Science Wednesdays
Join us every Wednesday for short, interesting and informative stories about a wide variety of subjects! These are meant to be educational and engaging for the general public and aimed at furthering everyone’s understanding and enjoyment of science and its methods.
River Highways – June 8, 2022
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...
Hurricane Season Starts – June 1, 2022
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...
Coastal Redwoods – May 25, 2022
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...
Be Climate Savvy – May 18, 2022
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...
Science Fair Season – May 11, 2022
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...
Science in Star Wars – May 4, 2022
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...
The Future IS Fire – April 27, 2022
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,...
The Human Touch – April 20, 2022
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....
Natural Climate Change – Part 3 – April 13, 2022
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...
Natural Climate Change – Part 2 – April 6, 2022
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...
Natural Climate Change – Part 1 – March 30, 2022
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...
Origins of SARS-CoV-2 – March 23, 2022
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...
Staying Afloat – March 16, 2022
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...
The Endurance – March 9, 2022
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...
Climate Solutions Days – March 2, 2022
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...
The Polar Vortex – February 23, 2022
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,...
No (Real) Snow at Winter Olympics? – February 16, 2022
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...
The (Melting) Top of the World – February 9, 2022
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,...
COVID as vascular disease – February 2, 2022
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...
The Deep Past – January 26, 2022
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...
Tonga Tsunamis – January 19, 2022
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....
Appalachian High – January 5, 2022
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
Long Lost World – December 29, 2021
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
Do Penguins Have Knees? – December 22, 2021
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
French Heat Wave – December 15, 2021
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
Neutrinos – December 8, 2021
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...
Volcanoes in Arizona? – December 1, 2021
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...
Gannett Glaciers – November 24, 2021
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
Extinct Elephants – November 17, 2021
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
Winds of Change – November 10, 2021
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
New Land – November 3, 2021
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...
GLOBE clouds – October 27, 2021
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...
Ice Flows – October 20, 2021
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...
Perseverance on Mars – October 13, 2021
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,...
The Efficacy of Vaccines – October 6, 2021
*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...
COVID Breakthrough Infection – September 29, 2021
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...
The Fall Equinox – September 22, 2021
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...
Renewable Energy – September 15, 2021
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....
Hurricane Ida – September 8, 2021
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...
An Explosive History – September 1, 2021
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...
Summit Rain – August 25, 2021
Posting Science Wednesday early, due to some upcoming travel and being away from cell signal and the internet. More than 500 miles above the Arctic Circle and at 10,551 ft. (3,216 meters) above sea level, it rained for the first time. On August 14, 2021, temperatures...
Meteor Crater – August 18, 2021
50,000 years ago, a large crater was formed in the northern Arizona desert of the United States. To get an idea of the size, imagine twenty American football games being played simultaneously on its floor, while more than 2 million spectators watch from the sloping...
Code Red for Humanity – August 11, 2021
Just a few days ago, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared a “code red for humanity” in its latest 3,000 page report on the state of the climate. It is clear that the climate is in a state of emergency due to human-caused...
Flash Flooding – August 4, 2021
A lot of rain and afternoon thunderstorms are typical of the summer monsoon season here in Colorado. Monsoon? In Colorado? When you hear the word monsoon, you probably think of the heavy rains in India during the summertime. While The North American monsoon is not as...
Produce from the Past – July 28, 2021
Here in the Northern Hemisphere during these hot summer days, a lot of us are eating delicious produce like watermelon, peaches and corn-on-the cob. These days, there’s lots of chatter about GMO concerns (genetically modified organisms), but every species that’s ever...
Flooding in Europe – July 21, 2021
A few days ago, record rainfall caused rivers to burst their banks, leading to devastating floods in parts of western Europe. In the hardest hit parts of Germany, two months’ worth of rain fell in 24 hours, according to Deutscher Wetterdienst, Germany’s meteorological...
Ethnobotany – July 14, 2021
Today’s Science Wednesday is a guest post from French anthropologist, Dr. Benjamin Pothier, with a focus on enthobotany. While anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures and societies, in both the present...
Fire & Ice – July 7, 2021
Located along the 40,000-kilometer-long mostly underwater Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) is one of the most volcanically active places in the world: Iceland. The ridge is the meeting point of the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, and, as the two tectonic plates...
Extreme Heat – June 30, 2021
The Pacific Northwest of North America has been experiencing unprecedented heat these last few days. But "unprecedented" doesn’t even do it justice. Statistically speaking, this is shaping up to be a once in a 1000-year occurrence – and that’s in a normal climate. But...
Faces in the Stone: June 23, 2021
This past weekend, Ricardo and I were in South Dakota. While there, hiking the highpoint (Black Elk Peak – 7,242 ft./2207 m), we were also able to visit nearby Mt. Rushmore – my first time seeing this national memorial. The size of the faces carved into the rock is...