PNAS Science Sessions: Recent Episodes
Kat Rodenhizer
Listen to brief, 5-minute, nontechnical conversations with cutting-edge researchers, Academy members, and policy makers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in PNAS, plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.
Joseph DeRisi describes the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a new privately-funded medical research center in the Bay Area.
Patrick McGovern describes evidence of winemaking in Georgia during the Neolithic period.
Carl Fuldner and Shane DuBay describe how bird feathers preserve records of air pollution.
Vadim Backman describes a technique for high resolution imaging of biological molecules without labels.
Jonathan Sears describes potential treatment strategies for retinopathy of prematurity.
Sandu Popescu and Jeff Tollaksen explain how a fundamental principle of nature does not hold in quantum mechanics.
Andrew Murray describes metabolic adaptations of Himalayan Sherpas to low-pressure, low-oxygen conditions at high altitudes.
Fernando Colchero, Roland Rau, and Susan Alberts describe the relationship between lifespan equality and average lifespan.
Rowan Lockwood discusses the sustainability of Native American oyster harvesting in the Chesapeake Bay.
Pelham Keahey describes how differential structured illumination microendoscopy can improve cancer diagnosis.
Malcolm MacIver describes how our aquatic ancestors may have become interested in land.
Jeff Schneider explains how self-driving cars use machine learning to learn the rules of the road.
Steven Weinberg describes his experiences writing about science for a general audience.
Researchers Jean-Philippe Vielle-Calzada and Miguel Vallebueno discuss 5,000-year-old partially domesticated maize.
Charles Rice and Robert Landford discuss the future of hepatitis C research without chimpanzees.
George Church, Matthieu Landon, and Michael Napolitano discuss the genetic replacement of arginine codons in E. coli.
Eileen Crimmins discusses the mortality difference between the sexes and its possible causes.
Joshua Elliott discusses potential impacts of climate change on water availability for irrigation.
Amanda Woerman discusses the role of the alpha-synuclein prion in the neurodegenerative disorder multiple system atrophy.
Anne Case and Angus Deaton describe recent changes in mortality trends for white non-Hispanic Americans.
Mark Jacobson explains the feasability of a 100% wind, water, and solar power grid in the continental United States.
Glaucio Paulino and Evgueni Filipov describe an origami-inspired approach to designing deployable structures and metamaterials.
Will Castleman and Cuneyt Berkdemir describe how to mimic rare earth elements using superatom clusters.
Yatrik Shah describes the connection between maternal iron absorption during lactation and neonatal anemia.
Sangeeta Bhatia describes the development of nanoparticles that can aid in detecting cancer and other diseases.
Stanislas Dehaene investigates how certain areas of the brain might be related to mathematical ability.
John Mather of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center explains why and how the James Webb Space Telescope is being built.
Robyn Lee and Marcel Behr investigate the genomics of endemic tuberculosis in Northern Canada.
Anthony James describes how gene drives can be used to spread malaria parasite resistance in mosquitoes.
Anthony Vecchiarelli explains a system of genetic cargo movement within cells that has roots in the work of Alan Turing.
Jintai Lin explains the impact of a global economy on air pollution in China and in the US.
Frank Bates describes how a project related to chewing gum led to materials science discoveries.
Abigail Marsh describes mechanisms of altruistic kidney donors' responsiveness to others' emotions.
Robert Epstein of the American Institute for Behavioral Research describes how search engine rankings can influence voter preferences.
Yaara Oren and Tal Pupko describe how bacteria can evolve via transfer of gene regulatory regions.
Seth Burgess describes a timeline of events surrounding the end-Permian mass extinction.
Noam Sobel explains how a human olfactory fingerprint helps uncover the uniqueness of individualsâ sense of smell.
Rino Rappuoli of GlaxoSmithKline discusses preclinical studies of a vaccine candidate against Staphylococcus aureus.
As AAAS president for 2015, Geraldine Richmond focuses on global scientific engagement.
Jef Boeke explains how to safeguard against unauthorized growth of engineered microorganisms.
Lonnie Thompson discusses clues to Earth's ancient climate history that are stored in tropical glacial ice.
Alán Aspuru-Guzik discusses how he uses supercomputing as a "molecular spaceship" to explore chemical space and discover potentially useful new molecules.
Keith Joung and Feng Zhang explain methods for editing sequences of DNA in living cells.
Veronica Vieland discusses a common disconnect between scientists and statisticians in evaluating scientific evidence.
Robin Ali describes efforts to transplant healthy rod and cone cells into afflicted retinas.
Elaine Mardis discusses how next generation sequencing technology is helping the Pan-Cancer Initiative gain a molecular understanding of cancer.
David Schaffer describes how to culture human stem cells in a fully-defined, scalable 3D medium.
Frank McCormick discusses a National Cancer Institute-led effort to turn a well-known cancer-causing protein into a viable drug target.
James Collins explains how researchers can rewire bacterial cells and control multiple genes simultaneously within a single cell.
Francesco Pennacchio explains how neonicotinoid insecticides can influence the immune response of honey bees.
Caroline Roullier and colleagues won the 2013 Cozzarelli Prize in Behavioral and Social Sciences for their work on the distribution of sweet potatoes in Oceania.
Yoel Sadovsky and Carolyn Coyne describe the placenta's role in protecting the fetus from infection by viruses.
Tad Patzek explains how natural gas production declines over time in hydrofractured wells.
Erik Petigura and Geoffrey Marcy discuss the number of Earth-like planets that may exist in our galaxy.
James "Jay" McClelland describes a parallel distributed processing approach to understanding human cognition.
Alvin Roth discusses how principles of economics can benefit people who need kidney transplants.
Inés Ibañez-Tallon discusses how nicotine and neurons conspire to hamper efforts to quit smoking.
Inder Verma and colleagues describe how a breast cancer-associated gene might be implicated in brain size control in mammals.
Ariena van Bruggen and J. Glenn Morris, Jr. discuss their work on citrus greening, a disease that is threatening the global citrus industry.
C. Thomas Caskey and Amy McGuire discuss whole-genome genetic screening for adult-onset diseases.
James Liao talks about engineering microorganisms to synthesize fuels and chemicals from CO2.
Janet Werker describes how exposure to speech and environmental factors can affect language acquisition by infants.
Neuroscientists John Morrison and Yuko Hara talk about the links between estrogen, mitochondria, and age-related cognitive decline.
Yi Cui discusses how nanometerials are improving the energy storage capacity of batteries.
Deborah Hung talks about identifying new approaches for treating and diagnosing infectious diseases.
Steven Pinker explains the idea of a cognitive niche, which may have facilitated the evolution of human intelligence.
David Laibson describes how behavioral economics can help incentivize positive behaviors.
Nicholas Fisher discusses his recent study investigating the health risks associated with eating seafood contaminated with Fukushima-derived radioactivity.
Nina Mazar discusses her recent study showing that where people sign a form affects how honestly they complete it.
Andrew Zammit-Mangion, Michael Dewar,Visakan Kadirkamanathan, and Guido Sanguinetti describe their statistical model of conflict dynamics and how they tested it using the WikiLeaks Afghan War Diary.
Janet Braam and E. Wassim Chehab discuss how plants anticipate and defend against insect attacks.
Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido, Hanchuan Peng, and Apostolos Georgopoulos describe their research on how dragonflies catch their prey.
Sean Palecek and Xiaojun Lian describe their efficient method for converting stem cells into heart muscle cells.
Clayton R. Magill and Katherine H. Freeman discuss how water availability and ecosystem changes influenced early human habitats.
Bob MacCallum explores how music can evolve from noise based on listeners' preferences.
Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena describes how he engineered a symbiotic bacterium found in mosquito guts to block the transmission of the malaria parasite.
Julie Segre and Liliana Losada discuss human-microbe interactions in a recording of a PNAS Science Cafe event held in Washington, DC on February 27, 2013.
Bernhard Palsson explains how bacteria can be used as factories to produce sustainable products.
Thalia Wheatley and Beau Sievers discuss the structural similarities between music and movement.
E. Peter Greenberg explains how antisense RNA help regulate bacterial social interactions.
David Hu describes his research on how mosquitos survive collisions with raindrops, which could help design better flying robots.
Bob MacCallum explores how music can evolve from noise based on listeners' preferences.
Merlin Hanauer and Chase Mendenhall discuss the science of biodiversity, in the second of two recordings of a PNAS Science Cafe event held in Washington, DC on October 17, 2012.
Merlin Hanauer and Chase Mendenhall discuss the science of biodiversity, in the first of two recordings of a PNAS Science Cafe event held in Washington, DC on October 17, 2012.
Myra Finkelstein discusses her research showing that California condors are significantly threatened by lead from lead-based ammunition.
Chemical biologist Allan Conney discusses his research on caffeine's anticancer properties.
Neuroscientist Charles F. Stevens discusses his research on finding the brain's underlying design principles.
Frances Arnold explains how she harnesses the power of evolution to create proteins and organisms with applications in medicine and in alternative energy.
Sarkis Mazmanian talks about how gut bacteria interact with the immune system to influence health and disease.
David Walt discusses his research on using fluorescent bacteria to send secret messages.
2011 Nobel Prize winner Bruce Beutler talks about his discovery of the first mammalian innate immune receptors, our first line of defense against the threat of microorganisms.
Medical entomologist Scott O'Neill explains how an intracellular bacterium could help curb the spread of dengue virus.
Changhuei Yang and Guoan Zheng talk about their inexpensive, lens-free biomedical imaging device, which could change the way we do microscopy.
Lora Hooper talks about the complex bacterial ecosystem in our gut and its important role in metabolism and immunity.
Baruch Fischhoff and Dietram Scheufele discuss the need for a scientific approach to the communication of science.
Structural biologist Pamela Björkman explains how engineering improved versions of naturally occurring antibodies against HIV might make them promising therapeutic agents.
Cozzarelli Prize winners Robert Saye and James Sethian introduce a numerical method to track complex motions.
Erica Machlin Cox and Selena Sagan discuss an unusual interaction that protects the hepatitis C virus from our body's defenses.
Erin Hanlon and Jeanne Duffy introduce their research on sleep, in a recording of the PNAS "Science of Sleep" event held in Washington, DC on March 14, 2012.
Robert Langer and Steven Zeitels describe a polymer gel that could help patients regain lost voice.
Nancy Adler discusses the need for sex-specific scientific reporting and the role it has played in women's health over the last 20 years.
Psychology experts Daniel Pine and Mark Wiederhold answer fear-related questions from the audience, in second of two recordings from PNAS's "The Science of Fear!" event held in Washington, DC on October 12, 2011.
Psychology experts Daniel Pine and Mark Wiederhold introduce their research on fear, in the first of two recordings from PNAS' "The Science of Fear!" event held in Washington, DC on October 12, 2011.
Daniel Nocera discusses how efficient catalysts can help us store solar energy in the same way plants do.
Molecular biologist Stephen Liberles discusses how prey learn to recognize the scent of a predator.
Donald Ingber discusses the "microfabrication" of human biological systems as a means to replace animal testing during drug development.
Wendy Kellogg discusses her research into social computing and her boots-on-the-ground observations of how mobile phones can impact the developing world.
Stephen Quake discusses rapid DNA sequencing and treating medical patients based on their genomes.
Gregory Abowd discusses the clinical applications of capturing and recording the every day experiences of children with autism spectrum disorder.
George Whitesides discusses an inexpensive and easy-to-use medical diagnostic device that can be used in the developing world.
Jennifer Golbeck discusses the intersection of computer science, sociology, and social networking.
Physicist David Weitz discusses the material properties that make chocolate to-die-for.
Bo Begole discusses ubiquitous computing, behavioral modeling, and smart environments that can anticipate people's information needs.
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Wayne Clough discusses his goal to educate the public about the Smithsonian's groundbreaking scientific research projects.
Roger Beachy discusses the role of genetically modified crops in feeding the world's growing population.
Zvonimir Dogic discusses how viruses can be coaxed into forming self-assembling, polymer membranes.
Won-Yong Song and Jiyoung Park discuss the urgent problem of arsenic-tainted rice in Southeast Asia, and genetically engineered rice plants that would be safe to consume and could help remediate arsenic-contaminated groundwater.
Liza Moscovice discusses what her study on baboon behavior reveals about the evolution of cooperation in humans.
Robina Shaheen and Mark Thiemens discuss an oxygen isotope signature that reveals how carbonates on Mars form in the absence of life.
Benjamin tenOever discusses his team's prize winning discovery that could be the key to developing a universal influenza A vaccine.
Cheryl Lyn Walker discusses the role of a cellular protein, called ATM, in offsetting oxidative damage.
NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins discusses "personalized medicine," a novel approach in which doctors diagnose and treat patients using detailed information about each individual.
Susan Stipp discusses her PNAS research article that reveals whether the ash cloud from the 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano posed a threat to aircraft, and if the widespread airport closures in Europe were warranted.
Jim Jensen, Executive Director of the Office of Congressional and Government Affairs, a branch of the National Research Council, discusses how scientific research shapes public policy.
Kei Koizumi, Assistant Director for Federal Research and Development at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, discusses some aspects of the President's 2012 research budget.
Nate Lewis dicusses the design principles and applications of electronic artificial noses.
Peter Schiller discusses a device that could one day restore sight to the blind by directly stimulating the visual cortex.
PNAS Editor-in-Chief Randy Schekman discusses the journal's new option to publish online-only research articles.
Rutledge Ellis-Behnke discusses his research in nano-healing, a technology that halts bleeding and helps the brain and body to recover from injury and disease.
David Hillis explains how phylogenetics can be used to solve criminal cases involving the intentional transmission of HIV via unprotected sex.
Paul Ekman, the scientist whose research inspired the Fox television drama "Lie to Me," explains that almost everyone can learn to read the facial microexpressions that reveal concealed emotions, but that the technique is no "Pinocchio's nose."
Neil Shubin researches the evolutionary origin of anatomical features. Dr. Shubin's most recent discovery, Tiktaalik roseae, has been dubbed the "missing link" between fish and land animals. Dr. Shubin discusses Tiktaalik and the evolutionary shift from life in water to life on land.
Marcel Salathé researches disease transmission and prevention, at the Penn State University Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics. To investigate how flu-like diseases spread through schools, Dr. Salathé used wireless sensors to measure the number of close-proximity, person-to-person interactions during a typical day at a local high school.
Charles J. Weschler studies the chemistry of indoor pollutants, including airborne particles, volatile organic compounds, and inorganic gases such as ozone. Listen as Dr. Weschler discusses the consequences of indoor pollution at home and in the workplace.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, author, host of "NOVA ScienceNOW," and the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium. Listen as Dr. Tyson discusses the extraordinary capabilities of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, author, host of "NOVA ScienceNOW," and the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium. Listen as Dr. Tyson discusses the balance between scientific credibility and public exposure, and the pitfalls of challenging Pluto's status as a planet.
Dr. Mae Jemison is a physician and scientist, who on September 12, 1992 aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, became the world's first woman of color to travel into space. Listen as Dr. Jemison discusses race and gender bias in science education, and the importance of public science literacy.
Dr. Nathan Wolfe is the Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Human Biology at Stanford University and Director of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative. Listen as Dr. Wolfe discusses malaria and the parasites that cause it, and his research that determined the origin of malignant malaria in humans.
Dr. Lennart Balk discusses the thiamine deficiency syndrome killing European wild birds.
Listen as Dr. Daniel Rugar discusses his 100 million-fold improvement in resolution to conventional magnetic resonance imaging.
Michael Köttgen and Owen Woodward discuss identifying a key gene associated with gout, and the possible therapeutic implications.
John Dore discusses the connection between rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the increasing acidity of Earth's oceans.
Edward C. Holmes is a professor of biology and a Distinguished Senior Scholar in the Eberly College of Science at the Pennsylvania State University. Listen as Dr. Holmes discusses his research on using comparative genomics to study the genetic evolution of RNA viruses.
Alessandro Acquisti is an Associate Professor of Information Technology and Public Policy at the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. Listen as Dr. Acquisti discusses his research in the economics of privacy and his 2009 PNAS research article on predicting Social Security numbers.
Maureen Cropper is an economics professor at the University of Maryland and a former lead economist at the World Bank. Listen as Dr. Cropper discusses her research in environmental economics and her 2008 election into the National Academy of Sciences.
James Thomson is best known for his pioneering work that isolated and cultured non-human primate and human embryonic stem cells. Listen as Dr. Thomson discusses his research and the future of stem cells in medical uses ranging from drug discovery, transplantation, and as a basic research tool.
Emily Carter's work merges quantum mechanics, applied mathematics, and solid state physics to create simulations of various molecules and materials. Listen as Dr. Carter discusses her research and her 2008 election to the National Academy of Sciences.
Richard Klein served as editor for the PNAS Special Feature titled "Out of Africa". This collection of articles explores the historical expansion of Homo sapiens from Africa to Eurasia. The Special Feature, along with an editorial by Dr. Klein, will publish in the September 22 issue of PNAS.
Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz's laboratory at the National Institutes of Health works to characterize the fundamental principles governing protein geography and movement within cells. Dr. Lippincott-Schwartz talks about her work and her recent election to the National Academy of Sciences.
"Decreases in dengue transmission may act to increase the incidence of dengue hemorrhagic fever"
"Neurons derived from reprogrammed fibroblasts functionally integrate into the fetal brain and improve symptoms of rats with Parkinson's disease"
Randy Schekman, the PNAS Editor-in-Chief, discusses the selection process and history of the Cozzarelli Prize. The Cozzarelli Prize is given annually to six outstanding PNAS articles, each representing one of the major disciplines of the National Academy of Sciences.
Fred Gage is a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. In this podcast, Dr. Gage talks about the subtleties involved as researchers explore how to use stem cells to treat conditions such as Parkinson's disease.
Thomas Wellems is the head of the Malaria and Vector Research Unit at the National Institutes of Health. In this episode, he discusses the advances made in the fight against malaria and the problems that still remain.
Bruce Alberts is the former President of the National Academy of Sciences and the current editor-in-chief of Science. In this podcast, Dr. Alberts talks about how he generates ideas for editorials, how Science approaches issues of scientific misconduct, and his opinion on the proliferation of journals worldwide.
PNAS is one of the world's most-cited multidisciplinary scientific journals and has been published by the National Academies since 1915. This podcast, part of the Sounds of Science produced by the National Academies, looks at the history and future of this publication with Ken Fulton, publisher of PNAS.
Pamela J. Fraker was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007. She is known for her investigations of the impact of nutritional deficiencies, particularly of zinc, on immune defense. Her work provided evidence that deficiency in protein--calories causes a decline in antibody and cell mediated responses, which leads to higher rates of infection, poor wound healing, and other adverse impacts in the malnourished and those with chronic disease.
Ran Nathan organized the Movement Ecology Special Feature for PNAS. He is an associate professor and the chair of the department of Evolution, Systematics, and Ecology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Jerusalem, Israel.
Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990 for her work in the field of Plant Biology, Nina Fedoroff is a pioneer in the molecular aspects of plant transposable elements. Building upon the work of Barbara McClintock, she elucidated the sequence of some of these elements, demonstrated their utility for gene cloning and was instrumental in converting the study of plant transposable elements into one accessible by molecular techniques.
Richard T. Durrett was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007 for his work in applied mathematical sciences. Durrett's research in probability theory concerns problems that arise from ecology and genetics. He has developed mathematical models to study the evolution of microsatellites, impacts of selective sweeps on genetic variation, genome rearrangement, gene duplication, and gene regulation.
C. Owen Lovejoy was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007 for his work in the field of anthropology. Lovejoy overturned traditional models of human origins by integrating biomechanics into biological anthropology, demonstrating that the earliest hominids walked on two legs. He developed novel methods for quantifying sexual dimorphism and revealing the demographics of prehistoric humans.
Albert Libchaber was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007 for his work in physics. Libchaber has made lasting and fundamental contributions to experimental chaos dynamics and its application to biological physics, from elucidating the forces at work when a fish swims through water to defining the minimal conditions necessary for artificial life.
John G. Hildebrand was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007 for his work in animal, nutritional, and applied microbial sciences. His work on the functional organization, physiology, and development of the central olfactory system of insects has made him a pioneer in analyzing neural mechanisms underlying chemosensory control of mating behavior and insect--plant interactions. This work has application in disruption of insect mating behavior and herbivory, with practical benefit to human health and welfare.
"Understanding the nanoparticle-protein corona using methods to quantify exchange rates and affinities of proteins for nanoparticles"