by admin | Sep 28, 2022 | News
If you’ve seen the movie, Armageddon, then you’re familiar with the idea of planetary defense. While no drillers were sent out to stop a gigantic asteroid on a collision course with Earth this week, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was a smashing...
by admin | Sep 28, 2022 | News
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) hasn’t been up in space for very long, and yet already it is taking unprecedented images in high-resolution. Its infrared vision allows us to “cut through the cosmic dust” to see some of the earliest structures in the universe in...
by admin | Sep 19, 2022 | News
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?...
by admin | Sep 19, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | Sep 1, 2022 | News
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?...
by admin | Sep 1, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | Sep 1, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | Sep 1, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | Sep 1, 2022 | News
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 admin | Sep 1, 2022 | News
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,...
by admin | Sep 1, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | Sep 1, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | Jun 8, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | Jun 1, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | May 26, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | May 26, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | May 26, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | May 4, 2022 | News
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...
by admin | Apr 27, 2022 | News
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,...
by admin | Apr 20, 2022 | News
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....
