Sauropodcast

Lake Erie is an invaluable resource and habitat. It’s the shallowest, warmest and most biologically diverse of the five Great Lakes. Its waters and watershed support a bounty of aquatic and terrestrial life, including dozens of species of native fish, plants, amphibians, mammals and insects. The lake provides drinking water for 11 million Americans and Canadians. After decades of neglect and decline during much of the 20th century, Lake Erie rebounded during the 1980s and ‘90s, due to intensive efforts focused on reducing industrial pollution and storm water runoff. But in the early 21st century, Lake Erie is facing renewed environmental threats, including harmful algal blooms, low-oxygen conditions, invasive species and the impact of climate change. Recently, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History organized a symposium, “Keep It Great: The State of Lake Erie,” to examine the status and future of the lake. With Sauropodcast host John Mangels as moderator, a panel of experts discussed key Lake Erie challenges and two conservation success stories: the restoration of Mentor Marsh and the comeback of the Lake Erie Water Snake. Our panelists: Dr. Jeff Reutter, retired director of the Ohio Sea Grant Program, Ohio State University’s Stone Lab and the Center for Lake Erie Area Research Dr. Laura Johnson, Director of the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg University Dr. Kristin Stanford, Education and Outreach Coordinator at Ohio State University's Stone Lab Dr. David Kriska, Restoration Ecologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Introduction – 00:00-16:43 Dr. Reutter - 16:43 – 36:05 Dr. Johnson – 36:05 – 57:18 Dr. Stanford – 58:01-1:12:52 Dr. Kriska – 1:12:52 – 1:28:08 Audience Q&A - 1:28:08 – 1:53:45

On February 15, 2013, residents of the Russian city of Chelyabinsk were rocked by an early-morning explosion that shattered windows, damaged buildings and injured more than 1,400 people. What caused all that havoc was a meteor – an asteroid, or at least a piece of one. It was a pretty big meteor, too – roughly the size of a five-story building. It didn’t actually strike the Earth, which would have made it a meteorite. It was kind of a glancing blow, so it exploded in the atmosphere, about 18 miles up; it was the shock wave from that air burst that blew people off their feet and knocked out windows and walls. The force was more than 26 times the energy of the atomic bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima in World War II. While events that destructive are rare, lesser meteorite impacts are fairly common. Experts say they happen five to 10 times a year. It’s just that they’re usually in uninhabited areas, where they don’t cause damage and might not even be seen. Finding those meteorites would be pretty important, for several reasons. For one thing, they’re the leftovers of the raw material that formed the planets in our solar system billions of years ago, so they hold valuable clues to our early cosmic history. For another, if we ever need to divert a really big asteroid headed toward Earth, like the one that helped wipe out most of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, we’d better know a lot more about their basic properties. But where can we find meteorites so that scientists can study them? Our guest on today’s show will tell us. Since 1991, planetary geologist Dr. Ralph Harvey has led annual expeditions to the Antarctic ice sheets – the best meteorite-hunting location on Earth, and one of its most extreme environments. It’s not that more meteorites land there than anywhere else; it’s just that they stand out so vividly amongst all that white. And as Dr. Harvey will explain, there are forces that concentrate the meteorites in some spots, if you know where to look. Our conversation covers a lot of ground, from what it’s like to work in one of the most hostile places on the planet, to what secrets these space rocks may hold, and the amazing technology that’s helping provide insights. Dr. Harvey is a professor in Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. He is the co-principal investigator of the U.S. Antarctic Search for Meteorites program, which in its 42-year history has recovered more than 22,000 specimens for study by scientists around the world. Dr. Harvey’s research focuses on the geochemistry of planetary materials, including the geological history of Mars, various physical properties of asteroids and meteorites, and interactions between the crust and atmosphere of Venus.

Plastics are a pretty new material, in the scheme of things. They only started showing up in consumer products in the last 80 years or so. Before that, we made stuff that was designed to last and was meant to be reused over and over, then passed along to others. It was called the heirloom society. But today, disposable, single-use plastic is everywher. We make an estimated 400 million metric tons of new plastic every year – to get your mind around that number, it’s 880 billion pounds of plastic, the equivalent weight of 73 million elephants, or 144 million pickup trucks. Every year. And most of that plastic isn’t recycled. It’s thrown away, into landfills and other dump sites, where it degrades into smaller and smaller pieces. And over time, a lot of that plastic ends up getting washed into creeks and storm drains, and ultimately into our lakes, rivers and oceans. Which means there’s plastic in our drinking water sources, and in the fish and other marine animals that occupy those habitats. What are the consequences, and what can we do about it? That’s where our guest comes in. Dr. Marcus Eriksen is an interesting guy, and as you’ll hear, he’s got some very interesting ideas about how we ought to be approaching the plastic pollution problem. He’s an educator, author, researcher, adventurer and activist, particularly focusing on water-borne plastic pollution. He came to those roles later in life. A New Orleans native, he joined the Marines straight out of high school and served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He returned home disillusioned by that experience, and for a while struggled to find direction and meaning. He decided to journey the full length of the Mississippi River on a homemade raft, earned his Ph.D. in science education and found his passion in environmental justice causes. In 2008, he and a colleague spent 88 days and risked their lives to sail from California to Hawaii on a raft made of an airplane fuselage and 15,000 plastic bottles, to call attention to the plastic pollution problem. He and his wife, environmentalist Anna Cummins, then co-founded the 5 Gyres Institute to research plastic pollution and seek solutions. A gyre is an ocean current, by the way. The organization’s expeditions have documented plastic pollution in the world’s oceans and in the Great Lakes, where they found significant and previously unknown levels of plastic microbeads, which are used in products like facial scrubs. That discovery helped spur a federal ban on microbeads in personal care products. Our interview with Dr. Eriksen took place via Skype.

Surgeons spend years mastering the technical skills their job demands: How to cut, suture, repair and remove various parts of the body. But there’s a crucial psychological component to surgery that’s not covered in textbooks or taught in medical schools, even though it can affect an operation’s outcome. It’s the surgeon’s ability to manage stress and fear. Operating room emergencies like a ruptured blood vessel, or the daunting complexity of removing a brain tumor, can overwhelm surgeons who aren’t prepared. But how do you prepare? At Cleveland Clinic, the nation’s No. 1 heart hospital, cardiothoracic surgeons are looking to elite performers in other professions with high-risk and even life-or-death stakes – specifically, to military special forces operators, or commandos. Working with a company called Arena Labs founded by a former Navy SEAL, the Clinic is studying the principles of elite performance under stress. Its cardiothoracic surgeons are learning ways to mitigate fear’s effects, through training sessions, virtual-reality simulations, and debriefings and performance reviews after each operation. They’re measuring the physiological impact of stress in the operating room. And they’re creating a “fear curriculum” to help surgical residents develop strategies to manage their anxieties. Here to tell us about these efforts is Dr. Douglas Johnston. He’s a staff cardiac surgeon and researcher with Cleveland Clinic’s Heart & Vascular Institute. His specialties include replacing diseased or defective aortic valves, and repairing aortic aneurysms. Dr. Johnston was a Presidential Scholar at Dartmouth College, where he earned an undergraduate degree in anthropology and spent time in India researching tuberculosis. He received his medical degree at Harvard Medical School, and was a general surgery intern and resident at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. He completed his surgical training with a fellowship at Cleveland Clinic, and has been a member of the cardiac surgery staff there since 2008. Our interview took place on the Cleveland Clinic campus.

It’s summer, and the latest installment of the Jurassic Park franchise is in theaters. So, of course, we’re going to talk about dinosaurs. Tyrannosaurus rex was the scariest. And sauropods were the biggest. But horned dinosaurs were the showiest. Their heads bristled with wicked spikes, menacing hooks and enormous, fan-like frills. Though all this gaudy ornamentation looked fearsome, you might be surprised to learn that its main purpose probably wasn’t for defense. There’s lots more interesting stuff to find out about horned dinosaurs, or ceratopsians, as they’re formally known. And there’s no one better to help us understand their crazy appearance and lifestyles than paleontologist Dr. Michael Ryan, the former Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology. Dr. Ryan is one of the world’s leading dinosaur researchers, specializing in horned dinosaurs. He’s a native of Canada, as you’ll hear by his accent, and he spends each summer scouring the badlands of Southern Alberta for dinosaur fossils. He’s a prolific identifier of new species, and has come up with some memorable names for his discoveries, including Medusaceratops, which he’ll talk about. It had a face only another horned dinosaur could love. Dr. Ryan is co-creator of the Southern Alberta Dinosaur Project. That’s a collaboration among the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology to investigate the evolution of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs and other fauna in what’s now southwestern Canada. In addition to his work there, Dr. Ryan has conducted field research in Mongolia and Greenland. He’ll tell us about exploring dinosaur mass graveyards, about how horned dinosaurs’ bodies changed as they matured, about the impact of fossil poaching, and about a unique fossil-hunting opportunity here in Cleveland later this summer that doesn’t involve dinosaurs, but does involve a big, fearsome prehistoric creature. Intrigued? Let’s get on with the show.

Imagine if you had to come up with a concept that explains what everything in the universe is made of. Could there be a more complicated assignment? To describe the stuff that comprises everything we know -- every galaxy and star and planet and person and protoplasm and dust mite? To boil all those complex, myriad things down into a basic set of ingredients and rules, that apply across the board? If someone asked you to do that, you’d say it was impossible, right? So it might surprise you to know that scientists have already done it. They’ve come up with an answer to the question of what fundamental particles and forces underpin almost everything in the universe (gravity is the only exception), and what governs the behavior of those ingredients. And it might surprise you even more to know that that answer has been around now for 50 years. It’s a pretty good answer too – so good, in fact, that this answer, this theory, has survived every attempt by scientists to challenge it and prove that it isn’t correct. This theory was so ahead of its time that, only now, in the 21stcentury, are we able to design and build machines that can test the theory’s most extreme predictions. And those predictions are holding up. The tests show that every one of the theory’s predictions about the universe’s ingredients and forces are accurate. The theory has a 50-year-long winning streak. We’re going to explore this remarkable theory, known as the Standard Model, in today’s episode. Our guest is one of the best people in the world to help us understand what the Standard Model is, how it came to be, why it’s important, and where we’re headed next. Dr. Glenn Starkman is an internationally known theoretical physicist. His research interests include searching for habitable planets, probing the shape of the universe, looking for miniature black holes, and extending and testing Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. He also serves as the Distinguished University Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Case Western Reserve University. And he directs the university’s Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics, and the Institute for the Science of Origins. And by the way, he thinks the name “Standard Model” is pretty boring. He suggests replacing it with “The Absolutely Amazing Theory of Almost Everything.” To celebrate the accomplishments of the Standard Model on its 50thanniversary, Dr. Starkman has organized a four-day symposium here in Cleveland, from June 1-4, 2018, called “The Standard Model at 50 Years.” Its all-star lineup of scientific speakers includes eight Nobel laureates in physics, including Dr. Steven Weinberg, whose landmark 1967 research forms the cornerstone of the Standard Model. To register to attend the symposium's free public lecture, by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. David Gross, or to live-stream the entire symposium, go to artsci.case.edu/smat50/

Sauropods are the most iconic of dinosaurs. They’re the big guys, bigger than any animal alive today. In fact, they were the largest land animals that ever lived, with huge torsos, extremely long necks and tails, and massive legs. Paleontologist Cary Woodruff is going to tell us all about sauropods, from why scientists think they got so big, to how they managed to move around, and what their lives were like. Woodruff's research focuses on sauropod biomechanics and ontogeny. Ontogeny, is a field of biology that examines the changes an animal’s body, especially its bones, undergoes as it develops and matures. Woodruff currently works in the lab of paleontologist Dr. David Evans at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, and is earning his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. While at Montana State University for his undergraduate and master’s degrees, Woodruff worked with paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner, the legendary dinosaur researcher, fossil-hunter and technical advisor on the Jurassic Park movies. Woodruff, a Virginia native, is the author or co-author of a number of significant research studies on dinosaurs, including examining the biomechanics of sauropods’ long necks, and describing the first burrowing dinosaur, called Oryctodromeus cubicularis. In addition to his position at the Royal Ontario Museum, he is the director of paleontology at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana. Our interview took place in Cleveland, while Woodruff was visiting the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to examine our sauropod specimen, Haplocanthosaurus delfsi.

Mokolo, a 30-year-old male silverback gorilla at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, experienced some dramatic changes in his life last year, both good and bad. He lost one longtime partner, and gained two others. And the Metroparks Zoo’s scientists were in a unique position to evaluate what was going on with him. As our guest, biologist and primate behavior specialist Austin Leeds will explain, the zoo is in the midst of a groundbreaking research project. The study aims to use hormones to better understand gorilla behavior. These critically endangered animals are highly social. Gorillas form relationships with each other that can last a lifetime. But gorillas aren’t as outwardly demonstrative as other primates, like chimpanzees. That can make it challenging to interpret their actions and state of mind. So the zoo’s scientists have recently begun monitoring levels of the hormones oxytocin and cortisol in gorillas here in Cleveland and at other institutions, as a window into their behaviors. Oxytocin is important for bonding, while cortisol reflects stress. It’s part of the zoo’s ongoing efforts to improve conditions for the gorillas in its care, and to protect those remaining in the wild. That work also includes helping train scientists and conservation professionals in Rwanda – preparing them to serve on the front lines in the battle to save gorillas from extinction. Austin Leeds is earning his Ph.D. in biology from Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, and holds bachelors and masters degrees in primate behavior. He’s a graduate research associate at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, where he conducts research, recruits and trains research volunteers and works closely with the zoo’s gorillas. Leeds is also a mentor for students in the Memoirs Program operated by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, the University of Rwanda and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, which we’ll talk more about during the show. You can find more information about these projects on our website, cmnh.org/Sauropodcast. Here’s our interview.

Some were as small as pigeons. Others had bodies as big as a single-engine airplane. Pterosaurs ruled the skies for more than 150 million years, a remarkable span, from the Triassic to the Cretaceous. They were the first animals with backbones to take flight. They shared the Earth with dinosaurs, but they weren’t dinosaurs themselves. We’ve known about pterosaurs since the first fossils were discovered in the late 1700s. But scientists are still learning new things about them, from how well they could fly and their behavior while on the ground to what colors their elaborate head crests might have been. If you’re as fascinated by pterosaurs as I am, you’ll love today’s show. Our guest is Dr. Mark Norell, curator and chair of the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Dr. Norell is an internationally known paleontologist whose research focuses on the evolutionary relationships between dinosaurs and modern birds. He has hunted for dinosaur fossils in in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, Patagonia and the Chilean Andes in South America, and the Sahara Desert in North Africa. He’s made major fossil discoveries, including the first embryo of a primitive meat-eating dinosaur, and an Oviraptor found nesting on a brood of eggs, which constituted the first evidence of parental care among dinosaurs. Dr. Norell is the co-curator of the traveling exhibit “Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs,” which is on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History through August 12, 2018.

Where does the stuff we see in museums come from? In the case of natural history museums, the fossils, the rocks, the insects, the animals and birds, and all the other items on display — someone had to go out and find and collect them. It’s that process — natural history researchers traveling long distances to exotic places, searching for specimens they’re interested in, bringing them back for study, then displaying them so that museum-goers can learn about them — that’s the subject of our story on this episode of the Sauropodcast. Back in the 1920s, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History was brand new, literally starting from scratch. It had almost nothing to display, just a few cabinets of stuffed animals and birds. Not much to work with. So the museum’s leaders came up with an ambitious idea — in some ways an audacious idea. They would buy a sailing ship, assemble a team of scientists and explorers, and send them off for two years. The crew would travel all around the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, stopping in foreign countries, landing on tiny islands, some of which were uninhabited, going even as far as the Antarctic, to bring back specimens for the Museum to study and display. That was the plan. A combination of Charles Darwin and Indiana Jones. And as with all plans, the devil was in the details. Our guest today will tell us how that plan worked out. It’s quite a tale. Wendy Wasman is the former Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s librarian and archivist. She holds degrees in cultural anthropology from Oberlin College and in library science from Kent State University. She’s spent years researching the Blossom Expedition, as this journey came to be known. An exhibit based on her research, called “Sailing for Science: The Voyage of the Blossom,” opened at the Museum on March 24.

Our special guest on this edition of the Sauropodcast is Margot Lee Shetterly. Her best-selling book, “Hidden Figures,” and the Oscar-nominated movie it inspired tell the previously unknown story of an extraordinary group of female African-American mathematicians, known as human computers, whose work at NASA in the early days of the space race helped the first astronauts reach orbit and return safely to Earth. Ms. Shetterly recently received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, which honors authors who help improve public understanding of issues of race and diversity. Our interview took place in Cleveland, where she attended the award ceremony. To watch a video of the interview, visit cmnh.org/Sauropodcast.

A man of boundless energy and interests, President Theodore Roosevelt took on enough roles to occupy two lifetimes. We remember him as a statesman and diplomat. Rough Rider and progressive reformer. Adventurer, outdoorsman, and conservationist. The champion of the Panama Canal and the first pastor of the bully pulpit. But one important pursuit has largely escaped historical notice. Theodore Roosevelt was a lifelong naturalist and, according to our guest on today’s Sauropodcast, a founding father of America’s natural history museums, helping amass their scientific collections of animal and bird specimens from around the world. Darrin Lunde recounts TR’s passion for museum naturalism in his recent book, “The Naturalist – Theodore Roosevelt, a lifetime of exploration and the triumph of American natural history.” Lunde is in a unique position to explore and explain Roosevelt’s deep museum connections. He’s a collections manager in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, which houses many of the specimens TR collected during his lifetime. Previously, Lunde worked at the American Museum of Natural History, where he led field expeditions throughout the world. He’s named more than a dozen new species of mammals and contributed to scientific descriptions of many other animals. And as Lunde will explain, his early life shares some interesting parallels with TR’s boyhood.

When Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong declared "We came in peace for all mankind" while standing on the moon in July 1969, he wasn't just expressing his personal sentiment. As our guest on this episode of the Sauropodcast will explain, it’s an expression of international space law. The 1967 agreement known as the Outer Space Treaty, signed by the United States, the Soviet Union and more than 100 other nations, requires that the moon and other celestial bodies only be used for peaceful, non-military purposes. The treaty also forbids any government from laying claim to a moon or planet, and says that space exploration must be done to benefit all countries. A lot’s changed since 1960s. Multiple nations, and now commercial companies, are launching spacecraft. More than 1,400 satellites currently orbit Earth. Space tourism, asteroid mining, and lunar and Mars outposts are all on the horizon. All of those activities need regulation, and sometimes the mediation of conflicts. That’s where the field of space law comes in. Our guest, Mark Sundahl, is an international scholar, lecturer and educator on the subject. He’s an Associate Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Professor Sundahl serves on various space law advisory and policy-making groups, including the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and the Federal Aviation Administration's International Space Policy Working Group. Professor Sundahl also is director of Cleveland State University’s new Global Space Law Center. The center will help train the next generation of space lawyers, formulate laws and policies that promote the peaceful use of space, and assist the growth of the commercial space industry.

Dark matter is the stealthy cosmic stuff that makes up 85 percent of the universe. It helps hold galaxies together, but so far, scientists haven’t been able to detect it directly, or figure out exactly what dark matter is. Could this mysterious material have played a role in the catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs and most other life on Earth 66 million years ago? That’s the provocative idea at the heart of physicist Lisa Randall’s recent best-selling book, Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs. On this episode of the Sauropodcast, Dr. Randall explains what led her and several of her colleagues to finger dark matter as the culprit in one of history’s most notorious events. We’ll discuss the evidence, the implications, and the surprising connections between seemingly remote forces and phenomena in the universe and life on our small planet. Lisa Randall studies theoretical and particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University, where she is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science. She’s a member of the National Academy of Sciences and is among Esquire Magazine’s 75 most influential people of the 21st century. If you’d like to hear Dr. Randall in person, she’ll be speaking at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History at 7 p.m. Friday, October 13, 2017, as part of our Explorer lecture series. For more details on that event, and the rest of the Explorer lineup, visit cmnh.org/explorerseries. Dr. Randall’s lecture also marks the kickoff of the Museum’s celebration of women in science, from October 2017 to April 2018. For more information about the events, visit cmnh.org/womeninscience.

The flickering lamps of fireflies are a sure sign of summer. Seeing those tiny golden flares on the lawn can instantly transport us back to childhood, and warm evenings spent trying to catch their glow in a Bell jar. You probably know that firefly flashes are a signaling system. But the language the bugs are using is far more complex than you might suspect. And the message isn’t always just, “Let’s hook up.” Our guest for this Sauropodcast episode, entomologist Dr. Marc Branham, can help us understand the fascinating history and habits of fireflies. Dr. Branham is an associate professor of insect systematics and taxonomy at the University of Florida. He does extensive research on fireflies, focusing on learning more about their relationships and behaviors. Dr. Branham also is a consultant on the exhibit Creatures of Light, Nature’s Glowing Mysteries, which explores the science of bioluminescence. You can see it at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History through January 7, 2018.

A decade ago, the very first self-driving cars were still figuring out how to avoid obstacles and cross intersections. Today, although they’re still in testing mode, autonomous vehicles are a common sight on the streets of Pittsburgh and other cities. And by 2035, some business forecasters say we’ll be entering the passenger economy – where it will be routine for a computer do the driving while you nap, catch up on work or watch a movie. What’s behind this rapid progress in autonomous vehicles, and what’s on the road ahead? Our guest today will help us understand the fascinating, fast-changing science of self-driving cars and artificial intelligence. Dr. Wyatt Newman is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, where he’s taught since 1988. He’s an expert in robotics and artificial intelligence. He holds 12 patents and has written more than 150 technical publications, including a new textbook on robot programming. Professor Newman led student teams competing in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge for autonomous vehicles, and the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge.

Normally, lack of sunlight on a summer day wouldn’t be a reason to celebrate. But on Monday, August 21, that’s exactly what lots of people across the country will be doing. On that day, tens of millions of Americans will have the chance to see a rare coast-to-coast total solar eclipse, something that hasn’t happened since 1918. During this historic 90-minute event, the moon’s shadow as it blocks out the sun will trace a path from Oregon to South Carolina, tracking across 14 states. What’s the best and safest way to view this extraordinary phenomenon, and what can eclipse-watchers expect? Jason Davis, our guest on today’s Sauropodcast, has the answers. Jason is an astronomer, educator, and manager of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Nathan and Fannye Shafran Planetarium, where he’s worked since 2001. For natural history museum members, he’ll be leading an overnight bus trip from Cleveland to a site in Kentucky on the eclipse’s path. You can find out more about that trip at cmnh.org/eclipse.

Science is increasingly recognizing the advantages of spending time in nature, even if it’s just half an hour in the park at lunch. A growing body of research shows the mental and physical benefits of green spaces, including reduced stress and depression, better immunity and improved work performance. Our guest on this episode of the Sauropodcast will help us understand the importance of nearby nature. Kathleen Wolf, Ph.D., is a nationally recognized expert in urban forestry and green infrastructure. She’s a research social scientist with the University of Washington's College of the Environment in Seattle, and has a joint appointment with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station. Dr. Wolf’s website, Green Cities: Good Health, summarizes a variety of studies that show how experiencing nature improves human health and well-being.

Ladies and gentlemen, the beetles! Dung beetles, that is. If it’s been a hard day’s night for you, consider what these poor guys go through. They spend their lives crawling in manure, and yet they’ve found a way to thrive, by exploiting the stuff that mammals’ bodies get rid of. They’re nature’s recycling engineers. Our guest, Dr. Nicole Gunter, is an expert on the lifestyles and evolution of dung beetles. Dr. Gunter is an entomologist and the collections manager of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Department of Invertebrate Zoology. She’s spent years studying dung beetles in her native Australia and other international locations. She’s discovered some surprising things about when and how they first appeared on Earth. She’ll tell us about how dung beetles have inspired ancient art and mythology, about their surprising navigational abilities, and why anyone who’s enjoyed an outdoor meal or a beer Down Under has dung beetles to thank.

In this episode, we explore the science of breastfeeding. Making milk is something that only mammals do, but why did it evolve, and what benefits does it provide? What’s actually in breast milk, and what impact does breastfeeding have on the health of the baby and the mother? Our guests have the answers. Katie Hinde, Ph.D., (https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/2740008) is an evolutionary biologist and lactation specialist who studies the biology of mother’s milk. She’s an associate professor in Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Her blog, Mammals Suck … Milk!, (http://mammalssuck.blogspot.com/) is a funny, informative summary of breastfeeding research, written for the general public. Nicole Burt, Ph.D., (https://www.cmnh.org/burt) is the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Curator of Human Health and Evolutionary Medicine. She’s a biological anthropologist whose research involves breastfeeding and weening patterns in ancient and modern humans, and the impact of breastfeeding on maternal and child health. Her work in breastfeeding education aims to reduce infant mortality in Northeast Ohio.

In this episode, Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeon and researcher Andre Machado, MD, PhD, talks about deep brain stimulation and its potential to help stroke patients recover. Introduced in the 1990s, deep brain stimulation has been described as a pacemaker for the brain and has been used to treat a variety of disorders. Recently, Dr. Machado became the first to implant a deep brain stimulator in a stroke patient with paralysis. The Clinic will evaluate whether the brain stimulation, along with physical therapy, helps the patient regain movement.

The Oscar-nominated movie Hidden Figures and the recent death of under-appreciated astronomer Vera Rubin are the catalysts for a wide-ranging discussion about women in science, with theoretical physicist and former Cleveland Museum of Natural History Executive Director and CEO Dr. Evalyn Gates.