In The NOCO

Picture this: It’s a warm summer evening. You’ve got burgers and sweet corn roasting on the grill. And for dessert, homemade cobbler with fresh peaches – picked right off your very own peach tree.   If you live along the Front Range, you might think the only place you can get sweet, juicy Palisade peaches is at your local farmer's market. But it is possible to grow a peach tree outside of western...

Fear. Anxiety. Shame. And a horde of colorful, crocheted monsters.  It’s all part of a new exhibit at the Denver Art Museum that asks visitors to confront some uncomfortable emotions.  Denver artist Sadie Young has created cuddly and soft monsters with vivid colors and big eyes. And they’re all crocheted out of thousands of yards of yarn. Some are large enough for visitors to step inside.   The ex...

The goo and gunk you find in your dishwasher, or in the drip tray underneath your refrigerator, could hold secrets to fighting climate change or reducing pollution.  That’s according to James Henrickson , a research scientist from Colorado State University. He says your hot water heater, washing machine, and shower are similar to hot springs or volcanic vents on the ocean floor. James studies crea...

The effects of post-partum depression or anxiety can be debilitating. Research shows one in five mothers experience post-partum mental health challenges after childbirth.  And that number is even higher for Latina mothers living in the United States. Nearly half of them experience post-partum mental health issues.  But organizers of a unique research program based at the University of Colorado Bou...

Manipulating the clouds to make it rain or snow sounds like something straight out of science fiction. But in reality, the technology behind cloud seeding is decades old, going back to the 1940s.  The science of cloud seeding got some new attention recently after lawmakers ordered the Government Accountability Office to look into the technology as water becomes a more precious resource in the U.S....

A few weeks back, Boulder Reporting Lab published an unusual article .   The writer, Simon Testa, told his story using data and statistics to wrestle with the risk associated with a type of rock climbing called scrambling.   Simon lives in Boulder, and scrambling is his favorite hobby. He even wrote a scrambling guidebook . He climbs up huge rock walls without climbing ropes. He has made hundreds...

It's a precarious moment for public media. The Trump administration has declared it wants to end federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – which supports stations that carry programs from NPR and PBS.   If you’re wondering where all of that leaves a local station like KUNC or The Colorado Sound , we’re actually trying to figure that out too.  So today, we’re sharing what we kno...

The Colorado Rockies have some of the most loyal fans in all of baseball. And that might be part of their problem.  The Rockies are off to their worst start of any team in Major League Baseball’s modern history. And yet the fans still show up.   It's been the story of the Rockies for years: The team struggles. The fans keep coming. And the steady ticket sales mean ownership has little incentive to...

Each spring, the Front Range endures miller moth season . Even in relatively mild years, the tiny, winged visitors enter our homes, annoy us and even frighten us.    But they’re also fascinating.   So, we talked with Karim Gharbi – an insect expert and horticulture specialist with Colorado State University Extension – to unpack the mysteries of the miller moths.    Where do the moths come from? Wh...

Colorado’s mountain passes and great weather make it a destination for competitive cyclists. But the history of professional cycling races in Colorado is a rocky one.    Races like the Colorado Classic, the Coors Classic, and The USA Pro Cycling Challenge have all come and gone over the years.  So, we were intrigued when an events company recently announced plans to create the Tour of Colorado – a...

Colorado has an abundance of mountains named after famous men – think Long’s Peak, Mount Wilson, or Pikes Peak.  Since childhood, Sarah Hahn Campbell has been fascinated by the people behind place names. But she discovered little to no information on peaks, lakes or trails named after women.   So, in 2017, the Denver-based author and high school teacher set out to research the mysterious women beh...

There’s a lot of content these days about self-care: how to stay mentally and physically balanced when work, family or other stresses grind you down. We often see social media influencers posting about bubble baths, the perfect tea, or the best skin care routine.  But a new book argues that self-care isn’t simply about focusing on ourselves. Rather, it’s a crucial part of how we show up for other...

You know spring is here when the sound of lawn mowers fills your neighborhood. But some folks think mowing isn’t a great idea this time of year.  There’s been a trend in yard care called No Mow May – as in, don’t mow your lawn until June. The concept started in the U.K. in 2019. The idea is to protect pollinators like bees and butterflies by letting dandelions and clover grow for a while before cu...

Colorado is home to lots of people who are passionate about bicycling. They ride during all seasons.   Our host, Erin O’Toole, however, is more of a casual bike rider, with her bicycle spending many of the colder months cooped up in the garage. This means it often needs some maintenance before going on that first cruise of the year.    So today we’re talking about how to get our bikes ready for su...

For the past seven years if you were a Colorado farmer who was struggling and felt overwhelmed, you had a place to turn for help.     The AgWell program offered mental health support to farmers and ranchers in several Western states. It gave them stress management tools and support from their peers. That’s important because farmers statistically struggle with isolation and die by suicide at rates...

An artist in Lakewood who specializes in creating tiny books and illustrations received an unusual offer recently. An art gallery reached out to Evan Lorenzen and asked for his help in creating a book of original art – no bigger than your thumbnail – to be placed on the moon.      The Moon Gallery, based in Amsterdam, works to send cultural artifacts into space. They’ve shipped artwork to the Inte...

When people speculate about fallout from President Trump's threatened tariffs, they often talk about how tariffs on steel could drive up car prices, or how tariffs on some food products or imported wines will drive up prices at the store.   But tariffs are hitting some small outdoor recreation businesses in Colorado especially hard. Think about the price of a stand-up paddleboard or a ski jacket a...

A new study suggests that researchers should take a closer look at cannabis as a treatment for cancer and its symptoms. The team behind the study says the results suggest the federal government should remove restrictions on that research.   An organization called Cancer Playbook , which is based in Evergreen, paid for the study. Cancer Playbook’s head of research says it works to provide people ba...

An innovative new prosthetic foot dreamed up by students at Colorado State University could offer new options to amputees and other people with limb differences.   The team behind it calls it the “ Goldilocks foot ” because it serves as a middle option. It’s more comfortable than cheaper prosthetics but costs less than prosthetics built for running and other competitive sports. The design team say...

Writer Cassondra Windwalker’s new horror novel uses fiction to highlight a real-life crisis that often goes ignored.   Ghost Girls and Rabbits touches on the thousands of unsolved cases of Indigenous American and Alaska Native women who were missing or murdered. More than 4,000 cases fit that description, according to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs .  The novel tells the story of two Indigenous...

In 2025, artificial intelligence gives us personalized shopping recommendations. It writes emails for us. And all those quick tasks require lightning-fast computing and huge amounts of data. Which is why tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon are building massive data centers around the country.  Some state lawmakers have proposed incentives for companies that want to build data centers in Color...

Some of Colorado’s state laws share an unusual origin story.       One set aside money to help foster kids attend college. Another provides free menstrual products in schools. A third law funded an awareness program to prevent eating disorders.   All of these are laws that were designed and proposed by high school students , who actually drafted the language of each bill before legislators ultimat...

A clinic in Boulder that was one of only a handful in the country to provide abortions in later pregnancy has closed .   Dr. Warren Hern, who operated Boulder Abortion Clinic for 50 years, announced earlier this month that he was retiring and that the clinic would stop scheduling patients.   The closure means one less clinic in Colorado at a time when more women are traveling here from states wher...

Casey Fiesler had an intriguing idea for a research project.     Casey teaches information science and technology at the University of Colorado. And she wanted to create social media content that would help young people understand how artificial intelligence works. The National Science Foundation, or NSF, liked Casey's proposal too — so much that they approved a grant of about $268,000 to fund the...

Fatal traffic accidents involving pedestrians are on the rise in Colorado. In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available,135 pedestrians died in Colorado traffic accidents. That’s more than twice as many pedestrians as died in traffic crashes a decade earlier, according to a story from the Colorado Sun .   But the number of pedestrian deaths has actually decreased in one city. Official...