Michelle Matus

The ecosystems of the American West are under threat from climate change. Analysis by the Bureau of Land Management says areas like the Great Basin are particularly susceptible, with invasive species, increasing temperatures and years of extreme drought, putting the country’s largest desert at risk.

Science Distilled is a new podcast produced by KUNR in which hosts Paul Boger and Michelle Matus break down concepts from cutting edge science and research, and learn how they apply to the world around us. In this excerpt, Paul and Michelle examine how climate change and wildfires are testing the resiliency of our environment.

For people living in the American West, the snowpack is becoming less predictable. Summers are longer and hotter, and severe droughts are pushing us to become more reliant on water reserves. Perhaps most notably, those hotter, drier summers are resulting in more and more wildfires.

2018 was among the worst years ever when it came to wildfires. Roughly 8.5 million acres of land burned across the US. In California, 98 residents and six firefighters were killed from wildfires last year alone. It’s still up for debate on whether humans can reverse the global warming trend, but what is clear, is that this world is at a tipping point. So, as the world around us literally changes before our eyes, how can we begin to fix the issues?

In our first Science Distilled episode, we are going to talk about resiliency. The topic was discussed at the Science Distilled Lecture series produced by the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum and the Desert Research Institute.

Scott Thomas, an ecologist at the Desert Research Institute, and Kevin Badik, a rangeland ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, spoke at the event, and with KUNR, about resiliency and what that means for our planet.

Climate change is becoming a reality. According to NASA, over the next century, our planet is likely going to see some pretty significant changes. We’re already seeing rising sea levels due to the melting ice caps, along with storms that are stronger and more frequent.

Firefighters work in high-stress, high-stakes environments, constantly making choices in the face of cascading uncertainty. They’re putting their lives on the line and taking into consideration everything that’s in the path of a blaze, including people, property, animals, and even environmental resources, like water.

The fire season has also become longer and more intense, and many in the fire community are reporting conditions they’ve never experienced before. People across the West are wondering who will be hit next by a devastating fire, as we saw in recent years in Paradise, Santa Rosa, and other towns.

Communities have certainly been affected by the changing fire activity, but how has that shift impacted the training and response of those who are on the front lines?

In this Science Distilled episode, we are going to talk about how firefighters analyze risk and make decisions in the face of fires that have become not only more frequent, but more extreme as well. The topic was discussed earlier this year at the Science Distilled Lecture series produced by the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum and the Desert Research Institute.

Tamara Wall is an associate research professor of atmospheric science at the Desert Research Institute, and Lynda Walsh is an associate professor of English and a rhetorician at the University of Nevada, Reno. They spoke at the event, and afterward with KUNR, about what their research can teach us about risk, values, and decision-making.

Since antiquity, humans have been looking up and wondering, ‘Is there life out there?’ or ‘Are we alone?’. The latest Kepler mission data suggests that there are over 40 billion habitable world zones in the universe with the potential to support life. Out of the 40 billion habitable zones, there has to be life out there somewhere, right?

In this Science Distilled episode, we are going to address astrobiology and the deep questions of the universe. The topic was discussed at the Science Distilled Lecture series produced by the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum and the Desert Research Institute, both in Reno, Nevada.

Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary field with the goal to understand actual and potential life in the universe through natural sciences like biology and geology, and even the humanities, like philosophy. Astrobiologists are interested in the potential for extraterrestrial life on things like comets and asteroids, but more often than not, they are looking at planetary bodies.

Dr. Brittany Kruger is an astrobiologist and researcher at the Desert Research Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Dr. Carlos Mariscal is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Nevada, Reno. They spoke at the event and later with KUNR about life–what it is, how scientists find it, and if we do find life on other planets, will we even be able to call it life, exactly?

There’s an old adage that ‘seeing is believing’ or ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ but can our eyes really be trusted?

In this Science Distilled episode, we are going to explore the power and limitations of perception. Why do you see one thing in an optical illusion while your friend might see something completely different? What is it about the brain that allows for these differences? And, what can a dog’s sense of smell help us understand about the world around us?

The topic was discussed at the Science Distilled Lecture series produced by the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum and the Desert Research Institute—both in Reno, Nevada.

Dr. Gideon Caplovitz is a cognitive neuroscientist and associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Mary Cablk is a Nevada auxiliary deputy and an associate research professor at the Desert Research Institute. They both spoke at Science Distilled, and later with KUNR, about optical illusions, neuroscience, and animal behavior.

For nearly a century, they’ve been at the forefront of science fiction. They’ve been both heroes and villains. Sometimes they’re highly sophisticated and intelligent, while others are a bit more bumbling and even neurotic. We’re talking, of course, about robots.

In this episode of Science Distilled, hosts Paul Boger and Michelle Matus explore the robotic revolution and what effect it may have on the future. Will automation take over the job market? Why do robots have such a hard time understanding human? And when can we expect to see a self-driving car?

That very topic was discussed earlier this year at the Science Distilled lecture series produced by the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum and the Desert Research Institute—both in Reno, Nevada.

Dr. Richard Kelley is the senior engineer at the Nevada Center for Applied Research at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. David Feil-Seifer is an associate professor of computer science and engineering, also with UNR. They both spoke at Science Distilled, and later with KUNR, about the current state of robotics and what robots may look like in the future.