Category Archives: Science
Listen to an audio version of our feature article by Amber Dance. Research groups around the world are exploring new ways of protecting coral reefs from climate change.“Biotherapeutics”: What They Are And How They Benefit 350 Million People Worldwide (Infographic)
Research: USC Creates Organoids From Stem Cells To Treat Polycistic Kidney Disease (Video)
USC Stem Cell scientist Andy McMahon is using human stem cells to create mini-kidney structures known as organoids. His lab is using these organoids to study and find new drugs to treat polycystic kidney disease.
Health: “Understanding Parkinson’s Disease” (Nature Videos)
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological condition that affects the brain and other parts of the nervous system. The gradual loss of nerve cells leads to a suite of characteristic motor and non-motor symptoms.
What causes these cells to die and how the pathology develops in the nervous system are not yet clear but multiple lines of investigation are being pursued to answer these questions. In this animation, we explore some of the latest in Parkinson’s disease research.
New Research Videos: “In Search Of The Amazon’s Tallest Tree” (Cambridge)
Research has discovered the tallest known tree in the Amazon, towering above the previous record holder at a whopping 88.5 metres. This giant could store as much carbon as an entire hectare of rainforest elsewhere in the Amazon. Toby Jackson, a plant scientist in the University of Cambridge, took part in an expedition to find the tree in a remote region of northern Brazil, and validate its height the old-fashioned way – by climbing it.
To read more: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/expedition-finds-tallest-tree-in-the-amazon
Top Science Podcasts: New Epilepsy Drug Research & Anatomy Of Lightning From Space (ScienceMag)
About one-third of people with epilepsy are treatment resistant. Up until now, epilepsy treatments have focused on taming seizures rather than the source of the disease and for good reason—so many roads lead to epilepsy: traumatic brain injury, extreme fever and infection, and genetic disorders, to name a few. Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel talks with host Sarah Crespi about researchers that are turning back the pages on epilepsy, trying to get to the beginning of the story where new treatments might work.
And Sarah also talks with Torsten Neurbert at the Technical University of Denmark’s National Space Institute in Kongens Lyngby about capturing high-altitude “transient luminous events” from the International Space Station (ISS). These lightning-induced bursts of light, color, and occasionally gamma rays were first reported in the 1990s but had only been recorded from the ground or aircraft. With new measurements from the ISS come new insights into the anatomy of lightning.
Website: https://www.sciencemag.org/podcast/hunting-new-epilepsy-drugs-and-capturing-lightning-space
Top New Science Podcasts: Social Priming, Killer Whale Grandmothers And Accoustics (Nature)
Listen to the latest from the world of science, brought to you by Benjamin Thompson and Nick Howe. This week, the embattled field of social priming, and the latest sounds from a big acoustic meeting.
In this episode:
00:45 What’s next for social priming?
How might a branch of psychological research move forward in the face of replication failures? News Feature: What’s next for psychology’s embattled field of social priming
08:55 Research Highlights
Killer-whale grandmothers help their grandchildren survive, and the failed voyage of a reproduced ancient raft. Research Highlight: Why female orcas make killer grandmas; Research Highlight: On a model ancient raft, seafarers are up the current without a paddle
11:12 The sounds of science
We hear the latest updates from the Acoustical Society of America’s recent conference.
18:44 News Chat
Reassessing when civilisations moved to modernity, and understanding exoplanets. News: When did societies become modern? ‘Big history’ dashes popular idea of Axial Age; News: European space telescope to launch new era of exoplanet science
Genetic Engineering: Harvard Scientist George Church Seeks To “Reverse Aging” (60 Minutes Video)
Our lives have been transformed by the information age. But what’s coming next is likely to be more profound, call it the genetic information age. We have mapped the human genome and in just the last few years we have learned to read and write DNA like software. And you’re about to see a few breakthroughs-in-waiting that would transform human health. For a preview of this revolution in evolution we met George Church, a world leading geneticist, whose own DNA harbors many eccentricities and a few genes for genius.
Top New Sci-Fi Shows: “The Expanse – Season 4” Is “Real World Space Physics” (Science Magazine)
From a Science Magazine online article:
On 13 December, Amazon Prime will air the fourth season of The Expanse, a hardboiled space drama renowned for its working-class characters and real-world space physics. Showrunner Naren Shankar is part of the reason the science checks out. The veteran writer and producer for programs such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Farscape, and the police procedural CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, has a doctorate in applied physics and electrical engineering.
When I got the script for the The Expanse, the pilot, I was, like, “Wow, this is a very different kind of a show.” Because they embraced all of the things that most science fiction shows run away from: the fact that you don’t have weight unless your ship is accelerating, the fact that communication in space is not instantaneous.
Shankar chatted with Science about why he feels it’s important to have a realistic sci-fi show, and how television work is like the scientific peer-review process.
To read full interview: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/how-real-world-science-sets-expanse-apart-other-sci-fi-shows?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-12-06&et_rid=600792821&et_cid=3113276
New Research Videos: “Mining The Deep Sea” (MIT)
Mining minerals found 15,000 feet below sea level could help secure a low-carbon future, but at what cost? Researchers including Thomas Peacock, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, are racing to understand the environmental impact of deep-sea mining.
Boomers Daily 