This summer has seen an uptick in ticks and tick infections. Is this normal? Or, a “new normal”? When weather is warmer and spring starts earlier, people are outside more often, allowing for more “human-tick” encounters to occur. But what about the ticks themselves?...

More than 1300 people have died and 33 million people have been impacted by unprecedented flooding in Pakistan. That latter number is more than the entire population of Texas! This is happening in a country that’s produced less than 1% of total global greenhouse gas...

There have been many reported cases of mild COVID infections turning into more troublesome long COVID cases, lasting months, if not years, with a wide array of symptoms like shortness of breath, fatigue, vertigo, headaches, and heart palpitations. What’s causing this?...

As we rang in the New Year 2020, hopes were high for the start of this new decade. But here we are in the year 2022, dealing with a pandemic that has killed millions, and dealing with a rapidly unfolding climate emergency that is, literally, scorching the Earth and...

What does the jet stream, a band of fast-moving air in the upper atmosphere, have to do with the blazing heat waves this summer in the Northern Hemisphere? Not only have these heat waves broken temperature records, they have also fueled wildfires and caused travel...

Often times when we talk about climate change, the stories center on melting ice, rising sea levels, and hazards such as hurricanes, droughts, fires and floods. But what about the future of lightning in a warming climate? This summer in Colorado has seen some pretty...

What does 6 billion tons look like? Imagine an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Now imagine 2.4 million pools. That’s how much water the northwestern ice sheet of Greenland lost – PER DAY – from July 15 – 17 this summer during a melting event. Another way of looking at...

By this point, we’re all pretty familiar with viruses. We’re sick from them. And we’re sick of them! What if I told you that viruses dating back 15,000 years have been found in an unlikely place - glacial ice originating in the Tibetan Plateau (35o17'N, 81o29'E)?...

Svalbard, an archipelago about 650 miles from the North Pole, has a very rich and varied geological history. Its lands have been inundated with shallow tropical seas, covered in deserts and sub-tropical forests, and even roamed by dinosaurs. 600 million years ago, the...

On Saturday, June 11, 2022, we went up Kelso Ridge (exposed class 3 scrambling route) on Torreys Peak (14,267 ft.). Its neighboring peak, Grays, is the highest point along the continental divide, a drainage divide where on one side of the peaks, all water drains...

Back in the 1800s, rivers were the highways of the times. But waterfalls – like St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi river – provided significant obstacles for boats, their passengers, and their cargo. In Minnesota, the “twin” cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul...

It’s that time of year again in North America - when hurricane season starts – and the outlook for summer 2022 is an above-average season. The prediction, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is anywhere from 3 – 6 major ones expected...

Muir Woods National Monument is home to some of the tallest trees on Earth: the coastal redwoods there measure in at 260 feet tall, or, the height of a 24-story building. But they can top out at nearly 400 feet! The trees grow in the moderate temperatures along the...

Temperatures here in Colorado have been soaring into the mid-80s – in May! Severe flooding and landslides have been devastating South Africa; the eastern Australia floods of 2022 have been some of the worst recorded flood disasters; India and the Himalaya are...

Tis the season! For science fairs, that is. Springtime is science fair season, when thousands of students across the country, from elementary to high school, compete in regional, state, national and international fairs. In fact, I’m writing to you right now from...

May the 4th be with you – happy Star Wars day! And happy Science Wednesday as well! In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, the icy planet of Hoth hosts a temporary Rebel base where the heroes have to defeat Imperial walkers in order to escape. How could...

Here is another video I compiled for the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center: this one focused on wildfire.   On December 30, 2021, the unthinkable happened. Peaceful suburbs of Denver, Colorado, looking forward to celebrating the start of a New Year,...

Climate change has always happened on Earth, which is clearly seen in the geological record. For the last three weeks, we’ve covered natural climate change: from orbital parameters to the Sun to volcanoes to the oceans and internal variability in the climate system....

This week, we explore the Earth’s oceans and natural ocean-atmosphere interactions. Chapter 3: Natural Climate Change: The Oceans and Internal Variability When the air temperature starts to warm and it’s time to open up the backyard pool and go for a swim, it’s...

Chapter 2: Natural Climate Change: Volcanoes and the Sun So, we’ve established that orbital parameters, like eccentricity of Earth’s orbit and the magnitude of the tilt of the planet are not responsible for the current and rapid climate change that we are seeing. What...

In the lead-up to our “Climate Solutions Days” summit/virtual conference at the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center during “Earth Week” 2022, Science Wednesdays are going to focus on climate change these next few weeks, starting with natural climate change...

In order to prevent future pandemics, it is important to understand the circumstances that led to past ones. This includes looking at all hypotheses in detail and trying to discern the origin from a complex array of data. Did the COVID-19 outbreak originate at a...

It’s the year 2022. Despite scientific progress in many realms, there’s still a stubborn persistence of pseudoscience, irrational beliefs and even downright science denial. There are many ways we can and do deceive ourselves on a day-to-day basis. When we want...

Over 100 years ago, an incredible story of survival transpired at the bottom of the world. The “Endurance” was a ship used to transport an expedition team, headed by Ernest Shackleton, to cross Antarctica on foot. But, instead, the ship and the crew got trapped in the...

For this Science Wednesday, I'd like to share something we've been working on at the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center at the University of Colorado. Interested in learning more about climate change impacts? How to communicate science? Then join us...

Around this time last year, Texas experienced an intense and damaging Arctic blast of cold air. Texas, of all places! This week, the “polar vortex” is at it again, bringing snow, ice and incredibly cold temperatures, this time across the central and eastern US. So,...

It’s wintertime in the Northern Hemisphere – and typically that means cold temperatures and snow at the higher latitudes. Beijing, China, the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, is at roughly the same latitude as Denver, Colorado. It’s cold, but it’s also incredibly...

It’s no surprise that there is worldwide retreat of mountain glaciers in recent decades given rising greenhouse gas emissions and rising temperatures. The concern of losing water from these frozen “storage towers” lies in the fact that ecosystems will suffer,...

What does a particle accelerator, a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, have to do with imaging the human body? At the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, a particle...

In some exciting news on the space front, the James Webb Space Telescope, which launched on Christmas Day in 2021, has reached its final destination. Webb is the most powerful telescope ever built and is about the size of a tennis court. Over this last month, it had...

On Saturday, January 15th, a powerful undersea volcano erupted near Tonga, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, covering the group of islands in a thick layer of ash. A 4-foot wave swept ashore in the Tongan capital, leaving behind flooded homes and structural damage....

Happy New Year 2022 - wishing you all health and happiness! In this Science Wednesday, learn more about Maine's highpoint, Katahdin, and the Appalachian Mountains. Here is a link to the new video. #sciencewednesdays #summitssongsandscience

Come explore the ancient landscape of west Texas, home to Guadalupe Peak, the state highpoint at 8,750 feet! Here is a link to the new video. #sciencewednesdays #summitssongsandscience

Travel with us down to Antarctica and explore the different penguin species during this week's special holiday Science Wednesday! Here is a link to the new video. #sciencewednesdays #summitssongsandscience

Learn more about Mont Blanc and its changing glaciers in this new Science Wednesday. Ricardo and I climbed the peak back in August 2018 - and even got engaged on the summit! Here is the new video... #sciencewednesdays #summitssongsandscience

On June 1, 2019, we hiked Illinois' highpoint, Charles Mound (1,235 ft) for the Summits, Songs and Science project. It's on private property and, due to the owners' wishes, only open the first weekend in June, July, August and September. While in the state, we took...

Check out our new video Science Wednesday. This one explores the volcanic features of northern Arizona. Also featured is Humphreys Peak, Arizona's highpoint at 12,633 feet. While Ricardo climbed it back in 1999, this was Ulyana's 20th state highpoint, climbed on May...

Check out our new video Science Wednesday. This one explores the glaciers of the Wind River Range, home to Wyoming's state highpoint: Gannett Peak, 13,804 ft. #sciencewednesdays #summitssongsandscience

Check out our new video Science Wednesday. This one focuses on The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota, which is home to the largest concentration of mammoth remains in the world. #sciencewednesdays #summitssongsandscience

Check out our new video Science Wednesday. Shot on location on the Vatnajokull icecap (Iceland) in November 2021, this short film explores some of the changes that Europe's largest glacier mass has seen over the decades. #sciencewednesdays #summitssongsandscience

Fagradalsfjall Mountain in the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwestern Iceland, is home to some of the youngest land on the planet. Check out this new video Science Wednesday to learn more about what happened and about different lava types! #sciencewednesdays...

Last week, we shared an educational game you can download and play while learning more about ice flows and changes in Greenland and Antarctica. This week, I wanted to share an opportunity for citizen science using a smartphone app: making cloud observations through...

For those who prefer interacting and experimenting with things on your own, this Science Wednesday is for you! Ice Flows is a new educational computer game based on science (but with some elements of fiction to make the game fun to play) developed at the University of...

In February 2021, the newest Mars rover – Perseverance – touched down at Jezero Crater, interpreted to be the site of an ancient Martian lake. Modern Mars is dry and hostile. But billions of years ago, when the planet still had a magnetic field and thicker atmosphere,...

*Disclaimer: Just like the virus is evolving, so is the science in trying to understand it. Using reputable sources (e.g., scientific research papers, scientific studies, reports from the CDC, Harvard/MIT/Yale Medicine, etc.) versus solely relying on mainstream media...

For the past week, Ricardo and I have been dealing with breakthrough COVID infections. It’s affected us in different ways. While Ricardo lost his sense of smell (anosmia), he’s retained taste. I initially kept smell but lost taste. Now, both senses are gone for me but...

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, leaves on the trees are starting to turn colors. There’s a chill in the air in the mornings and evenings. This Wednesday marks the first day of astronomical fall (autumn) in the Northern Hemisphere. According to the meteorological...

As the world grapples with climate change, let’s talk solutions. What are the long-term ones? The energy sources we currently rely on – oil and gas – are non-renewable, meaning that they draw on finite resources and once those are used up, they’re gone for good....

Warmer conditions in the oceans are raising the potential intensity for storms, where intensity refers to how bad they can get if nothing disrupts them. We have no clearer example of this than Hurricane Ida, a deadly and destructive hurricane that not only impacted...

Colorado is known for its beautiful remote wilderness areas and its high peaks. But it’s also home to one of the largest and most destructive volcanic events in Earth’s history. The story starts roughly 35 million years ago, when layers of lava, ash, and other debris...