100 episodes

Researchers from across the scientific disciplines share the unpublished stories behind their recently published research, along with the background of their scientific discoveries.

Parsing Science: The unpublished stories behind the world’s most compelling science, as told by the researchers themselves‪.‬ Parsing Science: The unpublished stories behind the world’s most compelling science, as told by the researchers themselves.

    • Science
    • 5.0 • 10 Ratings

Researchers from across the scientific disciplines share the unpublished stories behind their recently published research, along with the background of their scientific discoveries.

    Science Writing as Storytelling (rebroadcast) – Ryan Kelly

    Science Writing as Storytelling (rebroadcast) – Ryan Kelly

    What matters more in getting cited — what you say or how you say it? In this remastered and remixed version of our first episode of the show, we're revisited by Ryan Kelly from the University of Washington's School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. He talks with us about his article "Narrative Style Influences Citation Frequency fin Climate Change Science," published in the December 2016 edition of the open-access journal PLoS One, along with co-authors Annie Hillier and Terrie Klinger.

    Science Writing as Storytelling (rebroadcast) - Ryan KellyScience Writing as Storytelling (rebroadcast) - Ryan KellyScience Writing as Storytelling (rebroadcast) - Ryan Kelly Science Writing as Storytelling (rebroadcast) - Ryan KellyScience Writing as Storytelling (rebroadcast) - Ryan KellyScience Writing as Storytelling (rebroadcast) - Ryan Kelly {{svg_share_icon}}Click bottom of waveform to add your commentsSubscribe: iTunes | Google Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | RSS jQuery(document).ready(function ($){var settings_ap7691 = { design_skin: "skin-wave" ,autoplay: "off",disable_volume:"default" ,loop:"off" ,cue: "on" ,embedded: "off" ,preload_method:"metadata" ,design_animateplaypause:"default" ,skinwave_dynamicwaves:"off" ,skinwave_enableSpectrum:"off" ,skinwave_enableReflect:"on",playfrom:"off",default_volume:"default",disable_scrub:"off",soundcloud_apikey:"" ,skinwave_comments_enable:"on",settings_php_handler:window.ajaxurl,skinwave_mode:"alternate",skinwave_wave_mode:"canvas",pcm_data_try_to_generate: "on","pcm_notice": "off","notice_no_media": "on",design_color_bg: "111111",design_color_highlight: "FF4C65",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_number: "3",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_padding: "1",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_reflection_size: "0.25",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_mode:"normal",preview_on_hover:"off",skinwave_comments_playerid:"7691",embed_code:""

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    Owen, now seven years old, with a different starfish.

    Websites and other resources



    Article Highlights, Summary, Quick findings & Flashcards via Scholarcy

    "Do I make myself clear? Media training for scientists" (Science Magazine)

    "Studies written in a more narrative style get more citations" (PsyPost)

    Annie Hillier's Master's thesis

    Book that inspired the study: Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini



    News and Media



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    • 23 min
    Cold War Ice Core Reveals Historic Glacial Melt – Andrew Christ

    Cold War Ice Core Reveals Historic Glacial Melt – Andrew Christ

    How did a Cold War era debacle help us better understand the dangers of climate change? In episode 99 of Parsing Science, we talk with Drew Christ from the University of Vermont about his research into how fossils plucked from forgotten experiment in the Arctic led to his discovery the last time Greenland’s glaciers completely melted, it happened under climate conditions very similar to the present day. His open access article “A multimillion-year-old record of Greenland vegetation and glacial history preserved in sediment beneath 1.4 km of ice at Camp Century,“ was published with multiple co-authors on March 30, 2021 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

    Cold War Ice Core Reveals Historic Glacial Melt - Andrew ChristCold War Ice Core Reveals Historic Glacial Melt - Andrew ChristCold War Ice Core Reveals Historic Glacial Melt - Andrew Christ Cold War Ice Core Reveals Historic Glacial Melt - Andrew ChristCold War Ice Core Reveals Historic Glacial Melt - Andrew ChristCold War Ice Core Reveals Historic Glacial Melt - Andrew Christ {{svg_share_icon}}Click bottom of waveform to add your commentsSubscribe: iTunes | Google Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | RSS jQuery(document).ready(function ($){var settings_ap7689 = { design_skin: "skin-wave" ,autoplay: "off",disable_volume:"default" ,loop:"off" ,cue: "on" ,embedded: "off" ,preload_method:"metadata" ,design_animateplaypause:"default" ,skinwave_dynamicwaves:"off" ,skinwave_enableSpectrum:"off" ,skinwave_enableReflect:"on",playfrom:"off",default_volume:"default",disable_scrub:"off",soundcloud_apikey:"" ,skinwave_comments_enable:"on",settings_php_handler:window.ajaxurl,skinwave_mode:"alternate",skinwave_wave_mode:"canvas",pcm_data_try_to_generate: "on","pcm_notice": "off","notice_no_media": "on",design_color_bg: "111111",design_color_highlight: "FF4C65",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_number: "3",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_padding: "1",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_reflection_size: "0.25",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_mode:"normal",preview_on_hover:"off",skinwave_comments_playerid:"7689",embed_code:""

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    Websites and other resources



    Drew's website, photography & Twitter

    Drew's webinar on this study:





    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5CVEVPC5e8









    xkcd's Earth Temperature Timeline

    Propaganda documentary on Camp Century:









    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DPQ15EgyTY



     

    News and Media

    Wired | SciTechDaily | World Economic Forum | Weather Channel | Popular Science | CNET | Washington Post | Science Alert



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    • 31 min
    DNA Evidence of Denisovan Interbreeding – João Teixeira

    DNA Evidence of Denisovan Interbreeding – João Teixeira

    What can DNA tell us about the migration of the earliest modern humans and other hominins? In episode 98 of Parsing Science, we talk with João Teixeira from the University of Adelaide about his research which examined the genomes of modern humans to investigate the interbreeding between ancient humans and modern human populations who arrived in Southeast Asia around 60,000 years ago.  His article, “Widespread Denisovan ancestry in Island Southeast Asia but no evidence of substantial super-archaic hominin admixture,” was multiple coauthors and published on March 22, 2021 in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

    DNA Evidence of Denisovan Interbreeding - João TeixeiraDNA Evidence of Denisovan Interbreeding - João TeixeiraDNA Evidence of Denisovan Interbreeding - João Teixeira DNA Evidence of Denisovan Interbreeding - João TeixeiraDNA Evidence of Denisovan Interbreeding - João TeixeiraDNA Evidence of Denisovan Interbreeding - João Teixeira {{svg_share_icon}}Click bottom of waveform to add your commentsSubscribe: iTunes | Google Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | RSS jQuery(document).ready(function ($){var settings_ap7687 = { design_skin: "skin-wave" ,autoplay: "off",disable_volume:"default" ,loop:"off" ,cue: "on" ,embedded: "off" ,preload_method:"metadata" ,design_animateplaypause:"default" ,skinwave_dynamicwaves:"off" ,skinwave_enableSpectrum:"off" ,skinwave_enableReflect:"on",playfrom:"off",default_volume:"default",disable_scrub:"off",soundcloud_apikey:"" ,skinwave_comments_enable:"on",settings_php_handler:window.ajaxurl,skinwave_mode:"alternate",skinwave_wave_mode:"canvas",pcm_data_try_to_generate: "on","pcm_notice": "off","notice_no_media": "on",design_color_bg: "111111",design_color_highlight: "FF4C65",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_number: "3",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_padding: "1",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_reflection_size: "0.25",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_mode:"normal",preview_on_hover:"off",skinwave_comments_playerid:"7687",embed_code:""

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    Websites and other resources











    João's researcher profile

    Article preprint on BioRxiv

    ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage

    Article on the biomechanical sequencing of Homo erectus











    News and Media

    Inverse | Science Alert |  The Conversation | SciNews | Science Daily | Natural History Museum | COSMOS | EurekAlert

     



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    • 33 min
    The Dyatlov Pass Incident – Alexander Puzrin

    The Dyatlov Pass Incident – Alexander Puzrin

    Can science help solve a real-life mystery? In episode 97 of Parsing Science, we talk with Alexander Puzrin from ETH Zurich about his research into The Dyatlov Pass incident, a 62-year-old mystery involving the deaths of nine hikers in the freezing Russian wilderness, a tragedy that’s been attributed to everything from a yeti to military weapons testing and an avalanche. His open access article “Mechanisms of slab avalanche release and impact in the Dyatlov Pass incident in 1959“ was co-authored with Johan Gaume and published on January 28, 2021 in the Nature journal, Communications Earth & Environment.

    The Dyatlov Pass Incident - Alexander PuzrinThe Dyatlov Pass Incident - Alexander PuzrinThe Dyatlov Pass Incident - Alexander Puzrin The Dyatlov Pass Incident - Alexander PuzrinThe Dyatlov Pass Incident - Alexander PuzrinThe Dyatlov Pass Incident - Alexander Puzrin {{svg_share_icon}}Click bottom of waveform to add your commentsSubscribe: iTunes | Google Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | RSS jQuery(document).ready(function ($){var settings_ap7685 = { design_skin: "skin-wave" ,autoplay: "off",disable_volume:"default" ,loop:"off" ,cue: "on" ,embedded: "off" ,preload_method:"metadata" ,design_animateplaypause:"default" ,skinwave_dynamicwaves:"off" ,skinwave_enableSpectrum:"off" ,skinwave_enableReflect:"on",playfrom:"off",default_volume:"default",disable_scrub:"off",soundcloud_apikey:"" ,skinwave_comments_enable:"on",settings_php_handler:window.ajaxurl,skinwave_mode:"alternate",skinwave_wave_mode:"canvas",pcm_data_try_to_generate: "on","pcm_notice": "off","notice_no_media": "on",design_color_bg: "111111",design_color_highlight: "FF4C65",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_number: "3",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_padding: "1",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_reflection_size: "0.25",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_mode:"normal",preview_on_hover:"off",skinwave_comments_playerid:"7685",embed_code:""

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    Websites and other resources















    Article Highlights, Summary, Quick findings & Flashcards via Scholarcy

    Alexander's group website

    Supplemental materials and videos from the article

    Horror/conspiracy video game and movie about the Dyatlov Pass incident

    Nature and EPFL videos:

















    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22OmPK7Ml34



     



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of_79NZKeag



     

    News and Media

    Wired | Big Think | New York Times | ARS Technica | Futurity | National Geographic | EurekAlert



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    • 37 min
    Monkey Business – Jean-Baptiste “JB” Leca

    Monkey Business – Jean-Baptiste “JB” Leca

    Do monkeys know how much fruit your sunglasses are worth? In episode 96 of Parsing Science, we talk with Jean-Baptiste "JB" Leca from the University of Lethbridge's Department of Psychology about his field research observing interactions among macaques at a Hindu temple in Bali. There, the monkeys have learned to rob tourists of everything from smartphones to flip flops, and then barter their return to temple staff in exchange for food. His open-access article, “Acquisition of object-robbing and object/food-bartering behaviours: a culturally maintained token economy in free-ranging long-tailed macaques,” was coauthored with Noëlle Gunst, Matthew Gardiner and I. Nengah Wandia, and published on January 11, 2021 in Philosophical Transactions of the the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

    Monkey Business - Jean-Baptiste "JB" LecaMonkey Business - Jean-Baptiste "JB" LecaMonkey Business - Jean-Baptiste "JB" Leca Monkey Business - Jean-Baptiste "JB" LecaMonkey Business - Jean-Baptiste "JB" LecaMonkey Business - Jean-Baptiste "JB" Leca {{svg_share_icon}}Click bottom of waveform to add your commentsSubscribe: iTunes | Google Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | RSS jQuery(document).ready(function ($){var settings_ap7683 = { design_skin: "skin-wave" ,autoplay: "off",disable_volume:"default" ,loop:"off" ,cue: "on" ,embedded: "off" ,preload_method:"metadata" ,design_animateplaypause:"default" ,skinwave_dynamicwaves:"off" ,skinwave_enableSpectrum:"off" ,skinwave_enableReflect:"on",playfrom:"off",default_volume:"default",disable_scrub:"off",soundcloud_apikey:"" ,skinwave_comments_enable:"on",settings_php_handler:window.ajaxurl,skinwave_mode:"alternate",skinwave_wave_mode:"canvas",pcm_data_try_to_generate: "on","pcm_notice": "off","notice_no_media": "on",design_color_bg: "111111",design_color_highlight: "FF4C65",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_number: "3",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_padding: "1",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_reflection_size: "0.25",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_mode:"normal",preview_on_hover:"off",skinwave_comments_playerid:"7683",embed_code:""

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    Websites and other resources











    Article Highlights, Summary, Quick findings & Flashcards via Scholarcy

    JB's website, including photos of the robbing monkeys

    JB's Google Scholar profile

    University of Lethbridge's summary of the study

    Sample videos of monkeys robbing and bartering:













    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymYDfHXq4S0



     



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhqKux-liGk



     

    News and Media

    CBC | BBC | Medium | Earth Touch  | Boing Boing | CTV News| Reddit | The Guardian



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    • 35 min
    Positively Negative – Shiri Melumad

    Positively Negative – Shiri Melumad

    How much can you trust people's retelling of information the've read? In episode 95, Shiri Melumad from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business discusses her research showing that when – much like the children’s game “telephone” – news is repeatedly retold, it undergoes a stylistic transformation through which the original facts are increasingly replaced by opinions and interpretations, with a slant toward negativity. Her article “The dynamics of distortion: How successive summarization alters the retelling of news”, was published with Robert Meyer and Yoon Duk Kim, on January 7, 2021 in the Journal of Marketing Research.



    Positively Negative - Shiri MelumadPositively Negative - Shiri MelumadPositively Negative - Shiri Melumad Positively Negative - Shiri MelumadPositively Negative - Shiri MelumadPositively Negative - Shiri Melumad {{svg_share_icon}}Click bottom of waveform to add your commentsSubscribe: iTunes | Google Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | RSS jQuery(document).ready(function ($){var settings_ap7679 = { design_skin: "skin-wave" ,autoplay: "off",disable_volume:"default" ,loop:"off" ,cue: "on" ,embedded: "off" ,preload_method:"metadata" ,design_animateplaypause:"default" ,skinwave_dynamicwaves:"off" ,skinwave_enableSpectrum:"off" ,skinwave_enableReflect:"on",playfrom:"off",default_volume:"default",disable_scrub:"off",soundcloud_apikey:"" ,skinwave_comments_enable:"on",settings_php_handler:window.ajaxurl,skinwave_mode:"alternate",skinwave_wave_mode:"canvas",pcm_data_try_to_generate: "on","pcm_notice": "off","notice_no_media": "on",design_color_bg: "111111",design_color_highlight: "FF4C65",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_number: "3",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_padding: "1",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_reflection_size: "0.25",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_mode:"normal",preview_on_hover:"off",skinwave_comments_playerid:"7679",embed_code:""

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    Websites and other resources











    Shiri's website and Twitter

    Shiri on Knowledge @ Wharton  

    Vox article on Shiri's research into the effect space constraints have on what people share











    News and Media



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    Bonus Clips





    Clips available include ...

    Full episode with available download

    More coming soon





    🔊 Access bonus content here.







    Make a one-time donation via PayPal.







    Or support us for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Cancel anytime.

    We’re not a registered tax-exempt organization, so unfortunately gifts aren't tax deductible.

    Hosts / Producers

    Doug Leigh & Ryan Watkins

    How to Cite

    Leigh, D., Watkins, R., & Melumad, S.. (2021). Parsing Science - Positively Negative. doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.

    • 2 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
10 Ratings

10 Ratings

McDargh ,

Love your podcast!

Thank you so much for having such great guests and going deeper into the science than most podcasts. I especially enjoyed "How Black Politicians Matter" w/ Trevon Logan", "When Ignorance is Bliss" w/ Emily Ho, and "Ivory Towers & Abattoirs" w/ Temple Grandin. Keep up the great work!

Matt G. 5678 ,

Scientific Research Lovers

Great dives into different scientific research. Enjoyed the extra information and context behind the studies.

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