In The NOCO

A diagnosis of chronic depression or bipolar disorder can be scary. These conditions can come with feelings of sadness or despair, or intense mood swings.      But a researcher at the University of Colorado says we might be thinking too simplistically about these disorders.    June Gruber is a professor of psychology and neuroscience who runs the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Lab at CU Boul...

The CU-Anschutz medical campus in Aurora recently agreed to pay $10.3 million to settle a lawsuit over vaccine mandates during the pandemic.    A group of 18 students and faculty claimed that the school violated their religious liberties by requiring them to receive COVID vaccinations to be on campus in person. CU ultimately settled the case through mediation.  The Thomas More Society , which spec...

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...

When Colorado writer X. Ho Yen was a kid, he loved to read science fiction.    X. Ho Yen is autistic. He liked how some sci-fi stories, like the Star Trek series, depicted a more enlightened future society where neurodivergent people were treated equally.    Eventually he began writing his own science fiction novels. His newest release is titled Space Autistic Author’s Puzzling Innerverse . It’s d...

Kindergarten teacher Ellen Javernick has published over twenty illustrated children’s books. The Loveland resident’s first book, What If Everybody Did That? has sold more than a million copies.   She just published her newest book titled Awesome of the Day . It tells the story of a boy named Andrew who has one bad day after the next – until he learns to change his outlook.  Ellen teaches at Garfie...

In February of 1942, not long after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military removed thousands of Americans of Japanese descent from their homes. Most of them were full citizens who had been born and raised in the United States.    Families had only a few days to get their affairs in order before reporting to relocation centers, mostly in Western states. Roosevelt’s order affected about 120,...

For people in much of the world, snakebite is a life-threatening condition.   We don't think about it much in Colorado, where a nasty rattlesnake bite might send the occasional hiker to the emergency room. But the World Health Organization estimates that, around the globe, as many as 138,000 people die from venomous snakebites each year.  And while antivenom can be used to treat snakebite, it’s of...

A gathering of state lawmakers last month at a resort in Vail is drawing attention to ethics and the influence of dark money in Colorado politics.   Colorado’s independent ethics commission plans to investigate whether 16 Democratic lawmakers violated a state ban on accepting gifts. The complaints – filed by progressive group Colorado Common Cause – stem from that Vail retreat , which was funded p...

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 Inter...

Steam powers much of the modern world. It drove the Industrial Revolution , and is still widely used to generate electricity, to sterilize equipment used in food production and medicine, and to heat and cool large buildings.     However, the traditional method of making steam hasn’t changed in more than 150 years. It involves burning fossil fuels like coal or natural gas to heat water in a boiler...

Colorado’s program to restore grey wolves hit some surprising roadblocks recently.   You might recall that the state’s voters in 2020 passed a measure to reintroduce wolves, which forced wildlife officials to create a plan for bringing them back. That plan has encountered some challenges. So far, 10 of the reintroduced wolves have died.    And now, wildlife officials are wrestling with where the n...

Suicide among veterans is a tragic and persistent issue for the military community. That’s especially true in Colorado. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs , 178 veterans in Colorado died by suicide in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.   Colorado leaders recently created a pilot program called Next Chapter , aimed at lowering these statistics. It’s based in El Pas...

Young women are more active in sports than ever – and more visible.  Think: Naomi Osaka on the tennis court, Caitlin Clark playing hoops or Mikaela Schifrin on the slopes. And overall, young women’s participation in sports continues to increase.  But female athletes face different health challenges than their male counterparts. They may grapple with painful periods, and experience body image issue...

The Great Gatsby turned 100 this year. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel about wealth and longing has generally been celebrated ever since it was published in 1925. But a Colorado author’s new book asks you to consider the story from a different vantage point.  Writer Allyson Reedy recently published Mrs. Wilson’s Affair . It's told from the perspective of Myrtle Wilson – a tragic character who appears...

One of Northern Colorado's most well-known figures is headed to the Smithsonian.    Temple Grandin is a professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University. She's highly regarded as an advocate for people with autism, and for the humane treatment of animals. Her life and career have been the subject of two films, including a new documentary released earlier this year.   And now, her portrait...

Several years ago, an Afghan man who helped the U.S. military fight the Taliban fled Afghanistan with his family and resettled in Colorado.  Mohammad Ali Dadfar had escaped with his wife and their four children after U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. The Dadfar family made their way to the U.S. and resettled in Boulder County, with help from a group of residents who support Afghanis w...

Maybe you’ve tried yoga to de-stress and found it’s not for you. Maybe you’ve tried foam stress balls. Or a hundred other ways to unplug or relax.    Today, we’re talking about a practice that uses nature – and the five senses – to help people slow down and reset. Forest bathing is a restorative practice with roots in Japan  that sends people into the woods to immerse themselves in nature. Darlene...

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...

A stolen idea for a novel, an angry social media post and an online backlash that engulfs the main characters: These are the elements of an intriguing new novel by Colorado author R.L. Maizes .    The writer says it draws on some of her own experiences. And the novel raises thorny questions about who gets to own an idea, who has the right to tell a particular story, and the tension of writing a no...

Seventy years ago, on November 1, 1955, a man planted a bomb aboard a United Airlines plane shortly before it departed from Denver. The plane exploded in midflight over beet fields in Weld County, killing all 44 people aboard.    It was a mass murder that grabbed headlines across the country. And viewers saw footage of the trial on TV, which was unusual then.   If you've never heard of this crime,...

Owls are symbols of wisdom, and heroes of literature – from Greek mythology to Harry Potter.     But a leading conservation agency says owls are in trouble along Colorado’s Front Range. They’re losing critical habitat as cities and suburban areas expand.  The Bird Conservancy of the Rockies is about to launch what it calls the Urban Owl Nest Box program . It’s an unusual project that asks Front Ra...

It’s a snapshot of climate change in action: Plants and pollinators on the slopes of one of Colorado’s most famous mountains are falling out of sync with one another .   Researchers say rising temperatures and early snowmelt atop Pikes Peak are causing some noticeable shifts in the ecosystem and throwing off some important life cycles.    Wildflowers on the mountain are blooming earlier, and polli...

The world’s largest wildlife overpass will soon be open for use in Colorado.   Wildlife overpasses allow animals to safely cross over highways. And Western states are building more of them to cut down on the number of crashes between vehicles and animals.    The Greenland wildlife crossing is being built over a section of I-25 between Denver and Colorado Springs, just north of Monument. Some 80,00...

It was a mystery that haunted Colorado search and rescue groups for almost two decades.   In September 2005, a 35-year-old woman named Michelle Vanek went missing while hiking on Mount of the Holy Cross , a challenging fourteener in Eagle County. Vanek had been hiking with a friend, but they split up after Vanek grew tired and decided to take an easier trail down the mountain.  She was never seen...

An innovative cancer therapy inspired by the gripping power of geckos might be on the horizon.    Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder recently studied the microscopic structures on gecko toes that allow the tiny reptiles to climb walls and cling to slippery surfaces like windows.   That work inspired the development of a new material that could help chemotherapy drugs cling onto tumor...