Dr. Lance McNew, MSU Associate Professor of Wildlife Habitat Ecology, discusses how working rangelands can be managed to preserve grouse, songbirds, and other range-dependent wildlife.

The sun is a vital source of light and warmth, but it also produces violent flares and eruptions that can disrupt navigation, communication and electricity here on Earth. These disruptive events occur when magnetic field energy, stored through the sun’s million-degree corona, is readily converted into other forms by a process that is still poorly understood. The physics behind this energy conversion remains the focus of active research, both through theoretical modeling and observation using orbiting X-ray telescopes.

In this first Provost Distinguished Lecture of the Fall 2022 semester, Dana Longcope, Professor and Head of the Department of Physics at Montana State University, Bozeman, discusses his work and the current state of knowledge in this lecture, titled: Solar Flares, Dramatic, Disruptive and Puzzling. It was recorded at the Museum of the Rockies on October 18, 2022. He was introduced by Dr. RIchard Canfield, Research Professor, retired in the MSU Department of Physics.

Science writer David Quammen presented a talk at the Museum of the Rockies entitled Racing COVID: How Science Battled a New Global Pandemic, in which he discussed the origins of COVID-19, the most unexpected things he learned about it, and the compelling stories of scientists who raced to understand it and develop vaccines, as described in his new book Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus. The book has recently been announced as a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. Recorded October 19, 2022.

“Understanding how climate, ignitions and fuel conditions have changed over centuries and millennia can help us better understand why fire seasons in Montana have been getting worse and lend important context to events such as the Bridger Foothills Fire we saw in Bozeman last year.”

That quote is from Professor Dave McWethy of Montana State University’s Department of Earth Sciences. He presented at a Cafe Scientifique program sponsored by Montana INBRE, entitled “The Past and Future of Wildfire in Montana: How Changes in Climate, Fuels and Human Activity are Driving Longer, More Destructive Fire Seasons.”

Climate change does not exist as its own calamity—it is deeply interconnected with the inequities and injustices that pervade our society, both in the United States and globally. How do faith leaders connect the call of faith with the need for action on climate change and racial justice?

On December 8, 2020, the Union of Concerned Scientists held an on-line panel titled: Connecting Faith, Climate and Justice. Ken Kimmell, the president of The Union of Concerned Scientists, began with an introduction on the topic. The Rev. Canon, Sally Bingham, founder of the national environmental organization, Interfaith Power and Light, was the moderator. She introduced the panelists, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Rabbi Melanie Aron, Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley, and Dr. William Edelglass.

On October 5, 2020 The Northern Plains Resource Council hosted a conversation with ecologist, author, activist, Bill McKibben via Zoom. He spoke about the state of play in which we find ourselves when it comes to climate change and the future we can create together, including local solutions already in motion here in Montana.

You can find out more about the Northern Plains Resource Council and their work by going to northern plains.org.

On the evening of Sept. 23, 2020, the second in a series of webinars was hosted by MSU Bozeman’s Initiative for Science, Technology, Ethics & Society, entitled SLOWING THE SPREAD: HOW WE CAN DETECT THE VIRUS IN MULTIPLE WAYS, featuring Dr. Blake Wiedenheft and Dr. Seth Walk (Associate Professors in Microbiology & Immunology at Montana State University), who discussed their efforts to test for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and expand testing in Montana.

Parts of human body most affected by SARS-CoV2 – the intestines are highly involved.

Dr. Blake Wiedenheft

Dr. Seth Walk

Dr. Kristen Intemann, Director of the Initiative for Science, Technology, Ethics & Society, moderated the discussion.

You can find out more here: http://www.montana.edu/stes/

On the evening of February 20, 2020, Bozeman’s Ellen Theater was filled to overflowing with an enthusiastic crowd to hear Temple Grandin’s lecture, “Understanding Animal Behavior and Autism.”

The free, public event was sponsored by the Bair Ranch Foundation and the MSU Bozeman Department of Animal and Range Sciences, as part of the Bair Ranch Foundation Seminar Series.

Thanks to Josh McCintyre and the Ellen Theater for production assistance with this recording.

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Michael Reidy is Professor of History in the Department of History and Philosophy at Montana State University. His special niche in research is how the sport of mountaineering advanced the practice of science in the nineteenth century. But in this talk for the Institute on Ecosystems Rough Cut Science series, he discusses a more general and contentious topic in the history of science, namely the rise of sociobiology. Along with biographical details about the best-known proponent, E. O. Wilson, Reidy also mentions an earlier contributor, the 19th century Russian scientist and anarchist Peter Kropotkin. The evolution of sociobiology continues today, with modern genetics affecting thought across many disciplines.

Recorded at Montana State University on September 25, 2019.

The Climate Conference at Montana State University, coordinated by engineering students Hannah Smith and Callista Schoettmer, and hosted by the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering and the Montana State University Chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, was an open event designed to unite the Montana community in the fight against our changing climate. The participating speakers were, in order:

Dean Brett Gunnink – Energy Efficiencies in Norm Asbjornson Hall
Dr. Nick Silverman – The Role of Carbon Dioxide in Climate Change and Modeling Climate Change in the Near Future
Dr. Bruce Maxwell – How Ecological Systems are Evolving with Climate Change
Dr. Paul Lachapelle – Community Efforts to Address Climate Change
Dr. Fabian Menalled – How Climate Change is Affecting Crop Yields, Weeds, and Pathogens
Jim Williams – View from the Center of the Universe: Climate Change and Energy Markets

For further information about the speakers and the event, see the MSU AICHE Climate Conference website. Recorded April 27, 2019 at Montana State University.

At a Café Scientifique presentation, Montana State University researchers from three disciplines, Frances Lefcort, Valérie Copié and Seth Walk, teamed up to present “Nerves, metabolism and bugs: How your brain, liver and gut interact to influence health.” They addressed a rapidly emerging area of science related to the microbiome, which includes the diverse ecology of microorganisms that live in the human gut. The microbiome is now being found to relate to phenomena in the brain, and plays a role in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, as well as other areas of health.

This recording has been edited to give the flavor and the main thrust of this informal and interactive event, leaving out some of the questions and responses from the audience, along with corresponding contributions from the expert panel.

Recorded at the Baxter ballroom in Bozeman on January 30, 2019.

Patrick Ewing is an agroecologist, recently moved to Bozeman, who works at the intersection of soil ecology, cropping systems, and data science. In this Special Seminar at MSU’s Institute on Ecosystems, Ewing discusses how different technologies may enable complex, ecologically-informed agriculture, allowing us to achieve goals such as reduced pollution and carbon impact, while simultaneously maintaining or increasing crop yields.

Recorded at Montana State University on February 7, 2019.