Science Magazine Podcast Science Magazine

On this week’s show: Earth’s youngest impact craters could be vastly underestimated in size, and remaking a plant’s process for a creating a complex compound

 

First up this week, have we been measuring asteroid impact craters wrong? Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about new approaches to measuring the diameter of impact craters. They discuss the new measurements which, if confirmed, might require us to rethink just how often Earth gets hit with large asteroids. Paul also shares more news from the recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.

 

Next up, pulling together all the enzymes used by a plant to make a vaccine adjuvant—a compound used to boost the efficacy of vaccines—in the lab. Anne Osbourn, a group leader and professor of biology at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England, talks about why plants are so much better at making complex molecules, and an approach that allows scientists to copy their methods.

 

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

 

About the Science Podcast

 

[Image: NASA/JPL; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

 

[alt: Itturalde crater in Bolivia with podcast overlay]

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Paul Voosen

 

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh9195
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On this week’s show: Spotting volcanic activity on Venus in 30-year-old data, and giving context to increases in early onset colon cancer

 

First up this week, a researcher notices an active volcano on Venus in data from the Magellan mission—which ended in 1994. News Staff Writer Paul Voosen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how to find a “fresh” lava flow in 30-year-old readings.

 

Next up, a concerning increase in early onset colon cancer. Kimmie Ng, director of the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, is here to talk about how these early colon cancers—those diagnosed before age 50—are different from those diagnosed later in life. We also talk about what needs to be learned about diet, environment, and genetics to better understand this condition.

 

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

 

About the Science Podcast

 

[Image: NASA; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

 

[alt: Maat Mons volcano on Venus with podcast symbol overlay]

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Paul Voosen

 

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh8158 

 
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On this week’s show: Compassion fatigue will strike most who care for lab animals, but addressing it is challenging. Also, overturning ideas about ocean circulation

 

First up this week: uncovering compassion fatigue in those who work with research animals—from cage cleaners to heads of entire animal facilities. Host Sarah Crespi and Online News Editor David Grimm discuss how to recognize the anxiety and depression that can be associated with this work and what some institutions are doing to help.

 

Featured in this segment:


Preston Van Hooser
Megan LaFollette
Anneke Keizer

 

Next up on the show, a segment from the annual meeting of AAAS (which publishes Science) on overturning assumptions in ocean circulation. Physical oceanographer Susan Lozier, dean of the College of Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, talks with producer Kevin McLean about the limitations of the ocean conveyor belt model, and how new tools have been giving us a much more accurate view of how water moves around the world.

 

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

 

About the Science Podcast

 

[Image: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

 

[alt: Global sea surface currents and temperature with podcast symbol overlay]

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kevin McLean; David Grimm

 

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh4938

 
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On this week’s show: Researchers are finding new ways to mitigate implicit bias in medical settings, and how toothed whales use distinct vocal registers for echolocation and communication

First up this week: how to fight unconscious bias in the clinic. Staff Writer Rodrigo Pérez Ortega talks with host Sarah Crespi about how researchers are attempting to fight bias on many fronts—from online classes to machine learning to finding a biomarker for pain.

Next up on the show: a close look at toothed whale vocalization. Though we have known for more than 50 years that toothed whales such as orcas, sperm whales, and dolphins make diverse and useful sounds, how these noises are produced by their bodies has not been well understood. Coen Elemans, a professor in biology and head of the sound communication and behavior group at the University of Southern Denmark, joins Sarah to talk about using endoscopy and high-speed cameras as well as tissue samples and tracking data to learn how they achieve such amazing feats of sound.

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

About the Science Podcast

[Image: Thumy Phan; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: looking through glasses at a distorted face in what looks like a medical setting with podcast overlay]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Rodrigo Pérez Ortega

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh3706

 

About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s show: Portable MRI scanners could revolutionize medical imaging, and pheromones offer a way to control flies that spread disease

First up this week: shrinking MRI machines. Staff Writer Adrian Cho talks with host Sarah Crespi about how engineers and physicists are teaming up to make MRI machines smaller and cheaper.

Next up on the show, the smell of tsetse fly love. Producer Kevin McLean talks with Shimaa Ebrahim, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at Yale University, about understanding how tsetse flies use odors to attract one another and how this can be used to prevent the flies from transmitting diseases such as African sleeping sickness.  

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

About the Science Podcast

[Image: GEOFFREY ATTARDO/UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: tsetse fly with podcast symbol overlay]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kevin McLean; Adrian Cho

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh3128

About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast
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On this week’s show: The hunt for natural hydrogen deposits heats up, and why we need a space mission to an ice giant

First up this week: a gold rush for naturally occurring hydrogen. Deputy Editor Eric Hand joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss drilling for hidden pockets of hydrogen, which companies are just now starting to explore as a clean energy option.

Next up, big plans for a mission to Uranus. Kathleen Mandt, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, shares what a mission to Uranus could tell us about the formation of our Solar System and all these exoplanets we keep finding.

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

About the Science Podcast

[Image: Austin Fisher; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: Uranus illustration with podcast symbol overlay]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Eric Hand

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh1873 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.