Science Café Fort Collins

Second Wednesday of every month
Fort Collins, Colorado

Beet Street Science Café connects the local scientific community with the general public to create a forum of critical thinking and discussion. They are informal and accessible – much more interactive than just a public lecture. The café takes place in a downtown restaurant making it a casual presentation over dinner and drinks. The goal is to engage and educate broad audiences about the incredible discoveries and research going on in our own community.

No cover charge for presentation.

Despite the enormous potential health benefits of regular endurance exercise training many adults chose not to participate, citing insufficient time as a perceived overriding obstacle. New research from CSU suggests that important health benefits, including protection from Diabetes, may be obtained from just 16 minutes of sprint-interval exercise spread over 2 weeks.

Meet Dr. Christopher Bell

Christopher Bell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University. As a native of England he obtained his first degrees and peculiar accent from the U.K. (B.Sc. – Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education; M.Sc. – Manchester Metropolitan University) before traversing the Atlantic to earn his Ph.D. at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Following completion of his Ph.D. studies Dr. Bell relocated to warmer (?) climates to pursue post-doctoral research training in the Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado-Boulder.

Dr. Bell keeps himself busy studying the regulation of energy expenditure by the nervous system, a topic on which he has written several manuscripts and subsequently managed to convince a handful of associate editors to accept for publication in scientific journals. A group of people at the American Diabetes Association actually read a few of these manuscripts and were kind enough to award Dr. Bell a vast sum of money in order that he might continue to collect data.

His current hare-brained schemes include determining the effects of short-term sprint-interval training on insulin sensitivity and the thermogenic response to beta-adrenergic receptor stimulation; investigating the potential influence of green tea extract (Epigallocatechin-3-gallate) on sympathetic regulation of physiologic function; and exploring the induction of antioxidant enzymes via a combination of phytochemicals. Remarkably he has been able to convince several legitimate local scientists at the University of Colorado-Denver Health Sciences Center, University of Colorado-Boulder, Heart Center of the Rockies, and Colorado State University to collaborate with him on these projects.

When not thinking about science Dr. Bell has been known to publicly butcher several contemporary pieces of music on the piano, take probably four or five too many knocks to the head while falling from his mountain bike/snowboard/size-10 feet, and is presently considering what can only amount to a humiliating experience on Telemark skis in the back-country of front-range Colorado. He currently lives in a dream but shares a home with his imaginary friends in Fort Collins.

Reference Materials

Get some background information before you come! Dr. Bell has provided us with recommended readings on this topic. Read them before you come so you can have a frame of reference, or use them as continuing education resources after the presentation.

• Metabolic Adaptations to Short-term High-Intensity Interval Training: A Little Pain for a Lot of Gain?
• Six sessions of sprint interval training increases muscle oxidative potential and cycle endurance capacity in humans
• Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males