How a team of Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder PhD students produced the first chromosome-level reference genome for humpback whales

Humpback whales are striking animals, not only because of their size, but also because of their complex vocalizations, acrobatic swimming and thousand-mile migrations.

Moreover, they hold a vital role in marine ecosystems, as their fecal matter, which is released as floating plumes, fertilizes the upper layer of the ocean and stimulates the growth of the photosynthesizing plankton there. These plankton are the basis of the marine food chain and are major contributors to the global carbon cycle.

PhD student Maria-Vittoria Carminati worked with colleagues to create the first chromosome-level reference genome for humpback whales.

Despite the importance and charisma of humpback whales, research into the species has been limited by the lack of complete genetic information.

Maria-Vittoria Carminati, a PhD student in the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, changed this when, along with Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Nolan Kane and a team of fellow graduate students*, she created the first chromosome-level reference genome for the species.

Moving the needle

Carminati became an attorney in 2008 and worked in that field until recently. ā€œI came to the realization that I wanted to do something more meaningful with my brain power,ā€ she says. ā€œThatā€™s why I switched to science: I thought it would allow me to make greater contributions to society.

ā€œSo, three years ago, I went back to college and got my bachelorā€™s in ecology and evolutionary biology.ā€ After that, she started her PhD at Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder. There remained the question of what she would do to ā€œmove the needle forward,ā€ but Carminati knew it would probably involve the ocean.

ā€œIā€™m a diver, Iā€™m a dive instructor, I like to sail even though Iā€™m not very good at it,ā€ she continues. After seeing a humpback whale in person one day, she started reading about them and found a paper that mentioned they were splitting into different subspecies. ā€œI thought the paper was trying its best, but I donā€™t think it had the tools it needed to be assertive about what it was saying.ā€

One of those tools is a reference genome. So, Carminati went to  for funding and to  for the sequencing. She got a permit to sequence the humpback DNA sample from the  and obtained the sample itself from the .

The sample was from the kidney of an orphaned whale calf that was beached and died on the shore of Hawaii Kai.

Cantata Bioā€™s sequencing yielded half a terabyte of data, which Kane tasked a class to help Carminati process.

A humpback whale swimming off the coast of Moorea, French Polynesia. (Photo: /Wikimedia Commons)

The basics of genome sequencing

Genome sequencing is the process scientists use to determine a large amount, if not the entirety, of an organismā€™s DNA, which is packaged in threadlike structures called chromosomes. Because the entire length of a chromosome cannot be sequenced at once, several strips are sequenced and then combined in what is known as a genome assembly.

The product of the researchersā€™ work is called a reference assembly. According to Carminati, this means that the chromosomes are represented well enough to be used in comparison with the DNA of other organisms. ā€œItā€™s like having the full book of an organismā€™s DNA,ā€ she says. ā€œIn our case, we are only missing 0.0003% of the entire genome.ā€

This level of accuracy distinguishes their assembly from others, such as the scaffold-level assembly of the humpback whale genome that already existed. To continue the book analogy, this level of assembly can be compared to a collection of passages that cannot be definitively ordered or associated with a particular ā€œchapter,ā€ or chromosome.

Such uncertainty is partially the result of short read lengths. ā€œShort reads are cheaper, so often, labs will do short reads,ā€ Carminati says. ā€œThe problem with a short read is that you are only getting, say, a couple of sentences from each page in the book.ā€ These few sentences are less distinctive than longer passages, which leaves more doubt in the final genome assembly.

The DNA in the researchersā€™ assembly was created from long reads, which allows it to be organized into chromosomes. Their assembly also had a high depth, which is to say that reads were performed 30 times to ensure accuracy, consistent with the platinum standard introduced by Philip Morin of the .

Insight and annotation

While this chromosome-level genome was created too recently for researchers to have made discoveries by using it, Carminati says that the resource can be expected to provide insights into interesting traits of humpback whales, such as their cell regulation, large size and cancer resistance, as well as the formation of subspecies and other elements of genetic variation.

A humpback whale breaches off the coast of Tahiti. (Photo: /Wikimedia Commons)

ā€œWe are right at the beginning of this process,ā€ Carminati explains, ā€œbut the reason that you can start making those insights is because if you have a platinum-level assembly, you have a far greater degree of certainty of what genes are and are not there.ā€ This will allow scientists to tell with certainty whether a gene exists, does not exist or exists and is expressed multiple times.

ā€œThat goes to cell regulation and cancer resistance,ā€ Carminati says, ā€œbecause, for example, if you have a lot of genes that relate to cell regulation, cell repair and cell control, that indicates a cancer-preventing or cancer-halting mechanism because cancer is the result of the misregulation of cell division.

ā€œSo, if you have multiple genes like this, that might be one way that these enormous, 40-ton creatures are able to get so big and have so much cell division but not develop cancer.ā€

Other insights could be provided by synteny analyses, which are comparisons between sets of chromosomes. According to Carminati, these comparisons can help identify conserved areas: regions of genes that are unlikely to be rearranged between generations. When genes are together in a conserved area, this could indicate that they work together or are necessary for each otherā€™s function.

The researchers performed a synteny analysis between the chromosomes from the humpback whale reference genome and the chromosomes of a blue whale. Synteny analyses can also indicate evolutionary relationships, and their analysis showed that there is a high level of consistency in the evolutionary relationships between the two species.

They also used BUSCOs (benchmarking universal single-copy orthologs), which are genetic reference guides developed in Switzerland, to evaluate genome completeness. BUSCO genes for mammals correspond to common mammalian traits, Carminati says, like lactation, placentas and live births. This analysis showed high completeness, too, but also represents another possible application of the reference genome: comparing whales to other mammals.

ā€œWe said, ā€˜What genes within this mammal BUSCO reference list do both of these creatures [humpback and blue whales] have, but more interestingly, which ones do they not have?ā€™ā€ Spending more time with this sort of analysis in the future could provide information about the evolution of whales, since missing mammalian genes would have either served no purpose to whales or even been counterproductive.

Finally, the researchers asked Cantata Bio start to annotate the reference genome. ā€œAnnotation tells you what genes are where,ā€ Carminati says, and it is a necessary part of genome analysis. The annotation has not been made public yet, since the process is ongoing.

However, the research has already drawn attention, since Carminati presented it at the International Marine Conservation Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, last month. ā€œSo,ā€ Carminati says, ā€œI went from seeing a humpback whale in Hawaii to presenting a genome in Cape Town. Four years ago, I was trying cases. It is a very surreal trajectory.ā€

*Contributing graduate students are Vlonjat Lonnie Gashi, Ruiqi Li, Daniel Jacob Klee, Sara Rose Padula, Ajay Manish Patel, Andy Dick Yee Tan and Jacqueline Mattos.

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ā€˜(Art)work: Systems of Makingā€™ opens with a celebration Friday afternoon at the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲArt Museum

As the 12 graduate students gathered around a long table discussing art, over several weeks their conversation eventually wound its way to labor. They were inspired by the labor movements happening in the United States and around the world.

ā€œThese movements inspired wage-related discussions for us as students at Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder,ā€ explains Rachel DeNagy. ā€œWe empathize with labor rights groups, because we feel both underrepresented in society and underpaid as student-workers for our labor.ā€

The conversations began as brainstorming the theme for an exhibition they would curate at the University of Colorado Art Museum and grew into ā€œ(Art)work: Systems of Making,ā€ which opens with a celebration from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Friday at the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲArt Museum and runs through March 22.

"The Artist Eroticized (Alina)" (2020), an oil on linen by Jenna Gribbon that is included in "(Art)work: Systems of Making."

ā€œ(Art)work: Systems of Makingā€ features artworks that offer different perspectives on labor and the workplace. Some of the featured themes include artist collaborations and networks of creation, the coding of labor according to gender and race, labor movements and the connections between labor and nationalism.

It is the culmination of a graduate-level curatorial practicum taught by Hope Saska, acting director, chief curator and director of academic engagement for the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲArt Museum.

ā€œOur focus has been curating from a social justice perspective,ā€ Saska says. ā€œThe students guided the discussion to topics and issues around labor, and Iā€™m really impressed by how they took this key topic and expanded it in a lot of really innovative ways.ā€

Focusing on labor

In discussing how to approach the various issues and topics relating to labor, the students ā€œfelt there were a lot of ways to use the museum's collection, and the format of an art exhibit, to cover ā€˜laborā€™ as a theme, ways that would intersect the museum's collection with this broad concept from different angles,ā€ says dani wasserman, giving as an example the labor of artmaking, ā€œor hidden or underrepresented labor in societyā€”what people might immediately think of as ā€˜blue collar labor.ā€™ There's a lot of interesting interpretive and curatorial work that can be done around depictions of this kind of work in art, especially with a collection as broad and eclectic as Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲArt Museumā€™s.ā€

The students delved into the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲArt Museumā€™s collections, as well as those of University Libraries, to curate an exhibit that includes works as varied as manuscript pages on vellum from the early Renaissance paired with inexpensive magazines produced by the activist and artist collective.

There are works that address how labor intersects with race and gender, posters for labor unions and worksā€”such as Japanese wood block printsā€”produced by artist collectives.

"Henequenero" (1945), a lithograph by Alfredo Zalce that is part of "(Art)work: Systems of Making."

ā€œGiven my research focus on Japanese art, I was immediately drawn to the Japanese artworks,ā€ explains Kat Bertram. ā€œCollaborating with another art history graduate, Sam Hensley, who shares a Japanese focus, we centered our discussions around the theme and identified Ukiyo-e (a genre of Japanese art from the 17th-19th centuries; its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings) as a fitting subject. Our interest lay in exploring the collaborative dynamics within art creation, particularly in the context of Ukiyo-e, where the traditional emphasis on the designer overlooks the contributions of carvers, printers and publishers.ā€

ā€˜More than a stroke of geniusā€™

Because the exhibition is happening in a post-COVID-lockdown world, Saska says, a lot of the studentsā€™ discussion also focused on how labor does or doesnā€™t define people.

ā€œI hope that, at best, people might leave the show with an impression of how labor is really central to our lives and our society,ā€ wasserman says. ā€œHow through analyzing our attitudes about work, whether that be through artā€” that's just one wayā€” we can ask some really interesting questions about how we got to this world we are in and maybe even start to consider how reimagining that relationship to labor and to work can help us imagine a different, more equitable future. At the least, I think people will leave with a new concept of how much labor goes into artmaking itself.ā€

DeNagy adds that another goal for the exhibit is for ā€œpeople see how art is layered. An artwork that we see in a gallery is a product of hours spent ideating, planning, laboring and fine-tuning.

ā€œArt is more than a stroke of genius,ā€ DeNagy says. ā€œI hope that people see art as a group effort. There is more to a painting, a sculpture, a poster or a print than what first meets the eye. Art is a collective process, between an artist and their work, or between multiple people working together to create a finished product.ā€

Top image: "Men of Steel" (1939) by Samuel L. Margolies; the work is included in "(Art)work: Systems of Making" 

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New Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder research demonstrates that, with practice, older adults can regain manual dexterity that may have seemed lost

Despite what ads for wrinkle cream would have us believe, thereā€™s no magic reversal for aging. As the years pass, a certain amount of change is inevitable but not, it turns out, inexorable.

Fingers that feel less nimble in doing the normal tasks of lifeā€”buttoning a shirt, writing a listā€”are not doomed to stay that way, . It also demonstrates that, to some extent, age is just a number.

Researchers in the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ Department of Integrative Physiologyā€”first author Sajjad Daneshgar and Taylor Tvrdy, both PhD students, and Professor Roger Enokaā€”worked with more than two dozen study participants ages 60 to 83 to understand whether manual dexterity can improve with time.

Sajjad Daneshgar, a PhD student in the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder Department of Integrative Physiology, conducted research that found manual dexterity can improve with practice in older age.

Over six sessions, participants completed a pegboard exercise multiple times, and after the sixth session, data showed that the average time it took to complete the pegboard had decreased for all participants.

ā€œWe saw that in older adults, training can improve hand function to a level it was at in middle age,ā€ Daneshgar says. ā€œIn a way, practicing helped them go back a decade or two. Most people believe that aging has many negative challenges in terms of function in the hands, but this study shows that what you achieved in the past can really help you as you get older.ā€

Simple puzzle, complex process

For the study, Daneshgar and his research colleagues recruited right-handed older adults with no history of neurological disease. After an initial familiarization session and evaluation session, participants completed a grooved pegboard test 25 times in each of six sessions.

The test required participants to fit small, keyhole-shaped metal pegs into 25 holes on a board as quickly as possible. The keyholes had different orientations on the board, so participants not only had to manipulate the pegs with their fingers to get them situated correctly, but then fit them correctly.

ā€œAt first glance, this looks like a simple puzzle or game, but itā€™s actually a very complex process,ā€ Daneshgar says. ā€œYour mind is controlling your physical functionā€”and weā€™re doing a lot more studies on this physical function and whatā€™s going on in the muscles, in the nervous systemā€”and weā€™re seeing that cognition of the mind, how you learn things, is connected to the muscles and how dexterous you are.ā€

For example, one of the study participants was a 67-year-old woman who played the piano in her youth. While the average time to complete the pegboard was between 40 and 50 seconds, she could do it in 36ā€”a time faster than some of the researchers could achieve.

ā€œEven though she wasnā€™t regularly playing the piano during the study, that tells us that perhaps the memory your brain has of controlling those muscles still exists,ā€ Daneshgar says. ā€œSome activities that people doā€”playing a musical instrument, rock climbingā€”can be very beneficial for manual dexterity, and even if theyā€™re done earlier in life, the brain may remember controlling those muscles.ā€

During the research, study participants fit small, keyhole-shaped metal pegs into 25 holes on a board as quickly as possible.

Practice leads to improvement

However, those who reach their later years without a longtime history of guitar-playing or bouldering shouldnā€™t despair. Wherever study participants started at baselineā€”even if their initial times for completing the pegboard were comparatively slowā€”each saw improvement in their times by the sixth session.

ā€œManual dexterity can be improved by the brain,ā€ Daneshgar says. ā€œItā€™s not just at the level of the fingers. Signals from the brain are controlling function and practicing aids learning. This study shows that, as far as function in the limbs and hands, learning in terms of muscle training never ends. Whatever level youā€™re at, you can go back to this training and practicing to see improvement in function.ā€

Another important outcome from the research is demonstrating that categorizing peopleā€™s performance based on chronological age during their later years may not be the best way to understand manual dexterity.

ā€œWhatever you learned in the past is going to be a main player in performance in older age,ā€ Daneshgar says. ā€œOf course, not all people in older age are going to have the same performance, but people who had better practice in the past can, in older age, practice and get to a place where they perform better than middle-age adults.

ā€œBut we also showed that practice helps everybody. It doesnā€™t matter if you have particular experience earlier in life, practice helps all people to do better with no exception.ā€

Manual dexterity is one of the National Institutes of Health Toolbox biomarkers of neurological health and motor function across the span of life. Daneshgar notes that the research demonstrates manual dexterity is not something that must inevitably worsen over time. With practice, the brain can remember what the fingers once did.

ā€œManual dexterity relates to our ability to button a shirt or hold a pen,ā€ Daneshgar says. ā€œThese are the activities of daily life that we want to be able to do throughout our lives, and theyā€™re abilities that we donā€™t need to lose.ā€

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In a recent defense of strong comic immoralism, Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder philosophy student Connor Kianpour argues for the aesthetic value of immoral humor

A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar and ā€¦ have a lovely evening of conversation and libation, because weā€™re not supposed to tell those kinds of jokes, right?

You know the ones: the jokes we laugh at and then immediately look around to check whether anyone saw us laughing. The jokes that are just wrong, that maybe indicate weā€™re terrible people for laughing. The jokes that dare not speak their name, that thereā€™s just no defending.

Or is there?

In a , Connor Kianpour, a PhD student in the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ Department of Philosophy who studies the philosophy of humor, argues that strong comic immoralismā€”that is, the view that humor involving a moral defect that is aesthetically enhanced by that defectā€”is true. This does not mean that immoral jokes are always OK to tell, he emphasizes, but it does mean that people are not mistaken for finding them funny. 

In a recently published analysis of strong comic immoralism, Connor Kianpour, a PhD student in the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲDepartment of Philosophy, argues that immoral jokes may not be OK to tell, but people aren't wrong for laughing at them.

He further argues that laughing at strong comic immoralism does not mean accepting that all immorality in all art makes art better, or that morally defective jokes are always more funny than jokes without moral defects. The argument is just that immoral jokes are funny in ways that ā€œcleanā€ jokes are not.

He recently elaborated on the philosophy of humor and the intellectual value of studying the humor that weā€™re not sure we should laugh at.

Question: Humor and philosophy donā€™t immediately seem like natural partners; how did you arrive at this intersection?

Kianpour: In terms of how I got interested in philosophical questions about humor, the first thing is: I have a funny dad. He loves bathroom humor and Iā€™ve always appreciated that. As a philosopher, I also recognized that there is a similar sort of thing that happens in people when they realize that an argument works and when they realize that a joke is successful. Thereā€™s a sort of recognition, an aha moment, when you get a joke and when you get an argument and I always found that really fascinating. 

I also noticed there are a lot of comediansā€”George Carlin comes to mindā€”who seem to approach comedy from a philosophical perspective. They use jokes to indirectly construct and build arguments about attitudes that people should have about certain practices and the way that the world is.

I started really looking into questions about humor, what it is, what makes things funny. A lot of philosophers have had a lot to say about humor, but one thing missing from all of these discussions was a defense of strong comic immoralism. In the late 20^th century, the consensus in philosophy seemed to be that moral defects in jokes make them less funny. But in ā€œIn Praise of Immoral Art,ā€ (author) Daniel Jacobson takes the position that moral defects in jokes can sometimes make jokes funnier. I am of the mind that moral defects in jokes might always make them funnier, and I think thereā€™s been a silence on this position that strikes me as utterly plausible.

Question: But as a society we donā€™t always sit comfortably with immoral humor. For a lot of people, thereā€™s the sense that, ā€œIf I laugh at this, Iā€™m a bad person.ā€

Kianpour: There are two ways to analyze that kind of quandary. On one hand, itā€™s important that we uphold a distinction between moral value and aesthetic value. It could be the case that by laughing at an immoral joke maybe you are a worse person, but it doesnā€™t mean that by laughing at an immoral joke you were wrong to think it was funny. Thatā€™s at least one thing to keep in mindā€”itā€™s possible for us to live in this space where something could be aesthetically very virtuous, but morally not so. 

A good example of this is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Many people recognize the book is a literary masterpiece, but at the same time acknowledge there are a lot of morally fraught things going on in it. Thereā€™s also moral value in being able to recognize the immorality in a joke. So, if we come to realize that people, when they laugh at immoral jokes, are laughing precisely because they recognize something is immoral, in a sense we could say that the telling of the joke educated people about something thatā€™s wrong. Jokes may provide us with a low-stakes arena to point out moral problems that people might not be comfortable talking about in earnest.

Question: How do you even get your head around strong comic immoralism when morality itself doesnā€™t have a universally agreed-upon definition?

Kianpour: I think there are two ways that somebody could conceive of the strong comic immoralist position. The first way is to say that a moral defect in a joke only counts as a moral defect when the joke traffics in something objectively wrong, when we know somebodyā€™s been offended with objectively good reason. But I donā€™t subscribe to that position. I say that a moral defect in a joke counts as a moral defect when the society in which somebody resides has come to the consensus that the thing thatā€™s being joked about is immoral. I think itā€™s very presumptuous for somebody to say they know everything that morality demands of us. When we laugh at a joke that our society tells us is an immoral one, we are recognizing something our society has told us is not good thing to do.

My defense of strong comic immoralism focuses on what the empirical psychological literature tells us about amusement and offense as emotions. We have a lot of reason to believe that it is impossible to be at once amused and offended by the same thing. So, if the whole point of comedy and making jokes is to induce amused states in the listeners of the jokes, but the listeners are being offended when they hear the joke, theyā€™re essentially being impaired in their ability to judge the merits of the joke. You could compare it to presenting a sound and valid argument to someone whoā€™s drunk. That someone who is drunk cannot recognize that an argument is a good one does not speak against the argument; likewise, that someone who is offended cannot recognize that a joke is a good one does not speak against the joke. 

Question: Humor is so subjective and peopleā€™s senses of humor vary so widely; how does that affect addressing humor as a philosopher?

Kianpour: I agree that people have different tastes when it comes to humor, 100% thatā€™s just a fact. I think we could compare this to peopleā€™s judgments about the culinary arts. There might be some whose personal tastes donā€™t allow them to enjoy umami flavor profiles and I donā€™t think that those people are doing anything wrong or theyā€™re not virtuous for not enjoying those foods. But I also donā€™t think that somebody who is able to appreciate umami flavor profiles would be mistaken to say that those who canā€™t enjoy the flavor profile are missing out on something special. Likewise, I completely accept there are people who do not have a taste for dark humor or immoral humor; they do no wrong for lacking this taste. However, I also think it is consistent to claim those people who donā€™t enjoy immoral jokes are potentially missing out on something special because they donā€™t.

Question: Are you worried about getting ā€œcancelledā€ or people thinking youā€™re a jerk for making a philosophical case for strong comic immoralism?

Kianpour:  I have thought about that, yes. The norms of academia and of society might prevent us from being able to fully explore the philosophy of humor to its fullest extent. In academia and in society, we are encouraged to think constantly about audience and optics, and in some cases, this prevents us from getting at the question of what is it that makes a joke funny. In some ways, weā€™ve gotten to a place where talking about why something is immoral is itself considered immoral, and that limits intellectual inquiry. People donā€™t really take humor seriously, no pun intended, and I wish they did.

Regardless, having conversations about immoral humor is extremely timely given that every two years Dave Chapelle gets cancelled for something he says in a Netflix special. People all have very strong opinions about whether he should have his platform. That polarization, in addition to fact that we canā€™t really talk about issues in way thatā€™s authentic to the issue, can make it nearly impossible to get to the bottom of what makes humor funny. However, I still feel it is extremely important to think about and discuss these issues, which is why I have tried in the ways I have to do so. 

Question: Do you ever run the risk of studying a joke too much and it stops being funny?

Kianpour: I do think thereā€™s a risk of maybe not being able to enjoy jokes as much when you study them closely. However, in my own case, I feel like Iā€™ve gotten to a point where I have two modes of navigating the world. The first is as a philosopher, and the second as somebody who just exists in the world. I think that Iā€™m very unlikely to find jokes funny when Iā€™m writing about them in papers, but I can still really be blown away by a surprisingly good comedy set. The reason for that is because when I go to comedy shows, Iā€™m not trying to analyze the jokes; Iā€™m just trying to laugh.

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In her masterā€™s thesis, Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲgrad student highlights how the current Russian regime is making use of Soviet narratives and symbols to justify its war with Ukraine

For Daria Molchanova, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine feels very personal. 

ā€œFirst of all, because Iā€™m Russian, Iā€™m literally a part of it,ā€ she says. ā€œMy family was in Russia when it (the invasion) all started, I have a lot of friends in Ukraine, and I have been to Ukraine many, many times.ā€

So, perhaps itā€™s no surprise that when Molchanova was completing her masterā€™s degree in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ, she decided to write her thesis on how the current regime in Moscow has co-opted propaganda and symbols from the Soviet era to justify its armed conflict with Ukraine. 

Molchanova is pictured here in her native Russia; a Russian Orthodox church is pictured in the background. Molchanova has studied Russian war propaganda efforts, first when she earned a PhD in history from Moscow State University in 2016, and more recently when obtaining a masterā€™s degree in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ, where she wrote her thesis on how the current regime in Moscow has co-opted Soviet World War II propaganda and symbols and made use of them in its current armed conflict with Ukraine. 

ā€œI have taken it (the invasion) very harshly, so I guess writing about it was one way to maybe have some personal input, and maybe (expressing) just a little bit of the feeling of guilt for what my country was doing,ā€ she says. 

Also, while earning a PhD in Russian history from Moscow State University in 2016, she wrote her dissertation on Russian propaganda in the countryā€™s war with Japan and ā€œinstantly noticed a lot of similarities in terms of how some symbols were used and how some of the linguistic aspects are basically the same.ā€

Observing Russiaā€™s initial propaganda efforts related to its invasion of Ukraine in 2020, Molchanova says she first noticed how chaotic and ineffective those efforts were.

ā€œThe propaganda was not effective from the beginning, because the main function of propaganda is to explain things,ā€ she says, adding that the government failed to make a convincing case justifying an invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin and others in his government were confident the conflict would be over in almost no time, she says, so comprehensive propaganda efforts were not formulated in the beginning.

ā€œI guess that by now itā€™s obvious that nobody was prepared that this so-called ā€˜special military operationā€™ would last for years,ā€ she says. Instead, the government likely hoped it could achieve its goals quickly, like it did in its 2008 military campaign against the former Soviet republic of Georgia. That conflict lasted a matter of days and resulted in a defeat for Georgia and the loss of some of its territories.

As the war with Ukraine has dragged on, however, Russian propagandists have had more time to shape their narrativesā€”some have fallen flat, but others have taken hold with at least part of the Russian populace. 

Recently, Molchanova talked about the Russian governmentā€™s propaganda efforts and how some borrow symbols and terminology from the former Soviet Union, especially those relating to War II narratives. Her responses were lightly edited for style and clarity.

Question: When Russian propagandists talk about Ukrainian leaders being Nazis and fascists, is there more charged meaning to those words than the average American might understand?

Molchanova: Specifically using this Nazi card, it all comes from the biggest trauma ofā€”not just Russian people, but from Slavic people, in generalā€”because the losses Russia had during World War II were just unheard of, more than 20 million people. And if you talk to any Russian family, they had someone who either died in World War II or was severely injured.

So, I think itā€™s just very hard for some (in the West) to understand on the personal level. Imagine speaking to every American family and they would say, ā€˜We lost that person in that warā€™ or ā€˜We lost five people in that war.ā€™ In Russia, every family had this sacrifice. 

So, of course, the word Nazi for Russians, itā€™s something we grew up hearing about non-stop ā€¦ because for Russians itā€™s much more personal than I think it is for most people. Thatā€™s why itā€™s so effective. And thatā€™s why, unfortunately, modern propaganda is trying falsely to use this. 

Question: It seems part of the recent propaganda efforts are focused on making the Russian soldiers seem very heroic?

Molchanova: They have this whole section in the news every day, showing how some brave Russian soldiers saved a family, or children, or a dog and her puppies. So, itā€™s always some emotional story of some soldier savior. Thatā€™s what theyā€™re showingā€”and theyā€™re completely denying every single accusation that comes from Ukraine. 

If you go to any Russian news source ā€¦ itā€™s like the opposite (of what Ukraine says happened), no matter what happened. For example, this church was destroyed in Odessa. The western side, of course, said Russian missiles hit the church. The Russian version said a Ukrainian rocket hit the church (because) Ukrainians canā€™t use their air defense system. They destroyed the church. So, itā€™s never, never admitted that Russians did anything wrongā€”complete opposite representation.

Question: One example of propaganda from a few years back that you highlighted in your thesis was a story of Ukrainian soldiers supposedly crucifying a young boy in a Ukrainian eastern province. Do average Russians really believe a story like that?

Molchanova: I think itā€™s one of the most successful propaganda stories, about the crucified boy back in 2014 in Slovansk (in eastern Ukraine). This young woman, a mother, was sharing this super emotional story (on Russian TV) about how Ukrainian Nazis crucified the boy and how he bled to death. 

But when (independent journalists) tried to find any witnessesā€”itā€™s a very small town, and obviously someone would have seen, and she said the crowd was on the square, so everybody was there to witness itā€”they couldnā€™t find a single witness there at all. Never, ever was there any proof of this happening, and I think the dates that she was talking about, the Ukrainian army was not even there in those days. So, itā€™s a completely made-up story.

But the problem with propaganda is that once something so strong is thrown into the public, unfortunately, nobody is coming back (to check) if that story in 2014 was actually true. ā€¦

A lot of Russians sitting somewhere far away in the countryside in the evening were watching the news. Theyā€™re not interested in doing some further research or anything. No, itā€™s just the fact for them. So yeah, even today, a lot of people still think that it happened. Nobody wants to double-check, unfortunately.

Question: In your thesis, you note that there was a deliberate decision in Russia to play up Great Patriotic War mythology in recent yearsā€”even before the invasion of Ukraine. How have things changed, specifically?

Molchanova: Yeah, it (the May 9 holiday celebrating victory over Nazi Germany) was not as strong in the Soviet Unionā€”especially in the first two decades after the victory. Even in the 1990s, it was a very quiet holiday. I remember it in my childhood, there were no festivities, there were no fireworks, no military parades, nothing like that. We would just buy some flowers and we went to the local memorial, where we laid the flowers. That was it.

But later, when I was starting at the university, I noticed every single year how it was just changing. I donā€™t even know what to compare it withā€”almost like cosplay. People were dressing their babies in the Red Army uniforms. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Russians lost the unifying force that communism provided. In recent years, the Russian government has promoted the myth of the Great Patriotic War (Russiaā€™s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II) as a rallying point for the population. More recently, Russian leaders also have made use of propaganda efforts to justify the war with neighboring Ukraine.

And it looks fun at first, but when you start thinking about it, the main phrase that every single Russian veteran from World War II says was, ā€˜Never again. The only important thing is there is no war.ā€™ 

Now, there is no sense of how terrible the war is. They replaced the idea of ā€˜never againā€™ with, ā€˜How amazing we are; how heroic we are; how we do this and that from one of the latest movies.ā€™ On Amazon, thereā€™s a movie called T-34 about tanks, and Russian media were presenting it as, basically, Fast and Furious with tanks. So, thatā€™s how theyā€™re portraying the most horrifying war in history. Now, there is no trace of how horrible war is; itā€™s only beautiful stuff and heroism.

Question: Are there other things you think itā€™s important to mention about Russian propaganda or the state of Russia today?

Molchanova: I think itā€™s important, especially for Western people, to understand that it (war propaganda) is not something unique to Russia. War propaganda has happened every single time in every single war, including in the United States. If you look for it, American propaganda has all the same patterns, the same rules, the same symbolics. So, thereā€™s nothing new here. ā€¦

There is a massive brainwashing campaign in Russia now. There is this term ā€˜zombificationā€™ right now, and it does work successfully on some groups of people. But a lot of Russians donā€™t support this war. And the proof is that millions of Russians had to leave the country.

There were Russian protests against the war. ā€¦ Unfortunately, there is very little news from Russia of Russians being against the war. I think that should be shown more, because I donā€™t know a single person who supports it. Not one.

Did you enjoy this article? 

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Lipari-DiLeonardo named a Rudd Mayer Fellow by Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy 

Serena Lipari-DiLeonardo, a Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ graduate student of applied mathematics and atmospheric science, has been selected as a 2023 Rudd Mayer Fellow by 

Each year, WRISE awards this fellowship on a competitive basis to current college students or recent graduates who identify as women or other marginalized genders and who are interested in expanding their knowledge and engaging in the renewable field. Fellowship selection is based on commitment to renewable energy development, academic achievement, potential for future contributions to the U.S. renewable energy community and financial need.

Serena Lipari-DiLeonardo's research and interests explore the climatology of downslope windstorms in the Front Range, and plans to assess occurrences of extreme winds in future climate simulations.

The fellowshipā€”which honors wind  of Boulder, who passed away in 2002ā€”aims to further diversify the wind energy workforce and the greater renewable energy workforce.

ā€œThis yearā€™s fellows are incredibly driven, and Iā€™m excited to see them continue their extraordinary work and impact in the industry,ā€ said Doseke Akporiaye, WRISE executive director. 

ā€œClean energy is at a pivotal moment, and now more than ever, we need diverse representation and leadership in this space. If we wish to see the systemic changes that are critical to ushering in this new era of renewables, we have to be deliberate in creating opportunities to advance equitable workforce development. Iā€™m pleased that WRISE can do its part by providing these students with the tools and access to further their careers in this space.ā€

The fellowship will cover the cost to attend the annual CLEANPOWER Conference and Exhibition in May in New Orleans; this yearā€™s fellowship also will have a virtual professional development component through June. 

ā€œWinning the WRISE Fellowship is a humbling honor, particularly because of individuals like Rudd Mayer, who have continuously inspired me through their dedication to environmental issues and nonprofit work,ā€ Lipari-DiLeonardo said.

ā€œI am excited for the opportunity to attend the CLEANPOWER conference and to join a community of passionate individuals who share my commitment to renewable energy and creating a sustainable future.ā€

 

Ms. Lipari-DiLeonardo gives 200 percent to all of her many activitiesā€”carrying out rigorous analysis of observations of downslope windstorms, serving as a statistical expert on multiple other projects, and thoughtfully mentoring junior scientists. Working with her has been a delight. Iā€™m grateful that WRISE is recognizing her passion and skills with the Rudd Mayer fellowship.ā€

Julie Lundquist, associate professor the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder and Lipari-DiLeonardoā€™s research group leader, said Lipari-DiLeonardo is deserving of the recognition from WRISE.

ā€œMs. Lipari-DiLeonardo gives 200 percent to all of her many activitiesā€”carrying out rigorous analysis of observations of downslope windstorms, serving as a statistical expert on multiple other projects, and thoughtfully mentoring junior scientists. Working with her has been a delight. Iā€™m grateful that WRISE is recognizing her passion and skills with the Rudd Mayer fellowship,ā€ Lundquist said.

Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy, formerly called Women of Wind Energy, was founded in 2005 to accelerate the transition to a sustainable and equitable energy future by igniting the collective power of community. WRISE has local chapters across the United States and Canada; national programming that includes the annual luncheon, leadership forum and fellowships, a speakersā€™ bureau, and a webinar series; plus a growing grassroots network of more than 15,000 participants. 

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National Institute of Standards and Technology makes $94.5 million cooperative agreement to continue successful NIST-Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder collaboration

The Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ Department of Physics has received a $94.5 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerceā€™s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to continue the collaborative Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) for the next five years, the department has announced.

Started in 1994, the PREP program provides funding for undergraduate and graduate students in physics and other departments to work with researchers at NISTā€™s Boulder laboratories on cutting-edge projects, including new atomic clocks, precision quantum measurement, international measurement standards, new laser applications, GPS technology and more. 

PREP has more than 130 students and research scientists working at NIST-Boulder. Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder has managed a PREP program for 28 years, and its Department of Physics, one of the nationā€™s top physics departments, has administered the PREP cooperative agreement since 2017.

At top of page: A laser-based atomic clock in Andrew Ludlowā€™s research laboratory at NIST-Boulder. Seven Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲPREP research scientists work in Ludowā€™s lab on optical lattice clocks that can measure time and frequency with 18 digits of precision or more. Photo by N. Phillips/NIST. Above, left to right: Michael Ritzwoller, John Cumalat and Paul Beale.

PREP has employed more than 300 Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder students and research scientists in the last five years.

NIST-Boulder is one of the top physics laboratories in the world, especially in quantum science and engineering, precision measurement, and high-speed communications. PREP recruits some of the top young scientists and engineers in the world to work closely with NIST researchers. Together, they create scientific discoveries that help maintain U.S. technological leadership. 

John Cumalat, college professor of distinction in physics, is the principal investigator of the PREP cooperative agreement, and Paul Beale, professor of physics, is co-PI. 

ā€œPREP provides excellent opportunities for young researchers to work with the outstanding scientists and engineers at the NIST Boulder Laboratories,ā€ they added. ā€œDozens of Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲundergraduate and graduate students work alongside NIST scientists on their honors thesis projects and doctoral dissertations. Hundreds of PREP alumni have gone on to become leading research scientists and academic leaders. In the new award we will enhance the Outreach Program to share the research accomplishments of our PREP employees and NIST scientists.ā€

Michael Ritzwoller, professor of distinction and chair of physics, praised the program. ā€œWe are delighted to continue physicsā€™ long-term relationship with NIST-Boulder. PREP research scientists and students contribute greatly to both Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲand NIST.ā€ 

Lang Farmer, divisional dean of natural sciences, concurred, saying, ā€œIt is exceptionally good news for Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲthat NIST PREP will continue to provide exciting research opportunities for both Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲundergraduate and graduate students while working side by side with NIST scientists.ā€

The Department of Physics has had a close research relationship with NIST-Boulder for more than 60 years. Three of the departmentā€™s four Nobel Laureates are NIST federal scientists. David Wineland was at NIST-Boulder when he won the Nobel Prize in 2012, and dozens of PREP research students and scientists contributed to his research program.

PREP is administered in physics by Cumalat, Beale, PREP Program Coordinator Tiffany Mason, PREP Payroll Liaison Lisa Valencia, and PREP Visa and Immigration Liaison George Peterman. PREP will hire additional staff to help administer the new cooperative agreement.

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Rita Garson, now 76, will celebrate her special day at Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder with her sister, adult children and grandchildren, two of whom are also alumni

Like many Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ graduating seniors, Rita Garson will have several friends and family in attendance when she participates in May commencement ceremonies on CUā€™s Boulder campus.

Her guests include her sister, her three adult children, including daughter Dr. Kirsten Nielsen, who is a Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲalum, and her five grandchildren, including her 25-year-old grandson, Kyle Webber, who graduated from Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder in December 2021.

Garson is 76 years old. That makes her the second-oldest person to obtain an undergraduate degree at Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder, coming in just behind a 77-year-old woman who graduated with a degree in history in 1996, according to the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲOffice of Data Analytics, which notes that its digital records only go back to 1988. 

Top of page: Rita Garson loves to travel. She is pictured here in Mykonos, Greece, a popular tourist attraction on the Aegean Sea. Above: Garson, age 76, will join other University of Colorado seniors in May participating in commencement ceremonies on the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder campus. Garson is the second-oldest person to obtain an undergraduate degree from Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder in at least the past 30-plus years, according to the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲOffice of Data Analytics. 

Officials with the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲRegistrarā€™s Office and the archives division for the Norlin Library say they donā€™t have ways of easily identifying the schoolā€™s oldest graduates prior to 1988.

For Garson, earning her college degree was always the plan; it just took longer than she anticipated. 

Asked what finally getting her undergraduate diploma means to her nowā€”more than 50 years after she first started taking college coursesā€”she pauses for a moment to consider.

ā€œIā€™m proud of myselfā€”that I finished and that I stuck to it,ā€ she says. ā€œItā€™s a feeling of accomplishment. And I really feel that it has broadened me and encouraged my sense of curiosity.ā€

Life got in the way

After graduating from high school, Garson attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, in the late 1960s. She took a few courses and earned 11 credit hours, but after meeting the man who would become her husband, she decided to elope and marry. 

Later, Garson and her husband moved to northern New Jersey, where she enrolled in what was then William Patterson College (now William Patterson University). She accumulated an additional 81 credit hours. 

However, after raising a family and later going through a divorce, her plans to finish college were once again put on hold. In the early 1990s, when she was hired by McGraw-Hill publishing and rose to become a vice president of marketing with one of its flagship publications, she briefly contemplated going back to school to become a doctor. But she decided she would like to pursue a career writing about the pharmaceutical industry. 

Garson says she landed an interview with an Oregon-based trade magazine that reported on the pharmaceutical industry, but the owners of the business repeatedly told her how hard it was to understand the industry and how difficult it was to break into the field.

She was undeterred. Her response to the owners of the trade magazine was succinct: ā€œYou canā€™t tell me what I canā€™t do! Watch me!"

With her degree now completed, Garson is looking forward to devoting more time to the things she loves, including horseback riding and skiing. 

ā€œSo, I started my own company,ā€ she adds with a laugh. ā€œAnd Iā€™ve been doing that job ever since. I had a love of the medical fieldā€”and still do. I love going to medical conferences and learning about the latest developments.ā€

She thought about going back to college then, but her top priority was helping to put her three kids through college, as well as concentrating on building her business.

ā€œWith or without a degree, I knew I was going to make it,ā€ she says. ā€œBut it was important that my kids get degrees, given that their whole lives and careers were ahead of them. And so they did!ā€

In the late 1990s, Garsonā€™s youngest daughter, Kirsten, moved to Colorado to attend the University of Colorado. Garson, who was living in Connecticut at the time, moved to Evergreen to be closer to family.

After establishing residency in Colorado, Garson says she decided it was finally time to return to college, so she enrolled at the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ. Still, she says she wasnā€™t really sure what field of study she wanted to pursue. So, she took a variety of classes, including science and business courses, because she thought they would be beneficial to her as the owner of a medical publishing business. She also took womenā€™s studies courses because the field interested her. 

ā€œI love learning,ā€ Garson says. ā€œI accumulated a lot of credit hours, but not all in the same field.ā€

She took courses off and on in the 2000s. However, a diagnosis of Parkinsonā€™s disease a few years back, combined with some helpful advice from her late brother-in-law, Richard Ellis, a professor at Washburn University, motivated her to concentrate on finishing her degree. 

She worked with the Division of Continuing Education to come up with a plan (see related story, Finish what you started, below) to obtain a degree in distributive studies. 

Mixed reactions to decision to finish college

Garson says her decision to finish her degree drew a mixed reaction from family and friends. Her familyā€”especially her two daughtersā€”were largely supportive, but she says some friends didnā€™t understand why it was so important to her, given her age and career success.

Always up for trying something new, Garson recently tried her hand at dog sledding during a recent family trip to the Colorado mountains. Her passenger here is her youngest granddaughter. 

ā€œFriends would sometimes ask me to go out to a restaurant for a meal, and sometimes I would have to say, ā€˜I canā€™t; I have to study,'ā€ she says. ā€œIt was hard for some of them to understand.ā€

As for her classmates and college professors, Garson says they were very supportive.

ā€œI had wonderful professors,ā€ she says now. ā€œAnd my fellow students were most encouraging.ā€

It was important to her that she apply herself to her courses, so she studied hard and earned a 3.686 grade-point average, Garson says, a detail confirmed by the Division of Continuing Education. 

ā€œI was going to do my very best; I enjoyed my classes, and I was going to get the most out of themā€”even if it meant that sometimes I had to make sacrifices,ā€ she says. 

Garson will celebrate her 77th birthday in August, but she has no plans to retireā€”or slow downā€”any time soon. Still, with the hard work of finishing her degree behind her, she says she plans to devote more time to doing the things she lovesā€”traveling, skiing, horseback riding and enjoying time with her grandkids. 

Her advice for anyone else who put their degree on hold: ā€œDonā€™t give up. Finish it. Decide why itā€™s important to you, and then apply yourself. I did it for me ā€¦ and I wanted my grandkids to be proud of me.ā€

For former Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder students who are a few credits (or semesters) shy of graduating, the university offers assistance in completing their degree in the form of the ā€œā€ program.

ā€œThe goal is to help people finish up their degree and then find gainful employment,ā€ says Ann Herrmann, program manager and advisor of the program, which is administered by the Division of Continuing Education.

First launched in 2021, the Finish What You Started Program helps Colorado residents economically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic return to school to earn their degree by Spring 2025, which is the end of the grant period. Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder was awarded a $3.1 million grant in 2022 to help students finish their studies.

Herrmann says Finish What You Started supports students in two key ways: by providing financial assistance and by offering support services throughout their college experience. Eligible students have access to semester-over-semester scholarships starting at $1,500, as well as other possible financial support, depending on individual student need.

Student support services include one-on-one academic advising and coaching, enrollment support, and career advising to help students transition to the workforce, post-graduation, according to Herrmann.

There are a few important caveats relating to who is eligible to participate in the program. Herrmann says participants must be Colorado residents, they canā€™t have already earned another degree, and they had to be away from higher education for at least two consecutive semesters.

ā€œAdditionally, they have to finish by spring 2025, so we do a lot of outreach to students who are more junior and senior level,ā€ Herrmann says. Her department hopes to help as many as 300 students who have not completed college finish their undergraduate degrees by 2025.

A few students in their 40s and 50s are enrolled in the program, as well as several younger students, according to Herrmann. Many are the first members of their families to graduate from college.

The grant funding that Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder received was part of a larger pool of money provided to state colleges by the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative. COSI funding was made possible by the American Rescue Plan, a $30 billion aid package designed to address the devastation of COVID-19.

Individuals interested in learning more about Finish What You Started can visit the or contact a program advisor at fwys@colorado.edu or 303-492-9671.

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The MINT study program uses nature-based social intervention to address and dimmish loneliness with teenage parents and their peers

Itā€™s said that America faces an , which, in turn, creates a mental health crisisā€”a feeling particularly felt by adolescents. New research from the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ, however, suggests that outdoor activities may be one way to help.

This study, published in the , used nature-based social interventions (e.g., courses and activities designed around nature to support the wellbeing of adolescents) to promote social engagement among pregnant and parenting teenagers.

What the researchers found is that those activities are effective in combating loneliness.

ā€œLoneliness is this huge, silent problem that we donā€™t know how to address,ā€ says Ashby Lavelle Sachs, a recent PhD graduate and the project co-lead. ā€œLoneliness is intricately connected to many aspects of our lives. We need really creative, low-cost, accessible solutions.ā€

At the top of the page: Jill Litt in a garden as part of a different research project. Above: Ashby Lavelle Sachs is the MINT project's co-lead.

Jill Litt, the principal investigator and senior author of the article, agrees.

ā€œLoneliness and social disconnection may be contributing to inflammation, stress, fatigue, anxiety and a host of other conditions, which in turn, if untreated, wreak havoc on the body,ā€ adds Litt. ā€œThe prevalence of loneliness is on the rise, and never have people felt so lonelyā€” particularly post COVID-19ā€”although the trends were staggering before the pandemic.ā€

This project, called Meeting in Nature Together (MINT), created an eight-week program at a charter school for pregnant and parenting teenagers in Aurora, Colorado, to promote social connectedness. The program included 17 students whose ages ranged from 14 to 19 years old. The students were allowed to participate in online or in-person meetings and activities.

The activities in the program included educational content, discussions, park trips, meditation, journaling and nature photography.

And the study found that those activities really did make a difference.

ā€œMINT showed us that being in nature together with others is important and even small gestures such as meditation and journaling, with group facilitation, can be engaging and spark moments of joy,ā€ says Litt.

MINTā€™s research found that participants enjoyed their experiences with nature photography, walking, discussions and being outside, and that the participants felt more relaxed as soon as they went outside, leading some to feel more active when they went back indoors.

Although MINT focused primarily on teenage mothers and their peers, its applications are much grander in scope, the researchers contend, with the project limited due to issues from COVID-19. However, the team hopes to expand upon sample sizes with other studies, such as the ā€œReimagining Environments for Connection and Engagement: Testing Actions for Social Prescribing in Natural Spacesā€ (RECTAS) project, which will include 900 to 1,100 recruited individuals from six cities worldwide.

ā€œThe (recent) study was like a pilotā€”something just to test it,ā€ says Sachs. ā€œWe now know what worked well and what didnā€™t, so we can scale it up from here.ā€

Loneliness can affect anyone, so nature-based, social interventions are designed to be accessible to everyone, according to Litt.

ā€œLoneliness does not know any demographic boundaries,ā€ she adds.

However, ā€œit is particularly challenging for young people and emerging adults,ā€ Sachs adds. ā€œIf you look at the statistics for adolescent mental health, itā€™s pretty scary the amount of adolescents that are experiencing anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation.ā€

To help overcome this challenge, MINT encouraged more experiences between its participants and nature, but focused more on social relatedness and connections. And yet, not everyone is comfortable with the outdoors, so the goal of MINT was to meet people where they were, says Sachs.

The program was designed to be flexible with the adolescentsā€™ comfort levels and their accessibility to outdoor areas. To account for any issues, MINT also incorporated indoor activities as well. With a variety of activities to pick from, students were given many choices.

 

MINT showed us that being in nature together with others is important and even small gestures such as meditation and journaling, with group facilitation, can be engaging and spark moments of joyā€‹.

ā€œWe avoided telling people what they should do,ā€ says Sachs.

ā€œThis is a peer-supported initiative, so collective decision making is important,ā€ adds Litt.

The MINT team hopes to be included as a nature-based, social prescription approach in other areas. Recently, the team has set its sights on options for universities.

Participants reviewed their experiences with MINT and the programā€™s nature-based, social interventions.

ā€œI felt like I was being cared for and part of the group,ā€ one participant anonymously commented.

Another participant said, ā€œThis experience was amazing. I loved meeting everyone in the group!ā€

ā€œWe had a lot of success,ā€ says Sachs. ā€œWe really tapped into something that was needed!ā€

MINT is a project funded by a seed grant from the Renee Crown Wellness Institute, and graduate student grants, from the Environmental Studies Department and the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) at the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ. The Colorado team included Ashby Lavelle Sachs, Jill Litt, Eva Coringrato, Angela Turbyfill and Sarah Tillema.

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Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲBoulder researcher finds soda taxes arenā€™t as regressive as previously feared and do decrease body mass index among non-white youth

The idea to place a ā€œsin taxā€ on sugar-saturated drinks, such as soda, to combat ballooning obesity rates really took off in the 2010s.

European countries such as Finland and France placed taxes on the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages, or SSBs, early in the decade. And in 2014, the city of Berkeley, California, became the first U.S. locality to levy a tax on SSBs. Six U.S. cities and dozens of jurisdictions around the world followed suit.

The theory behind such taxation is that higher prices will reduce consumption and yield health improvements given well-established links between SSBs and obesity, which has to contribute to weight gain, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney diseases, non-alcoholic liver disease, tooth decay and gout.

James Flynn, a graduate student in the Department of Economics at the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ.

But because the concept was relatively new, there was no research on whether soda taxes were actually making people healthier by, for example, reducing obesity or the incidence of Type 2 diabetes.

ā€œThere seems to be the potential for clear public health benefits,ā€ says James Flynn, a graduate student in the Department of Economics at the Ā鶹Ćā·Ń°ęĻĀŌŲ. ā€œBut there have been concerns about this being a regressive tax on lower-income people, a lot of whom are people of color.ā€

Flynn was pursuing his masterā€™s degree in economics at Drexel University in Philadelphia when that city enacted its ā€œsoda tax.ā€ When he investigated the research on such taxes, he noticed that ā€œnone of them really answered the most important question: Are they actually making people healthier?ā€

So, he decided to search for an answer. Using what he calls ā€œquasi-experimental methods,ā€ he crunched data from the U.S. governmentā€™s semi-annual Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System from three cities with soda taxesā€”Philadelphia, San Francisco and Oakland, Californiaā€”as well as control cities with no soda tax, and compared those data to reported body-mass index, or BMI, findings in the survey (Philadelphia was the only one of the three cities that had collected data about soda consumption).

ā€œI tracked BMI from high school students. (BMI) is not a great measure and has problems, but I wanted to see if (taxes) resulted in changes, and I think itā€™s safe to say (BMI) is a fair proxy for public-health improvements,ā€ he says.

His findings were published in September in the peer-reviewed journal .

ā€œI find reductions in soda consumption in Philadelphia and average body mass index in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Oakland, with suggestive evidence that the improvements are concentrated among female and non-white respondents in both cases,ā€ he concludes in his .

The declines in BMI were greatest among non-white females with higher BMI scores. The data for males, Flynn says, were ā€œa little bit noisier, so itā€™s hard to make a strong conclusion.ā€

 

This research suggests there are some benefits being created (by soda taxes) that policy makers can useā€‹.

Still, his analysis suggests several important conclusions, he says:

• Soda taxes help decrease consumption;
• They are not as regressive as feared; and
• His study points the way to studying the effect of soda taxes on such health concerns as diabetes and high blood pressure.

ā€œOf course, this is just one paper, from one dataset, and I donā€™t want to overreach. But it does suggest there are some benefits being created (by soda taxes) that policy makers can use,ā€ Flynn says.

Flynn, who will graduate with his PhD in economics in spring 2023, describes himself as an ā€œapplied microeconomistā€ who focuses on health and labor, particularly the efficacy of public policy interventions.

His paper with coauthors from the Colorado Fertility Project examining the effect of the Colorado Family Planning Initiative, which enabled tens of thousands of women to use long-acting, reversible contraception methods, on college-completion rates is pending publication in Health Affairs. He also has conducted research into how expanding access to contraception can reduce infant mortality rates and premature births.

ā€œGiving more autonomy to women over their reproductive lives leads to reductions in some really scary outcomes,ā€ he says.

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