Tagged: Science

Part One: Ron Rash. Poet, short story writer and novelist Ron Rash is having a busy year - his latest book of short stories Nothing Gold Can Stay, set in Appalachia with stories that span from the Civil War to present day - was released in February. And his novel Serena is being made into a movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. It's set to hit theaters in December. North Carolina native Ron Rash is in town for CPCC's Sensoria Festival, and while he's here, we'll talk about his writing process, the different genres of writing that he works in, and about the experience of having one of his books made into a movie, when Charlotte Talks.

We have discussed climate change many times on Charlotte Talks but there is a new science emerging in the study of our changing climate. Social scientists are being called upon more and more to study climate's effect on human culture. Entire societies are changing their traditions, the media is covering the issue differently and lawmakers are shaping policy based on our perception to climate change. One local social scientist has discovered fascinating social changes among native Alaskans. He'll share how those changes could affect policy here in our own region. (Note: This show was pre-recorded last week.)

Physicist Sean Carroll spends a lot of time researching theoretical aspects of cosmology, field theory, and gravitation. Recently, he’s been speaking out about the Higgs Boson, or "The God Particle" which is a particle of an atom. Without it, the atom could not exist. In his new book The Particle at the End of the Universe he talks about "The God Particle." He joins us to talk about his passion for physics and explains it in a language we can all understand, when Charlotte Talks.

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control warned us about the spread of a deadly, antibiotic-resistant "nightmare bacteria." The strain called CRE has been on the rise for the past decade - tracked in at least 42 states, including North Carolina - and the CDC is urging hospitals to act now. In Charlotte, CRE has infected 18 patients since 2012; seven of them died. The threat has been compared to that of MRSA, a staph infection that has also shown resistance to antibiotics and is now considered a common hospital germ. We'll learn more about these rare but dangerous drug-resistant bacteria - what they are, how they spread, what makes them so strong and how our environment and use of antibiotics might be making them worse. We'll also talk with people on the front lines, dealing with these bacteria in hospitals about what they're doing to try and control them and what patients should know. The rise of superbugs and what to do about them, when Charlotte Talks.