Articles | Michael Behar | Writer & Editor

5280 | February 2022

Family Time, Reinvented Download PDF

Schools closed for COVID-19 on Friday, March 13, 2020. “Enjoy an extended spring break,” the official district email communiqué advised us. With the weekend upon us, my wife, an attorney, and I didn’t grasp the implications until Monday. I had two impending writing deadlines, and she was steeped in litigation matters. What at first had seemed like a rare gift—bonus hours with our kids—quickly morphed into what felt like a theft of time. How could we possibly work a normal day with our kids at home? Because COVID-19 had vaporized our childcare, we resorted to iPads as babysitters. While the kids binged on ninja anime and Dude Perfect, I slammed through my assignments. A week later, I got COVID-19. Continue reading →

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September 26, 2020 by Michael Behar

5280 | September 2020

Operation Dust Bowl Download PDF

How Hugh Bennett saved Colorado—and the nation—from one of the worst environmental disasters in human history.

On Friday, April 19, 1935, Hugh Bennett entered Room 333 in a U.S. Senate office building in Washington, D.C., and seated himself at a conference table alongside members of the congressional subcommittee for public lands and surveys. Bennett, 54, directed the Soil Erosion Service, a division established by the U.S. Department of the Interior two years earlier, and he’d been invited to testify about the erosion problem on American farms. While the senators present knew about the dust raking the High Plains—including all of southeastern Colorado—they considered the issue a localized nuisance. Congress had been deliberating House Resolution 7054, which would fund a national soil conservation service, managed under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Bennett was there to tell the senators why the resolution needed to pass immediately. Continue reading →

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September 22, 2020 by Michael Behar

Air & Space | August 2020

Satellite Rescue Download PDF

New Spacecraft Will Refuel, Refurbish, and Relocate Satellites in Orbit—Maybe Even Wash the Windshields.

On Monday, February 24, 2020, at about 9 p.m. U.S. Eastern time, a robotic spacecraft named MEV-1 is traveling some 22,000 miles above the Pacific Ocean in a geosynchronous orbit. A satellite at that location holds a fixed position over the equator because its speed matches that of Earth’s rotation. At the moment, MEV-1, which stands for Mission Extension Vehicle-1, is in pursuit of its client, a $200 million satellite called IS-901. Continue reading →

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July 23, 2020 by Michael Behar

EATING WELL | JUNE 2020

Cultivating Better Health Download PDF

Just as you have a microbiome, the soil beneath your feet has one too. And promising new research suggests it may have a surprising influence on food and human wellness.

It’s late December in Boulder, Colorado, and I’m on the University of Colorado campus walking toward the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) lab. The native flora here is dormant, in a deep winter slumber, rendering the landscape in monochromatic tans. Almost nothing is growing outdoors. Continue reading →

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October 2, 2019 by Michael Behar

EATING WELL | SEPTEMBER 2019

Down on the Smart Farm Download PDF

Berry-picking robots. Tablet-controlled tractors. Weed-sensing drones. How farms are going high-tech to produce more food and a healthier environment.

Trevor Scherman is getting more rest these days, thanks to his iPad. Scherman is a farmer who grows wheat, peas, canola and lentils near Battleford, Saskatchewan. Like legions of farmers in both Canada and the United States, he uses precision agriculture technology—cutting-edge tools like drones and satellite imagery—to keep a careful watch on his crops. The sensors positioned around Scherman’s farm provide instant feedback on all sorts of conditions that could impact his crops, such as heavy rain or a sudden frost. He also gets digital satellite images of his fields delivered by email. A company called Farmers Edge analyzes the data with sophisticated mathematical algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI). In addition to identifying major issues, the software can even pinpoint a minor weed outbreak or a few acres where plants are withering, problems that large-scale farmers like Scherman likely would have never discovered on their own until they were rampant. Continue reading →

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May 2, 2019 by Michael Behar

5280 | May 2018

The New New New Journalism Download PDF

Can a few small Denver-based digital media organizations remake local news?

On a blustery morning in January, I arrive at 10:30 for an interview with Susan Greene, editor of the Colorado Independent. The digital-only nonprofit news outlet is based in the Denver Open Media center, an unremarkable two-story building not far from the Art District on Santa Fe. A few desks are tucked into a cramped space on the second floor; Greene occupies an adjacent glass-front office, which, at the moment, is empty. Continue reading →

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February 22, 2019 by Michael Behar

Virtuoso Life | March/April 2019

Easy Breezy Download PDF

The Dominican Republic’s family-friendly north coast delivers surprises on every shore.

It’s a sweltering August afternoon in the Dominican Republic when I find myself scouring the jungle for passion fruit, or chinola, with my fit, young Dominican guide, Raul Custodio. We’re hiking at a brisk pace in air so humid it feels like syrup, and by the time we reach a broad ridge that pokes above the forest, our clothes are a sopping mess. “No chinola here,” he declares. “Let’s keep going. I know another spot.” Continue reading →

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February 22, 2019 by Michael Behar

Outside | February 15, 2019

Urban Organics Wants to Fix Food Download PDF

Inside a repurposed Twin Cities brewery, a massive aquaponics operation is ready to provide a locavore’s dream: fresh produce and fish, raised indoors every month of the year.

On a cold, breezy morning in March 2017, I found myself shivering in a half-empty parking lot outside the entrance to the century-old Schmidt brewery in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The brick-walled landmark appeared abandoned. Beer hasn’t flowed through its industrial arteries since 2002, when brewing ceased permanently. Its whitewashed grain silos were yellowed and rust-stained; the chimney stack that once billowed fragrant, hops-scented steam had been capped. Continue reading →

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November 22, 2018 by Michael Behar

THE NEW YORK TIMES | NOVEMBER 18, 2018

The Everything Test Download PDF

Most diseases give off a molecular signal before they show symptoms. Can the science of proteomics learn to spot them?

The sergeant with the Mount Crested Butte Police Department in Colorado appeared shortly after 9 P.M. It was August 1, 2017, and I was with my wife and our two young children, ages 2 and 7, at Lake Irwin, a remote campsite at 10,200 feet in the Rocky Mountains. When the officer stepped out of his S.U.V. cruiser, its blue and red emergency strobes piercing the darkness, I thought that perhaps a neighboring camper had summoned him to silence my dissonant guitar strumming beside the campfire. Continue reading →

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September 5, 2018 by Michael Behar

Air & Space | September 2018

The Secret World of NORAD Download PDF

Inside its granite fortress, the agency that has protected North America for 60 years still stands guard.

About halfway through the tunnel, our bus driver stops beside two steel blast doors, each weighing 25 tons and measuring three feet thick. I’m traveling this frigid January morning into the Cheyenne Mountain Complex with Steve Rose, the facility’s deputy director, who greeted me in the parking lot with an earnest handshake. Rose is escorting me into the historic military bunker burrowed deep into the Rocky Mountain foothills, seven miles southwest of downtown Colorado Springs. “The mountain,” as the complex is known colloquially, is the alternate command center for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Continue reading →

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