Tag Archives: Science

Top New Science Podcasts: Poker’s Life Lessons, Peer Reviews & Mars’ Greenness

Nature PodcastsOn this week’s podcast, life lessons from poker, keeping things civil during peer review, a sweaty synthetic skin that can exude useful compounds, and Mars’s green atmosphere.

In this episode:

00:44 Deciding to play poker

When writer Maria Konnikova wanted to better understand the human decision making process, she took a rather unusual step: becoming a professional poker player. We delve into her journey and find out how poker could help people make better decisions. Books and Arts: What the world needs now: lessons from a poker player

09:12 Research Highlights

A sweaty synthetic skin that can exude useful compounds, and Mars’s green atmosphere. Research Highlight: An artificial skin oozes ‘sweat’ through tiny poresResearch Highlight: The red planet has a green glow

11:21 Developing dialogues

The peer-review process is an integral part of scientific discourse, however, sometimes interactions between authors and reviews can be less than civil. How do we tread the fine line between critique and rudeness? Editorial: Peer review should be an honest, but collegial, conversation

18:47 Briefing Chat

We take a look at some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time we talk about research into racism, and a possible hint of dark matter. Nature News: What the data say about police brutality and racial bias — and which reforms might work; Nature News: Mathematicians urge colleagues to boycott police work in wake of killingsQuanta: Dark Matter Experiment Finds Unexplained Signal

Covid-19: “Superspreading Events” Responsible For Up To 80% Of Infections

From Scientific American (June 23, 2020):

Scientific AmericanIn fact, research on actual cases, as well as models of the pandemic, indicate that between 10 and 20 percent of infected people are responsible for 80 percent of the coronavirus’s spread.

Researchers have identified several factors that make it easier for superspreading to happen. Some of them are environmental.

  • Poorly ventilated indoor areas seem especially conducive to the virus’s spread – A preliminary analysis of 110 COVID-19 cases in Japan found that the odds of transmitting the pathogen in a closed environment was more than 18 times greater than in an open-air space.
  • Places where large numbers of people congregate – As a group’s size increases, so does the risk of transmitting the virus to a wider cluster. A large group size also increases the chance that someone present will be infectious.
  • The longer a group stays in contact, the greater the likelihood that the virus will spread among them – The benchmark used for risk assessment in her contact-tracing work is 10 minutes of contact with an infectious person, though the CDC uses 15 minutes as a guideline.
  • Some activities seem to make it easier to spread respiratory gunk – Speech emits more particles than normal breathing. And emissions also increase as people speak louder. Singing emits even more particles, which may partially explain the superspreader event at the Washington State choir practice. Breathing hard during exercise might also help the spread of COVID-19.

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Top New Science Podcasts: Universities Post-Covid And Drones Fighting Mosquito-Borne Disease

science-magazine-podcastsSenior Correspondent Jeffrey Mervis joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about how universities are dealing with the financial crunch brought on by the coronavirus. Jeff discusses how big research universities are balancing their budgets as federal grants continue to flow, but endowments are down and so is the promise of state funding.

Mosquito-borne infections like Zika, dengue, malaria, and chikungunya cause millions of deaths each year. Nicole Culbert and colleges write this week in Science Robotics about a new way to deal with deadly mosquitoes—using drones. The drones are designed to drop hundreds of thousands of sterile male mosquitoes in areas with high risk of mosquito-borne illness. The idea is that sterile male mosquitoes will mate with females and the females then lay infertile eggs, which causes the population to decline. They found this drone-based approach is cheaper and more efficient than other methods of releasing sterile mosquitoes and does not have the problems associated with pesticide-based eradication efforts such as resistance and off-target effects.

Top New Science Podcasts: Tougher Diamonds, Whale Hideouts & Ancient Incest

Nature PodcastsThis week, researchers make diamonds tough, and evidence of incest in a 5,000 year old tomb.

In this episode:

00:51 Tough versus hard

Diamonds are famed for their hardness, but they are not so resistant to fracture. Now, researchers have toughened up diamonds, which could open up new industrial applications. Research Article: Yue et al.

06:07 Research Highlights

A spacecraft helps physicists work out the lifespan of a neutron, and the icy hideaway of an endangered whale. Research Highlight: The vanishing-neutron mystery might be cracked by a robot in outer spaceResearch Highlight: A secluded icy fortress shelters rare whales

08:33 Ancient inbreeding

Analysis of the genomes of humans buried in an ancient Irish tomb has uncovered many surprises, including evidence of incest amongst the elite. Research Article: Cassidy et al.News and Views: Incest uncovered at the elite prehistoric Newgrange monument in Ireland

21:13 #ShutdownSTEM

Nature reporter Nidhi Subbaraman joins us to talk about the #ShutdownSTEM movement, and anti-black racism in academia. Editorial: Note from the editors: Nature joins #ShutDownSTEMNews: Grieving and frustrated: Black scientists call out racism in the wake of police killingsNews: Thousands of scientists worldwide to go on strike for Black livesNews: How #BlackInTheIvory put a spotlight on racism in academia

Top New Science Podcasts: “Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer”

Nature PodcastsAn instrument on the International Space Station is providing new insights into some of the Universe’s most baffling objects. Neutron stars have puzzled scientists for decades. It’s known that these ultra-dense objects are born from the remnants of supernovae, yet what’s under their surface, and what processes that go on within them, remain a mystery.

Now, an instrument called the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer is providing new information to help answer these questions, ushering in a new era of research into these strange stars.

This is an audio version of our feature: The golden age of neutron-star physics has arrived

New Science Podcasts: Coronavirus Contact Tracing Apps, Sea Otters

science-magazine-podcastsStaff Writer Kelly Servick joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the ins and outs of coronavirus contact tracing apps—what they do, how they work, and how to calculate whether they are crushing the curve. 

Edward Gregr, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, talks with Sarah about the controversial reintroduction of sea otters to the Northern Pacific Ocean—their home for centuries, before the fur trade nearly wiped out the apex predator in the late 1800s. Gregr brings a unique cost-benefit perspective to his analysis, and finds many trade-offs with economic implications for fisheries For example, sea otters eat shellfish like urchins and crabs, depressing the shellfishing industry; but their diet encourages the growth of kelp forests, which in turn provide a habitat for economically important finfish, like salmon and rockfish.

Top New Science Podcasts: Quantum States In Space Lab, Barcode Bacteria

nature-podcastsThis week, the spaceborne lab that allows investigation of quantum states, and the debate surrounding how mountain height is maintained.

In this episode:

01:18 Space lab

Scientists have built a lab on the international space station, allowing them to remotely investigate quantum phenomena in microgravity. Research Article: Aveline et al.News and Views: Quantum matter orbits Earth

08:37 Research Highlights

Trackable ‘barcode’ bacteria, and physicists simulate near light speed cycling. Research Highlight: ‘Barcode’ microbes could help to trace goods — from lettuce to loafersResearch Highlight: What Einstein’s theory means for a cyclist moving at almost light speed

10:48 Maintaining mountain height

For a long time many researchers have thought that mainly erosion controls the height of mountains, but new research suggests that tectonic forces play a bigger role. Research Article: Dielforder et al.News and Views: Mountain height might be controlled by tectonic force, rather than erosion

16:12 Pick of the Briefing

We pick our highlights from the Nature Briefing, including how sleep deprivation kills, and a monumental Maya structure hidden in plain sight. Quanta Magazine: Why Sleep Deprivation KillsNational…