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More health problems of physical origin are a result of damaged oils than any other component of nutrition. Oils elevate meals and make food tastier, but oils are also incredibly sensitive to temperature and oxidation. In this episode, Udo Erasmus explains how exactly oil molecules are damaged during the extraction process and which types of oils are the most prone to damage. As a general rule of thumb, the better the oil is for your health when cool, the more damage it sustains when heated or fried. This damage can be passed onto your body, once ingested. Two important oils that are particularly susceptible to damage are Omega 3 and Omega 6, which are essential fatty acids (cannot be synthesized by the body and must be taken in via diet). This doesn't mean that you should stop eating oils entirely – in fact, Erasmus argues that there are many benefits to having the right oils incorporated into your diet.
Tune in to find out which oils you should include, how much, and why. For more information on Udo Erasmus' work, visit http://udoerasmus.com/.
Mario Natarelli, Managing Partner at MBLM, delivers an insightful overview of branding, discussing how businesses can evolve and grow.
Natarelli is a seasoned professional in the business world and he has advised numerous executives of Fortune 500 companies who seek to grow their businesses and leverage their brands. Utilizing his past training as an architect, Natarelli employs the essential fundamentals of art and design to enhance brands, building out from a brand's strategic core. Natarelli has launched his own successful businesses and he is tuned in to the role that digital plays in achieving great success.
Natarelli sums up his thoughts on brands and branding, discussing the bonds we build with products and services that are nurtured over time, and sometimes severed if things go awry. Natarelli delivers his insights on what entails a solid brand. He cautions us to be aware that a brand is not a logo, but a brand is an essence (the foundation of a brand that doesn't change), story (how does the brand communicate, what is its voice, style, tone, etc.) and experience (how does a brand come to life, what are its touchpoints—digital or real-world). Great brands have all of these factors. Natarelli discusses how Disney is an example of a very successful brand, in all of its functioning.
The marketing and branding expert discusses Amazon and the many independent brands that are under its wing. He relates how very large corporations with multiple areas of business are challenged to push their narrative in a cohesive way. Natarelli discusses major brands that have fallen, such as Sears, and others. He discusses how Sears missed the opportunity to move into the digital environment. Natarelli talks about how nothing lasts forever, and even longstanding family businesses moving into their 3rd or further generations sometimes have trouble maintaining the core vision and spirit that accelerated them in earlier years.
Natarelli discusses the ways that his company, MBLM, works with clients, helping them with services, research, and software/tools. For more than 17 years, Natarelli has led multiple teams spanning three continents, working for varying clients in the technology, travel, real estate, sports, and hospitality spaces.
Robots have been helping humans since their invention in the 1950s; while there is an infinite number of purposes they can serve, robot production is constrained mostly by logistical and mechanical details. Sarah Bergbreiter, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Melon University, joins us today to discuss her work in the field of robotics. She works to create small, mobile robots – some as small as ants – as well as improving sensors and actuators that improve the capabilities of larger robots.
She calls this area of research the "intersection of microsystems and robotics." Bergbreiter discusses the possible applications of this research, from medical devices to assist with natural disaster recovery. Bergbreiter also discusses some of the challenges involved in working on small-scale robots – specifically, how different materials must interface in order to create a working robot that may only be only a few millimeters long.
For more information, visit https://www.meche.engineering.cmu.edu/directory/bios/bergbreiter-sarah.html.
In his lab in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Matt Webber is just one member of a team of engineers, chemists, and biologist who are working on supramolecular chemistry, which involves non-covalent interactions between ensembles of molecules to produce strong, interesting, and useful structures that behave in defined and predictable ways, lending themselves to a variety of potential applications in medicine and the development of therapeutic drugs.
Dr. Webber explains the fundamental interest that drives his team, which is to use non-covalent interactions to build synthetic systems that resemble nature, such as the perfect symmetry of viruses and their perfectly defined components, or the ability of immune systems to recognize and respond to threats in their environment. He also explains how the use of non-covalent bonds and host recognition has allowed for the development of shear-thinning and self-healing hydrogels for use as injectable therapeutics, and discusses his recent work on creating a glucose-activatable glucagon, which he says has the potential to act as an "insurance policy" for people with diabetes to protect against dangerous dips in blood glucose levels.
Tune in to learn more about this exciting area of research, and visit http://www.webberlab.com/ to learn more about the work being done in Dr. Webber's lab.
Hasan Erbil Abaci, Assistant Professor at Columbia University Medical Center, delivers an extensive overview of tissue engineering, specifically in regard to hair follicles.
Abaci has published his work in many areas of scientific research including the following: Tissue engineering of human hair follicles using a biomimetic developmental approach, Human Skin Constructs with Spatially Controlled Vasculature Using Primary and iPSC-Derived Endothelial Cells, Human-on-a-chip design strategies and principles for physiologically based pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling, and many more.
Abaci discusses skin, a very complex organ composed of many different components that goes much deeper than simply the dermis and epidermis we typically think of. He talks about how hair follicles are connected, and how they are very complex organs themselves. Abaci describes how hair follicles function and how they communicate with other tissues in the skin, such as the blood vessels, for example. He explains how cells within the skin system can signal, and how tissues regenerate. Abaci talks about hair follicles, in regard to their growth cycle, and how this process requires newly formed blood vessels and a custom supply of blood.
Abaci explains the geometry. He explains in detail how they work with their samples in the lab, providing information on their use of 3D printed molds with hair follicle extensions embedded. He discusses the hydrogel that forms around the hair follicle-like extensions, and how they work with this process to explore the open channels that now have the geometry of actual hair follicles.
Abaci discusses what we know and don't know about the chemical and physical signaling within the body. But if researchers can decipher how some of these processes work it may be possible to recreate signals in vitro, then scientists will have insight into how to grow hair follicles efficiently—in vitro. And as Abaci explains, this—is the crux of true tissue engineering.
Raymond McCauley, scientist, engineer, entrepreneur and Chair of Biology at Singularity University takes us on a fascinating journey as he explains the many ways that biotechnology is changing our world.
McCauley is a biotechnology expert who is interested in the ways that biology, genetics, medicine, and agriculture impact our lives. He is the Co-founder and Chief Architect for BioCurious—a not-for-profit in which scientists, bio hobbyists, as well as entrepreneurs can align their interests to launch the latest and greatest technology-based discoveries. McCauley's extensive, groundbreaking work has been featured in Wired, Forbes, Time, and others.
McCauley discusses his background and explains why he is so motivated to work on a vast number of different projects at once. From his early work as a computer scientist working on web-enabling databases to his shift to biophysics, McCauley has a wide range of interests. Later adding molecular biology into the mix, McCauley's experiences and knowledge led him to his current diverse career. McCauley discusses some of the work he does for Singularity, helping to advise startups, Fortune 500 companies, and governments, and working with the players who are at the leading edge of biotechnology.
McCauley discusses some of the advanced work/projects he is involved with. He provides some details on a genetic engineering manifesto and his desire to work with companies that are doing good work. McCauley talks about recent new genetic engineering work and the ethical questions that some raise, specifically citing a Chinese project that made world headlines. He discusses some of these bigger issues, such as if a company does work in an area of genetic engineering or other area that is for their net gain, what are the repercussions and how could their work perhaps affect all of us, negatively?
McCauley talks about world population, and food supplies/diet, delving into the specific diets of various nations globally. Specifically, he discusses the global demand for protein and meat and how that is affecting the planet. He analyzes it as a global problem, discussing the fact that it is probably unrealistic to think we will stop eating meat globally, or that we'll cut down all the rainforests to open up more grazing lands, so there needs to be a different way to meet the food supply-demand. He states it's a trade problem and an ecological problem. McCauley's work is at the center of this and many other diverse, global problems, working to find solutions that benefit humanity and are also ecologically sound.
Stephen Collette is a building biologist; what's building biology, you wonder? It's a German school of thought that considers built environments and how they interact with and impact occupant and environment health. The field arose post-World War II, when as a result of widespread destruction from the war, the Germans found themselves having to build a lot of homes in a short period of time. This led to the creation of neighborhoods of poorly constructed homes that eventually became associated with a number of illnesses in the 1960s.
Today, this problem still exists, and according to Stephen Collette, some of the biggest concerns are found in the homeowner market. When on the market to purchase a home, most people are focused on details such as the colors of the walls, the carpets, and updated appliances, but not nearly as many consider the fundamental aspects of the building itself, such as whether there is the potential for water to leak into the basement, whether there are new chemicals off-gassing through the space, or whether there are phone towers nearby. "We don't really take into consideration the fact that although our homes are our castles, they can in fact also make us really sick," says Collette.
He joins the podcast today to discuss what he does as a building biologist, building scientist, and environmental consultant focusing primarily on residential buildings. He also discusses how buildings work and how they catastrophically fail, indoor air quality concerns, mechanical ventilation in modern homes, and how he leads clients to develop greater understandings of their homes and their health. Learn more by visiting http://www.yourhealthyhouse.ca/.
A single bacterium isn't capable of doing much—it can't overcome the host's immune response or make enough of an impact to create changes within the host. But it's a whole different story when many bacteria exist in the same environment, as together they have the ability to generate virulence factors, unleashing the full force of their weapons, if you will, and as a result, overpowering the host's immune response. But what leads to these coordinated activities? What must happen in order for an individual bacterium to sense others of their kind, and to respond accordingly? The term for it is quorum sensing, and it's the focus of Dr. E. Peter Greenberg's research in the Greenberg Lab at the University of Washington. For him, understanding the fundamentals behind quorum sensing, such as the nature of the signal generators involved, how the receptors work, what genes these receptors control in bacteria, and how to interpret the sociobiological aspects of quorum sensing is critical to further this area of research and use it for beneficial and therapeutic ends. Dr. Greenberg discusses a number of interesting topics, including nutrient and temperature cues for bacteria, antibiotic resistance, and the focus of his most recent research. Interested in learning more?
Press play and check out https://microbiology.washington.edu/users/e-peter-greenberg.
How do plants control what they do? How do they grow and develop, and how is their growth and development controlled? At its core, all of Dr. Anthony Trewavas' work as a molecular biologist has revolved around these questions. He's been studying plant life and biochemistry for decades now, collecting and developing an impressive amount of technical knowledge along the way. On today's episode, he explains what triggered this lifelong interest, how his career has developed and evolved over the years, and what he's learned about a number of aspects of plant behavior and development. One of his main focuses has been on protein phosphorylation, which he explains is the most basic method of changing what cells do by modifying enzymatic activity. He also explains the role and effects of a plant hormone called auxin, plant mechanical stimulation, the importance of calcium in the process of responding to signals, how plants take up and store calcium, general systems theory as it applies to the study of plant hormones, and so much more.
Press play for the full conversation, and find out more about Dr. Trewavas' work by searching for his name on the web.
Aaron Johnson, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, delivers an informative overview of the future of robotics.
Johnson's work focuses on the design of intelligent interactions between a robot and its specific environment. Johnson is interested in the practical applications of robotics, taking robots out of a lab or industrial setting and putting them in the real world. Johnson's areas of study have varied widely, from unique robot design and behavior design to platform and controller design, dynamic transitions, physics-based planning and management, robot vision, bio-inspired robotics, ethics, and more.
Johnson elaborates on the complex environments in which robots are expected to flourish. As he explains, advanced robots are often designed and tested in environments that are created with a robot's movement and needs in mind. But what happens when robots enter the real world and are faced with impediments, such as debris, clutter, or uneven surfaces, not typically found in an industrial factory setting? Johnson explains how these problems relate to progress gained in the development of autonomous vehicles. And even in engineered environments, variations and difficulties can exist, such as lighting that makes painted road lines or information difficult to see. Johnson talks about these issues and more that impact robot design and the improvements that are on the horizon.
The mechanical engineering professor talks in detail about robotic vision, sensors, and how much information can be collected. He discusses data and computational limits, and how these limits can be overcome through advancing technologies. Johnson discusses the various kinds of robots that he works within his lab and the bioinspiration that is driving some of their work.
Johnson received a BS in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Ph.D. in electrical and systems engineering from the prestigious, University of Pennsylvania.
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