Consciousness, ecstasy, tentacles…. Dr. David Scheel tells all in our new episode about octopuses! We take a dive into the scientific research on these fascinating creatures, and what they can tell us about the oceans and ourselves. This episode was produced by Julianne Riggs, Cindy Liu and Marilyn Steyert. You can find the pdf of this transcript on carrytheoneradio.com.
The fundamental task of our immune systems is to recognize foreign objects in our bodies and destroy them. But what happens when there’s an object inside you that’s half foreign and half you? What happens when you’re carrying a fetus? We were all once fetuses and we all made it past our mother’s immune systems and into this world. How that all works has puzzled scientists for decades. So much so that it’s led to the formation of the field of pregnancy immunology. We chat with scientists Dr. Gabr...
In the epic battle against scientific fraud, a courageous assembly of researchers stood united and rebelled against the dark forces of data manipulation and fabrication. Armed with powerful forensic and statistical tools, these heroes sought to vanquish all that is deceitful and guide the scientific community back to the path of righteousness. In the second installment of our two-part series: SciFact vs SciFraud, we explored the forensic and mathematical tools we have at our arsenal to detect si...
Carry the One Radio alum and recent UCSF Neuroscience graduate Dr. Anna Lipkin is on the other side of the mic to talk about how overlooking tiny aspects of the neuron lead to surprising gaps in what we know about the cells that make up our body.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... diligent scientists on Earth dedicated their lives to making groundbreaking discoveries, aiming to forge a brighter future for humanity. However, amidst this noble pursuit, a sinister presence emerges. Some scientists succumbed to the temptations of scientific fraud and turned to the dark of data manipulation and fabrication. Join us in the first installment of our two-part series: SciFact vs SciFraud, as we explore why some researchers in the scienti...
What can you learn from old bones? A lot more than you think! In this episode, we learn how ancient remains can tell new stories about the societies they come from. Bioarcheologists Ben Schaeffer, Trent Trombley and Jordi Rivera Prince explain how they use remains from all over the world to uncover the lives of people overlooked or misunderstood by history. This episode was produced by Maggie Colton Cove, Cindy Liu, Camila Benitez and Deanna Necula. Head over to carrytheoneradio.com for a pdf tr...
Climate change is here-- are we prepared? In this episode, three experts tackle the question of how best to armor ourselves against the changing tides of climate change. Should we genetically modify a species to make it more resistant to rising temperatures? Should we uproot plants threatened by soaring sea levels, or build a frozen zoo of coral sperm for future generations to resurrect? Join us and find out. Thank you to Sarah Shapiro for the graphic design.
It’s springtime in California, which means wondering how early this year’s wildfire season will start. Should we be buying air purifiers and more masks? If you’re not in California, should you even pay attention to these stories? Immunologist Dr. Mary Prunicki says you absolutely should care, no matter where you live, and that air purifiers are, unfortunately, barely a band-aid solution to the smoky air. Learn about the surprising dangers of wildfire smoke to our health and environment, and what...
BE-STEM and Carry The One Radio teamed up this February to create a series dedicated to honoring Black scientists at UCSF! Follow Maggie Colton and Sydney Williams as they interview Black faculty and graduate students to shed light on their research, their motivations to pursue graduate school, and their personal journeys through higher education. Tune in to hear these insightful stories and open dialogue. Music by Maggie Colton and Valentin Sosnitsky. Follow BE-STEM on Twitter @BESTEM_UCSF or f...
For the third episode of our Black Excellence in STEM mini-series, and our final faculty interview, we’re bringing you an interview with Dr. Catera Wilder. Dr. Wilder studies how lung cells communicate with the immune system and explains to us how she uses mathematical models to inform real-world experiments and vice-versa. She also answers the age-old question: does it ever get easier to explain to your family what you do for a living? You can connect with Dr. Wilder on Twitter @Wilder_Lab. Thi...
For the second episode of our Black Excellence in STEM mini-series, we are bringing you an interview with Dr. Sara Suliman. She is an assistant professor at UCSF studying trying to find biomarkers for people infected with tuberculosis that will predict how severe their disease becomes. She shares with us her experience living all over the world and overcoming adversity early in her research career.
We’re kicking off Black History Month a little early this year with the first episode of our Black Excellence in STEM mini-series, a collaboration with BE-STEM at UCSF. Tune in for an interview with Dr. Akinyemi Oni-Orisam about how he’s working to improve cardiovascular care (and you may just get a few music recommendations too!)
A geneticist makes a DNA-shaped lollipop. Then helix (he licks) it. The iconic structure of DNA was first discovered by Rosaland Franklin using X-ray crystallography. Dr. Arun Richard Chandrasekaran, a researcher at the RNA institute in Albany, takes it a step further and folds these DNA molecules into complex structures using a technique called DNA origami. His DNA contraptions come in all shapes and sizes, and they can do a lot more than just make proteins and pass down genes. Tune in to learn...
Eva Danielson has loved science since she was a kid, and now she is instilling a passion for science in the next generation of young learners. In this Young Scientist Spotlight, we sit down with this graduate student and children’s book author(not to mention former pastry chef!) to talk about her tuberculosis research and her path from business major to nanny to scientist. Learn how vaccines annotate genes in immune cells and how two rambunctious girls and a new puppy inspired one of Eva’s books...
Australia’s battle against the invasion of cane toads goes all the way back to 1935 when they were initially introduced to fight cane beetle infestation. In a few decades’ time, cane toads have become a big bully and taken over the top spot in the local ecosystem. In this episode, Dr. Roshmi Sarma, an ecologist from UNSW, shares her research on these invasive cane toads. She talks about how these cane toads are able to use a neat little trick to speed up their course of evolution and how the nat...
What happens when offshore oil and gas structures stop operating? PhD candidate Amy MacIntosh tells us about the impacts and risks of operating and closing these structures to marine life, the environment, and to humans, and teaches us why radioactivity isn’t as scary as you think it is.
What happens when you bring together a marine mammal veterinarian and a stem cell researcher? You save a life! More specifically, Cronutt’s - a sea lion diagnosed with epilepsy, but who just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder characterized by excessive and abnormal seizures, and while there are existing medications that can help manage these seizures, there is no cure to this day…but perhaps there’s hope thanks to a novel cell-based therapy?...
You might know that it takes a very, very, very long time to develop new drugs, but it seems like there are new treatments for COVID-19 all the time…how is that possible? It’s all thanks to the exciting field of drug repurposing! What is that, you ask? Well, it might sound self-explanatory, but, like most things in life, there’s more to it. Listen to our latest episode and learn from the experts, Dr Marina Sirota (@SirotaLab) and Dr Brian Shoicet (@BShoicet)! This episode was written and produce...
Fossils of ancient viruses are living inside us, and they may reveal important clues about how we became who we are today. In this Young Scientist Spotlight, PhD candidate Emma Harding tells us about her research studying viral fossils in marsupials, and why she suspects these chunks of ancient DNA are sticking around for a reason. She also talks about what it’s like working in a brand-new field, and why Australia is an awesome place to study weird genomes. We can’t wait for you to meet this ris...
We, like many animals, live in groups. We need these groups to survive -- but why? What are the benefits of group living? What do we gain from each other? What quirks of evolution drove us to band together, form collectives, and solve problems together? In this episode, we’re joined by collective behavior researchers Iain Couzin and Naomi Leonard, who study networks, teamwork, and interactions between groups of everything from fish to robots to humans on social media. They discuss how we can get...
When you think about the future of medicine, do you picture cure-all pills? Instant diagnostics from a drop of blood? What about going back to the basics with plant-based treatments with a side of spiritual healing? In this episode, we sat down with scientist and social entrepreneur Dr. Victoria Hale, co-founder of an ayahuasca tea company called Sacred Medicines. Listen to our conversation about how psychedelics are making a comeback (especially in the mental health space), what it takes to get...
What do cancer cells and t-shirts have in common? You might be surprised! In this Young Scientist Spotlight, Dr Danielle Twum explains how she uses her communication skills and expertise to help doctors and researchers improve the way they treat cancer. In addition to working in industry, Dr Twum also works with AAAS IF/THEN to teach young students about being a scientist. We talk about her transition from studying corals to cancer, how the hungriest cells in our body can be a tumor’s best frien...
The earth can’t wait, and it’s imperative that we are climate aware and are moved to action to maintain it. In this episode covering sustainability and climate change, we talk to Dr. Sheri Weiser, a physician-scientist at UCSF with a long history of researching food insecurity and climate justice. Dr. Weiser has been a Principal Investigator on over 25 research grants and has published over 165 manuscripts in this area. In our conversation with Dr. Weiser, we learn about how her work exposed her...
Before this episode, if someone asked me what could be done to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes, one of the last things on my mind would have been “kindness” because that part should be obvious, right? Wrong. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Afulani and Dr.Walker, two faculty members in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and affiliates with the Institute of Global Health Sciences at UCSF. They share information about the disparities in women’s health and the importance of ...
Contact tracing is a term that almost all of us are familiar with, but what exactly does it entail? As part of a collaboration with the Institute of Global Health Sciences (IGHS) at UCSF, we spoke to three contact tracing experts in San Francisco. From our conversations with librarian and manager at the Excelsior Branch Public Library Ramses Escobado, deputy director of the Center for Global Health Delivery, Diplomacy and Economics Jess Celentano, and Infectious disease doctor Mike Reid, we disc...
Let’s be real -- life can be stressful. For those facing early life stress, the consequences can even affect their very biology. Fortunately, Rebekah Rashford is a young Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University who is uncovering just how these stressors affect people. In this Young Scientist Spotlight (our 16th!), Rebekah Rashford shares how she began her journey in science, her sources of inspiration, and how she balances her hobbies with her academic pursuits. You’ll discover that her joy for s...
Roughly 4% of the world’s population is affected by a rare disease, and while we are learning every day how to better diagnose and treat these conditions, there is still much to uncover. Rare Disease Day, which lands on the last day of February every year, seeks to raise awareness and improve access to care for patients and families living with rare diseases. For both scientific and clinical perspectives, we speak with Dr. William Gahl from the NIH, as well as Linda Manwaring, a genetic counselo...
We don’t usually hear the words science and art together, but we’ve been misled -- science and art exist together on multiple planes, constantly informing each other in beautiful and unexpected ways. This is the second episode in our two-part mini-series on science and art. Here, we’re joined by visual artists and science communicators Kelly Montgomery and Sophie Wang. They both discuss how they’ve used art to communicate big ideas, and how scientists can approach making knowledge more accessibl...
Did you know you could scuba dive for science? Well, that’s exactly what Gaby Keeler-May does in the waters of New Zealand! In our latest Young Scientist Spotlight episode (#15!), learn about how Gaby’s scuba diving class in Santa Cruz, California, led her to investigating invasive seaweeds in New Zealand! We discuss how she conducts each dive (safety first!) and what they do with the tons of seaweed they pull from the waters (spoiler alert: it may become your next meal!). Gaby also shares her e...
You feeling stressed? Well, take a break from work and listen to our latest Young Scientist Spotlight with Sero Parel. Sero is a Neuroscience graduate student at Princeton University, who is interested in studying stress and how stressful moments can change the course of our developing brain. For Sero, their research goes way beyond any old science experiment. Their work asks fundamental questions about what is actually happening to the brains of those whose lives are impacted by certain levels ...
