Top New Science Podcasts: Bacteria Building Bricks, Solar Cells That Turn ‘Waste Heat’ To Electricity

Science Magazine PodcastsOn this week’s show, Staff Writer Robert F. Service talks with host Sarah Crespi about manipulating microbes to make them produce building materials like bricks—and walls that can take toxins out of the air. 

Sarah also talks with Paul Davids, principal member of the technical staff in applied photonics & microsystems at Sandia National Laboratories, about an innovation in converting waste heat to electricity that uses similar materials to solar cells but depends on quantum tunneling. And in a bonus segment, producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Online News Editor David Grimm on stage at the AAAS annual meeting in Seattle.

They discuss how wildfires can harm your lungs, crime rates in so-called sanctuary states, and how factors such as your gender and country of origin influence how much trust you put in science.

Health: “Amazon Care” Virtual Medical Service Smartphone App Launches

From a Becker’s Hospital Review release (02/19/2020):

Amazon Care Virtual Medical Service app for Smartphones February 19 2020Amazon’s virtual medical clinic that offers in-person follow-ups is now available to Amazon employees in Seattle.

Five things to know:

1. The virtual medical service, called Amazon Care, went live via the company’s employee benefits portal on Feb. 18. It is available to Amazon employees who work at the company’s headquarters and their dependents.

2. Amazon Care offers employees virtual medical consultations with physicians and nurse practitioners. Patients can use the app to schedule a follow-up visit in their home or office.

Amazon Care Virtual Medical Service app for Smartphones February 19 20203. Medications prescribed via Amazon Care can be delivered to a patient’s home.

4. “Amazon Care eliminates travel and wait time, connecting employees and their family members to a physician or nurse practitioner through live chat or video, with the option for in-person follow up services from a registered nurse ranging from immunizations to instant strep throat detection,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC.

5. Amazon first shared information about Amazon Care in September, noting that it planned to pilot the service in Seattle.

Amazon Care website

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Profiles: 73-Year Old British Novelist And Poet Ruth Padel On Her Book “Beethoven Variations”

Ruth Padel Beethoven Variations Poems on a Life bookLike Beethoven, the poet Ruth Padel first came to love and understand music through playing the viola. Her great grandfather, a concert pianist, studied music in Leipzig with Beethoven’s friend and contemporary. Her latest collection Beethoven Variations (Chatto) is simultaneously a biography in verse of the great composer and a passionate and highly personal account of how one creative genius can feed, and feed on, another.

London Review Bookshop Podcast logoShe was joined in an evening of readings and conversation about Beethoven, poetry and music by poets Raymond Antrobus and Anthony Anaxagorou, both of whom are currently engaged in creative projects working on and from the life and work of Beethoven.

Ruth Padel Slient Letters of the Alphabet bookRuth Sophia Padel (born 8 May 1946) is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author, in whose work “the journey is the stepping stone to lyrical reflections on the human condition”. She is known for her explorations through poetry of migration and refugees,science, and homelessness; for her involvement in wildlife conservation,  Greece, and music; and for her belief that poetry “connects with every area of life” and “has a responsibility to look at the world”. She is Trustee for conservation charity New Networks for Nature, has served on the Board of the Zoological Society of London, and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and 4 on poetry, wildlife and music. In 2013 she joined King’s College London, where she is Professor of Poetry. 

Website

Bio from Wikipedia

 

History Of Cinema: How Italian Director Federico Fellini’s Love Of Comic Books Shaped His Films

Federico Fellini’s films were bright, surprising and above all, fun. His films are a testament to an extraordinary imagination, but also a deep love of an art form that is often overlooked: comics!

Federico Fellini comic book superfan BFI Video Feb 20 2020

In this video essay, BFI producer Nic Wassell speaks to Fellini experts to draw out the links between the great director’s love of American and Italian comics and the surreal, joyful imagery found in his films.

More information on Fellini at the BFI: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/def…

Digital Health: Americans Open To 24/7 Monitoring Devices, AI Technology To Lower Health Care Costs

Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg (Feb 19, 2020):

Center for a Digital Future USCMany Americans are willing to make significant personal tradeoffs to lower their health insurance rates or medical costs, such as agreeing to 24/7 personal monitoring or working with artificial intelligence instead of a human doctor, the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism finds.

Among the study’s findings:

  • Nearly 1 in 4 Americans (24%) would work with an artificial intelligence-based technology if it lowered the cost of their health care.
  • Most Americans (80%) think that access to health care is a basic right that should be available to all citizens regardless of their ability to pay. This is a view shared even by a majority of citizens who identify themselves as very conservative (56%).
  • Significant percentages of Americans are willing to make profound lifestyle choices in exchange for lower insurance rates. For example, one-third of Americans would agree to 24/7 personal monitoring by insurance companies or health care professionals if their insurance rates were reduced.
  • Twenty-one percent of Americans said they would stay in their current job if leaving it meant losing their current health coverage.
  • Almost all Americans say health care is a key issue in the 2020 presidential election (92%).
  • Even though Americans say they are satisfied with their current health insurance, they are open to alternatives. Thirty percent of Americans would consider buying health coverage from any company that offers lower costs, including a variety of non-insurance companies such as Amazon, Google, or Costco.

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Video Profiles: 60-Year Old Canadian Designer Bruce Mau – “Beauty Of Books”

Meet the influential Canadian “design guru”, Bruce Mau, in this short video. Mau, who is the author of quintessential publications on architecture and design, shares his thoughts on how we can bring the book into the technological environment without losing its beauty and richness.

“I think it’s such a brilliant technology that if it didn’t exist today – if somehow we got to the present through technology and computers before the book – we would have to invent the book,” Maus says of the discussion surrounding the alleged ‘death of the book’. The book, he continues, is such a brilliant technology, that no computer can match: “It never crashes, it sequences narrative, which is one of the most important things we need to do to understand the world.”

Massive Change Bruce Mau

Mau shares how he is working on a technology platform for books because he realized that “when we moved the book from the physical book to the digital book, we left behind the beauty of the book. We left behind the culture of the book and the experience of the book. We just took the text.” The true experience of the book, he feels, should be better incorporated into the technological environment, while adding the capacity and reach that technology offers.

Bruce Mau website

Bruce Mau (b. 1959) is a Canadian designer. Mau began as a graphic designer but has later extended his creative talent to the world of architecture, art, films, conceptual philosophy and eco-environmental design. From 1985-2010, Mau was the creative director of Bruce Mau Design (BMD), and in 2003 he founded the Institute Without Boundaries in collaboration with the School of Design. In 2010, he went on to co-found The Massive Change Network in Chicago. Mau is the recipient of prestigious awards including the Chrysler Award for Design Innovation in 1998, the American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal in 2007, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Collab Design Excellence Award in 2015, and the Cooper Hewitt 2016 National Design Award for Design Mind – for his impact on design theory, design practice and public awareness. In 1998, Mau designed a widely circulated 43 point manifest called ‘The Incomplete Manifesto for Growth’, which assists its users in forming and assessing their design process. Mau is also the author of iconic books such as ‘S, M, L, XL’ (1995) with Rem Koolhaas: an architecture compendium that quickly became a requisite addition to the shelves of creatives. In June 2020, he will publish ‘MC24’, which features essays, observations, project documentation, and design work by Mau and other high-profile architects, designers, artists, scientists, environmentalists, and thinkers of our time.

Bruce Mau was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in connection with The World Around conference (https://theworldaround.com/) in New York City in January 2020.

Website

Politics: Highlights Of February 19 Democratic Debate In Nevada (Video)

Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg fiercely attacked Mike Bloomberg on his first Democratic debate appearance. Senator Warren led the assault, challenging the former New York mayor to release women at his company from non-disclosure agreements they signed while settling lawsuits. Bloomberg defended his record, saying: ‘In my company, lots and lots of women have big responsibilities.’ Here are the key clashes from the ninth Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas

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