Science Magazine Podcast Science Magazine

On this week’s show: Russia announces plans to monitor permafrost, and a conversation about the dangers of self-spreading engineered viruses and vaccines

Science journalist Olga Dobrovidova joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about plans to set up a national permafrost observatory in Russia.

Then Filippa Lentzos, senior lecturer in science and international security in the department of war studies and in the department of global health and social medicine, and co-director for the center for science and security at King’s College London, joins Sarah to discuss her Science commentary on the dangers of transmissible vaccines for controlling invasive species and viruses found in wildlife.  

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Евгений Ерыгин/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: person walking on snow at night in city of Norilsk, Russia]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Olga Dobrovidova

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On this week’s show: The best of our online stories, what we know about the effects of cannabinoids, and the last in our series of books on race and science

First, Online News Editor David Grimm brings the top online stories of the year—from headless slugs to Dyson spheres. You can find out the other top stories and the most popular online story of the year here.

Then, Tibor Harkany, a professor of molecular neuroscience at the Medical University of Vienna’s Center for Brain Research, talks with host Sarah Crespi about the state of marijuana research. Pot has been legalized in many places, and many people take cannabinoids—but what do we know about the effects of these molecules on people? Tibor calls for more research into their helpful and harmful potential. 

Finally, we have the very last installment of our series of books on race and science. Books host Angela Saini talks with physician and science fiction author Tade Thompson about his book Rosewater. Listen to the whole series.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Biodiversity Heritage Library/Flickr/Public Domain; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: illustration of a wombat]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; David Grimm; Angela Saini

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Every year Science names its top breakthrough of the year and nine runners up. Online News Editor Catherine Matacic joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss what Science’s editors consider some of the biggest innovations of 2021.

Also this week, Books Editor Valerie Thompson shares her list of top science books for the year—from an immunology primer by a YouTuber, to a contemplation of the universe interwoven with a close up look at how the science sausage is made.

Books on Valerie’s list:
Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive by Phillip Dettmer
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime and Dreams Deferredby Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow

Listen to last year’s books round up.

List of this year’s top science books for kids.

 

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Valerie Altounian/Science; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: golden protein confetti]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Catherine Matacic; Valerie Thompson

 

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Geoscientists are turning to fiber optic cables as a means of measuring seismic activity. But rather than connecting them to instruments, the cables are the instruments. Joel Goldberg talks with Staff Writer Paul Voosen about tapping fiber optic cables for science.

Also this week, host Sarah Crespi talks with Sylvie Roke, a physicist and chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, and director of its Laboratory for fundamental BioPhotonics, about the place where oil meets water. Despite the importance of the interaction between the hydrophobic and the hydrophilic to biology, and to life, we don’t know much about what happens at the interface of these substances.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Artography/Shutterstock; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: oil droplets and water]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Paul Voosen; Joel Goldberg

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.acx9771

About the Science Podcast:https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast

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There has been so much research during the pandemic—an avalanche of preprints, papers, and data—but how much of it is any good? Contributing Correspondent Cathleen O’Grady joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the value of poorly designed research on COVID-19 and more generally. 

In September, the volcano Cumbre Vieja on Spain’s Canary Islands began to erupt. It is still happening. The last time it erupted was back in 1971, so we don’t know much about the features of the past eruption or the signs it was coming. Marc-Antoine Longpré, a volcanologist and associate professor at Queens College, City University of New York, discusses the ongoing eruption with Sarah and what today’s sensors tell us about what happens when this volcano wakes up.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Eduardo Robaina; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: The eruption of Cumbre Vieja, September 2021]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Cathleen O’Grady

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Have you noticed the trees around you lately—maybe they seem extra nutty? It turns out this is a “masting” year, when trees make more nuts, seeds, and pinecones than usual. Science Staff Writer Elizabeth Pennisi joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the many mysteries of masting years. 

Next, Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Jean-Laurent Casanova, a professor at Rockefeller University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, about his review article on why some people are more vulnerable to severe disease from viral infections. This is part of a special issue on inflammation in Science.

Finally, in this month’s book segment on race and science, host Angela Saini talks with author Beverly Daniel Tatum about her seminal 2003 book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: LensOfDan/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[Alt text: Pile of acorns]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Meagan Cantwell; Angela Saini

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