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What is in the This Week in Science Podcast?
Interview w/ Dr. Susanne Ahmari, HIV Removal, Probing Atmospheres, Lab burgers, Food safety?, Turtles Hearts, Pro-biotics For Bats, Mold In Space!!!, Exercise Your Brain!, Reading Robots, Veggie Crocs, And Much More…
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DISCLAIMER, DISCLAIMER, DISCLAIMER!!!
The fourth of July!
Independence day…
The day that we celebrate as a nation with great pride and a plethora of pyrotechnics…
In memory of the illegal immigrants who, despite the odds…
Declared land stolen from a native population by the British empire
to be theirs instead…
Yes, our founding immigrant fathers and mothers had no right to the land by law…
And, by defying a tyrannical monarch they were by definition illegal trespassers in their own homes…
They should have been deported back to the many, many, many nations they had fled in search of freedom…
But instead, they stood tall.
Spoke half-truths to power.
And declared America to be a nation of free people!
Except for the negro and of course not extending all rights to women…
But to be fair…
these were newcomers to America.
Sometimes immigrants need time to adjust to a new society.
First settlers could barely feed themselves,
and needed the assistance of the native population to survive.
And, the founding immigrants brought with them more than a few cultural hang ups
that needed to be worked out over a few hundred years of assimilation…
It would be a 144 years between 1776 and 1920 when women first got the vote…
Whereas, in most native American cultures women had either
an equal or in some cases the only voice on internal tribe issues…
like choosing the chief!
So as we celebrate this fourth of July let us not forget that this is a nation of immigrants…
And that independence day is a day of declaring yourself free from a foreign nation
And finding a home instead…
here on
This week in science,
coming up next…
First up, an interview!
This week we spoke with Dr. Susanne Ahmari
Dr. Ahmari is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She has an MD and PhD from Stanford University, and completed her post-doctoral work at Columbia University. She studies the neural mechanisms underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
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This Week in What Has Science Done for me Lately?!?
“Science has gotten me a job in a cytology lab and I’m so excited to start!!! Also the promise of a vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease makes me giddy.
–Jessica Ridulfo”
Let’s continue with some science news…
HIV Removal
Mice have been completely cured of HIV using a method involving slow-release anti-retroviral drugs and the CRISPR-
Cas9 gene-editing technology, according to a study published in Nature Communications this week. Is it a proof of concept toward treatment?
Probing Atmospheres
NASA scientists have taken a good look at the atmosphere of a distant planet called Gliese 3470b finding it contains hydrogen and helium, kind of like our sun.
Lab burgers
How to best sell lab-grown meat to the public?
Food safety?
Who is making sure things we eat are safe?
And, now it’s time for Blair’s Animal Corner!… with Blair!
Who needs oxygen, anyhow?
Not snapping turtles, but definitely me…
Pro-biotics give bats another chance
White nose? More like white no’s with some pro-biotics!!
And, finally, Some Quick Science News Stories To End The Show
Mold In Space!!!
Spores can withstand “stupid” amounts of radiation.
Exercise Your Brain!
OHSU researchers have discovered a small molecule that gets turned up in the hippocampus of the mouse brain with a moderate amount of exercise. This molecule is involved in the creation of dendritic spines on the membrane of neurons, which might mean that it can help prime your brain for learning.
Robots reading text books can write the next version
Predictive algorithms are predicting our science discoveries.
Never smile at a crocodile
Except for 200 million years ago. Back then, that crocodile was a vegetarian, so it would have been quite safe…
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