Depending on when and where you listen to this podcast, you may be legally allowed to possess cannabis for your own recreational enjoyment. Or it may land you in jail. That’s not just a difference between one liberal countries laws and another conservative nation, that’s the difference between New Mexico and it’s neighbouring state of Texas. Today i’m speaking with Dr Michael Sofis of Cannabis Public Policy Consulting about the organisations research into applications and complications around dr...
Sep 28, 2022•47 min
In the face of a staff shortage among endocrinologists in the US, patient care for those with diabetes is paramount. Dr Richard Santen at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, offers a solution to improve the care of patients in rural, underserved areas through ‘re-booting’ endocrinologists and telehealth. Read the original article: http://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X221106041 Read more in Research Features...
Sep 26, 2022•10 min
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple vaccines and treatments have been proposed to combat the disease. However, one limitation of these vaccines and treatments is that they are often developed for a specific form of a virus–meaning they maybe less effective against new variants of the disease. Professor Thomas Webster thinks that this could be achieved by using nanomaterials, specifically those that bind to proteins on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, ...
Sep 23, 2022•10 min
Forecasts project that there will be around 100 million electric vehicles on the roads in the next few decades. With that additional electricity demand, it's important to consider how we are going to be able to charge electric vehicles. Dr Yangfang (Helen) Zhou from Singapore Management University and colleagues propose an innovative business model for utility firms to meet the stress of electric vehicles on the energy grid, and keep the world moving. Read the original article: http://doi.org/10...
Sep 21, 2022•8 min
Dr Shelley Newman of Newman Specialty VetPath, USA, has improved the diagnosis, classification, and treatment of mast cell tumours and pancreatic diseases in veterinary species and contributed to the literature by characterising many new disease processes in exotic species. Read more about their work in Research Outreach Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.20.12.0663...
Sep 16, 2022•15 min
Even this early in the 21st century, there are signs of economic and cultural trends that may be its hallmarks in history - for better, for worse and in ways yet to be seen. Today i’m speaking with Dr Huiyao 'Henry' Wang of the Centre of China and Globalisation about the future of China in international commerce and diplomacy, how to connect with, and within, global superpowers, and what history might have to say about current events. Read more at the CCG website , or in their recent report: htt...
Sep 14, 2022•47 min
For as long as people have farmed, it has been known that planting the same crop in the same field without change over the years leads to reduced crop yield. Decaying plant material from past harvests leaves extracellular, or free-drifting, plant DNA in the soil, that prohibits the growth of new plants of the same species. This phenomenon, known as toxicity, is responsible for a plant–soil negative feedback mechanism Dr Annalisa Iuorio from the University of Vienna, a specialist in the mathemati...
Sep 09, 2022•10 min
The dream of nuclear fusion as a source of near-unlimited energy is decades old, but, with the latest advances by research teams working around the world, it may just be within reach. Dr Tamás Biró of the Wigner Research Centre for Physics is leading research on laser ignition of nanoparticles to bring that goal closer to fruition. You can read more about his research in Research Outreach. Read the original article: https://journals.aps.org/prxenergy/abstract/10.1103/PRXEnergy.1.023001...
Sep 07, 2022•31 min
Peter Verheyen of the Sola Society and Academy at Vienna University, Austria, explores the notion that the conscious reality we experience as human beings is drawn from the information constantly emitted from the real physical world. He argues that the real physical world is akin to a giant quantum computer that gives rise to consciousness itself. Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.3390/sci3040035 Read more in Research Outreach...
Sep 02, 2022•10 min
The cellular waste in your blood can tell you a lot about your health -any immune activation, mineral deficits, or stress hormones circulating through you. So, what do you think it means when chunks of cells, knocked loose by the shear stress of your own blood pressure, start turning up? Dr Ramani Ramchandran at the Medical College of Wisconsin and his team are developing new tests for these cellular fragments in blood to determine what they can tell us about your whole-body health. Read the ori...
Aug 31, 2022•27 min
More than one in seven people in the US have chronic kidney disease (CKD), making it one of the top causes of death. Anaemia is a common, though under-treated complication. Dr Robert Provenzano of Wayne State University and his team pooled together the results of three randomised clinical trials to investigate the efficacy and safety of of new treatment, Roxadustat, in managing the blood disease risks of CKD patients. Read the original article: doi.org/10.2215/CJN.16191020 Read more in Research ...
Aug 26, 2022•10 min
For members of The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), festivals are used to promote a concept known as “the ASEAN Way”: respecting each other’s sovereignty, non-interference in the internal affairs of one another, and peaceful settlements of disputes. In his most recent paper, Dr David Ocón of Singapore Management University researches the “ulterior motives” of festivals and how they can be used for political and economic ends. Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1163/1871...
Aug 23, 2022•11 min
Biodiversity data can be analysed to predict species distribution at various scales of time and space. However, survey completeness and temporal decay in data quality introduce uncertainty into biodiversity models. Researchers Joaquín Hortal, Juliana Stropp, Richard Ladle, and Geiziane Tessarolo, among others, are constructing the first Maps of Biogeographical Ignorance (MoBIs) that account for uncertainty in biodiversity analysis. Presented alongside species distribution models (SDMs), MoBIs en...
Aug 19, 2022•13 min
The 'resource curse’, or "Dutch disease“, describes when countries rich in natural resources face reduced domestic growth rates in other sectors due an influx of foreign currency or investment, mixed with market volatility. The Tao of Finance initiative from the World Academy of Arts and Sciences examines the link between this ‘disease’ and the 17 UN-Sustainability Development Goals, and identifies an upgraded monetary system to make the resource curse history. Read more about the Tao of Finance...
Aug 17, 2022•16 min
How do we know that we can trust software? One answer is software reliability testing. Dr Mário Pereira and Dr António Ravara from the Nova School of Science and Technology in Lisbon, Portugal, and their collaborators have developed the Cameleer tool, a formal verification software tool for OCaml-written code. Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81688-9_31 Read more in Research Outreach...
Aug 12, 2022•11 min
Alchemy may be understood as the first scientific paradigm, beginning as a collection of observations, experiments, and recipes for practical processes. Woven into these primary alchemical texts were also a good deal of the symbolism, philosophy and religious beliefs of the time. Dr Julia Kasmire explores the ways in which the seemingly unrelated concepts of sustainability and alchemy can both be understood as strategies that individuals and societies use to further understand our complex world....
Aug 10, 2022•14 min
Obesity is a growing public health concern, but studies suggest that soluble fibre from certain cereal whole grains can help weight management. Rebecca Mathews and her collaborators in the US conducted a thorough review of key studies demonstrating the efficacy and mechanisms behind oat and barley β-glucan on weight loss. These findings confirm the importance of whole grains in combating obesity. Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2021.1994523 Find more in Research Outre...
Aug 05, 2022•14 min
Molecules are comprised of charged particles whose spatial distribution is or could be distorted, lending the molecules a handle by which they can be manipulated via external electromagnetic fields. Dr Burkhard Schmidt at the Freie Universität Berlin and Professor Bretislav Friedrich at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, along with colleagues, have been studying the effects of electromagnetic fields on molecular rotation and how these effects could be used to achieve ...
Aug 03, 2022•8 min
While some bacteria are beneficial, such as probiotic bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract, others can have serious consequences for human health. Professor Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah of Tennessee State University studies preventative measures for microbial pathogens and foodborne and waterborne infectious diseases in the context of climate change. Read the original research: https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fmicroorganisms8050748 Find more in Research Outreach...
Jul 29, 2022•11 min
New generations of particle accelerators are now in development, in which beams of particles collide ever more precisely and at ever higher energies. Professor Stephen Myers, former Director of Accelerators & Technology at CERN and currently Executive Chair of ADAM SA, identifies both the positive and negative lessons which future projects can learn from previous generations of accelerators for one upcoming project: the Future Circular Collider. Read the original article: https://doi.org/10....
Jul 27, 2022•12 min
Dr Bradlee Heckmann and his team at the USF Health Neuroscience Institute in the US aim to develop new therapeutic avenues for treating neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s. Read their original article here: http://doi.org/10.4103/1673-5374.317958 Read more about their work in Research Features
Jul 22, 2022•12 min
A healthcare system that is preventative, collective and inclusive is far more resilient, and cheaper to run, than private for-profit schemes. Such a preventative system will be much cheaper to invest in building now than waiting to repair our current frameworks after the next pandemic. However, we need a financial plan that is able to ensure this change The Tao of Finance initiative from the World Academy of Arts and Sciences proposes a new mode of finance to fund the WHO, delivering adaptive a...
Jul 20, 2022•16 min
The WASTE FEW ULL project is developing and testing internationally applicable methods of identifying inefficiencies in a city-region’s food-energy-water nexus. It is achieving this goal through an international network of industry/civic society-led Urban Living Labs (ULL) in four urban regions - UK ( Bristol ), Netherlands ( Rotterdam ), South Africa ( Cape Town ) and Brazil ( São Paulo ). Read more in Research Features...
Jul 14, 2022•19 min
In the face of increasing drug resistance, there is a pressing need to develop new antibiotic compounds. However, the effort of developing such new treatments can go unrewarded, so long as there are still cheaper options in current supply, even as their effectiveness wanes. Olof Lindahl and Chantal Morel review the business interventions, stewardship policies and prescription practices available to incentivise the development of new medicines, and thus support global health. Find out more about ...
Jul 13, 2022•41 min
Until now, a great deal has remained unknown about the relationship between programmed cell death and bacterial infections. However, recent work by Dr CJ Anderson and Professor Kodi Ravichandran from VIB-UGent, Belgium, has shed new light on this topic and introduced a new layer to the complex host–pathogen interaction. Read more in Research Outreach Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03785-9...
Jul 08, 2022•12 min
How should we design a new monetary tool that can cope with external shocks which might affect our economy in the Anthropocene? The Tao of Finance initiative from the World Academy of Arts and Sciences proposes a Monetary Inflation Brake: a targeted, upstream, resilient intervention that could save billions of dollars world wide. Read more about the Tao of Finance at the WAAS website, or read the book ‘Financing Our Future: Unveiling a Parallel Digital Currency System to Fund the SDGs and the Co...
Jul 06, 2022•17 min
Dr Henry Heng’s Genome Architecture Theory is a new paradigm questioning the status quo of genomic and evolutionary theories. He proposes that cancerous cells are so different in their genome architectures they’re akin to a different cellular species in the host, meaning a total rethink in how those cells are targeted and destroyed. Read the original article: doi.org/10.3390/genes13010101 Read more in Research Features...
Jul 01, 2022•12 min
Today's cartoons a different experience from past generations, in which gratuitous violence was the primary concern of worried parents. But what if what they showed was more surreptitious in its influence on child behaviour, such as what cartoon characters ate? Dr Milia Tzoutzou and colleagues have catalogued cartoon characters interact with their food and how they judge each other - and themselves – based on their physical appearance. What they've discovered should concern nutritionists, lawmak...
Jun 29, 2022•10 min
Consciousness and self awareness are tricky things to define in an all-encompassing way, and new research on the intricacies of cellular cognition is reshaping how we think about microorganisms and ourselves. Professor Nicholas Money of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio has argued for a new philosophy of cellular consciousness and suggests that, based on their ability to respond to external stimuli, fungi have minds. Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2021.02.001 Read mor...
Jun 24, 2022•11 min
By leveraging your personal health data with Artificial Intelligence, from blood samples to psychological surveys, it is possible to make accurate predictions on biological age and interventions to keep you at your best. Fedor Galkin and Deepankar Nayak of DeepLongevity , a health data platform that looks to transform approaches to ageing and longevity, discuss the upcoming launch of their mental health support site ‘ FuturSelf.ai' , models of psychological wellbeing and the importance of data t...
Jun 22, 2022•53 min
