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The world's first human bionic eye is here, which means several conditions leading to blindness might (eventually) not be. What does it look like? How does a bionic eye work? What will the patient experience? Press play for the answers to these questions and more.
You'll discover:
Arthur Lowery is a professor at Monash University and a fellow at ARC Laureate Fellow Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, and for the past several years, he's been developing the world's first human bionic eye.
Most people think of some sort of glass eyeball when they think of a bionic eye, but that's not what this is. Instead, it is a pair of sunglasses equipped with a camera and processing system, along with a coil on the back of the head which transmits power and data through the skull until it reaches a series of tiles, each about the size of half a fingernail. On the base of each tile, there is an electrode which goes into the brain and injects currents, leading to voltages. These voltages make the brain think that it is seeing what is being projected by the system.
Whether someone lost an eye in an accident or injury, has age-related or genetic macular degeneration, or one of many conditions affecting the optic nerve, such as cancer, this technology holds promise.
So, how long until it's ready to be implanted in a human, and what does the procedure entail? There is already a prototype, but still a number of regulatory components to navigate. Lowery anticipates that within a couple of years, it could be ready for use in humans. He also explains what exactly the procedure entails.
To find out more, tune in and visit https://www.monash.edu/industry/success-stories/bionic-eye.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
It's easy to overlook an ant, but look again. As one not-so-small part of the ecological role of insects, ants have a profound impact, from their mutualistic relationship with plants to their ability to farm and grow fungus for food. Ecologist Tom Fayle shares many of these fascinating ant facts. Listen and learn
Tom Fayle is an ecologist and research scientist at the Czech Academy of Sciences. As an ecologist, he researches nature's networks, examining how species interact and impact each other alongside abiotic factors like elevation and human-generated impacts from deforestation to climate change. He has specified his research to ant ecology and shares some jaw-dropping stories of ant behavior. While ants don't eat plants for the most part, they do live inside plants. In fact, many plant and ant species have a mutualistic relationship, where each provides a benefit to the other towards a healthier life and reproductive cycle.
He shares some of these examples, including ants protecting plants by attacking caterpillars that are trying to eat the plant. Ants can even weed, cleaning plants of encroaching vines and clarifying the surface of leaves from small epiphytes and lichens. In return, ants have a place to live. Structures plants produce call donatia can house ants, or they might use hollow stem structures. Plants can even feed ants through liquid sugar production from nectar. Ecological relationships can also be parasitic, as is the case with a fungus that infects an ant, even controlling its behavior to locate itself in a spot that's prime for fungal growth. He also discusses his future plans researching topics that include exciting PhD and postdoc opportunities. Listen in for more details.
For more information, see antscience.com. For information specific to his work, see tomfayle.com. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Bees can generate five pounds of honey a day under prime nectar-gathering conditions. Numerous factors make that possible and researchers like William Meikle work on modeling honey bee populations, keeping track of how different stressors might affect honey bee colony health. Listen and learn
Willliam G. Meikle is a research entomologist with the United States Department of Agriculture. He studies the colony-level behavior of bees through placing sensors on colonies and monitoring them over long periods of time. This can gather evidence for how they might respond to sub lethal pesticides and other stressors. He's therefore constantly measuring things like hive weight, temperature, CO2, and internal humidity. These measures are akin to numbers from a monitor your doctor might have used to check your health. Various measures might indicate your activity, from sleeping to eating to drinking a cup of coffee.
No, bees don't drink coffee, but they do get exposed to neonicotinoids, which are a common type of agriculture insecticide affecting bees. Even at low amounts, he says he can see some sort of impact. Higher levels seem to cause bees to stop foraging, for example. Temperature is another abiotic factor he monitors. Bees have an amazing ability to keep the center area, the brood area, quite warm and constant. Bee social behavior is more than just an inclination. Rather, they work as a superorganism, teaming up and taking turns to use their thoracic muscle movement to warm the center of the hive one by one. A healthy brood is dependent on this constant warmth, and bee population increase can only happen with successful brood rearing. Listen in for more indications of bee colony health.
For more about his work, see the USDA Honey Bee web page. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Pesticides, poor nutrition, pests, and parasites: these are the four factors influencing bee health around the world, and the amount of information we have about each—how exactly they impact bees, whether each relates to the others, and what can be done about them—is constantly growing.
Press play to learn:
Priyadarshini Chakrabarti Basu is a postdoctoral research associate at Oregon State University Honey Bee Lab, and for over a decade now, she's been studying environmental impacts on bee populations.
Basu's current work focuses on two specific areas within this field of research: pesticides and poor nutrition. She's not only investigating each individually, but exploring the ways in which they may be interconnected.
When it comes to nutrition, she explains that most research to date has looked into the macronutrients required by bees, which are primarily carbohydrates and proteins. Only recently have a couple of research groups—including hers—put their focus on the importance of micronutrients required by bees.
Phytosterols are a group of molecules similar to cholesterol that are a required micronutrient for bees, as they fulfill several functions, including the production of important hormones and the maintenance of cell membrane integrity. Bees source phytosterols naturally from plant pollens, so Basu and the OSU Honey Bee Lab team is trying to collect as many types of pollen as possible in order to look at the phytosterol spectrum available to bees, and determine how they might be able to add this critical micronutrient to the diet of bees that are lacking it.
Basu is also involved in a project which is being carried out in collaboration with growers and beekeepers with the goal of following hives across multiple cropping systems in order to evaluate colony health and growth, as well as assess individual bee physiology.
The ins and outs of the research being done at the OSU Honey Bee Lab are brought to light in today's episode, along with many other informative and interesting aspects of bee health, types of apiculture (beekeeping), commercial crop production, methods of pollination (including cross-pollination and self-pollination), and more.
Tune in and visit https://honeybeelab.oregonstate.edu/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
The rabies virus kills at least 60,000 people a year, worldwide. Because it is far more prevalent in lower economic status countries, it doesn't receive adequate funding for better vaccines or treatment. Researchers like Yves Gaudin are trying to change this. He works on understanding the mechanisms of rhabdovirus transmission. Listen and learn
Yves Gaudin is a researcher with CNRS and the Institut de Biologie Intégrative de la Cellule. CNRS is France's National Center for Scientific Research. He's a virologist studying the rhabdovirus family, which includes the rabies virus, Chandipura virus (CHAV), and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). He describes two central mechanisms that characterize this family. First the rhabdovirus causes a particular entry process and requires a polymerase for infection: the glycoprotein, which makes a spike around the virion, recognizes the cell receptor and attaches. This triggers endocytoses and an eventual fusion event allows the viral genome and polymerase is to be released into the cytoplasm. The polymerase immediately copies that genome into an mRNA, which then hijacks the cellular machinery. The polymerase presence is vital to infection—without it, the viral particle would be inert, so targeting that polymerase offers one attack possiblity.
Second, his lab has characterized the chemical nature of viral factory itself. It is distinguished by liquid phase separation—it is housed inside a compartment that separates it, like oil in water, from the cell cytoplasm. The interaction between this factory and our innate immune system spreads the infection, using the pathway to the synthesis of interferon, and so on. This liquid phase separation helps the virus keep its identity in the cell and provides another focus for fighting these viruses. They hope to find small molecules that could destabilize this liquid phase separation or utilize some other weakness such as their sensitivity to temperature. Here is the website where Yves Gaudin article is freely available: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00102-9 In the section entitled additional information, listeners can find the movies: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00102-9#additional-information Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
The queen bee has to get it right when she mates, because she only has one intense mating session for the duration of her life. The queen bee's anatomy and basic honey bee biology work together for success and Julian Rangel Posada tells listeners how. Listen and learn
Juliana Rangel Posada is an associate professor of apiculture in the Department of Entomology and leads the Texas A&M University Honey Bee Research Program. She studies biotic and abiotic factors affecting bee health. The number one problem for honey bees is the varroa mite, and she starts the conversation addressing how her lab showed that the chemicals used to treat the mites actually affects both the mites and bees. The wax that makes up the honey comb absorbs the chemicals like a sponge, and bees grow and develop within this wax home, absorbing the chemicals. The chemical buildup causes queens to develop lower reproductive capacity and also affects drone sperm and viability. She shares various ways they advise beekeepers to mitigate this affect, including clearing out the wax every few years.
She also describes for listeners a detailed and fascinating description of honey bee matting, one of several honey bee behavioral adaptations evolved to increase genetic diversity and reproductive success. She explains the harsh life of the drone, reared for mating and killed off quickly after they've done their job. She also describes the drone's endophallus and how a queen manages multiple mates and their sperm by taking in this organ. The next mate removes the endophallus of the previous one and so on, until she has sperm from multiple mates to continue producing eggs for years. In addition to reproductive studies, her lab is researching foraging behavior and nutrition to see if honey bees are using certain pollens with various ratios of lipid-to-proteins that affect their survivability.
For more, see her lab's Facebook page, facebook.com/TAMUhoneybeelab, which includes a "stay-at-home beekeeping series." Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
From smelly footprints and dances to furry coats and long tongues, Professor Dave Goulson from the University of Sussex talks about it all. We often refer to "bees" as though there's only one kind, but in fact, over 20,000 species of bee have been identified. Goulson shares fascinating data and insights primarily on two: the bumblebee and the honeybee.
Press play to discover:
Goulson's lifelong captivation by insects led to a fascination of bees in his adult life, and for the past 25 years, he's been studying them. Initially, the focus of his research was on the foraging strategies of different species of bee, but it's since shifted to an investigation of why bee populations are declining, and what can be done about it.
As a specialist in the ecology and conservation of bumblebees, Goulson discusses what he believes to be the primary driving force behind the declining numbers: habitat loss, such as hay meadows in the UK and prairie fields in North America. But he's careful to note that other factors are likely at play too, including the heavy use of pesticides, and the fact that bumblebees suffer from a range of parasites and diseases.
What do bumblebees eat, and which nutrients are provided by pollen versus nectar? How can seemingly strange bumblebee behaviors actually make a whole lot of evolutionary sense? How can you differentiate between a male and female bee? What exactly happens when a bee pollinates a flower? What types of technology are used for tracking and gathering data on bees? You'll get a compelling and thorough answer to all of these questions and more.
Tune in and check out https://www.thebuzzclub.uk/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Disinfectant compounds are touted as virus killing but what else can they do to our health? Are disinfectants and COVID-19 both cause for concern? An exposure scientist helps listeners untangle some of these issues. Listen and learn
A Chemical Exposure scientist discusses EPA's List N, which is a list of over 400 compounds that meet the EPA's criteria for use to kill SARS-CoV-2 particles. Two hundred of those listed are actually harmful "quats," or quaternary ammonium compounds. She helps listeners understand what this means and brings her big-picture thinking to our current reactive climate of applying disinfectants uniformly. Her work includes researching chemicals in consumer products we come in contact with in our daily lives, including personal care products, disinfectants, and pesticides. She tells listeners that the disinfectants that are being used for COVID are actually considered pesticides, which is a cause for concern for our environment and health.
She says the only requirement for a compound to be on List N is the ability to kill the virus. There are no considerations for the safety of repeated use of such disinfectants. She is especially concerned that such products are being applied to school settings when there are safer alternatives like using soap and water on hands and wearing masks. She adds that modes of exposure can be from non dietary ingestion like hand-to-mouth, but the main route of exposure is airborne, from fogging or spraying. Good ventilation can be key, but schools are often older buildings with bad ventilation systems. Listen in for what to consider in how we keep our communities safe, both short and long-term. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
One in every three bites you take are made possible by honey bee pollination. Keeping bees healthy and productive is essential. Honey bee reproduction depends on a queen's ability to have one mating session, store sperm for years, and lay about 1,000 eggs a day during the warmer months: an amazing honey bee characteristic among many. Brandon Hopkins shares fascinating honey bee behavioral adaptations in this discussion. Listen and learn
Brandon Hopkins is an assistant research professor and the apiary and laboratory manager with the Washington State University Apiary Program. Studying reproductive biology across different animals led him to a honey bee obsession. "They're fascinating creatures and present lots of room for improvement in assisted reproductive techniques in honey bee breeding," he says. He gives listeners a primer on honey bee social behavior and reproduction, describing the sperm, the queen's spermatheca organ, which stores the sperm in a quiescence state over years, and the complex ability of the queen to continue laying eggs by releasing the sperm through a tube.
He also gives us a glimpse into how this works over our geography. While he's worked on methods of cryopreservation of honey bee semen, he's now mainly focusing on practical aspects of beekeeping management. Over two million honey bee colonies have to be moved to California in January for February almond pollination, so the storage and transport of bees is a vital topic for research. Many beekeepers store their bees that will go to California in large warehouse-like buildings for the winter. He explains why this is an advantage, from saving their energy production to keeping mites and bee interaction at a lower state, and for a better quality of life for the keepers themselves. Listen in to understand more about the ways researchers like Brandon Hopkins are keeping bees healthy.
For more about his work, see entomology.wsu.edu/directory/faculty/brandon-hopkins. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Better diabetes care includes more than nutrition and fitness facts or discussions on the relationship between obesity and type 2 diabetes. "If we empower people with their own data, how do they take and use it?" asks Dr. Sandra Indacochea Sobel. Her primary goal is to enable an individual to understand the disease process and what the numbers and variables mean. Listeners will get a helpful lesson in the numbers and technology in modern type 1 and type 2 diabetes treatments. Tune in and learn
Sandra Indacochea Sobel is an endocrinologist and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She works in her clinical work to better explain the numbers and mechanics of diabetes to help individuals regulate their blood sugar within a certain range. It's complicated: there are so many factors that might affect these numbers, but Dr. Sobel carefully explains the major considerations in an accessible way. She also describes how doctors understand type 2 diabetes causes from a testing standing point, explaining what role C-peptide tests and antibody indications might explain.
The Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) has taken many patients beyond finger-stick pictures as the best way to determine their type 2 diabetes diet or pump settings for type 1s. But Dr. Sobel says that we're getting closer to another huge leap, a closed-off loop which will give the patient a pump-like artificial pancreas. While not a type 1 or type 2 diabetes cure, it would mean a much improved hands-off lifestyle and care introducing insulin and glucagon independent of the patient needing to provide data. She describes the technology and work going in to such a move as well as an exciting proof-of-concept study involving aggressive early intervention for prediabetics and early type 2 patients. Listen in to better understand the variable behind diabetes and metabolism and for hopeful news in the medical community about treatment.
For more about her work, see her page at the university: profiles.dom.pitt.edu/faculty_info.aspx/Sobel6136. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
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