Science

Matt Holden, a biology teacher at Fayetteville High School, will embark on two expeditions this summer: one to the Pacific Ocean and another to Kenya. He has been chosen as a 2025 Science Communication Fellow by the Ocean Exploration Trust. Yesterday, he discussed the upcoming trips and the fellowship with Ozarks at Large's Kyle Kellams.

Matt Holden’s “what I did this summer” essay for 2025 should be interesting. On today's show, we hear that the Fayetteville teacher’s summer will include trips into the Pacific Ocean and to Africa. This summer also means the inaugural Ozark Music Festival all around northwest Arkansas, so we'll provide a glimpse of what's to come. Also, the city of Fayetteville named this year's Amazing Tree, but what makes it so special?

Earlier this month, Ozark at Large’s Sophia Nourani was able to get a sneak peak of the new Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research, or I3R, on the UofA campus. Walking alongside Dr. Ranu Jung, associate vice chancellor of the university and founding executive director of the institute, Sophia had the chance to discuss the space and some of the work that will be done there.

Today's show features more updates from the Arkansas Legislature. How the latest version of what we’re calling bird flu can have an effect on animals, people and the economy, as well as this year's SHE: Festival of Women in Music at the University of Arkansas. Today's show features more updates from the Arkansas Legislature. How the latest version of what we’re calling bird flu can have an effect on animals, people and the economy, as well as this year's SHE: Festival of Women in Music at the University of Arkansas.

Almost 100 years ago, the nation’s attention was focused on Dayton, Tennessee, as Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan traded legal arguments in the Scope Monkey Trial. The trial is detailed in Ed Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion."

Tontitown residents are keeping their attention focused on a proposed permit regarding air quality. On today's show, we hear from Ozarks at Large’s Daniel Caruth, who was at last week’s public hearing. Plus, Ed Larson will be at the University of Arkansas this week to talk about his Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Scope Monkey Trial.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is almost done with a multi-year research project looking at the spread of chronic wasting disease among the state's deer population.

Construction for the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research at the University of Arkansas, or I3R, is nearly complete. By spring 2025, students will fill the halls of the almost 150,000-square-foot facility, which has been almost three years in the making.

A UofA graduate student recently received a prestigious Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science Technology, or FINESST, fellowship. Troy Williams, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, will use the award to further his studies on Saturn’s moon, Titan. Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis invited Williams to the Carver Center for Public Radio to learn more about his research and the planetary body it orbits.

Cases of tick-borne illness are increasing across the U.S. at an alarming rate - and in Arkansas Alpha-gal, specifically, is becoming more common.