ia 3-parent gene therapy for mitochondrial diseases and a news roundup By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 14:00:00 -0400 Kimberly Dunham-Snary discusses the long-term health considerations of gene therapy for mitochondrial diseases and David Grimm talks about the smell of death, Mercury crashing, and animal IQ. Hosted by Susanne Bard. [Image credit: Ben Gracewood CC BY-NC 2.0, via flickr] Full Article
ia Artificial intelligence programs that learn concepts based on just a few examples and a daily news roundup By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 10 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0500 Brenden Lake discusses a new computational model that rivals the human ability to learn new concepts based on just a single example; David Grimm talks about attracting cockroaches, searching for habitable planets, and looking to street dogs to learn about domestication. Hosted by Susanne Bard. [Img: Rodrigo Basaure CC BY 2.0, via flickr] Full Article
ia Podcast: Babylonian astronomers, doubly domesticated cats, and outrunning a T. Rex By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 28 Jan 2016 03:30:00 -0500 Online news editor David Grimm shares stories on 66-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex tracks, a signature of human consciousness, and a second try at domesticating cats. Mathieu Ossendrijver joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss newly translated Babylonian tablets that extend the roots of calculus all the way back to between 350 B.C.E. to 50 B.C.E. Read the related research in Science. Full Article
ia Podcast: Tracking Zika, the evolution of sign language, and changing hearts and minds with social science By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:59:00 -0400 Online news editor Catherine Matacic shares stories on the evolution of sign language, short conversations than can change minds on social issues, and finding the one-in-a-million people who seem to be resistant to certain genetic diseases—even if they carry genes for them. Nuno Faria joins host Sarah Crespi to explain how genomic analysis can track Zika’s entry date into Brazil and follow its spread. [Image: r.a. olea/Flickr] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: Rocky remnants of early Earth, plants turned predator, and a new artificial second skin By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 12 May 2016 13:59:00 -0400 Online News Editor Catherine Matacic shares stories how the Venus flytrap turned to the meat-eating side, a new clingy polymer film that shrinks up eye bags, and survey results on who pirates scientific papers and why. Hanika Rizo joins Julia Rosen to discuss evidence that parts of Earth have remained unchanged since the planet formed. Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: An omnipresent antimicrobial, a lichen ménage à trois, and tiny tide-induced tremors By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 21 Jul 2016 13:59:00 -0400 Stories on a lichen threesome, tremors caused by tides, and a theoretical way to inspect nuclear warheads without looking too closely at them, with Catherine Matacic. Despite concerns about antibiotic resistance, it seems like antimicrobials have crept into everything—from hand soap to toothpaste, and even fabrics. What does the ubiquitous presence of these compounds mean for our microbiomes? Alyson Yee talks with host Sarah Crespi about one antimicrobial in particular—triclosan—which has been partially banned in the European Union. [Image: T. Wheeler/Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: 400-year-old sharks, busting a famous scientific hoax, and clinical trials in pets By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 11 Aug 2016 12:00:00 -0400 News stories on using pets in clinical trials to test veterinarian drugs, debunking the Piltdown Man once and for all, and deciding just how smart crows can be, with David Grimm. From the magazine It’s really difficult to figure out how old a free-living animal is. Maybe you can find growth rings in bone or other calcified body parts, but in sharks like the Greenland shark, no such hardened parts exist. Using two different radiocarbon dating approaches, Julius Neilsen and colleagues discovered that the giant Greenland shark may live as long as 400 years. Read the research. [Image: James Howard McGregor/Wikimedia Commons/Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article
ia Podcast: When we pay attention to plane crashes, releasing modified mosquitoes, and bacteria that live off radiation By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 13 Oct 2016 12:00:00 -0400 This week, we chat about some of our favorite stories -- including a new bacterial model for alien life that feeds on cosmic rays, tracking extinct “bear dogs” to Texas, and when we stop caring about plane crashes -- with Science’s Online News Editor David Grimm. Plus, Alexa Billow talks to Staff Writer Kelly Servick about her feature story on the releasing modified mosquitoes in Brazil to combat diseases like Zika, dengue, and chikungunya. Her story is part of a package on mosquito control. Listen to previous podcasts [Image: © Alex Wild; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: A close look at a giant moon crater, the long tradition of eating rodents, and building evidence for Planet Nine By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 27 Oct 2016 12:00:00 -0400 This week, we chat about some of our favorite stories—eating rats in the Neolithic, growing evidence for a gargantuan 9th planet in our solar system, and how to keep just the good parts of a hookworm infection—with Science’s Online News Editor David Grimm. Plus, Alexa Billow talks to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Maria Zuber about NASA’s GRAIL spacecraft, which makes incredibly precise measurements of the moon’s gravity. This week’s guest used GRAIL data to explore a giant impact crater and learn more about the effects of giant impacts on the moon and Earth. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: Ernest Wright, NASA/GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: What ants communicate when kissing, stars birthed from gas, and linking immune strength and social status By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 01 Dec 2016 12:00:00 -0500 This week, we chat about kissing communication in ants, building immune strength by climbing the social ladder, and a registry for animal research with Online News Editor David Grimm. Plus, Science’s Alexa Billow talks to Bjorn Emonts about the birth of stars in the Spiderweb Galaxy 10 billion years ago. Related research on immune function and social hierarchy. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: Lauren Brent; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: Bringing back tomato flavor genes, linking pollution and dementia, and when giant otters roamed Earth By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 26 Jan 2017 13:59:00 -0500 This week, we chat about 50-kilogram otters that once stalked southern China, using baseball stats to show how jet lag puts players off their game, and a growing link between pollution and dementia, with Online News Editor David Grimm. Also in this week’s show: our very first monthly book segment. In the inaugural segment, Jen Golbeck interviews Helen Pilcher about her new book Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-extinction. Plus Denise Tieman joins Alexa Billow to discuss the genes behind tomato flavor, or lack thereof. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: Dutodom; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: Recognizing the monkey in the mirror, giving people malaria parasites as a vaccine strategy, and keeping coastal waters clean with seagrass By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 13:59:00 -0500 This week, we chat about what it means if a monkey can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, injecting people with live malaria parasites as a vaccine strategy, and insect-inspired wind turbines with Online News Editor David Grimm. And Joleah Lamb joins Alexa Billow to discuss how seagrass can greatly reduce harmful microbes in the ocean—protecting people and corals from disease. Read the research. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: peters99/iStock; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: Killing off stowaways to Mars, chasing synthetic opiates, and how soil contributes to global carbon calculations By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 14:00:00 -0400 This week, how to avoid contaminating Mars with microbial hitchhikers, turning mammalian cells into biocomputers, and a look at how underground labs in China are creating synthetic opioids for street sales in the United States with Online News Editor Catherine Matacic. Caitlin Hicks Pries joins Julia Rosen to discuss her study of the response of soil carbon to a warming world. And for this month’s book segment, Jen Golbeck talks to Rob Dunn about his book Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future. Listen to previous podcasts. Download the show transcript. Transcripts courtesy of Scribie.com. [Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: Giant virus genetics, human high-altitude adaptations, and quantifying the impact of government-funded science By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 06 Apr 2017 14:00:00 -0400 This week, viruses as remnants of a fourth domain of life, a scan of many Tibetan genomes reveals seven new genes potentially related to high-altitude life, and doubts about dark energy with Online News Editor David Grimm. Danielle Li joins Sarah Crespi to discuss her study quantifying the impact of government funding on innovation by linking patents to U.S. National Institutes of Health grants. Listen to previous podcasts. Download the show transcript. Transcripts courtesy of Scribie.com. [Image: artubo/iStockphoto; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Podcast: Watching shoes untie, Cassini’s last dive through the breath of a cryovolcano, and how human bias influences machine learning By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 13 Apr 2017 14:00:00 -0400 This week, walk like an elephant—very far, with seeds in your guts, Cassini’s mission to Saturn wraps up with news on the habitability of its icy moon Enceladus, and how our shoes manage to untie themselves with Online News Editor David Grimm. Aylin Caliskan joins Sarah Crespi to discuss how biases in our writing may be perpetuated by the machines that learn from them. Listen to previous podcasts. Download the show transcript. Transcripts courtesy of Scribie.com. [Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia A new taste for the tongue, ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies, and early evidence for dog breeding By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 01 Jun 2017 14:00:00 -0400 This week we have stories on how we taste water, extracting ancient DNA from mummy heads, and the earliest evidence for dog breeding with Online News Editor David Grimm. Sarah Crespi talks to John Travis about postsurgical cognitive dysfunction—does surgery sap your brain power? Listen to previous podcasts. [Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article
ia A Stone Age skull cult, rogue Parkinson’s proteins in the gut, and controversial pesticides linked to bee deaths By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 29 Jun 2017 16:00:00 -0400 This week we have stories on what the rogue Parkinson’s protein is doing in the gut, how chimps outmuscle humans, and evidence for an ancient skull cult with Online News Editor David Grimm. Jen Golbeck is back with this month’s book segment. She interviews Alan Alda about his new book on science communication: If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? Sarah Crespi talks to Jeremy Kerr about two huge studies that take a nuanced looked at the relationship between pesticides and bees. Read the research in Science: Country-specific effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on honey bees and wild bees, B.A. Woodcock et al. Chronic exposure to neonicotinoids reduces honey bee health near corn crops, Tsvetkov et al. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: webted/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Odorless calories for weight loss, building artificial intelligence researchers can trust, and can oily birds fly? By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 06 Jul 2017 14:00:00 -0400 This week we have stories on the twisty tree of human ancestry, why mice shed weight when they can’t smell, and the damaging effects of even a small amount of oil on a bird’s feathers—with Online News Editor David Grimm. Sarah Crespi talks to News Editor Tim Appenzeller about a special section on how artificial intelligence is changing the way we do science. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: © 2012 CERN, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE ALICE COLLABORATION; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article
ia The biology of color, a database of industrial espionage, and a link between prions and diabetes By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 03 Aug 2017 14:00:00 -0400 This week we hear stories on diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease in chimps, a potential new pathway to diabetes—through prions—and what a database of industrial espionage says about the economics of spying with Online News Editors David Grimm and Catherine Matacic. Sarah Crespi talks to Innes Cuthill about how the biology of color intersects with behavior, development, and vision. And Mary Soon Lee joins to share some of her chemistry haiku—one poem for each element in the periodic table. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: Zoltan Tasi/Unsplash; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Mysteriously male crocodiles, the future of negotiating AIs, and atomic bonding between the United States and China By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 31 Aug 2017 14:00:00 -0400 This week we hear stories on involving more AIs in negotiations, tiny algae that might be responsible for killing some (not all) dinosaurs, and a chemical intended to make farm fish grow faster that may be also be causing one area’s crocodile population to skew male—with Online News Editor David Grimm. Sarah Crespi talks to Rich Stone about being on the scene for a joint U.S.-China mission to remove bomb-grade fuel from a nuclear reactor in Ghana. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image:Chad Sparkes; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Furiously beating bat hearts, giant migrating wombats, and puzzling out preprint publishing By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 28 Sep 2017 16:30:00 -0400 This week we hear stories on how a bat varies its heart rate to avoid starving, giant wombatlike creatures that once migrated across Australia, and the downsides of bedbugs’ preference for dirty laundry with Online News Editor David Grimm. Sarah Crespi talks Jocelyn Kaiser about her guide to preprint servers for biologists—what they are, how they are used, and why some people are worried about preprint publishing’s rising popularity. For our monthly book segment, Jen Golbeck talks to author Sandra Postel about her book, Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: tap10/iStockphoto; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia How Earth’s rotation could predict giant quakes, gene therapy’s new hope, and how carbon monoxide helps deep-diving seals By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 02 Nov 2017 15:00:00 -0400 This week we hear stories on how the sloshing of Earth’s core may spike major earthquakes, carbon monoxide’s role in keeping deep diving elephant seals oxygenated, and a festival celebrating heavily researched yet completely nonsensical theories with Online News Editor David Grimm. Sarah Crespi interviews staff writer Jocelyn Kaiser about the status of gene therapy, including a newly tested gene-delivering virus that may give scientists a new way to treat devastating spinal and brain diseases. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: Robert Schwemmer, CINMS, NOAA; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Chimpanzee retirement gains momentum, and x-ray ‘ghost images’ could cut radiation doses By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 29 Mar 2018 14:45:00 -0400 Two of the world’s most famous research chimpanzees have finally retired. Hercules and Leo arrived at a chimp sanctuary in Georgia last week. Sarah Crespi checks in with Online News Editor David Grimm on the increasing momentum for research chimp retirement since the primates were labeled endangered species in 2015. Sarah also interviews freelancer Sophia Chen about her piece on x-ray ghost imaging—a technique that may lead to safer medical imaging done with cheap, single-pixel cameras. David Malakoff joins Sarah to talk about the big boost in U.S. science funding signed into law over the weekend. Finally, Jen Golbeck interviews author Stephanie Elizabeth Mohr on her book First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery for our monthly books segment. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: Crystal Alba/Project Chimps; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia <i>Science</i> and <i>Nature</i> get their social science studies replicated—or not, the mechanisms behind human-induced earthquakes, and the taboo of claiming causality in science By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 30 Aug 2018 14:30:00 -0400 A new project out of the Center for Open Science in Charlottesville, Virginia, found that of all the experimental social science papers published in Science and Nature from 2010–15, 62% successfully replicated, even when larger sample sizes were used. What does this say about peer review? Host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Kelly Servick about how this project stacks up against similar replication efforts, and whether we can achieve similar results by merely asking people to guess whether a study can be replicated. Podcast producer Meagan Cantwell interviews Emily Brodsky of the University of California, Santa Cruz, about her research report examining why earthquakes occur as far as 10 kilometers from wastewater injection and fracking sites. Emily discusses why the well-established mechanism for human-induced earthquakes doesn’t explain this distance, and how these findings may influence where we place injection wells in the future. In this month’s book podcast, Jen Golbeck interviews Judea Pearl and Dana McKenzie, authors of The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect. They propose that researchers have for too long shied away from claiming causality and provide a road map for bringing cause and effect back into science. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download a transcript of this episode (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Jens Lambert, Shutterstock; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia How the appendix could hold the keys to Parkinson’s disease, and materials scientists mimic nature By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:30:00 -0400 For a long time, Parkinson’s disease was thought to be merely a disorder of the nervous system. But in the past decade researchers have started to look elsewhere in the body for clues to this debilitating disease—particularly in the gut. Host Meagan Cantwell talks with Viviane Labrie of the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about new research suggesting people without their appendixes have a reduced risk of Parkinson’s. Labrie also describes the possible mechanism behind this connection. And host Sarah Crespi talks with Peter Fratzl of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, about what materials scientists can learn from nature. The natural world might not produce innovations like carbon nanotubes, but evolution has forged innumerable materials from very limited resources—mostly sugars, proteins, and minerals. Fratzl discusses how plants make time-release seedpods that are triggered by nothing but fire and rain, the amazing suckerin protein that comprises squid teeth, and how cicadas make their transparent, self-cleaning wings from simple building blocks. Fratzl’s review is part of a special section in Science on composite materials. Read the whole package, including a review on using renewables like coconut fiber for building cars and incorporating carbon nanotubes and graphene into composites. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Roger Smith/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Exploding the Cambrian and building a DNA database for forensics By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 22 Nov 2018 14:00:00 -0500 First, we hear from science writer Joshua Sokol about his trip to the Cambrian—well not quite. He talks with host Megan Cantwell about his travels to a remote site in the mountains of British Columbia where some of Earth’s first animals—including a mysterious, alien-looking creature—are spilling out of Canadian rocks. Also on this week’s show, host Sarah Crespi talks with James Hazel a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Genetic Privacy and Identity in Community Settings at Vanderbilt University in Nashville about a proposal for creating a universal forensic DNA database. He and his co-authors argue that current, invasive practices such as law enforcement subpoenaing medical records, commercial genetic profiles, and other sets of extremely detailed genetic information during criminal investigations, would be curtailed if a forensics-use-only universal database were created. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Read a transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Full Article
ia Peering inside giant planets, and fighting Ebola in the face of fake news By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 17 Jan 2019 15:15:00 -0500 It’s incredibly difficult to get an inkling of what is going on inside gas giants Saturn and Jupiter. But with data deliveries from the Cassini and Juno spacecraft, researchers are starting to learn more. Science Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about new gravity measurements from Cassini’s last passes around Saturn. Using these data, researchers were able to compare wind patterns on Saturn and Jupiter and measure the mass and age of Saturn’s rings. It turns out the rings are young, relatively speaking—they may have formed as recently as 10 million years ago, after dinosaurs went extinct. Megan Cantwell then talks to science writer Laura Spinney about how researchers are fighting conspiracy theories and political manipulation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the country’s ongoing Ebola outbreak. In a first, the government, nongovernmental organizations, and scientists are working with community leaders to fight misinformation—and they might actually be winning. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Stuart Rankin; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Clues that the medieval plague swept into sub-Saharan Africa and evidence humans hunted and butchered giant ground sloths 12,000 years ago By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 07 Mar 2019 14:15:00 -0500 New archaeological evidence suggests the same black plague that decimated Europe also took its toll on sub-Saharan Africa. Host Sarah Crespi talks with Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade about diverse medieval sub-Saharan cities that shrank or even disappeared around the same time the plague was stalking Europe. In a second archaeological story, Meagan Cantwell talks with Gustavo Politis, professor of archaeology at the National University of Central Buenos Aires and the National University of La Plata, about new radiocarbon dates for giant ground sloth remains found in the Argentine archaeological site Campo Laborde. The team’s new dates suggest humans hunted and butchered ground sloths in the late Pleistocene, about 12,500 years ago. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Ife-Sungbo Archaeological Project; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Breeding better bees, and training artificial intelligence on emotional imagery By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 25 Jul 2019 15:00:00 -0400 Imagine having a rat clinging to your back, sucking out your fat stores. That’s similar to what infested bees endure when the Varroa destructor mite comes calling. Some bees fight back, wiggling, scratching, and biting until the mites depart for friendlier backs. Now, researchers, professional beekeepers, and hobbyists are working on ways to breed into bees these mite-defeating behaviors to rid them of these damaging pests. Host Sarah Crespi and Staff Writer Erik Stokstad discuss the tactics of, and the hurdles to, pesticide-free mite control. Also this week, Sarah talks to Philip Kragel of the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado in Boulder about training an artificial intelligence on emotionally charged images. The ultimate aim of this research: to understand how the human visual system is involved in processing emotion. And in books, Kate Eichorn, author of The End of Forgetting: Growing Up with Social Media, joins books host Kiki Sanford to talk about how the monetization of digital information has led to the ease of social media sharing and posting for kids and adults. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download a transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Steve Baker/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Earthquakes caused by too much water extraction, and a dog cancer that has lived for millennia By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 01 Aug 2019 15:00:00 -0400 After two mysterious earthquake swarms occurred under the Sea of Galilee, researchers found a relationship between these small quakes and the excessive extraction of groundwater. Science journalist Michael Price talks with host Sarah Crespi about making this connection and what it means for water-deprived fault areas like the Sea of Galilee and the state of California. Also this week, Sarah talks with graduate student Adrian Baez-Ortega from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom’s Transmissible Cancer Group about the genome of a canine venereal cancer that has been leaping from dog to dog for about 8000 years. By comparing the genomes of this cancer from dogs around the globe, the researchers were able to learn more about its origins and spread around the world. They also discuss how such a long-lived cancer might help them better understand and treat human cancers. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Ads on this week’s show: Science Sessions podcast from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Full Article Scientific Community
ia A worldwide worm survey, and racial bias in a health care algorithm By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 24 Oct 2019 14:45:00 -0400 Earthworms are easy … to find. But despite their prevalence and importance to ecosystems around the world, there hasn’t been a comprehensive survey of earthworm diversity or population size. This week in Science, Helen Philips, a postdoctoral fellow at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and the Institute of Biology at Leipzig University, and colleagues published the results of their worldwide earthworm study, composed of data sets from many worm researchers around the globe. Host Sarah Crespi gets the lowdown from Philips on earthworm myths, collaborating with worm researchers, and links between worm populations and climate. Read a related commentary here. Sarah also talks with Ziad Obermeyer, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, about dissecting out bias in an algorithm used by health care systems in the United States to recommend patients for additional health services. With unusual access to a proprietary algorithm, inputs, and outputs, Obermeyer and his colleagues found that the low amount of health care dollars spent on black patients in the past caused the algorithm to underestimate their risk for poor health in the future. Obermeyer and Sarah discuss how this happened and remedies that are already in progress. Read a related commentary here. Finally, in the monthly books segment, books host Kiki Sanford interviews author Alice Gorman about her book Dr. Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the Future. Listen to more book segments on the Science books blog: Books, et al. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Ads on this week’s show: The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quanmen; MEL Science Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Public domain; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia Researchers flouting clinical reporting rules, and linking gut microbes to heart disease and diabetes By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 16 Jan 2020 14:00:00 -0500 Though a law requiring clinical trial results reporting has been on the books for decades, many researchers have been slow to comply. Now, 2 years after the law was sharpened with higher penalties for noncompliance, investigative correspondent Charles Piller took a look at the results. He talks with host Sarah Crespi about the investigation and a surprising lack of compliance and enforcement. Also this week, Sarah talks with Brett Finlay, a microbiologist at the University Of British Columbia, Vancouver, about an Insight in this week’s issue that aims to connect the dots between noncommunicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer and the microbes that live in our guts. Could these diseases actually spread through our microbiomes? This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF). [Image: stu_spivack/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Full Article Scientific Community
ia A cryo–electron microscope accessible to the masses, and tracing the genetics of schizophrenia By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:15:00 -0500 Structural biologists rejoiced when cryo–electron microscopy, a technique to generate highly detailed models of biomolecules, emerged. But years after its release, researchers still face long queues to access these machines. Science’s European News Editor Eric Hand walks host Meagan Cantwell through the journey of a group of researchers to create a cheaper, more accessible alternative. Also this week, host Joel Goldberg speaks with psychiatrist and researcher Goodman Sibeko, who worked with the Xhosa people of South Africa to help illuminate genetic details of schizophrenia. Though scientists have examined this subject among Western populations, much less is known about the underlying genetics of people native to Africa. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download a transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Full Article Scientific Community
ia Brickmaking bacteria and solar cells that turn ‘waste’ heat into electricity By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 20 Feb 2020 14:00:00 -0500 On 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. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF). Full Article Scientific Community
ia Dog noses detect heat, the world faces coronavirus, and scientists search for extraterrestrial life By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 05 Mar 2020 14:00:00 -0500 On this week’s show, Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how dogs’ cold noses may be able to sense warm bodies. Read the research. International News Editor Martin Enserink shares the latest from our reporters covering coronavirus. And finally, from a recording made at this year’s AAAS annual meeting, host Meagan Cantwell talks with Jill Tarter, chair emeritus at the SETI Institute, about the newest technologies being used to search for alien life, what a positive signal would look like, and how to inform the public if extraterrestrial life ever were detected. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF). Full Article Scientific Community
ia Does coronavirus spread through the air, and the biology of anorexia By traffic.omny.fm Published On :: Thu, 09 Apr 2020 14:00:00 -0400 On 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. See all of our News coverage of the pandemic here. See all of our Research and Editorials here. 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. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF). Full Article Scientific Community
ia Materials for Carbon Capture By www.wiley.com Published On :: 2020-02-25T05:00:00Z Covers a wide range of advanced materials and technologies for CO2 captureAs a frontier research area, carbon capture has been a major driving force behind many materials technologies. This book highlights the current state-of-the-art in materials for carbon capture, providing a comprehensive understanding of separations ranging from solid sorbents to liquid sorbents and membranes. Filled with diverse and unconventional topics throughout, it seeks Read More... Full Article
ia Colour and the Optical Properties of Materials, 3rd Edition By www.wiley.com Published On :: 2020-03-09T04:00:00Z The updated third edition of the only textbook on colourThe revised third edition of Colour and the Optical Properties of Materials focuses on the ways that colour is produced, both in the natural world and in a wide range of applications. The expert author offers an introduction to the science underlying colour and optics and explores many of the most recent applications. The text is divided into three main sections: behaviour of light in homogeneous Read More... Full Article
ia Biobased Polyols for Industrial Polymers By www.wiley.com Published On :: 2020-03-17T04:00:00Z The replacement of polyols synthesized from petrochemical by polyols originating from natural products, notably from vegetable oils and animal fats, has been the subject of research projects for a number of decades.Very recently, however, the polymers industry has intensified its efforts to include the “green products”, such as biobased polyols, in applications already available in the market. Examples of such applications include polyurethane foams Read More... Full Article
ia Handbook of Fibrous Materials, 2 Volumes: Volume 1: Production and Characterization / Volume 2: Applications in Energy, Environmental Science and Healthcare By www.wiley.com Published On :: 2020-04-27T04:00:00Z Edited by a leading expert in the field with contributions from experienced researchers in fibers and textiles, this handbook reviews the current state of fibrous materials and provides a broad overview of their use in research and development. Volume One focuses on the classes of fibers, their production and characterization, while the second volume concentrates on their applications, including emerging ones in the areas of energy, environmental Read More... Full Article
ia Ferroic Materials for Smart Systems: From Fundamentals to Device Applications By www.wiley.com Published On :: 2020-04-27T04:00:00Z Presents state-of-the-art knowledge?from basic insights to applications?on ferroic materials-based devicesThis book covers the fundamental physics, fabrication methods, and applications of ferroic materials and covers bulk, thin films, and nanomaterials. It provides a thorough overview of smart materials and systems involving the interplays among the mechanical strain, electrical polarization, magnetization, as well as heat and light. Materials presented Read More... Full Article
ia Throwback pic of Rishi with Bachchans, Alia By timesofindia.indiatimes.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 09:07:30 IST Rishi Kapoor's daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni arrived in Mumbai from Delhi on 3rd May to be with her mother Neetu Kapoor and brother Ranbir Kapoor after the demise of the legendary actor on April 30. Full Article
ia Ariana-Justin's anthem 'Stuck with U' By timesofindia.indiatimes.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 14:50:36 IST Pop sensations Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber have teamed up for a song titled as 'Stuck with U' which has been winning over the internet. Touted as the quarantine anthem, the popular singers have come together to raise funds for the children of frontline workers fighting coronavirus. Full Article
ia Tiruchi industrialists keen on retaining migrant labourers By www.thehindu.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 21:14:09 +0530 TIRUCHI Impressed by the adaptability and dedication of migrant labourers from North-Indian States, industrialists in Tiruchi have been keen on going Full Article Tiruchirapalli
ia Former Delhi Police Commissioner recalls the day terror struck Parliament By www.business-standard.com Published On :: Sat, 08 Feb 2020 22:51:00 +0530 Nearly 20 years ago, when a suicide squad stormed the complex, the author was among the first to appear on the scene. Full Article
ia Product :: Apple Pro Training Series: OS X Server Essentials 10.10: Using and Supporting OS X Server on Yosemite By www.peachpit.com Published On :: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Full Article
ia Prospective Philosophy of Software: A Simondonian Study By www.wiley.com Published On :: 2020-02-26T05:00:00Z Computer software (operating systems, web browsers, word processors, etc.) structure our daily lives. Comprising both a user interface and the electronic circuits of the machine it is printed to, software represents a hybrid object at the crossroads of materiality and immateriality. But is it, strictly speaking, a technical object ? By examining the status of software against the criteria of philosophy of classic techniques, in particular that of Read More... Full Article
ia Grammatical Number in Welsh: Diachrony and Typology By www.wiley.com Published On :: 2020-03-02T05:00:00Z The first comprehensive treatment of grammatical number in Welsh - an intriguing, yet relatively neglected area in the study of number phenomena. Read More... Full Article
ia Social Movements: An Introduction, 3rd Edition By www.wiley.com Published On :: 2020-04-06T04:00:00Z A new, fully-revised and updated edition of the leading introduction to social movements and collective action –covers a broad range of approaches in the social sciences.Now in its third edition, Social Movements is the market-leading introductory text on collective action in contemporary society. The text draws from theory-driven, systematic empirical research from across the social sciences to address central questions and concepts in the field. Read More... Full Article
ia REVEALED: How much India <em>really</em> spends on defence By www.rediff.com Published On :: 'India is ahead only of Pakistan in the amount spent on each soldier a year.' Full Article