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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
How many podcasters does it take to evaluate the modern science field? Well, this conversation presents an intriguing attempt by two to do just that. Richard and Dr. Kat Arney touch on everything from the tangle of the publication field to the ecology of the cell. Listen and learn
Dr. Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, public speaker, and broadcaster. Her PhD in developmental genetics informs her latest podcast, Genetics Unzipped, and she's just published a new book called Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution and the Science of Life. She offers listeners a plethora of interesting biomedical science tidbits, from the story behind the myth of the invention of PCR testing to why Rosalyn Franklin was left behind in the accolades for the discovery of DNA's double helix. She also describes the challenges in biomedical science in understanding COVID and our genes, and describes a study involving twins to see if the differing COVID responses stem from genetics or environment.
She and Richard also discuss their concerns with how science is tested once if hits the airwaves and internet, from the best and worst of peer review processes to the difficulty of wading through preprints. "Anyone can publish a PDF," she remarks, which ultimately is all a preprint website offers. Ultimately, the physical and natural sciences' publish-or-perish pressure has led to predatory journals, which have caused even more problems. Finally, she describes the impetus behind her latest book on cancer as a culmination of years of interest and research on the genetics and evolution of cancer. Because of advances in genomics and DNA testing, she says that we are closer to understanding cancer and she shares her hope for better treatment.
To learn more about her podcast, see geneticsunzipped.com. For information on her new book, see rebelcellbook.com. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Over the past century, one virus has been responsible for the death of over 100 million trees in the world, posing an agricultural problem particularly in regions of Asia, South America, and South Africa; this virus is called Citrus tristeza virus (CTV). Press play to learn about it, and discover the following:
In the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Florida, Associate Professor Svetlana Y. Folimonova, PhD, has been working with CTV for several years now, which is a virus that primarily affects citrus plants and trees. In some plant varieties, it causes no disease (or mild disease), while in others it causes severe disease, to such a degree that infection by the virus spreads throughout the entire plant and causes death.
In addition to the significant agricultural impact of this virus, Dr. Folimonova explains that the virus is fundamentally interesting in that it is among the largest of all RNA viruses, with a non-segmented genome comparable to the size of the virus causing COVID-19. At about 20,000 nucleotides, its genome is about twice as large as the average size of RNA viruses. It also has a unique shape, which can be described as filamentous—very long and narrow, with a "rattlesnake" structure.
Dr. Folimonova discusses how the virus enters plant cells, what happens once the virus is inside plant cells, the two main types of disease caused by CTV, how the virus alters many organelles within plant cells, as well as the structure of plasmodesmata—microscopic channels that pass through the walls of adjacent plant cells—to facilitate movement of the virus within the plant.
The primary practical goal of Dr. Folimonova's work is to determine how diseases caused by CTV can be controlled. She discusses possible solutions, which leads to a conversation about cross-protection in plants, superinfection exclusion, and more.
Learn more by searching for Dr. Folimonova on Google Scholar, and by visiting https://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/people/faculty-pages/svetlana-folimonova/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Honey bees are one of the most fascinating and complex social organisms on our planet. Scientists like Gene Robinson research how their genomics play a central role in this behavior and how their environment in turn affects their genes. Listen and learn
Gene Robinson is the director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, an institute that practices team science within a multi-disciplinary scheme. He's been studying entomology and different species of bees for over 45 years. In this conversation, he shares some fascinating notes about honey bee behavior with listeners. His group in the institute in particular looks at their social behavior mechanisms and evolution from a genomics perspective. Interestingly, he says that studies indicate layers of individuality and adaptability in bee society—not only are they not all "marching to the same orders," they can change behavior depending on what is happening with the colony.
In one study, his lab monitored the entry and exit of the hive and found that a minority of the hive worked as foragers. In addition, a small group within the foragers took on a significant 50% of the work. However, when they removed those power-house foragers, the colony did not collapse. Rather, the other bees "upped their foraging game" and made up for the loss. "So while labor is apportioned, it's not fixed and there's flexibility," adds Robinson. He describes other remarkable modes of flexibility, from pheromone releasing and withholding to determine maturity rates to how a hive survives a queen loss. Along the way he explains how the history of genomics has rearranged how biologists look at bee behavior and development from transcriptomic studies. In fact, dramatic changes are evident in bee brain gene activity depending on their rearing conditions. Based on these studies, their genome is very sensitive to the environment.
For more, see the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and Gene Robinson's lab website. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Find what you're capable of doing, and double down on it until you do it well…and also, always try to get along with other people. These were the two primary lessons David Olney learned during his early childhood. These lessons could probably benefit any typical person, but Olney certainly learned them in an atypical way. Born with only five percent vision which was gone by the end of high school, Olney has led a unique and successful life and career.
Press play to discover:
Olney is Associate Lecturer at Politics and International Relations (POLIR) at the University of Adelaide, whose blindness has led him to insights and understandings not always easily ascertained by sighted people.
For instance, he credits his blindness for his ability to process and find patterns in huge amounts of disparate data, which has proved useful in a number of ways, especially in terms of understanding security matters and modern war. As an example, it gave him the ability to develop a theory for making sense of Al-Qaeda—a group of people no one really knew anything about in the wake of 9/11—within just a few days, and applying this to what was in the media. Within a couple of months, he was providing lectures on the subject.
Among other topics, Olney discusses the particulars of his experience as a blind person—what he sees, what he feels, how he senses his environment, how he frames his interactions with his students and others in his life, and more.
Tune in for all the details, and check out Olney's podcast, Blind Insights. Useful Links to Explore:
An Insight to Blindness: https://omny.fm/shows/blind-insights/blind-insights-with-david-episode-9-an-insight-to
Bonus Insights - David's Journey into the Void Adelaide's CBD): https://omny.fm/shows/blind-insights/bonus-insights-davids-journey-into-the-void-adelai Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Even in the wind-swept, mountainous regions of Himalaya, ants move forward in their rugged life cycles. Dr. Himender Bharti shares how these ants survive in such areas, including the molecular phylogeny and the chemical ecology of ants that must reproduce in very short warm seasons.
Listen and learn
Dr. Himender Bharti holds a position with the Department of Zoology and Environmental Sciences and runs the Ants Systematics and Molecular Biology Lab at Punjabi University. Ants have always been his passion, and though he started his academic research on saw flies, he acquired funding to focus fully on ant research and hasn't looked back.
In fact, in the past 20 years he has described about 100 formerly-unknown ant species from India and other Southeast Asian countries. He paints a picture for why ants have always fascinated him, and sees their place in insect life as analogous to where humans sit in relation to other mammals. From their social organization to how they interact with each other, from their developmental patterns to their life history and division of labor, their inspiring factors are numerous.
Dr. Bharti was also able to open up the understudied ant life and evolutionary history of species in regions in India and surrounding areas. He shares details about one of his favorite species of genus Myrmica, one endemic to Himalaya and central Asia. Such high altitudes lead to a very different life history than what is more common in tropical regions. Their response to the environmental interruptions of scarcity of resources and higher elevation make for interesting behaviors and gene regulation. He describes some of these behaviors, including workers eating some of the brood stages in order to make it through winter.
Listen in for more intriguing and little known ant facts.
For more about his work, see his website: antdiversityindia.com.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
That grey fuzz you find on your strawberries after a day or two in the fridge has researchers busy in the lab. White and grey molds often harm crops and Shinyi Marzano is working to inhibit these pathogens that often strike greenhouse crops like lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries. Listen and learn
Shinyi Marzano is a molecular biologist and recently started working with USDA's Agricultural Research Service. She focuses on green house and high tunnel production, both of which are used for crops highly susceptible to these white and grey molds. Plants are especially susceptible during flowering to white mold, when sexually-produced spores germinate after they've attached to flower petals. The fungi's mycelium forms and grows, causing a systemic infection that leads to stem rot. Grey mold is particularly a problem for fruit crops, spreading rapidly and ruining the fruit production.
Shinyi and her colleagues are studying both the RNA silencing process the fungi initiates as well as the mycoviruses that infect the fungi. RNA silencing in plants is really a function of the fungi. When they sense the double-stranded RNA that's produced by many mycoviruses, they attempt to silence or inhibit the RNA by releasing proteins that cut up the RNA strands, creating small pieces of what's called virus-derived small RNA. Shinyi is looking at mechanisms to disarm the pathogen host of those essential proteins that are part of the RNA silencing pathway. The fungal pathogen would then be susceptible to those mycoviruses. She explains other interesting avenues, including delivery means of these mycoviruses.
For more about her work, she recommends searching Google Scholar. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Twelve infrared cameras lining the perimeter of the ceiling, treadmills equipped with force plates, and high-speed video cameras: this is what you'd find upon walking into the Biomechanics Lab within the Sweere Clinic at Northwestern Health Sciences University. Today, we hear from the Clinical Coordinator of the lab, Dr. Gregory DeNunzio.
Press play to discover:
Dr. DeNunzio has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, a master's degree in exercise science, and a doctorate in chiropractic, and he's found a way to merge these passions into one, perfect role. As Clinical Coordinator of the Biomechanics Lab in the Sweere Clinic, he measures what can't be seen, helping people not only develop a better understanding of their body and movement, but prevent injuries, and recover or improve from those that have already occurred.
He explains the process of 3D motion analysis, which includes looking at the angles of nearly every joint in the body (a process he says can almost be considered a 'digitizing' of the entire human body), the force being generated through different joints in the body, the effect of stress and breathing patterns of the engagement of certain muscles, and how to distinguish between different health and fitness conditions that wouldn't be detected without the technology and design offered in the lab. He also discusses injury prevention strategies, injury recovery, and how to pin down the root of an individual person's issue. "I've been in practice for over 25 years, and what excites me is that I am still learning different ways to help people either get better or prevent injuries," says Dr. DeNunzio. Tune in for all of his insights.
To learn more, visit https://www.nwhealth.edu/clinics/sweere-clinic/biomechanics/.
Author Carl Johan Calleman talks about his most recent book, Quantum Science of Psychedelics: The Pineal Gland, Multidimensional Reality, and Mayan Cosmology. He explains
Holding a Ph.D. in physical biology, Carl Johan Calleman is also a lifelong scholar of macrocosmic quantum theory and has written several books about it. He talks about his latest in this podcast, explaining its basics and explanations for how civilization has progressed through a series of cosmic shifts or waves. While some link psychedelics and depression, Calleman explores the ability of psychedelics to change one's mental state to a different geometry, more open to the movement from one wave to the next.
He explains that this is an all-encompassing theory about the evolution of the universe and all its aspects, not just physical. The theory holds that we're all part of a cosmic plan with a quantum field that underlies everything. He describes Mayan connections such as the wave pattern discovered by the Mayans and how this pattern reveals itself in the evolution of civilizations.
He connects this with microscopic phenomena like centromere organelles in our cells to the nine levels of Mayan pyramids. Finally, he goes through the mechanics of this theory in more detail and adds that we are in the ninth and final wave and what that means.
For more, find his latest book, Quantum Science of Psychedelics: The Pineal Gland, Multidimensional Reality, and Mayan Cosmology, for sale through most venues, and see his website: calleman.com.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Every continent on the planet has now been touched by the COVID-19 virus, launching the world into an unprecedented state of lockdowns and the many negative consequences that follow from it. Orders to wear masks, socially distance, and limit large gatherings have not only brought to the table a whole layer of global and public health law, but illuminated health and racial inequalities.
Press play to learn the following:
Lawrence Gostin is University Professor at Georgetown University and Founding O'Neill Chair in Global Health Law. Since the beginning of the pandemic, his focus has been almost exclusively on the COVID-19 response in the US and globally. In addition to discussing the sheer unequalness illuminated by COVID-19, he talks about the hope he sees in human ingenuity and science, and the vaccines that are being administered in the US and Europe.
He explains what a "global health law" is, and discusses international law in the form of international health regulations, such as the WHO treaty by which 196 states are bound, including the US. This treaty deals with matters such as how to detect, report, and response to novel infectious disease.
Gostin also shares his opinion about what might lay ahead of us in the coming months, what he sees as the light at the end of the tunnel, his conviction that another pandemic will inevitably emerge, why he believes the WHO should be granted additional powers, and more.
Tune in for all the details.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
What if we could produce an energy-dense carbon-neutral fuel that suits uses of fossil fuels? Researchers like Amanda Morris are working with different types of solar energy conversion to produce such a fuel, and the potential is promising, exiting, and challenging.
Listen in to this conversation about solar energy and its applications and learn
Amanda J. Morris is a professor and associate chair of the Department of Chemistry at Virginia Tech. She's spent her career addressing environmental issues like climate change through scientific solutions. Currently her lab is trying to imitate the photosynthesis process to produce a fuel that could replace fossil fuels. As plants convert sun energy and carbon dioxide to make sugar, solar energy conversion technology hopes to turn the same products into something we can use to fill up our cars.
She gets more specific, explaining how this differs from solar panel energy conversion. Rather than send those electrons and positively charged holes into circuits, she wants to put them on carbon dioxide and water molecules, producing methane after reduction and oxidation.
But there are a couple of interesting puzzles along the way that can be summarized by two main goals: first, they need to refine the process of harnessing the sun energy closer to that of plants. Plants are green because of the chlorophyll that's responsible for capturing solar energy. She and her colleagues are trying to imitate and manipulate that chlorophyll process, reenacting the chemical environment in a way to produce this fuel. Second, water oxidation possess a tremendous challenge.
Getting electrons from water is incredibly difficult to do without producing highly reactive oxidizing species. They are trying to make something stable, but with the right geometry to drive the chemistry energy. The potential that comes from solving these challenges are exciting, offering numerous solutions for environmental problems and climate-friendly technologies.
For more about her work, see ajmorrisgroup.chem.vt.edu.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
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