Category Archives: Science

Health, Medicine, News, Podcasts, Science, Uncategorized

Covid-19 Podcast: Testing Lab Challenges, WHO Funding & Immune System Issues (Nature.com)

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nature-podcastsBenjamin Thompson, Noah Baker, and Amy Maxmen discuss Trump withholding funds from the WHO, and how COVID-19 kills. We also hear about controlling misinformation while communicating risk.

In this episode:

01:15 Understanding bottlenecks

After listening to last week’s episode of Coronapod, researchers in the USA were inspired to start collecting data about the challenges facing labs carrying out testing. After more than 4,000 responses to their online survey, we discuss their goals.

03:08 A hole in the WHO’s funding

US President Donald Trump has announced plans to withhold funding for the WHO, pending a review of the organization’s handling of the pandemic. We discuss the decision and ask what it means for the global response to COVID-19.

News: Nature‘s rolling coronavirus news blog

05:55 Responding to the immune system

We investigate the role of the immune system in the death of COVID-19 patients and what this could mean for treatments. Could some therapeutics actually be undermining the body’s ability to fight the virus?

News: How does COVID-19 kill? Uncertainty is hampering doctors’ ability to choose treatments

13:54 One good thing this week

Our hosts pick out things that have made them smile in the last 7 days, including seasonal memories from Sierra Leone, a trip to the supermarket, and the 99-year old war veteran who has raised millions for charity.

BBC News: Coronavirus: Capt Tom Moore’s NHS fundraiser hits £17m

18:33 Communicating complex data

Clearly communicating risks and evidence is key for governments and other organisations if they are to best inform the public during the pandemic. But what is the best way to do it? We hear the methods that communications experts and behavioural scientists recommend to keep the public informed, and keep misinformation at bay.

News, Podcasts, Science, Society

Top New Science Podcasts: Countries’ Coronavirus Comebacks, Managing Water & The Ancient Wari

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science-magazine-podcastsContributing Correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt talks with host Sarah Crespi about countries planning a comeback from a coronavirus crisis. What can they do once cases have slowed down to go back to some sort of normal without a second wave of infection?

Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins Sarah to talk about water management and the downfall of the ancient Wari state. Sometimes called the first South American empire, the Wari culture successfully expanded throughout the Peruvian Andes 1400 years ago.

Also this week, Yon Visell of the University of California, Santa Barbara, talks with Sarah about his Science Advances paper on the biomechanics of human hands. Our skin’s ability to propagate waves along the surface of the hand may help us sense the world around us.

Neuroscience, Science, Videos

Neuroscience: “What Is It Like To Have Synesthesia?” (The Royal Institution)

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Can you imagine if each word had its own colour, or you could ‘see’ different types of music?

Synesthetes can experience the ordinary world in some pretty extraordinary ways. In this video Jamie Ward explains the variety of different ways in synesthesia can manifest itself, and what is happening in the brains of those who experience it.

Jamie Ward is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. He has written books a number of books about neuroscience and synesthesia.

Website

Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes. Awareness of synesthetic perceptions varies from person to person.[7] In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme–color synesthesia or color–graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be “farther away” than 1990), or may appear as a three-dimensional map (clockwise or counterclockwise). Synesthetic associations can occur in any combination and any number of senses or cognitive pathways.

From Wikipedia

Health, Medicine, Podcasts, Science, Technology

Health: Testing, Approving And Fairly Distributing A New Coronavirus Vaccine

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SCIENTISTS ARE working at an unprecedented pace to find a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19. The stakes are high. Natasha Loder, The Economist’s health policy editor, explains how an effective vaccine might be developed.

Dr Trevor Drew of the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness speaks to host Kenneth Cukier about two trials which have reached the animal-testing stage. Plus, once a vaccine is discovered, what can be done to make sure it is distributed fairly? Dr Seth Berkely, chief executive of GAVI, the vaccine alliance, explains the importance of global cooperation. Runtime: 26 min

News, Podcasts, Science

Top New Science Podcasts: Coronavirus Spreading In The Air, Eating Disorders

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science-magazine-podcastsOn this week’s show, Staff Writer Robert Service talks with host Sarah Crespi about a new National Academy of Sciences report that suggests the novel coronavirus can go airborne, the evidence for this idea, and what this means for the mask-wearing debate. 

Also this week, Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins Sarah to talk about a burgeoning understanding of the biological roots of anorexia nervosa—an eating disorder that affects about 1% of people in the United States. From genetic links to brain scans, scientists are finding a lot more biology behind what was once thought of as a culturally driven disorder.

News, Podcasts, Science

Top New Science Podcasts: Plastic-Busting Enzymes, Man’s Curiosity & ‘Coolest’ Molecules (Nature.com)

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nature-podcastsThis week, a new enzyme speeds up the breakdown of plastic bottles, and a method to cool molecules to a fraction above absolute zero.

In this episode:

01:18 A PET recycling enzyme

Researchers have engineered an enzyme that effectively breaks down the plastic PET into its constituent monomers. This could allow for more complete recycling of bottles and clothes. Research Article: Tournier et al.

06:41 Research Highlights

The shocking lengths humans will go to to satisfy their curiosity, and the reasons for elevated methane emissions at Oktoberfest. Research Highlight: Humans opt to brave electric shock to satisfy their curiosity; Research Highlight: Munich’s Oktoberfest is a real gas

09:15 Supercool molecules

Researchers have used a technique called ‘collision cooling’ to chill molecules to a few millionths of a degree above absolute zero, which could allow observations of difficult-to-study quantum mechanics. Research Article: Son et al.

14:46 Research Highlights

Neither supermassive, nor super small, the mystery of the elusive intermediate sized black-hole has been solved. Research Highlight: Elusive middle-weight black hole is caught shredding a star

Health, News, Podcasts, Science, Technology

Coronavirus/Covid-19: Francis Crick Institute On “Large-Scale, Reliable Testing” (LRB Podcast)

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London Review of Books logoRupert Beale talks again to Thomas Jones about his work at the Francis Crick Institute, where he’s helping to set up a testing lab for Covid-19.

He talks about the challenges of creating a scalable process, explains why a successful antibody test could be hard to achieve, and finds some reasons to be hopeful.

You can find a full transcript of this episode HERE.