The Abstract
By The Mac Weekly
The AbstractMay 22, 2021
Our Neck of the Woods: Minnesota Mavericks
In this episode, we dive into the heart of the Twin Cities: literally. Learn how Minnesota's most famous university became the place to perfect a life-changing surgery, and how Minnesotan cardiologists are carrying on that legacy today.
Our Neck of the Woods: Up North
Wolves are everywhere and nowhere; they live on pretty much every continent in the Northern hemisphere, but only the most intrepid have seen one in the wild. But across the world, only one place can say it was the first to research them. In the first episode of this three-part series, we'll be traveling to the boreal forests of Northern Minnesota, the home of the International Wolf Center. Up north, the wolves don't act quite the way you'd expect, and an innovative new research team is trying to figure out why.
Introducing Our Neck of the Woods
Welcome to Season 3 of the Abstract! This season is all about Minnesota: the amazing scientific discoveries that have happened here, and the incredible stories of the people that made them. Our first episode launches Friday April 8th and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.
Keynotes: Creativity, Collections, and Cretaceous Cannibals
In the final episode of Keynotes, professors and researchers Ray Rogers and Kristi Curry Rogers speak about their research on death and dinosaurs, the importance of imagination in science, and exploits that took them anywhere from Montana to Madagascar.
Keynotes: Charcoal, Cores, and Cultural Knowledge
On this episode of Keynotes, Josh Stephenson speaks about his work on charcoal in the lakes of Glacier National Park, and how conducting research from the heart, and incorporating traditional ecological knowledge, can change modern science.
Keynotes: Studies, Statistics, and Serial Killers
On this episode of Keynotes, Kelsey Grinde speaks about her work on ad-mixed populations, and how DNA data meant to help people find relatives can catch murderers instead.
Keynotes: Data, Disease, and Disparities
On this episode of Keynotes, Freddy Barragan speaks about how their experience doing cancer research at the University of Minnesota confirmed their love of biostatistics and focused their goals for the future.
Keynotes: Dirt, Drought, and Duct Tape
On this episode of Keynotes, Christine Sierra O’Connell on the power of the dirt beneath our feet and the struggles and joys of doing research in the rainforest.
Keynotes: Beer, Blooms, and Bottles of Plankton
Welcome to Keynotes, a brand new mini-series from The Abstract. Today, junior environmental studies major Alex Ang on how an REU experience at Mote Marine Laboratory stoked her passion for studying the ocean–and the microscopic organisms that inhabit it.
BONUS: Introducing Here We Are
Family. Identity. Loss. Joy. These are the little stories that make us who we are. Voices of color at a predominantly white institution.
Introducing Here We Are, a special, limited-run series. Listen wherever you get The Abstract.
Decade of Restoration: The American Serengeti
As the American Prairie Reserve works to build the largest natural wildlife refuge in the lower 48, a group of ranchers on the fringes of the reserve fight back.
Further reading for this series:
- UN Decade on Restoration
- UN General Assembly Resolution on the Decade of Restoration
- The Campaign to Stop GE Trees
- Report: “Biotechnology for Forest Health: The Test Case of the Genetically Engineered Chestnut”
- Video: National Geographic Last Wild Places: American Prairie Reserve
- High Country News Article: Montana refuge divides tribes and ranchers
Decade of Restoration: Repainting the Prairie
In Central Montana, the American Prairie Reserve has hopes of rebuilding a lost ecosystem. But they still have a long way to go.
Decade of Restoration: The Fallen King of New England
In 1904, a devastating blight wiped out the American chestnut tree. 100 years later, a team of researchers is on the verge of bringing it back to the wild.
Introducing The Abstract
In 2020, we're at a pivotal turning point for the environment and the world. In this special three-part series, we'll travel to the forests of New England and the Great Plains to tell the stories of people trying to rebuild what we’ve destroyed. From The Mac Weekly, this is The Abstract: stories of scientific research, from profuse failures to precious moments of triumph.