CUriosity

CUriosity: Why are we so obsessed with pumpkin spice?

Katy Hill — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 12:39:50 +0000

CUriosity: Why are we so obsessed with pumpkin spice? Katy Hill Thu, 10/08/2026 - 06:39

Katy Marquardt Hill

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Heather Kennedy, who teaches marketing at the Leeds School of Business, explains the cultural phenomenon that is pumpkin spice and why Americans can't seem to quit it.

Credit: Adobe Stock

Pumpkin spice season doesn't arrive anymore. It invades.

Every fall, pumpkin spice claims a little more territory. Grocery store shelves overflow with pumpkin spice creamers, cookies, spreads and cereals. These days, that relentlessly seasonal blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice has moved well beyond food, turning up in everything from body wash and face masks to garbage bags and multipurpose cleaner. The craze has even reached the afterlife, in the form of a pumpkin spice casket.

How did such a humble baking spice become an annual cultural event? According to Heather Kennedy, an associate teaching professor of marketing at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, the answer has as much to do with psychology as flavor.

“People love fall. They love the sense of it. They love the ritual around it,” Kennedy said.

That's part of what gives pumpkin spice its staying power. The flavor has become shorthand for autumn, bringing to mind everything from changing leaves to cozy sweaters to Thanksgiving pie.

“When we associate a flavor to that, it gives us a sense of nostalgia,” Kennedy said.

Starbucks didn't invent pumpkin spice

Pumpkin spice may feel like a modern invention, but the flavor has been around almost as long as the United States.

References to pumpkin spice appeared in cookbooks in the late 1700s, Kennedy said. By the 1930s, McCormick was selling pumpkin pie spice blends in stores.

When Starbucks introduced the Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2003, it moved a flavor people knew from their kitchens into something they could sip on their morning commute.

“Starbucks really created something that already existed culturally,” Kennedy said. “They commercialized something that already existed in the minds of consumers.”

Why pumpkin spice keeps winning

Pumpkin spice benefits from an established marketing principle: making people wait for what they want.

“That limited amount of time creates scarcity and creates a certain excitement around it,” Kennedy said.

After all, there's nothing stopping Starbucks from selling Pumpkin Spice Lattes year-round. But the drink vanishes each winter and reappears every fall, turning its arrival into an annual event.

“It becomes ritualistic that every fall, I'm going to have a pumpkin spice latte to kick off the season,” Kennedy said.

But pumpkin spice didn't go viral just because Starbucks kept talking about it; it went viral because everyone else did.

“Starbucks let go of control of the messaging and not only allowed but encouraged people to create social media content around the excitement of pumpkin spice,” Kennedy said.

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CUriosity: How special are the Boulder Flatirons, really?

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As consumers posted photos of their first PSL of the season and debated whether pumpkin spice was arriving before fall itself, the drink became something bigger than a seasonal promotion. Love it or hate it, people still can't stop talking about it.

Too basic to fail

Pumpkin spice may be wildly popular, but it also has plenty of critics. After years of pumpkin spice products spreading from coffee shops into nearly every corner of the grocery store, some consumers have developed a case of pumpkin spice fatigue.

“People get tired of it,” Kennedy said.

As coffee shops roll out banana bread lattes, pecan cortados, caramel apple cold brews and other fall alternatives, some consumers seem eager to move on from pumpkin spice.

The flavor has even acquired an unflattering label: basic.

But Kennedy suspects the backlash may be part of the secret.

“People love to talk about it and post about it,” she said.

Every fall brings a new round of eye-rolls, jokes and declarations that pumpkin spice has finally gone too far. But all that attention keeps the flavor in the spotlight.

Kennedy has another theory about at least some of the critics.

“People think it's basic, and they don't want to be associated with it,” she said. “But I'm going to guess that some of those people are secretly buying a pumpkin spice latte.”

Heather Kennedy, who teaches marketing at the Leeds School of Business, explains the cultural phenomenon that is pumpkin spice and why Americans can't seem to quit it.

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Credit: Adobe

CUriosity: How special are the Boulder Flatirons, really?

Scott Franz — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 19:09:21 +0000

CUriosity: How special are the Boulder Flatirons, really? Scott Franz Wed, 08/26/2026 - 13:09

Scott Franz

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Lon Abbott, who studies how mountains form, explains how Boulder’s iconic Flatirons got their shape and why they’re so special even though they’re not one of a kind.

The Flatirons as seen from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder on Thursday, June 25, 2025. (Photo by Glenn J. Asakawa/University of Colorado)

At their core, the Flatirons are just a bunch of sand and gravel cemented together and shaped over millions of years.

To Boulderites, they’re so much more than sandstone.

They’re an outdoor playground and a rock-climbing mecca. They’re also so iconic, Boulder restricts the height of modern buildings so they don’t block their view.

But these rocks gracing photos and TV commercials from Boulder aren’t one of a kind, geologically speaking. You don’t even have to leave Colorado to find more of them.

“The Flatirons are one example of a type of landform called flatirons, and you see those other places in the world,” said Lon Abbott, an earth science professor at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. “If you were to drive I-70 from Denver to Rifle, you would see some kind of similar landforms there. There are rocks there that are tilted in the other direction.”

Abbott has a caveat about these lowercase flatirons on the other side of the Continental Divide.

“They’re not quite as spectacular as ours,” he said.

Together, these tilting rocks are boundaries of the Rocky Mountains, with Boulder’s marking the eastern edge and the ones near Rifle marking the western edge.

The rock formations got their name because they resemble old-school irons that helped get wrinkles out of clothes.

They got this shape from a process that started hundreds of millions of years ago.

Three acts

Three hundred million years ago, the Flatirons wouldn’t have turned any heads. They were just part of a flat plain of sand and gravel that eroded off an old mountain range called the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. They remained that way and sat under a shallow ocean until about 65 million years ago.

In Act 2 of the Formation of the Flatirons, the uplift of the modern Rocky Mountains took these layers of sediment and tilted them about 50 degrees down to the east. If this stage of the Flatiron formation was a TV episode, it would be called the “Laramide Orogeny.” This mountain building event takes its name from the Laramie mountains in Wyoming.

“That’s the event that uplifted the Rockies,” Abbott said. “And as soon as you uplift a mountain range, you get stormier weather up there. You get snowfall that triggers erosion.”

As the Rockies eroded, Boulder and the Great Plains were buried by a lot more sand and gravel. It went all the way up to what is now the top of Flagstaff Mountain and covered the Flatirons.

Then came the finale.

Erosion excavated the Boulder Valley starting about five million years ago. The Flatirons we see today were sculpted by this event.

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Abbott doesn’t remember the first time he set eyes on the Flatirons because he grew up in Boulder. But he knows he was instantly impressed. The rocks even tilted him toward his current career at CU.

“The Flatirons captivated me forever,” Abbott said. “And so when it was time for me to go to college, I really wanted to understand how those Flatirons came to look the way they do because they’re so iconic. So I went into geology and that passion has stayed with me.”

Mountain building

There are five numbered Flatirons. When they’re viewed from Boulder, the first Flatiron is the large one furthest to the right. The numbers go up as you look right to left.

Abbott said the third Flatiron is the most famous because “it’s the one that looks most similar to your great grandmother’s ironing board.”

He recommends hiking up to the Royal Arch to get up close and personal with the Flatirons. The classic hike is accessed from Chautauqua Park and ends with views of a natural arch and Boulder.

Abbott said there’s not much mystery left as to how the Flatirons formed. But scientists are continuing to try to piece together some lingering mysteries about how exactly the modern day Colorado Rockies came to be.

“Many people are trying to understand when the modern Rockies rose and what triggered it,” Abbott said. “There’s no obvious faults and folds, the things that geologists look for that would tell us that there was some mountain-building episode. So it’s much more cryptic.”

Lon Abbott, who studies how mountains form, explains how Boulder's iconic Flatirons got their shape and why they’re so special even though they're not one of a kind.

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CUriosity: Why do mosquitoes like you but not your friends?

Yvaine Ye — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:52:46 +0000

CUriosity: Why do mosquitoes like you but not your friends? Yvaine Ye Fri, 07/31/2026 - 09:52

This female mosquito (Aedes aegypti) is just starting to feed on a person’s arm. (Credit: Stephen Ausmus/USDA)

Yvaine Ye

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Sammy Ramsey, your friendly neighborhood entomologist, explains why mosquitoes are irresistibly attracted to certain people.

This female mosquito (Aedes aegypti) is just starting to feed on a person’s arm. (Credit: Stephen Ausmus/USDA)

Mosquitoes certainly have a type when it comes to choosing who to bite. But contrary to popular belief, it’s not sweet-tasting or Type O blood that attracts them.

“It's a weird situation involving your skin chemistry, how much you exhale and sometimes what you ate,” said Sammy Ramsey, an entomologist in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the BioFrontiers Institute.

To mosquitoes, every human is shrouded by an invisible chemical cloud made of a cocktail of skin oils, bacterial byproducts and other compounds. While humans typically can't smell the scents, certain chemical combinations make some people smell far more delicious than others to mosquitoes.

Then, there’s the post-exercise banana and beer.

Research shows people who exhale more carbon dioxide, like we do when we exercise, can attract mosquitoes from more than 30 feet away. And for reasons that are unclear, people who have recently consumed beer, bananas and cannabis are more attractive to these insects.

One study found that beer drinkers at a music festival were 44% more attractive to mosquitoes than people who didn’t drink for at least 12 hours.

Chemical camouflage

Getting bitten by mosquitoes is more than just an itchy nuisance. These insects are essentially flying hypodermic needles that can inject parasites and viruses into the human body, Ramsey said.

“Out of all the organisms on the planet, mosquitoes have caused the greatest number of deaths, killing more than 600,000 people worldwide every year,” he added. “So protecting yourself by using effective repellents is very important.”

Bug sprays containing DEET or picaridin, a chemical modeled after compounds found in black pepper, can act as a chemical camouflage, masking the body’s odors from mosquitoes. The key, Ramsey said, is to apply repellent evenly over exposed skin in a sweeping motion rather than spritzing it on like perfume.

Catnip oil may also work as an alternative for those who are not a fan of DEET. The essential oil has been shown to be effective in preliminary tests in Uganda and caused no adverse reactions.

“I guess the only concern with catnip oil is that cats would be obsessed with you and would get high from interacting with you, but I don't know if that's that big a deal,” Ramsey joked.

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CUriosity: What makes Colorado wildflowers so special?

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Expanding territories

Here in Colorado, mosquitoes are generally less of an annoyance than in wetter parts of the country. The insects need standing bodies of water like puddles and ponds to reproduce.

"But as rainfall and heat patterns change as a result of climate change, mosquitoes are becoming more numerous. We are seeing more of them in areas like Colorado,” he said.

This shifting pattern has led to an uptick in mosquito-borne illnesses in the United States. West Nile virus, typically a tropical disease, is spreading further north, for example. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States has seen the highest number of West Nile virus infections reported at this point in the year since 2004, with cases popping up in states like Oregon. Another mosquito-borne illness, dengue, has surged by 359% in the United States in recent years.

So whether you're the mosquito magnet in your friend group or the lucky one mosquitoes find stinky, it’s now the time to take them more seriously.

"As we shift the weather patterns of our world, we are going to see changes in the distribution of diseases," Ramsey said. "We have to make sure that we are doing everything we can to protect ourselves."

Sammy Ramsey, your friendly neighborhood entomologist, explains why mosquitoes can't resist certain people.

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CUriosity: What makes Colorado wildflowers so special?

Yvaine Ye — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:55:31 +0000

CUriosity: What makes Colorado wildflowers so special? Yvaine Ye Mon, 06/29/2026 - 09:55

A Colorado columbine flower. (Credit: Glenn Asakawa/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

Rachel Sauer

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Sam Ahler, doctoral candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology and avowed fan of watching grass grow, discusses what makes Colorado’s wildflowers distinctive and special.

A Colorado columbine flower. (Credit: Glenn Asakawa/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

It’s trite but true: Sometimes there really are no words. How to describe every color of the spectrum represented in a single meadow, soundtracked by the low hum of busy pollinators? What words describe sunburst explosions of yellow, shy little peeks of purple or even the flamboyant, blue-and-white sweep of Aquilegia coerulea—also called the Colorado columbine and the state’s most iconic flower?

Maybe we only need two words: Colorado wildflowers.

People come from around the world to see them, especially during their concentrated, six- to eight-week peak from late June to August. Even in less spectacular years—which 2026 will be due to lower-than-average autumn and winter precipitation across the state—Colorado wildflowers are something to see.

Wildflowers grow across the globe; what makes Colorado’s so special?

One of the main factors is Colorado itself, explains Sam Ahler, a doctoral candidate in the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and affiliate in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research: “We have this gradient from plains to mountains, and a lot has to happen in a short time. There are six to eight weeks in summer where everything pops off. It’s a great place to see a lot at once because there’s a limited window.”

Beyond their short growing season, Colorado wildflowers also are special because of the tremendous diversity they embody.

“If we’re thinking of just the aster family, there are upwards of 500 species just in Colorado, which is pretty astronomical,” Ahler says. “With grasses there are about 360 species, which is a lot of diversity, and when you get down further taxonomically, penstemons, for example, include 60-something species. They’re all really closely related, but all are occupying a unique space. There’s such diversity here that maybe you don’t get in neighboring states.”

Wonders of adaptation

Plus, the plants themselves are wonders of adaptation, especially considering that the most important factor for an abundance of summer wildflowers is water, and Colorado’s is reliably unpredictable.

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“If you were in Colorado during the 2025-2026 winter, you definitely realized we had way less snow than normal, and that was true from the plains to mountains,” Ahler says. “Especially in the mountains, all of the plants are thrown off (in dry years). They don’t get resources when they usually expect them, which causes all these shifts both in flowers and other organisms that rely on them.”

Colorado and the rest of the western United States are in the midst of a significant multi-year drought, but even before climate change began seriously affecting state ecosystems, Colorado wildflowers had become experts at adapting.

They also are vital parts of not just ecosystems, but communities and cultures, Ahler says. “Obviously, wildflowers are really important for pollinators, but a lot of other organisms are reliant on them. Too. They’re really tightly linked to everything around them, whether they’re relying on mule deer to transport their seeds across the landscape, whether people are using them for food provisioning or medicinal purposes, there are lots of different ways organisms are using and interacting with wildflowers.

“There are tons of fungi associated with wildflowers, and sometimes you’ll have one type of fungus associated with one type of wildflower, and those types of relationships are the relationships at risk when we think about changing precipitation and changing ecosystems. When wildflowers are disrupted, everything around them is disrupted.”

Silvery lupine. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

A male Broad-tailed Hummingbird visits a scarlet gilia flower at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. (Credit: David W. Inouye/Wikimedia)

Left: Silvery lupine. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder); Middle: Scarlet gilia. (Credit: David W. Inouye/Wikimedia); Right: Mariposa lilies. (Rachel Sauer/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

Support your local pollinator

Perhaps one of the things that makes Colorado wildflowers so special, then, is that people across the state can support their populations. Beyond being aware of the issues of climate change and making lifestyle adaptations to lessen individual impact, people can plant wildflowers in their yards, Ahler says.

“Sometimes with landscaping you’ll see species brought in, cultivars that are not adapted to this climate,” Ahler explains, adding that while native wildflowers may not be beautiful in the way that, say, a flamboyant zinnia is, “if you look at something like the mariposa lily, that is just as beautiful as a zinnia and it has a long history in this landscape and its bulb was traditionally a food source for Native folks. There are hundreds and hundreds of species (of Colorado wildflowers) for you to pick from; you have to get to know what your options are.”

The more people learn about the incredible diversity represented in Colorado wildflowers, and how their adaptations and vital role in ecosystems make them so much more than beautiful, Ahler says, “the more people will see that’s what makes them special.”

Sam Ahler, doctoral candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology and avowed fan of watching grass grow, discusses what makes Colorado's wildflowers distinctive and special.

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CUriosity: Can your running shoes really make you faster?

Yvaine Ye — Wed, 20 May 2026 22:09:53 +0000

CUriosity: Can your running shoes really make you faster? Yvaine Ye Wed, 05/20/2026 - 16:09

Bradley Needles at the indoor practice facility at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. (Credit: Paige Hellebrand/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

In honor of the BOLDERBoulder 10K, we asked integrative physiologist Bradley Needles what makes a “super shoe” super, and whether such footwear can help everyday runners improve their times.

Bradley Needles at the indoor practice facility at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. (Credit: Paige Hellebrand/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

On Sunday, April 26, Kenyan Sebastian Sawe broke through the tape at the London Marathon in a stunning 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, becoming the first person to ever run an official 26.2-mile race in under two hours.

Training, nutrition and mindset all undoubtedly played a role. But much ado has also been made about his shoes—a chunky-looking set of black and white Adidas racing flats, which were quickly whisked away to a museum, his historic time scrolled on the side.

Weighing just 97 grams (less than a bar of soap), the shoes were the latest iteration in a new generation of Advanced Footwear Technology, also known as “super shoes,” that have been helping elite runners crush records for a decade.

But can they also help mere mortals just wanting to shave a few minutes off their 10K?

“Definitely,” says Bradley Needles, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Integrative Physiology who studies performance-running footwear.

A lifelong competitive runner, Needles found his way to �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder after learning that some of the first scientific studies of super shoes were done here.

“The idea that I could do academic research about something I am so passionate about was a real draw,” he said.

In fact, the original super shoe, the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4%, got its name from a study at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. It found that, on average, people who wore the shoe used 4% less energy while running. That could put a sub-two-hour marathon within reach, the authors predicted in 2017.

Today’s super shoes weigh about half what that shoe weighed, and some are said to improve “running economy”—essentially the human body’s version of fuel efficiency—even more.

That could enable a four-hour marathoner to cross the finish line about six and a half minutes faster, or a determined 10K runner to trim off a minute and finally squeeze their way into the coveted “sub-40 club” for those who have run a 10K in less than 40 minutes.

“We have seen it over and over again in our lab,” said Needles. “When runners of all types, whether they are accustomed to them or not, put on these shoes, they use less energy to run.”

And less energy typically equates to faster times.

So what makes the shoes so fast?

There are three key ingredients, said Needles: an ultralight high-energy-returning foam, a thick midsole made up of that foam and a rigid spoon-like plate embedded in the sole.

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CUriosity: What are Colorado's iconic birds—and how can you see them?

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Just how these all work together to make running feel easier remains a bit of a mystery—one Needles and his advisor, Integrative Physiology Professor Alena Grabowski, are working to unravel.

But previous studies suggest a few things are happening:

The thicker the midsole, the more time your foot spends on the ground, enabling you to push off harder. (Sawe’s midsole was a chunky 39 millimeters thick—just a hair thinner than the maximum allowed.)

The high-tech foam cushion absorbs the bulk of the impact when your foot hits the ground, so the runner’s legs stay stiffer and the calf muscles don’t have to work so hard.

The spoon-like plate, made either of lightweight carbon fiber or rigid plastic, may act like a see-saw, propelling the runner forward with each step.

All this may also serve to make running easier on the body, as some runners have reported they can work out harder and recover more easily after wearing super shoes.

But they are not cheap. A pair of Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3s (the shoes Sawe was wearing) retail for a cool $500 or more, if you can find them; they are sold out.

And they don’t tend to last long—around 100 to 150 miles compared with 300 to 400 miles for regular running shoes. Needles recommends saving them for races and a few runs beforehand to get used to them.

But they’re getting easier for everyday runners to find, with some running as low as $200.

“Pretty much every major shoe company makes a good super shoe now that will be tangibly better, running performance-wise, than your everyday trainer,” said Needles.

He’ll be slipping on his own super shoes—Nike Vaporfly 3s—at the BOLDERBoulder start line in a few days.

As always, he got them on sale.

In honor of the BOLDERBoulder 10K, we asked integrative physiologist Bradley Needles what makes a "super shoe" super, and whether such footwear can help everyday runners improve their times.

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CUriosity: What are Colorado's iconic birds—and how can you see them?

Yvaine Ye — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:07:45 +0000

CUriosity: What are Colorado's iconic birds—and how can you see them? Yvaine Ye Wed, 04/15/2026 - 12:07

Male greater sage grouse inflates its air sacs while trying to attract mates in spring. (Credit: Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management)

Daniel Strain

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Scott Taylor, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and director of the Mountain Research Station at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, shares some local birds you may never have heard of.

Male greater sage grouse inflates its air sacs while trying to attract mates in spring. (Credit: Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management)

Ah, spring. Time to plant flowers and do a little cleaning.

It’s also time for the greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) to strut its stuff. These birds look a little like fancy chickens, and they live across much of the American West, including in the sagebrush grassland of western Colorado.

Every spring, males engage in a bizarre display to attract females. They flex their wings, suck in as much as a gallon of air, then inflate two sacs the size and color of lemons on their breasts—letting rip a series of whistles, coos and popping noises.

“It’s a combination of vocalizations and the sound their feathers make when they rub them against their bodies,” says Scott Taylor, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Taylor is an ornithologist and director of the Mountain Research Station at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, a high-altitude research facility near the mountain town of Nederland. He’s also the host of the podcast “Okay, … But Birds,” which debuted in December.

“Colorado is an amazing place to watch birds because of all the different habitats we have here, all the way from the high plains to the prairies and up into the alpine,” he says.

To celebrate spring, Taylor is sharing a few of the wildest, strangest and underappreciated birds in the state.

Bird watching

Turkey vulture perches on top of Macky Auditorium on the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus (Casey Cass/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

Brown-capped rosy finch (CC image via Wikimedia Commons)

White-tailed ptarmigan in its winter plumage (CC image via Wikimedia Commons)

Mountain chickadee (Anna Weyers Blades/USFWS)

He begins with what might be Colorado’s ultimate 14er climber, the brown-capped rosy finch (Leucosticte australis).

These small birds are brown with a blush of pink on their undersides. They live almost exclusively in the mountains of Colorado, only venturing into a small corner of New Mexico.

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Rosy finches are also the highest nesting birds in North America. They lay their eggs at elevations of up to 14,000 feet above sea level and higher and have evolved for life at these extreme altitudes. They carry a special kind of hemoglobin molecule in their red blood cells. This hemoglobin is especially adept at picking up oxygen and delivering it to tissues. It’s a useful tool when you breathe the thin air on top of a mountain.

Next up is a master of disguise, the white-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura). Ptarmigans, another chicken-like bird, can usually be found running around the mountain tundra. To blend in with their surroundings, they turn brown in the summer and stark white in the winter.

“The chicks also have a pattern that looks like lichen, so it’s really good camouflage to protect themselves from predators,” Taylor says.

Experienced birders may overlook black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and mountain (Poecile gambeli) chickadees, two species that are common visitors to bird feeders around much of the American West. But these birds can achieve feats of memory that are almost unparalleled in the animal world, Taylor says.

Every year, chickadees collect tens of thousands of seeds and store away each of them in a unique hiding place. They remember their hiding spots when winter arrives.

“With a brain that’s just a little bit bigger than a chickpea, they can remember way more than I can,” he says.

Taylor adds that not all bird species are flourishing in Colorado. Rosy finch and sage grouse populations are declining across the state because of human threats like warming temperatures, habitat loss, and oil and gas extraction.

But there’s a lot that people can do to help birds around Colorado. Taylor recommends planting native plants in your yard and keeping domestic cats indoors where they can’t hunt birds.

There’s also no better time to get into birding. Apps like Merlin Bird ID, which was developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, can help novices identify the birds they see. Local birding groups around the state also lead trips that beginners can join.

You don’t have to go farther than the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus to enjoy feathered friends, either. Several pairs of red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) nest on campus. Taylor even spotted one of them scooping up a rabbit from Norlin Quad last year. Violet-green swallows (Tachycineta thalassina) just returned to Boulder last week and will soon be building their nests under the red tiles on many campus buildings.

“One of the reasons birds fascinate us is that they're everywhere,” Taylor says. “On a daily basis, you don’t see that many other forms of wildlife. But birds are around us all the time.”

To celebrate spring, ornithologist Scott Taylor shares some Colorado birds you may never have heard of.

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CUriosity: Why is K-pop so popular in the United States?

Yvaine Ye — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 19:21:39 +0000

CUriosity: Why is K-pop so popular in the United States? Yvaine Ye Tue, 03/10/2026 - 13:21

Girl group Huntr/x in Kpop Demon Hunters. (Credit: Netflix)

Yvaine Ye

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Stephanie Choi, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder and a K-pop fan, talks about why this music genre has gained widespread popularity beyond South Korea.

Editor's note: “Golden” from "KPop Demon Hunters" has become the first K-pop song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 2026 Academy Awards.

Girl group Huntr/x in Kpop Demon Hunters. (Credit: Netflix)

Since last summer, few songs have been as inescapable as “Golden.”

In the Netflix blockbuster film “KPop Demon Hunters,” animated girls in stylish outfits, who slay monsters, belt out the anthem, “We’re goin’ up, up, up, it’s our moment / You know together we’re glowing,” a chorus that countless American children (and plenty of adults) can now sing on cue.

South Korean popular music, or K-pop, is having a moment in the United States, and 2026 could be its biggest year yet.

“Golden” recently became the first K-pop song to win a Grammy Award. It is also nominated for Best Original Song at the upcoming Academy Awards on March 15. Two of the genre’s biggest acts, BLACKPINK and BTS, are releasing new albums this year, while groups I-DLE and Twice are touring across North America.

Stephaine Choi saw the K-pop wave coming for years. An assistant professor in the College of Music who studies K-pop’s global influence, Choi is also a fan of the genre.

On top of a pastel-pink cabinet in Choi’s office sits a small shrine to her fandom: photos of EXO, a South Korean boy band she has followed for more than a decade, stuffed animals representing members of SHINee, another favorite, and souvenirs from K-pop concerts she’s been to.

Her most prized piece is a lipstick shaped like SHINee’s lightstick, an aqua-colored glow stick that resembles a diamond perched on a microphone.

“There are lots of social functions in music,” Choi said. “It could be for entertainment. It could be for ritual. It could also be for community building. K-pop culture makes you want to be part of the community.”

Despite its name, K-pop isn’t defined by a single musical style. Instead, Choi describes it as performance-centered music presented by idols. These artists are trained by entertainment companies, often starting in their early teens.

In the United States, K-pop first gained traction among Korean Americans before spreading through other Asian American communities in the early 2000s. In 2012, Psy galloped his way into the American mainstream with his viral hit “Gangnam Style.” The music video was the most viewed video on YouTube for five years.

The real turning point came in 2017 when the boy band BTS won the Billboard Music Award for Top Social Artist, a fan-voted category.

Unlike traditional celebrity culture where the musicians are often viewed as gifted, Choi said the relationship between idols and fans feels more equal in K-pop culture.

Previously in CUriosity

Why does Colorado have so many hot springs, and are they at risk?

Or read more CUriosity stories here

Through livestreams, social media and subscription messaging platforms, fans can communicate with idols directly on a daily basis.

Because most idols debut as teenagers, fans often watch them grow, mature and eventually become full-fledged artists launching their own solo careers. Fans ride every high and low with the artists, and growing alongside them is what makes K-pop so irresistible.

“It feels like you’re building a history together,” Choi said.

This connection motivates fans to organize campaigns, translate music videos and promote their favorite artists. According to a 2024 survey by the South Korean government, more than 200 million people across 119 countries identify as fans of Korean culture, with the majority focused on K-pop.

By 2022, BTS had taken home 12 Billboard Music Awars, breaking a 17-year record previously held by Destiny’s Child. BLACKPINK headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2023. Another girl group called Twice is currently on a world tour with a Denver stop in April.

The popularity of Korean music also encouraged people in the United States to take up language lessons. Duolingo, a language learning app, saw a 22% growth in Korean learners in the United States last year.

“You can definitely enjoy music without understanding the language,” Choi said. “But K-pop opens up a whole new world for people to learn about other cultures.”

Stephanie Choi, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder and a K-pop fan, talks about why this music genre has gained widespread popularity beyond South Korea.

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CUriosity: Why does Colorado have so many hot springs, and are they at risk?

Daniel William Strain — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 22:57:54 +0000

CUriosity: Why does Colorado have so many hot springs, and are they at risk? Daniel William… Wed, 03/04/2026 - 15:57

Visitors enjoy a winter dip in Strawberry Park Hot Springs in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. (Credit: Adobe Stock)

Daniel Strain

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Shemin Ge, professor in the Department of Geological Sciences, shares how a source of clean energy known as geothermal power could pose unexpected risks to Colorado's iconic hot springs.

Visitors enjoy a winter dip in Strawberry Park Hot Springs in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. (Credit: Adobe Stock)

Shemin Ge remembers a winter drive she took around Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Ice had formed over the trees, and a blanket of snow lay over the landscape.

Then Ge saw something surprising in the middle of all that white.

“[There was] snow everywhere, all the way to the rim of the hot springs. There you have steamy things coming out,” said Ge, professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. “What a beautiful, nice thing to see.”

Ge is a hydrogeologist, a scientist who studies the interactions between water and rock around the planet. In Colorado, she has plenty to explore.

The Colorado Geological Survey reports that the state is home to at least 93 “thermal areas”—places where hot water from underground bubbles up to the surface, forming pools and streams.

Hot springs play an important role in the cultures of many of the West’s Native American groups. They’re also a big draw for locals and tourists alike who enjoy long, leisurely dips with a mountain view.

Why are these relaxing features so common in Colorado?

Like so many things in the West, the answer comes down to the Rocky Mountains. Tens of millions of years ago, collisions between the planet’s tectonic plates caused the ground under the American West to buckle, building the mountains we know today.

That same uplift created a network of cracks and channels in the hard, rocky crust below the region—perfect pathways for toasty water to flow to the surface.

“Earth’s crust is thinner [in the West] compared to the eastern part of the country,” Ge said. “When the crust is thinner, it’s easier for the deep, hot mantle to come up closer to the surface.”

Ge’s own research has explored a modern human activity that could influence these ancient features.

In recent years, energy companies and other entities have begun investigating a potentially abundant source of sustainable power: geothermal energy.

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How can you make your resolutions stick?

Or read more CUriosity stories here

Geothermal energy can come in many forms, but, in general, people dig deep wells to pump up hot water from underground. Once at the surface, that water can be used to heat floors or sidewalks, or even power turbines and generate electricity.

But when people pump hot water up, they usually replace that liquid with cooler water from the surface. This could, in theory, cool some hot springs down.

In a 2025 paper, Roseanna Neupauer, a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, and Ge explored this idea. The team used computer simulations, or models, to recreate the geological conditions under Colorado’s surface. In particular, the group tested what might happen if people installed a well near Mount Princeton, a hub of geothermal activity near Buena Vista, Colorado.

The possible impacts of that hypothetical well depended on how close it came to hot springs. If the well sat about 650 feet east of a spring, it might lead to cooling, and temperatures could dip by as much as 27 degrees Fahrenheit over the long run.

Ge said that scientists still have a lot of research to do before they can say for sure whether geothermal energy poses risks to Colorado’s hot springs.

But, she added, it’s important to ask the question. Nothing makes a frigid winter day better than a long, relaxing dip in one of Colorado’s many hot springs.

“Geothermal energy is a sustainable, renewable source of energy, and I would love to see it used more,” Ge said. “But we don’t want to cause a negative impact for the people who live nearby.”

Geologist Shemin Ge shares how a source of clean energy known as geothermal power could pose unexpected risks to Colorado's iconic hot springs.

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CUriosity: How can you make your resolutions stick?

Daniel William Strain — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 22:44:18 +0000

CUriosity: How can you make your resolutions stick? Daniel William… Mon, 01/05/2026 - 15:44

New Year's Eve in New York's Times Square. (Credit: CC photo via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/76807015@N03/11745399044)

Katy Marquardt Hill

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

This week, Alix Barasch, a marketing professor in the Leeds School of Business, says that virtual badges and digital trinkets may sound silly, but they really can help you reach your goals. She answers the question: "How do I keep my New Year’s resolution?"

New Year's Eve in New York's Times Square. (Credit: CC photo via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/76807015@N03/11745399044)

Millions of people open apps each day to protect something with no monetary value but plenty of psychological punch: a streak. Whether it’s logging language lessons, tracking meals, meditating or hitting step goals, missing a day can feel oddly devastating.

There’s a reason it feels that way. Streaks turn progress into a reward of its own, according to Alix Barasch, associate professor of marketing at the Leeds School of Business, who studies how technologies influence consumer behavior.

Alix Barasch

“A streak has no real value in the world, but it has real psychological value,” she says.

That mental pull may be why streaks (and the apps that track them) help make resolutions stick. Even when apps offer seemingly trivial rewards, they can still influence behavior.

“These apps add an extra layer to goals,” Barasch says. “Tracking streaks and earning badges along the way turns something you might already want to do—like practicing a language or exercising—into something you really care about, even if the reward is just a number or a virtual icon.”

This is gamification, the process of turning ordinary tasks into a kind of game. Apps use badges, streak counts, progress trackers and virtual currencies to make those tasks feel like achievements. For example, the meditation app Calm awards badges for streaks of consecutive days of practice and completing specific programs, such as those for stress and anxiety. For people with fitness goals, the Apple Watch encourages users with three colorful rings that users aim to close each day: “move” (calories burned), “exercise” (activity minutes), and “stand” (moving around for at least 1 minute during 12 hours of the day).

“Tracking your progress, earning badges, keeping a streak—these things all give the behavior a sense of meaning,” Barasch says.

But apps also dutifully notice if you skip a day’s workout. That can feel bigger than a small slip and really knock your motivation.

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Why hasn't it snowed much this year, and what does that mean for Colorado?

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“Psychologically, it’s extra demotivating,” Barasch says. “Breaking a streak affects your likelihood of keeping up the behavior.”

Apps have gotten good at forgiving streak breaks, which can help users overcome slip-ups.

The language app Duolingo, for example, offers “streak repairs” via subscription features or “gems” that can be earned or bought. Users can also preemptively protect their streaks with “freezes.”

Not surprisingly, sharing streaks with friends or tracking them within a group can make people more likely to stick with a resolution.

“For me, there does have to be a layer of accountability,” Barasch says. “You don’t necessarily need shared tracking, but social connection helps.”

Over time, streaks reinforce behavior simply by making it part of your routine. Showing up day after day helps solidify those actions into habits that can last even without the digital nudges. To make a resolution stick, she recommends leaning on simple forms of gamification like earning badges to reinforce the behavior long enough for it to become a habit.

And that’s the real goal.

“If it becomes part of your day,” Barasch says, “you’ll probably keep doing it—even without the rewards.”

Virtual badges and digital trinkets may sound silly, but they really can help you reach your goals, says marketing researcher Alix Barasch.

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CUriosity: Why hasn't it snowed much this year, and what does that mean for Colorado?

Daniel William Strain — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 22:59:54 +0000

CUriosity: Why hasn't it snowed much this year, and what does that mean for Colorado? Daniel William… Thu, 12/18/2025 - 15:59

A deer on the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus on Dec. 3, 2025, during a short-lived dusting of snow. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

Daniel Strain

In CUriosity, experts across the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

Jennifer Kay, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, talks about why this winter has been so dry.

A deer on the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder campus on Dec. 3, 2025, during a short-lived dusting of snow. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder)

Jennifer Kay has a message for the skies above Colorado: “Let it snow.”

Kay is an atmospheric scientist who, in her free time, likes to go cross-country skiing in the Rocky Mountains.

But this year, the season’s typical white-out blizzards haven’t arrived.

Denver didn’t get its first snow—a wimpy dusting of just 0.2 inches—until Nov. 29, the second latest first snow on record. Temperatures around the Front Range have also been downright balmy, drawing close to or even setting record highs.

Could the late start to the winter be a bad omen for Colorado’s ski industry and its future water supplies?

Kay weighs in on the question from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s East Campus with a view of the Flatiron Mountains behind her. They’re almost completely dry, with almost none of the sprinkling of white that usually marks them this time of year.

She says it’s not time to panic—yet.

“It's also really early in the season still, so people shouldn’t be too worried about what’s going to happen with the ski season or water,” says Kay, a fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. “There are still a lot of different ways this season could unfold.”

In 2021, for example, Denver didn’t see its first snow until Dec. 10 (the latest on record). But snowfall totals inched closer to normal in the months that followed.

Kays says it’s not possible to predict how much snow will come to Colorado in an individual winter season months ahead of time.

A lot of that stems from a phenomenon known as the jet stream. That’s the name for a narrow band in the atmosphere above North America where winds reach tremendous speeds, sometimes over 250 miles per hour. When this band hovers above Colorado, it tends to bring big, rumbling storms to the state.

“When the jet stream brings storms to us, we get...a lot of wet, snowy days,” Kay said. “If the jet stream goes another direction, maybe to the north or south of us, we don’t get as many snowstorms.”

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But, she adds, any number of complex factors can make the jet stream wiggle from month to month—although meteorologists can often predict what the jet stream will do several days in advance.

Recently, the jet stream has stuck mostly to the north of Colorado, crossing over states like Montana and the Dakotas.

This year’s less-than-snowy winter has Kay thinking about what the future may hold.

With warming, she says, many storms that might normally produce snow may instead bring rain. That could have a wide range of consequences for the state.

A thick blanket of snow on the ground, for example, can keep wildfires from starting and spreading. The Marshall Fire, which devastated parts of Boulder County in December 2021, erupted at a time when the ground was relatively dry, and winds were especially fierce.

Kay believes it’s important for Coloradans to prepare themselves for hotter and dryer weather.

She lives in Boulder and keeps a go-bag packed at all times, even during the winter months. It includes a change of clothes, important documents, chargers for electronic devices and contact information for her neighbors.

“I have already adapted to the reality of more fires as we get hotter and drier in Colorado,” she says. “Understanding what's happening around you and having a plan for extreme events like the strong wind events we have along the Front Range is important.”

This year, the normal blizzards haven't come to most of Colorado, but atmospheric scientist Jennifer Kay says there's still time for the season to turn around.

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