlender Co-hosts: Joel Parker, Ted Burnham Engineer: Shelley Schlender Listen to the show:

We learn about new research that indicates that the combination of exercise plus eating high cholesterol foods may help build lean body mass, even in older adults. What’s more, eating high cholesterol foods such as cheese, beef fat and eggs, when combined with exercise, also seems more heart safe than most people think, according to new research published by Steve Riechman, in the Journal of Gerontology. And we talk with Larry Gold, founder of the  Gold Lab Symposium.  The 2011 symposium features scientists, researchers and policy makers discussing how health and science can intersect with healthcare policy, and how to make each one  better. The 2011 GoldLab Symposium was held at CU-Boulder’s Muenzinger Auditorium May 13 – 14th.  For audio recordings of the sessions, go here.  For videos and powerpoint presentations from the sessions, go to GoldLabColorado.com Producer: Shelley Schlender Co-hosts: Joel Parker, Ted Burnham Engineer: Shelley Schlender Listen to the show:

mosquito net, photo courtesy of Jason Lindsey/Perceptive Visions On this How On Earth show we explore how climate change is taking a toll on human health, and then how “smart grid” technology can help reduce the carbon footprint of electrical power generation.  Co-host Susan Moran interviews Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School; and Dan Ferber, co-authors of the new book “Changing Planet, Changing Health: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do About It.” Then reporter Tom McKinnon interviews Davin Lim of Tendril, a Boulder-based company that is building the electronic pipelines to make the smart grid work. Producer: Susan Moran Co-hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker Engineer: Ted Burnham

Wildfire in the West Tom McKinnon interviews, via phone, Peter Asmus of Pike Research about Virtual Power Plants.  This emerging information technology may help to integrate more renewable power onto the gird.  And even save money for customers who are willing to turn down their energy demand when the grid is stressed. At the recent Conference on World Affairs, Susan Moran sat down with Peter Hildeband, the director of the Earth Sciences Directorate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  He talked about how climate change will impact wildfires in the West. Producer:  Tom McKinnon Co-Hosts:  Tom McKinnon and Susan Moran Engineer: Ted Burnham Listen to the show:

We discuss the environmental and human costs of natural gas drilling practices, and then the human toll of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico one year after the disaster. On natural gas drilling practices, Susan Moran interviews Steve Torbit, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Rocky Mountain Center; and Steven Hall, communications director for the Colorado Bureau of Land Management. Ted Burnham interviews Liesel Ritchie, assistant director for research at the Natural Hazards Center, about the BP oil disaster’s social costs. Click here for details of the study. Producer: Tom McKinnon Co-hosts: Tom McKinnon and Susan Moran Engineer: Ted Burnham Headlines: Breanna Draxler

Here’s a longer version of my interview with Anjali Bhatara, which aired on today’s program. Dr. Bhatara is with the Laboratory of the Psychology of Perception at the University of Paris, where she studies the interactions between music and the brain, the mind and the emotions. She has published several papers on music perception in people with autism—especially their ability to pick up on the emotional cues in a song, and how it might be related to their ability to detect emotional cues in speech. I began by asking her which aspects of sound are relevant to musical perception. Listen to the interview: