The first week of October is like a science-lover’s World Series: Each year, the spotlight falls on high-impact science, when day after day, a series of Nobel Prizes and other prestigious awards are announced all in one week. This has been an especially exciting week for us here in UT Austin’s College of Natural Sciences. For the second year in a row, one of our alumni (James Allison) nabbed the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine. What’s more, the Nobel Prizes given in the categories of phys...
Oct 05, 2018•43 min
Last year, University of Texas at Austin alumnus Michael Young won the Nobel prize for discovering the molecular mechanism behind circadian rhythms. Circadian clocks are critical for the health of all living things, acting as the internal timekeepers in plants and animals that help to synchronize functions like eating and sleeping with our planet’s daily rhythm of light and dark. In today’s episode, Young reveals the series of lucky events that launched him into the forefront of circadian rhythm...
Sep 27, 2018•11 min•Ep. 30
Think about some of the most important decisions people make – who to hire for a job, which kind of treatment to give a cancer patient, how much jail time to give a criminal. James Scott says we humans are pretty lousy at making them. “I think there is room for machines to come into those realms and improve the state of our decisions,” said Scott. “That's going to involve humans and machines working together, however, not simply treating these decisions the way you might treat a microwave oven j...
Sep 06, 2018•8 min•Ep. 29
What if people who lost a particular brain function—say, an Alzheimer's patient who can no longer make new memories—had the same option as many people who’ve lost limbs or other body parts—the chance to use technology to supplement what’s no longer there? Or what if you could boost a healthy person's brain, essentially giving them mental superpowers, like the ability to become a Kung Fu master by downloading new skills directly to your brain? Scientists are now working on brain-machine interface...
Jun 28, 2018•14 min•Ep. 28
Forty years ago, when James Allison had just gotten his PhD in biochemistry, he was intrigued by this far-out idea that was floating around about a new way to treat cancer. The idea—dubbed cancer immunotherapy—was to train the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells—the same way this system already goes after bacteria and viruses. He was one of the few people who actually believed it could work. In today’s episode, Allison—an alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin and the chair of immu...
May 21, 2018•11 min•Ep. 27
Climate change, vaccinations, evolution. Scientists sometimes struggle to get their message across to non-scientists. On the latest episode of the Point of Discovery podcast, what communications research can teach us about why science communication sometimes backfires, and what scientists can do about it. Today’s episode features Emma Dietrich, a PhD student in the Ecology, Evolution and Behavior graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of Austin Science Advocates. It a...
Apr 12, 2018•12 min•Ep. 26
Jonathan Sessler was a college student when he was first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Fortunately, he was also a chemistry major. After surviving radiation therapy, relapsing and then surviving extremely high doses of what he calls “rat poison” (a.k.a. chemotherapy), his oncologist challenged him: “You’re a chemist. Find new cancer drugs.” In the four decades since, he’s founded two companies, one of which commercialized a blockbuster drug for leukemia and was sold for $21 billion. The oth...
Mar 02, 2018•13 min•Ep. 25
We recently invited three leaders in science and engineering at the University of Texas at Austin to talk about the lack of diversity in their respective fields – and ways to tackle the problem. We featured highlights from their conversation in the previous podcast. The episode you’re listening to right now is the full conversation. To hear the shorter, highlights episode, go to: https://soundcloud.com/point-of-discovery/tackling-science-and-engineerings-diversity-problem About Point of Discover...
Jan 25, 2018•24 min
The STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math – have real work to do in terms of diversity. Right now, women make up only about 30 percent of the STEM workforce – and people identifying as black or Hispanic make up just 11 percent. What are the barriers to entry -- or the obstacles to staying in -- STEM? And how can we make sure smart, creative thinkers and problem solvers from diverse backgrounds feel welcome and included in these fields? We invited three leaders in science and en...
Jan 25, 2018•13 min•Ep. 23
Millions of children in the U.S. play a vital, but often overlooked, role in their families. These children of immigrants, known as “language brokers,” help their parents translate job applications, medical documents and bills into their native language. They also help them navigate a completely alien culture. Researchers like Su Yeong Kim, in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, are debating whether being a language broker is good for chi...
Dec 14, 2017•8 min•Ep. 22
Astronomers have long been able to watch the universe’s blockbuster special effects unfold in dazzling 3D Technicolor. But until now, it’s been like watching a silent movie. Today that all changes. Scientists announced this morning that they have for the first time ever detected both light and gravitational waves from a massive explosion in space caused by the collision of two super-dense neutron stars. On today’s show, we talk to astrophysicist Pawan Kumar about what this breakthrough means for...
Oct 16, 2017•8 min•Ep. 21
A team of scientists and engineers led by Livia S. Eberlin at The University of Texas at Austin has invented a powerful tool that rapidly and accurately identifies cancerous tissue during surgery, delivering results in about 10 seconds. The MasSpec Pen is an innovative handheld instrument that gives surgeons precise diagnostic information about what tissue to cut or preserve, helping improve treatment and reduce the chances of cancer recurrence. The research is described in the Sept. 6 edition o...
Sep 07, 2017•9 min•Ep. 20
Quantum computers might sound like science fiction. A fully functioning quantum computer could complete calculations in a matter of seconds that would take a conventional computer millions of years to process. Science fiction or not, they’re already here. Scientists at Google, Microsoft, IBM and elsewhere are building and studying them. At this point, they’re not very powerful. But Scott Aaronson, a theoretical computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, believes in the next few yea...
Jul 11, 2017•8 min•Ep. 19
Gulf Corvina look pretty ordinary—they’re a couple of feet long and silvery. Yet the sounds they make—when millions get together to spawn—are a kind of wonder of the natural world. It’s also why they are in danger. Gulf Corvina live in only one place in the world—the Gulf of California. A decade ago, the Mexican government asked marine biologist Brad Erisman and his colleagues to study the Corvina. They were worried that heavy fishing might cause the population to collapse. When Erisman put a mi...
Apr 24, 2017•10 min•Ep. 18
Worried that smart robots are taking over the world? You’ll be relieved to know they still have a long way to go. That is unless you’re an artificial intelligence researcher like Peter Stone. One big challenge facing robots that walk and run is that they fall over a lot. Take for example the annual RoboCup competition in which small human-like robots play soccer. Even with the best minds in computer science behind them, they’re about as graceful as toddlers. Now neuroscientist Michael Mauk think...
Mar 15, 2017•5 min•Ep. 17
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re speaking with Lisa Neff, a researcher studying what makes happy, healthy romantic relationships tick. Neff is an associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She answers several burning questions, including: What are the health benefits of romantic relationships? How can newlyweds avoid communication breakdowns that result from external stress? and, Do optimists make better partners? Neff i...
Feb 11, 2017•17 min•Ep. 16
Adron Harris, director of the Waggoner Center for Alcoho and Addiction Research at The University of Texas at Austin, and his team mapped the differences in gene expression between an alcoholic's brain and a non-alcoholic's brain. They found that, as a person becomes dependent on alcohol, thousands of genes in their brains are turned up or down, like a dimmer switch on a lightbulb, compared to the same genes in a healthy person's brain. The scientists are now using an innovative technique to fin...
Jan 22, 2017•11 min•Ep. 15
These teeny shrimp-like critters at the bottom of the ocean food web seem totally unimportant. But throw in an oil spill and some well-intentioned human intervention and they can have a huge impact, right up to the top of the food web, including sea turtles, dolphins and humans. Meet the mighty copepod. About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . You can...
Dec 15, 2016•7 min•Ep. 14
This fall marks the 15th anniversary of the U.S. anthrax letter attacks that sickened dozens of people and killed five. At the time, there was no effective treatment for a late stage infection. The attacks accelerated work already underway at the University of Texas at Austin. Brent Iverson, George Georgiou and Jennifer Maynard borrowed a page from Mother Nature's playbook to develop the world's first treatment for late stage inhalation anthrax. Tell Us What You Think Take our short survey at: h...
Oct 21, 2016•10 min•Ep. 13
The New Horizons spacecraft brought humanity face to face with the last unexplored planet in our solar system: Pluto. What we're learning is amazing. But, time and again, the mission almost didn't happen. University of Texas at Austin alumnus Alan Stern describes the challenges, and the joys, of the last first mission to a planet. For a complete transcript of this episode, visit our show page at: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/the-last-first-planetary-mission-audio Tell Us What You Think Take our s...
Sep 12, 2016•9 min•Ep. 12
About how long would you say the microbes living in your gut have been there? You might be surprised by what researchers discovered when they compared the microbes in our guts with those of our closest relatives, the great apes. Tell Us What You Think Take our short survey at: http://txsci.net/utpodcastsurvey About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . Y...
Aug 03, 2016•6 min•Ep. 11
This summer, we're celebrating a milestone: one year of telling you science stories from the frontlines here at the University of Texas at Austin. In this episode, we give a sneak peek at upcoming shows, recap some highlights from the past year and invite you, the listener, to take a quick survey to let us know how we're doing. The survey is at: https://utexas.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eUTDsDlYdmBBPBb About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin...
Jul 11, 2016•3 min
As the summer movie season kicks into high gear, we talk with a scientist about some of the challenges in simulating the way everyday objects behave on the big screen. Etienne Vouga's computer simulations have helped bring to life a wizard's hair in The Hobbit and clothing in Tangled. To see examples of some of his simulations, go to: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/why-is-cgi-in-the-movies-still-so-hard About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin...
May 31, 2016•8 min•Ep. 9
As the College of Natural Sciences’ Freshman Research Initiative celebrates its 10th anniversary, we speak to students and scientists about how doing research as freshmen and sophomores impacted them. About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . You can also subscribe via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/point-of-discovery-podcast/id1036884430?...
Apr 10, 2016•8 min•Ep. 8
To study diseases, biologists often make models, for example, a rat with a disorder similar to Alzheimer's. With a good model, they can tinker with different variables and see if anything halts the disease, without the ethical limits of experimenting on actual humans. But scientists studying an especially nasty bacterium that tends to invade and breed out of control in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis (CF) kept hitting dead ends in their search for a good model. Pigs and rats that were g...
Mar 20, 2016•6 min•Ep. 7
As bees sharply decline around the world, two researchers are taking very different approaches to understand -- and potentially reverse -- this troubling trend. One is studying the microbes that live inside bees and help protect them against infections. The other is studying the links between changing landscapes and bee health. Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . You can...
Feb 19, 2016•9 min•Ep. 6
What would you do if you had Superman's x-ray vision? In today's episode of the Point of Discovery Podcast, we talk to a physicist about how he's using his superhuman powers to explore the insides of ancient Mayan pyramids without digging. This cool infographic shows how it works: https://cns.utexas.edu/news/pyramid-probe Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . You can also ...
Jan 01, 2016•7 min•Ep. 5
What is the mysterious force that seems to be pushing the universe apart faster and faster? Scientists are racing to find the answers and along the way, might get a step closer to finding the "theory of everything." Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . You can also subscribe via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/point-of-discovery-podcast/id1036884430?mt=2 or vi...
Nov 16, 2015•11 min•Ep. 4
When Richard Finnell first met her, Rachel was a nine-year-old girl with severe developmental delays. Her condition seemed to be caused by a deficiency in a critical B vitamin called folate. Yet she had plenty of folate circulating in her blood. Somehow it was vanishing before it got to her brain and spine. Eventually Finnell made a surprising discovery. He's now using new genetic tools like CRISPR to better understand her condition and test possible therapies. Point of Discovery is a production...
Oct 15, 2015•9 min•Ep. 3
How do we manage to follow a conversation with a friend in the middle of a noisy room? Neuroscientists, like Nace Golding, are still working out the details—but what they've learned so far is pretty amazing. Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at https://soundcloud.com/point-of-discovery . You can also subscribe via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/point-of-discovery-podcast/id1036884...
Sep 03, 2015•9 min•Ep. 2
