Research on the Rocks Paula Larsson and Joshua Bull

Who knew that vaccine resistance is as old as vaccines?? Soon-to-be-Dr. Larsson did! In fact, she just wrote a whole dissertation on it! 

We are back from a long hiatus to talk about the history of vaccines and anti-vaccination movements with very special guest (and co-host, so let's face it, not actually that special) Paula Larsson. 

Listen on to learn about Josh's wide array of berry liquors, how pandemic deniers have been present in past pandemics, and the many connections between anti-vaccination movements and the larger anti-establishment movements of the past century. 

It's time to get mathematical, with two special guests from the world of applied mathematics! Dr Caoimhe Rooney is a research fellow at NASA Ames Research Centre who uses maths to study exoplanets with the goal of understanding how they formed, what they're made of and ultimately if they could harbor life. Dr Jessica Williams is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT and Harvard Medical School who uses mathematical modelling to simulate blood flow and the effect of varying blood vessel shapes. We talked to them about their research, the experience of being women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and how maths can be used to understand such different aspects of the world around us...

We also talked to Caoimhe and Jessica about their "Mathematigals" project, started to help foster diversity among the physical sciences. You can find them at www.mathematigals.com, or on twitter/youtube/instagram/tiktok/facebook/pretty much everywhere. They have some really cool resources for anyone who wants to inspire young people, it's well worth checking out!

Okay, you can't really be 'master' of disaster - in fact, you are more likely to find that disasters always come out on top in a head-to-head, but Zachary Cox argues that's not the case. Talk to the small business owners and innovators who have found ways to adapt to their quickly changing circumstances and you will find the true masters of disaster! 

Today we interview Zach about his research in Disaster Management and learn a bit more about the ways small businesses and organizations have managed to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, how tango is the next big thing we expect to break out in 2021, and just how groan-worthy Josh's terrible puns can get.

Dr Rachel Wheatley spends her days fighting against the resistance - antibiotic resistance, that is. Antibiotic use is widespread today, with people often demanding antibiotics from doctors even when they don't have bacterial infections. Intensive farmers routinely dose animals with antibiotics as a preventative measure...but unfortunately the bacteria are starting to fight back. In this episode, we talk to Rachel about how bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics, how bacteria have their own immune systems (what?!) and just what exactly scientists are doing to prevent our ability to treat infections from being plunged back into the Dark Ages*.

*Paula keeps telling me off for incorrectly referring to the Dark Ages. I'd like to extend my sincere apologies to anyone from the Dark Ages who may be offended by this.

This week we’ll be talking to Josh Cowls, a doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute. His PhD revolves around Facebook even more than ours did, because he studies the links between the internet giant, artificial intelligence and ethics – in particular the ways that algorithms interact with online hate speech. It’s a fun and wide-ranging conversation covering everyone from Ada Lovelace to Donald Trump (sorry, he made it in). We hope you enjoy it!

Join Oxford researchers Paula Larsson and Joshua Bull for an overview of what this podcast is about. Research, cocktails, the rocky nature of relevance, and our upcoming plan for the podcast!