Nature and Science Podcast

Don Murphy
  • 4.9 (10)
  • NATURE
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Our podcast explores nature and science by following the personal journeys of individuals who have dedicated their lives to nature and science.   We talk with theoretical physicists, park rangers, conservation biologists and anyone who loves nature and science. 

  1. One Ranger's Quest To Save His Beloved Desert

    FEB 7

    One Ranger's Quest To Save His Beloved Desert

    Send us a text This is the story of how a young man fell in love with the beauty and mystery of the desert and translated that love into a career as ranger protecting that desert. Vic Maris began his career with California State Parks, working at Red Rock Canyon in 1974. He served throughout the State during his 30-year career working as a park ranger, supervising ranger, and superintendent. His favorite job was working as Superintendent of the Mojave Sector, protecting seven parks including Red Rock Canyon State Park. Vic has always been fascinated by the night sky. When he retired from State Parks, he founded Stellarvue, a telescope company that has been making world-class refractors for 27 years.   In his spare time, Vic has been writing a book about his 60-year love affair with Red Rock Canyon State Park.   https:/natureandsciencepodcast.com

    27 min
  2. Cured vs. Healed: A Doctor's Near-Death Journey to a New Kind of Medicine

    JAN 29

    Cured vs. Healed: A Doctor's Near-Death Journey to a New Kind of Medicine

    Send us a text Welcome to my third memoir about my unusual trajectory in the world of medicine. In my first memoir, “Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert,” I shared with readers my profoundly life-changing and eye-opening time on the Navajo Reservation as a young schoolteacher in the early 1970s. Many years later, I returned to the Navajo people to serve them as a medical doctor in Cuba, New Mexico. The second memoir, “From Mountains to Medicine,” takes the reader on a spellbinding, ten-year odyssey in search of my life’s purpose. This memoir begins with my wide-eyed excitement upon entering medical school. I had an unquenchable eagerness to learn information and skills that would help others. I held no pre-conceived ideas about the kind of education I would receive. Gradually, as time passed, I began suspecting that something wasn’t right about some of the information that the professors and mentors taught the medical students. Long after I completed my training, I discovered why some of the information I learned didn’t make sense, and the conflicts of interest involved in many of the studies that were done that influenced what the medical students were taught.  https:/natureandsciencepodcast.com

    50 min
  3. Two Time Loser To Revolution: The Birth of Ky’Orda

    11/15/2025

    Two Time Loser To Revolution: The Birth of Ky’Orda

    Send us a text Hello everyone, I'm your host of Nature and Science Podcast, Don Murphy.  In the episode I am interviewed by our producer, Anna Murphy to discuss, how my two time failure in chemistry ultimately led to the founding of Ky'Orda. The mission of Ky'Orda is to eliminate the fear and failure in learning complex subjects for everyone by creating an education app with a personal guide that uses behavioral science and adaptive technology.  I think many of you out there can identify with failing a subject and feeling like you didn't measure up or at the worse you were not smart.  You may have even abandoned a subject before you even got a chance to explore its adventures and discoveries.  The guided app I will talk about is creating an entirely new world and may ultimately change the way education in done worldwide.  So join us this next episode and be amazed. https:/natureandsciencepodcast.com

    17 min
  4. How A Love Science Helped Save Our National Parks

    06/06/2025

    How A Love Science Helped Save Our National Parks

    Send us a text Scientific research at Yellowstone and other National Park has yielded many useful discoveries benefiting humanity.  One of the most important was the discovery of the thermophilic bacterium, Thermus aquaticus.  Later an enzyme was purified by a team led by Dr. Henry Erlich, which led to the practical use of the PCR test in covid detection and many other uses. Science in parks is a crucial tool for the advancement of humanity. However, if it were not for the early efforts of George Menendez Wright, science may have never taken hold in our national parks.  Today, the George Wright Society continues that effort by supporting parks, protected/conserved areas, cultural sites, and other kinds of place-based conservation by encouraging communication among and convenings of researchers, managers, educators, practitioners, and the public to facilitate informed decisions and actions that embrace our values. Joining me to talk science in our national parks is Dave Harmon, executive director of the George Wright Society.  Dave is responsible for overseeing the George Wright Society’s operations, including co-editing Parks Stewardship Forum and helping plan workshops and other meetings. A member of the GWS since 1985, Dave began working for the organization in 1990 and served as executive director from 1998 to 2017 before returning that role in 2019. He is active in IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas.  He also maintains a research interest in the relationship between biological and cultural diversity, having co-founded the NGO Terralingua, which is devoted to that subject. Dave has co-edited several volumes on protected area conservation, including The Antiquities Act: A Century of American Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature Conservation (with Francis P. McManamon and Dwight T. Pitcaithley), The Full Value of Parks: From Economics to the Intangible (with Allen D. Putney), and A Thinking Person's Guide to America's National Parks (with Robert Manning, Rolf Diamant, and Nora Mitchell). https:/natureandsciencepodcast.com

    40 min
  5. How Unlocking The Secrets Of Nano Vaults Could Revolutionize Disease Cures

    05/13/2025

    How Unlocking The Secrets Of Nano Vaults Could Revolutionize Disease Cures

    Send us a text This episode explores the mystery of a cellular organelle known as the vault and how unlocking the secrets of nano vaults could revolutionize Disease Cures.  Though its structure is well know and its protein composition well established, its function remains a mystery.  Joining us to explain this mystery is its discoverer, Dr. Leonard Rome. Dr. Leonard H. Rome is a cell biologist, biochemist and part-time dean involved in research, teaching and administration at the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned his undergraduate degree (B.S. in Chemistry) and graduate degrees (M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked on lysosome biogenesis. Dr. Rome has been on the faculty of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA since he joined the Department of Biological Chemistry in 1979. He became a full Professor in 1988 and has been Senior Associate Dean for Research in the School of Medicine since 1997. Since 2005 he has been the Associate Director of the California NanoSystems Institute. Dr. Rome has served as the elected Chair of the School of Medicine Faculty Executive Committee and he is actively involved in Graduate and Medical Education. In 1991 he received a UCLA School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Education. If you would like to learn more about vaults check out Dr. Rome's youtube channel or go to our website: https:/natureandsciencepodcast.com

    1 hr
  6. New Tools Teach How To Detect Deep Fakes

    04/23/2025

    New Tools Teach How To Detect Deep Fakes

    Send us a text This episode is all about deep fakes.  It is getting more difficult everyday to tell what is real and what is fake, especially on social media and even on TV networks.  In this episode we will explore, the war thats raging between creation and detection of deep fakes.  So what exactly is a deep fake.  Joining us to answer that question is Dr. Ilke Demir.  She’s on the front lines of this battle. Dr. Demir is a curious research scientist, working on topics in 3D vision, computational geometry, generative models, remote sensing, and deep learning. She earned my Ph.D.  from Department of Computer Science at Purdue University, working under supervision of Daniel Aliaga. She later joined Facebook as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist to work with Ramesh Raskar. After some groundbreaking projects, she left to pursue a startup path, which ended with an acquisition. That next led her to find her research heaven in the world's largest volumetric capture stage at Intel Studios. https:/natureandsciencepodcast.com

    53 min
  7. How A Love For Science Is Fostering World Peace

    04/16/2025

    How A Love For Science Is Fostering World Peace

    Send us a text On this episode we speak with Dr. Zafra Lerman about how a love for science is fostering world peace. Zafra Lerman is an American chemist, educator, and humanitarian. She is the President of the Malta Conferences Foundation, which aims to promote peace by bringing together scientists from otherwise hostile countries to discuss science and foster international scientific and technical collaboration.  From 1986 to 2010, she chaired the American Chemical Society's Subcommittee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights. She has been successful in preventing executions, releasing prisoners of conscience from jail and bringing dissidents to freedom.  She is the recipient of many awards for education and science diplomacy, including the 1999 Presidential Award from U.S. President Clinton, the 2005 Nyholm Prize for Education from the Royal Society of Chemistry (England), the 2015 Science Diplomacy Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the 2016 Andrei Sakharov Award for human rights from the American Physical Society (APS), the 2016 United Nations NOVUS Award for the 16th Sustainable Development Goal: Peace and Justice, and the 2017 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering Award. https:/natureandsciencepodcast.com

    45 min
  8. Why Fears Of A New Viral Pandemic Are On The Rise

    04/04/2025

    Why Fears Of A New Viral Pandemic Are On The Rise

    Send us a text On this episode we speak with Dr. Jesse Goodman about the spread of the H5N1 virus.  We will discuss what a virus is, how viruses migrate from animal populations to humans and assess the chances for a new pandemic. Jesse L. Goodman, M.D., M.P.H., directs Georgetown COMPASS, which focuses on science based policy and research to address unmet public health needs with an emphasis on product development and access and antimicrobial resistance and stewardship. Until February 2014 he served as the Chief Scientist of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a position he assumed in 2009 along with Deputy Commissioner for Science and Public Health (2009-2012). As FDA's Chief Scientist he had broad responsibility for strategic leadership of crosscutting scientific and public health efforts, including developing and implementing FDA's Strategic Plan for Regulatory Science and FDA's public health preparedness and response and medical countermeasures efforts. A graduate of Harvard, Dr. Goodman received his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and did residency and fellowship training in Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was also Chief Medical Resident.  https:/natureandsciencepodcast.com

    1h 1m
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About

Our podcast explores nature and science by following the personal journeys of individuals who have dedicated their lives to nature and science.   We talk with theoretical physicists, park rangers, conservation biologists and anyone who loves nature and science. 

Information

  • Creator
    Don Murphy
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    77
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Nature and Science Podcast
  • Show Website
    Nature and Science Podcast