The Show
This Week in Science (TWIS) is a weekly, hour-long web and radio show presenting an humorous, often opinionated, and irreverent look at the week in science and technology. In each episode, TWIS discusses the latest in cutting-edge science news on topics such as genetic engineering, stem cells, cybernetics, epigenetics, space exploration, neuroscience, microbiology, the end of the world, and a show favorite – Countdown to World Robot Domination.
TWIS broadcasts weekly at 8:00pm Pacific Time on Wednesdays in live streaming video from Google+ Hangouts On-Air, YouTube, and our live broadcast page. TWIS audio is rebroadcast from KDVS, 90.3 FM in Davis, CA.
TWIS is available for download as an audio mp3 using our RSS feed. Past video episodes are also available on our YouTube Channel.
Contact us if you are interested in discussing advertising, product promotions or giveaways, sponsoring TWIS, or would like to syndicate our radio broadcast. We will be happy to provide you with our media kit.
Access our tearsheet here.
The Hosts
Dr. Kiki (Kirsten Sanford, PhD)
Before coming to Earth, Kirsten was stuck in a dead-end job as a space medic in charge of routine bloodwork in a M*A*S*H unit during the Clone Wars. With most of her hours spent doing midi-chlorian counts of sick and injured Jedi, the work quickly became boring for an active scientific mind like Kirsten’s. Nothing is more annoying than a Knight of the Force who can’t stop whining, and hearing nothing but that day in and day out, she just up and quit one day after reading a want-ad put out by the ICCX looking for scientists to be sent to Earth. Once on the job, Kirsten skillfully nosedived her AstroPod deep in some thick jungles near the planet’s equator. She named the region Burma, in memory of her beloved pet space monkey that she was forced to leave behind on her homeworld. Initially mistaking elephants for the dominant sentient species of Earth, Kirsten spent several hundred years before realizing that it was humans she was meant to study. Once that minor error was rectified, however, she wasted little time and soon was hired as chief brain surgeon to the King of Siam, under whose patronage she was able to catalog the entire extant taxonomy of Southeast Asia’s bacterial phyla (a great many centuries later, the events of this period in Kirsten’s earthly tenure would inspire the musical “The King and I” starring Yul Brynner). In time, her scientific research led her to roam the world. She walked the steppes of ancient Russia, inadvertently inventing Tartar sauce, and at length arrived in Europe toward the end of the Dark Ages. Here she documented flora and fauna, instructed local healers on the use of vitamin C in treating the Black Death, and compiled many handwritten herbals, parchment documents penned in her flowery native alien script. Some of these can still be found in rare bookshops today; the inscrutable “Voynich Manuscript” is an example of Kirsten’s early biological fieldwork on this planet. Kirsten helped bring the life sciences into the modern age when, in the mid-19th Century, she took work as a pest controller in the pea garden of an Augustinian monastery in Moravia. Here she helped a monk named Gregor Mendel develop his theories of trait heredity that would eventually grow into the science of genetics. Using her special powers, Kirsten then was able to command a flock of African swallows to carry her to the Americas, setting her down in California’s fertile central valley. Pursuing her work with birds, Kirsten enrolled in a major human research institution and studied the effects of hormones on memory formation in zebra finches. During a hiatus from school, she found work in a prominent San Francisco research hospital working on scientific experiments in which willing human test subjects were given large doses of recreational drugs. Kirsten returned to school to finish her doctorate program in Neurophysiology, enjoying a special brand of masochism by choosing do both her undergrad as well as graduate work at the University of California at Davis. Apparently she loves the smell of cow poop in the morning. It smells like victory.
Kirsten’s Science: Neuroscience and Cognition; Life Sciences
Special Power: Able to cause cellular senescence with a stern look; can speak with the birds
Homeworld: Alderaan
Justin Jackson
An anarchistic utilitarian mystic by birth, he converted to extroverted existentialism around the age of four. By age seven he had founded “The Institute of Reason”, a common sense think tank of like minded seven year olds working to improve the world they had inherited, over which he presided as Director until an unfortunate oversight in the bylaws of the institute forced him to resign on the eve of his eighth birthday. On the walls of Justin’s office hang several PHD diplomas from top U.S. universities, including (Yale, Harvard, Stanford and UC Davis). None of them bare his name, a fact that, when confronted with, is defended by him countering “Want a drink?.” Or the possibly more sinister… “They’re just trophies. (followed by a maniacal laugh)” A self-described delusional and gift to all womankind, Justin has little tolerance for the delusional behavior of others, as is evident in his ongoing attempts to lobby members of congress to have himself installed as the nations first Religion Czar. When first approached by Kirsten to be a minion co-host of TWIS, he believed her to be a figment of his imagination, and so agreed to do the show. Feeling the stings of Kirsten’s wrath after not showing up to the first show, he began to take his imagination more seriously.
Favorite Scientist: Nikola Tesla
Vision: excellent at 20/10
Best word used to describe: Candid
Education: All older women that knew what they wanted and how to teach it.
Blair Bazdarich
Blair Bazdarich is an odd mix of brilliant intelligence, mutant ability and nightmare fuel all rolled into one power-packed package. She was raised in a variety of wilderness settings across Africa, Eurasia, and California, where she learned to fight off rampaging attacks from pandas as squirrels, respectively. Though the panda “attacks” were easily defeated since pandas are inherently lazy, she retains a deep resentment towards both species to this day.
Once she settled her wandering ways, she enrolled in Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and discovered she possessed powerful superhuman mutant abilities. By performing the dance of the peacock spider, she can incapacitate foes via hypnosis, or imbue allies with amazing science trivia facts, at her whim. Of course the science facts she prefers are often horrific enough to scare off her allies as well, but nobody ever said science is always pretty.
She used these abilities all over the world, from the San Francisco Zoo to Jerusalem to the Aquarium of the Bay, but it wasn’t enough. She turned her gaze upon the Internet, where she can now be found casting a spell over fans of This Week in Science.
Hi Bill, while I appreciate that you might not find Justin’s presentation style appealing, he has been and will continue to be a valuable part of the show. Thank you for your comment. –kiki
Hi, I’ve mostly enjoying the show (thanks!) but there are a couple of irritating things.
First, I often feel like hearing a thinking that natural is always good and and synthetic is bad (e.g. lately with pesticides). This is not scientific thinking.
Another similarly strange view seems to be that the old situation is good and should not change (like with red v. gray squirrels). Why? From what perspective? Are you looking to return to some kind of paradise. Sorry, it does not exist.
I suggest science based thinking.
Otherwise enjoying.
Br, Hessu
Thank you for your comment, Hessu. We do apply science-based thinking, and don’t espouse the virtues of “natural” over synthetic methods unless there is data that support it. It is always important to consider what we are putting into an environment and what the effects might be. One method is not necessarily better than the other, and science is what brings us better understanding.
As per the squirrels, change is part of life, but this is an ongoing conversation we need to have regarding conservation policies. When is it better to let an invasive species enter an ecosystem than to conserve the status quo? There is a fine line that is different for every situation, and the conversation must be necessarily nuanced.
One of the facets of our show are the variety of opinions that we, the hosts, hold. While Blair is more conservative in her conservation views, Justin and I carry different opinions, which we discuss in light of stories on the show. Sometimes one view is predominant over the others, but I promise you that we have many years of scientific training behind us, and bring that to the table. That said we are human and can be swayed by emotion and personal biases, but more often than not we maintain a scientific approach to our stories.
Thank you for listening.
–kiki
Being a TWIS fan, I herewith submit my TWIStiment to the role of science in my life. Though no scientist nor having training beyond college courses, I totally rely on science as a practicing visual artist, as do all creatives whether recognized or not. Geometry, geology, mineralogy, engineering and physics et al are required to make and maintain the machinery and tools to work steel and wood, fiber, stone, paint and clay; likewise the role of chemistry and atmospherics in the mastery of pigments and finishes, all, via the artisan empower the object itself, its life expectancy and interaction with light and space. Science, like art animates the what if, spurs possibilities, teaches by mistake and demands we build upon, and with, truth.
Thank you for your comment, Walter! May I read this on the show???
I feel like y’all say this on every show, but I keep missing it… where do I send my What Has Science Done for Me Lately story?
You can message us on our Facebook page OR send me an email: kirsten at this week in science dot com.
I enjoy your podcast. I’m a PI patreon.
I think you should be aware of this guy
Acapella Science (Tim Blais):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAJsZWhj6GI
Thank you! I LOVE his stuff.
Hi! Here is my “What Has Science Done for Me…Lately?” entry:
I love dogs and I have a pack of dogs living with me and my kids. One of the wonderful things about science are all of the amazing types of medicine we have developed for our furry friends. There are vaccinations, pest control and more. Also, the fact that dogs are one species and so different from one another in size, color, furriness, etc, always blows my mind. I enjoy thinking about how they’ve been with us for so long (as scientists discovered by looking at the genetic clock) and how we’ve most likely influenced each others’ lives. Taking my dogs to the vet means that I get to spend even more quality time with my canines. 🙂
Thanks for your awesome show! I love what each of you brings and how you have unique voices and perspectives! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing, Susan! I’ll make sure to read this on the show next week. I know the dog-lovers out there will relate.
Thank you for listening to and enjoying TWIS!