Can the Soil Save Us? The Dirt on Local Agricultural Climate Solutions

Cancer biopsies are scary. The patient gets tissue removed from his or her body, the sample gets sent off to the lab and then there's the agonizing wait for the results.  Dr. Stephen Boppart of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, both a physician and an engineer, is working on instant biopsies that will produce results in minutes. Using laser light and artificial intelligence, Dr. Boppart and his colleagues have been able to identify cancers early and accurately. Moreover, this technique promises to identify conditions in the body that might lead to future cancers by looking at tiny vesicles, liquid-filled sacs that act as messengers.  His "Town Talk" sponsored by Telluride Science, was recorded at the Telluride Mountain Village Conference Center in Colorado.  The program was moderated by veteran broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

Dr. Amy Mueller and her team are measuring the vital signs of cities, gathering data that will inform future additions and improvements to our urban areas. How do we build cities in a sensible, sustainable way? Key to this work is getting communities involved and arming them with the information they need to make strategic decisions about the future.  Dr Mueller is an associate professor of marine and environmental science and civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University in Boston.  She spoke at a "Town Talk" sponsored by Telluride Science and the session was moderated by veteran broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

Quantum Dots are marvelous little crystalline structures that work as electrical semiconductors and emit light.  But that's not all they do.  Dr. Jennifer Hollingsworth of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, talked about the many potential applications of these tiny wonders.  Veteran broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis moderated the talk with Dr. Hollingsworth. 

American agriculture contributes about 10 percent of this country's greenhouse gas emissions, but done right, it can absorb rather than produce carbon and help overcome the problem of man-made climate change.  This exciting possibility is the subject of a Telluride Science panel moderated by Adam Chambers of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Panelists include Tony and Barclay Daranyi, who practice regenerative agriculture at their farm 33 miles northwest of Telluride; Chris Hazen, from the San Miguel County Payment for Ecosystem Services Program and Cindy Lair, deputy director of the Colorado STAR (Saving Tomorrow's Agricultural Resources) program.
Our podcast is hosted by award-winning broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

Dr. Omar Farha of Northwestern University and NuMat Technologies talks about Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF's) that he prefers to call "programmable sponges." Hailed as a potential defining material of the 21st century, these nano-sized structures can be used to neutralize toxic materials, pull water out of the moisture in the air and eventually, capture carbon emissions that threaten the planet.  The Pentagon is investing in this technology to create military clothing that can be used on chemical warfare battlefields.  "The sky's the limit," says Dr. Farha, in discussing the potential uses of programmable sponges.  Dr Farha's personal story is a classic: the immigrant from a poor family in the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories who overcomes big obstacles and achieves great things that could change our world.

We've long thought that aging was just a part of life but now science is beginning to view aging as a disease that can be treated. This, as research on aging is exploding and some scientists speculate people could live 150 years or more.  Our aging expert, Dr. Kristin Slade, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York says, "We already know what is going on with aging at the people level, but I was determined to get inside the cell and discover what was going on at the molecular level.” Indeed, that could be the key to slowing down the aging process. She spoke before an audience at the Conference Center in Mountain Village, Colorado and the discussion was moderated by noted journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

We talk about chirality, how some molecules have left-handed properties and others have right-handed properties.  It turns out that electrons, carrying energy and information vital to life, spin in different directions when interacting with these two types of molecules and harnessing that effect could lead to big advances in energy production, agriculture and medicine.  Our panelists are two of the leading researchers in the field:  Dr. Ron Naaman of the Weizman Institute of Science and Dr. Moh El Naggar of the University of Southern California.  In a “Town Talk” at the Transfer Warehouse in Telluride, they were interviewed by award-winning broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

Dr. Jayajit Das of the Ohio State University and Nationwide Childrens Hospital talks about harnessing the power of immunity using powerful computer technology to orchestrate the body’s response to disease.  He is interviewed by noted broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis during a “town talk” at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village, CO.