The Knowledge Archives: Recent Episodes
The Knowledge Archives
We're a team of students trying to gain unique insights by learning about as many different disciplines as possible! We're interviewing experts in many different industries to understand their perspectives.
Dr. David Peña-Guzmán is an Associate Professor of Humanities at San Fransisco State University in the US. He researches the hidden world of intellect in animals, especially exploring the ethical implications this brings. Today, he explains the latest discoveries in this field and their philosophical implications.To learn more about his work, see his book (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691220093/when-animals-dream) or other podcasts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG3K5FX9v8c).Timeline0:00 Introduction3:44 Background Info6:21 Animal Imagination15:13 Research Limitations20:33 Animal Rights27:58 Future Research Areas
Dr. Feras Batarseh is an Associate Professor of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. He researches the safety of AI applications, especially in fields like agricultural and drinking water production. Today, he explains the need to consider formerly different types of risks together.
To learn more about Dr. Batarseh's work, visit: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oQiAulIAAAAJ&hl=en
P.S. Some fancy words Dr. Batareh used:
- Ag and water societies: the decision-makers involved with the agricultural and water treatment sectors.
- Cybersecurity: assuring that digital resources (from intangible data to tangible hardware) are able to serve their intended purpose with minimal losses
- National security: assuring the wellbeing of the citizens' of a nation in the face of threats, including military, financial, and healthcare disruptions.
- Cyber-physical security: preventing unauthorised entry or exit from secured physical facilities, including by protecting the digital equipment and data needed to assure this.
- Adversary: a criminal trying to launch cyberattacks.
- State vs. non-state adversaries: individual(s) sponsored by governments to launch cyberattacks vs. individual(s) doing so without government aid.
- Phishing attacks: pretending to represent a legitimate cause to get confidential data from individual(s). Ex: Getting passwords by pretending to be technical support for a company.
- Metaverse: a digitally simulated environment (like in Virtual reality) that lets users mimic the real world by having very diverse/extensive experiences available.
Megan Griffiths is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. She researches an innovative tool for public health: self-spreading vaccines in wildlife. Today, she explains the history of vaccinating wildlife and how self-spreading vaccines work.
To learn more about Megan's work, visit: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Megan-Griffiths-13.
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
02:38 Why We Vaccinate Animals
04:50 Risks from Wild Animals
05:52 Historical Case Studies
08:19 Edible Vaccines
10:59 Self-Spreading Vaccines
14:18 Harmless Viruses
16:03 Pros/Cons of Self-Spreading Vaccines
P.S. Some fancy words Megan used:
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Clinical trials: carefully regulated tests to show taht a medicine is or isn't effective.
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System: a group of organisms that interact
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Antigen: a part of a virus that our immune system can recognise as dangerous. Like a 'red flag' marking danger.
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Mutate: an organism changing its DNA, allowing it to have different capabilities.
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Metabolism: the process of converting food to energy
Dr. Josh Kellog is an assistant professor at the Department of Biomolecular Sciences at Pennsylvania State University in the US. He works as an ethnobotanist: working with indigenous cultures around the world to find drugs from nature. Today, he talks to us about his experiences on the ground and how the field has changed over the years.
To learn more about Dr. Kellogg's work, visit: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ebu0_H8AAAAJ
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
03:38 Selecting Plants to Study
06:03 Extracting Medicinal Compounds
09:03 Problem Solving with Pharmaceuticals
12:42 His lab's work
14:49 History of Ethnobotany
18:53 Favourite Field Lessons
23:23 Challenges for Indigenous Cultures
25:28 Innovations in Ethnobotany
29:13 Neglected Areas
P.S. Some fancy words Dr. Kellogg used:
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Activity: how much a chemical can influence biological organisms
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Bioassay guided fractionation: a process of repeatedly separating chemicals in a sample to isolate one desired chemical. Like a drug candidate.
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Pathogenic: harmful to humans
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US CDC: The US Centre for Disease Control. A government organisation to manage public health risks.
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Penicillin: the first antibiotic drug to be produced at global scale.
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Toxicology studies: Studies to test whether a certain substance is harmful to biological organisms and at what dose.
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Clinical tries: a series of tests to prove that a drug is beneficial to patients.
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Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A tool that chemists use to identify molecules by the magnetic properties of their electrons.
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Mass spectrometry: A tool that chemists use to identify molecules by their atomic mass.
Dr. Patricia Huston is an interdisciplinary scientist exploring public health, cellular biology, and our culture. She studies how all these influence healthy behaviours like being physically active. Today, we have an INCREDIBLY insightful conversation on the many layers of factors that affect your health!
To learn more about Dr. Huston's work, visit: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=KuQUs9MAAAAJ&hl=en. Also, you can read the paper of hers we discussed here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4048238
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
02:02 Physical Inactivity & Disease
04:44 Networks & Your Health
10:50 Disease & Your Body
18:55 Pros of Network Analysis
23:40 Future Innovations
P.S. Some fancy words Dr. Huston used:
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Chronic Disease: A disease that's present over a long time. Ex: Diabetes
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Chronic low-grade inflammation: A persistent, but non-extreme inflammation in the body.
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Network analysis: studying how groups of things interact together.
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Macroenvironmental influences: Global phenomena out of our control that influence our lives. Ex: A pandemic.
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Sympathetic response: our body's 'alert mode'. It involves us being stressed.
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Macrophages: cells in our immune system that destroy harmful substances.
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Coagulate: When blood clots (ex: to form a scar that seals a cut)
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Adrenaline: a chemical that is released into our blood when we prepare to deal with threats.
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Rube Goldsberg Machine: an overly complex machine to perform a simple task.
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Longevity/life span: In common terms, how long your life is.
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Microenvironment: in the context of this podcast, factors happening inside your body compared to outside your body.
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Heart rate variability: How much change there is in your heart rate over time.
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Electronic medical health records: government documents that collect all your health information in one place online.
Dr. Polymeros Chrysochou is a professor of marketing and consumer studies at Aarhus University in Denmark. He studies how to persuade consumers to adopt healthy behaviours. Today, we talk about how to use something called 'normative statements' to be persuasive!
To learn more about Dr. Chrysochou's work, visit: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=10OpsRcAAAAJ
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
01:09 Intro to Psychological Reactance
03:08 Descriptions vs. Orders
06:45 Reacting to Regulations
09:46 Practical Lessons
13:41 Neglected Areas of Work
P.S. Some fancy words Dr. Chrysochou used:
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Affect: How negative vs. positive an emotion is
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Normative statements: In an oversimplified way, statements about social proof / peer pressure.
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Descriptive norms: Describing social proof (what others think)
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Injunctive norms: Telling you what you should do based on what others think
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Reactance: A psychological theory that says we resist challenges to our freedom.
Clara Wilson is an animal psychologist at Queen's University Belfast in the UK. She studies how dogs can help humans with medical conditions. Today, we talk about how dogs' powerful sense of smell can be used to diagnose diseases like cancer, COVID-19, seizures, and more!
To learn more about Clara's work, visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clara-wilson-990a61162/
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
03:26 How dogs help humans
07:54 How dogs detect diseases
14:20 How dogs are trained
19:00 Dogs vs. smell technology
20:48 Which dogs are best?
23:39 What's next in the field?
19:22 Solutions to improve antifungals
21:42 Neglected areas in the field
P.S. Some fancy words Clara used:
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Service/Assistant Animal: An animal trained to help someone with a disability with a specific task, like navigation.
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Medical Alert Dogs: Dogs using their sense of smell to detect medical conditions like seizures.
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Olfactory epithelium: an area at the back of your nose that's responsible for sensing smells.
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Olfactory Bulb: the part of the brain responsible for processing smell senses.
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Olfaction: Smell
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Blood plasma: the liquid part of blood
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Hypoglycemic Unawareness: Being unable to tell when your blood sugar levels are dropping too much.
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Valence: a psychological term for what everyday people call 'good' vs. 'bad'
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Mass spectrometry: A technique to analyse the mass of different chemical compounds.
Dr. Chris Bryant is a psychologist at the University of Bath in the UK. He studies how to get people to reduce animal product consumption. Today, we talk about the problem behind meat consumption, some solutions to change consumer's meat purchases, and what's next in this field!
To learn more about Dr. Bryant's work, visit: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=Wq7j88AAAAAJ&hl=en
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
02:09 Problems with Meat
05:44 Key Stats on Meat Problems
09:16 Problematic Regions/Species?
13:59 Barriers to reducing Meat Consumption
17:23 Solutions to Reduce Meat Consumption
23:54 Challenges in Current Research
20:06 Solutions to improve antifungals
22:26 Neglected areas in the field
P.S. Some Fancy Words Dr. Bryant used:
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Tail docking: Cutting off an animal's tail. Ex: for a cow.
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Eutrophication: the process of water getting excessive nutrients. This causes excess microorganisms to grow in it, killing other organisms in the water.
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Antibiotic resistance: when bacteria develop resistance against our drugs, making bacterial infections harder to treat.
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Prophylactically: To prevent a disease before it happens instead of to cure it afterwards.
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Blue water: water from humans used in agriculture
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Green water: water from precipitation that is used in agriculture
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Beyond Meat: A popular plant-based meat
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Randomised trials: randomly assigning a treatment (like eating plant-based meat) to one group of people and not to another. Then, observing changes in the two groups.
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Cognitive dissonance: Mental discomfort from having beliefs conflicting with other information (like facts, others' opinions, social norms, etc.).
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Effective animal advocacy: nonprofits advocating for the use of rationality and objective data to find the best charitable interventions for animal rights, instead of just 'good enough' interventions.
Dr. Marcio Rodrigues is a Senior researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil. He has decades of experience studying the growing concerns about fungal diseases. Today, we talk about why fungal diseases are neglected, challenging to cure, and growing in size.
To learn more about Dr. Rodrigues' work, visit https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marcio-Rodrigues-2.
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
02:41 Humans and Fungal Diseases
04:22 The Rise of Fungal Diseases
06:02 Solutions to Fungal Diseases
08:03 Fungi and Climate Change
13:17 Intro to Antifungals
18:06 Antifungals in agriculture
20:08 Solutions to improve antifungals
22:28 Neglected areas in the field
P.S. Some Fancy Words Dr. Rodrigues used:
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Meningitis: A swelling of the tissues in/near the brain.
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Mortality: the percent of people who catch an illness that die from it.
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Candida auris: a species of fungi that we cannot treat with many antifungals
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Antifungal: a drug that cures fungal infections
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Resistant: An organism that develops 'defenses' against threats. Like micro-organisms developing resistance to human drugs.
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Immunocompromised: An organism whose immune system isn't working as well as normal to protect against diseases. Ex: A patient in chemotherapy receives chemicals that kill immune cells (as well as cancer cells).
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Pathogenic: A species that can cause harmful diseases to humans.
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Organelles: Smaller parts of a cell.
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Antibiotics: Drugs that cure bacterial infections.
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Eukaryotic: Cells that have nuclei. Like animal cells and fungal cells.
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Prokaryotic: Simple cells that don't have nuclei.
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Cell: The smallest building block of larger tissues, organs, and organisms.
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Cell membrane: The 'packaging' that encloses a cell.
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Lipid: A type of 'fat' molecule.
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Ergosterol: A chemical in fungi that serves a similar purpose to cholesterol in animals.
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Cell wall: An additional layer of protection around cells on top of cell membranes.
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Monoclonal antibodies: An antibody is a 'marker' our immune system uses to identify foreign 'attackers' like viruses. Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies that have been created by cloning a single cell several times.
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Amphotericin B: A strong antifungal that is used for very serious fungal infections.
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Lipid formulation: When a drug is blended into a capsule of fat molecules that are safe for us to consume.
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Azoles: Five antifungal drugs that are very common to treat fungal infections.
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Sporotrichosis: a fungal infection of the skin caused by touching fungal spores in natural environments like moss.
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Paracoccidiodomycosis: A fungal disease that affects someone's lungs, but is hard to diagnose.
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Histoplasmosis: A fungal disease that infects the lungs caused by inhaling spores in the soil or in animal feces. It is difficult to diagnose.
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Subcutaneous: Referring to diseases that infect areas below the skin.
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Chromoblastomycosis: A fungal disease of the skin that can last decades.
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Legion: an area of an organ that is damaged. Like a wound or an ulcer.
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Mucormycosis: a rare, but serious fungal disease caused by molds that infects the skin.
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Candida, Cryptococcus, Aspergillus - types of fungal species
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Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections: A global nonprofit fighting fungal diseases. More details: https://gaffi.org
Dr. Kees Baldé is a Senior Programme Officer at the Sustainable Cycles Initiative at the United Nations University. Dr. Baldé has been monitoring the growing issue of global ewaste for almost a decade. Today, we talk about why our solutions to ewaste are inadequate and the global mess it creates.
To learn more about Dr. Baldé's work, visit https://unu.edu/experts/kees-balde.html
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
02:30 E-waste in 2020
03:40 Challenges in E-waste Management
08:40 Solutions for E-waste
12:48 E-waste Supply Chain
16:40 Future Opportunities
19:58 E-waste vs. Plastic Waste
P.S. Some Fancy Words Dr. Baldé used:
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Freon: A chemical used to absorb heat in refrigerators that is a greenhouse gas.
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CRTs: Cathod Ray Tubes. An electronic component of old display screens used after the 1930s
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Circular economy: An economy where no materials are wasted. Materials from old products are used to make new products.
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Chemical recycling: breaking down plastics into their chemical building blocks (monomers) so they can be reused.
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Printed circuit board: A common electronic component used in most computers. It is made by printing electrically-conductive elements like metal onto non-conductive materials like silicon.
Joel McGuire is a research analyst at the Happier Lives Institute. The Happier Lives Institute is a think tank studying how to measure and increase happiness. Today, Joel discusses their new research on which evidence is best suited to measure happiness. And how charities can use that to help others.
To learn more about the Happier Lives Institute, visit https://happierlivesinstitute.org
To read the Happier Lives Institute's research, visit: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mY4pZSwvFCDsjorJX
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
03:00 Traditional measures of wellbeing
08:55 What is subjective-wellbeing?
10:58 How charities decide where to spend money
15:38 The Happier Lives Institute's Research
22:05 Next Steps from this Research
P.S. Some fancy words Joel used:
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Subjective wellbeing: How happy someone sees themself as.
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Charity Navigator: A charity rankings site that tries to audit the most transparent charities with low costs. More details: https://charitynavigator.org.
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GiveWell: A charitable organisation trying to find the most thoroughly-proven opportunities to do good. More details: https://givewell.org.
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Consumption: how many goods and services a household uses.
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Deworming: a type of health treatment to remove parasitic worms from someone's body.
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Cash transfers: a type of charitable intervention where donors directly send money to recipients, usually without any conditions on its use.
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DALY: Disability adjusted life year. A unit of health that measures how long someone is alive, adjusted for their quality of life. Ex: A year of being alive while blind has a smaller value in DALYs than a year with sight.
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Strongminds: a charity that trains ordinary people in Africa to lead psychotherapy groups for others in their community. More details: https://strongminds.org.
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Cataract surgery: a healthcare treatment that requires relatively inexpensive equipment and can prevent blindness.
Dr. Christine Aardal is a Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Dr. Aardal studies antimicrobial resistance, which is when the drugs we use to treat bacterial infections become ineffective. Today, she specifically explains how these drugs are developed and the economics of why antimicrobial research is underfunded.
To learn more about the Dr. Aardal's work, please see her profile
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
02:23 What is antimicrobial resistance?
05:50 Why it's dangerous
08:15 How antibiotics are made
12:53 Costs of making antibiotics
15:20 Who pays for antibiotics
22:44 Issues with antibiotic funding
29:26 Solutions in antibiotic funding
34:09 What's next in the industry
P.S. Some fancy words Dr. Aardal used:
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Schistosomiasis: A disease caused by parasitic worms in many developing countries. It is the second most deadly parasitic disease after malaria.
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Antibiotics: Medical compounds that specifically kill bacteria.
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Antimicrobials: Medical compounds that kill microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc.
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Antimicrobial resistance: When some microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc. develop protection against our antimicrobial drugs.
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Antibiotic resistance: When bacteria specifically develop protection against our antibiotic drugs.
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Clinical trials: experiments done to test whether medicines work in humans.
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Monopoly time period: A guarantee for a company that it is the only one that can make a certain product for a certain number of years. This makes sure the company does not face competition in selling its product.
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Dry Wells: A metaphor for pharmaceutical drugs developed that turn out to not be promising, like drilling a well for water in an area where the land turns out dry.
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Microbe: another word for microorganisms
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Pathogen: Microorganisms that cause humans harm
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Health technology assessments: studies run by governments in some countries to decide which healthcare technologies to fund.
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Out of pocket: Paying with one's own money (vs. having governments or insurers pay for a cost instead of an individual).
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Public goods: goods/services where many people can benefit without blocking others from accessing the goods/services. And where it's difficult to control who accesses the goods/services. Ex: education
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CARB-X: A coalition of governments and nonprofits funding research on antibiotics. More details: https://carb-x.org
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GARDP: Global Antiobiotic Research and Development Partnership. An organisation funding antibiotic research and ensuring antibiotics are available to those in low and middle-income countries. More details: https://gardp.org/
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Pull incentive: Yearly funding that governments give to pharmaceutical companies so the companies keep researching new antimicrobials every year.
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Bacteriophages: Viruses that attack specific species of bacteria.
Dr. Volker Heyd is a Professor of Achaeology at the University of Helsinki in Finland. He studies past cultures in the bronze age using tools from genetics, archaelogy, and anthropology. In this interview, we talk about the Yamnaya people of Eurasia and the complexity of understanding how they spead across two contintents!
To learn more about the Dr. Heyd's work, see here
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
03:09 Who are the Yamnaya people?
05:38 Why did the Yamnaya spread?
08:20 Geography of the Yamnaya's Lands
10:00 Cousins of the Yamnaya
11:48 A Cultural Mystery
15:41 Using Biology in Archaelogy
19:36 Challenges in Archaeology
24:07 What's next in the field
P.S. Some fancy words Dr. Heyd used:
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Prehistoric: time period before written history
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Genes: Instructions in the human body for particular outcomes (ex: how to create eye colour)
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Genepool: all the genes that are found in a population of people
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Final centuries of the 4th millennium BC: 4700-5000 BCE
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Eurasian steppe: a geographic region stretching from China to Hungary that is mostly flat grassland.
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Yamnaya people: a culture of nomadic people that lived on the Eurasian Steppe over 6500 years ago.
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Corded Ware people: a culture related to the Yamnaya that expanded into Europe over 4500 years ago
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Kurgans: monuments used on Yamnaya burial sites (like gravestones)
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Bronze age: the time period where humans first created metal tools
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Stone age: the time period where humans first created stone tools
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Ecozone: a geographical region with similar ecosystems
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Admixture: when several individuals from isolated populations move between each other, mixing the genes of both populations.
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Material culture: A description of a society based on the materials and objects it has. Just like a society's musical culture, for example.
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Megalith: a large stone that forms part of a structure (like a burial site)
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Radiocarbon dating: A method to find the age of organic matter that measures the amount of a radioactive version of carbon present in a sample. Details here
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Old wood effect: an issue with radiocarbon dating used to find the age of samples of wood. Since wood grows in rings and the inner layers may be centuries older than the outer layers. Details here
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Reservoir effect: an issue with radiocarbon dating where samples of different ages are mixed together, such as when a living organism in the ocean absorbs older silt from the seabed. Details here
Dr. Michaela Pascoe is a Senior Research Fellow of Health and Sport at Victoria University in Australia. She studies the health benefits of wellness practices like meditation. In this interview, we talk about the science behind meditation, how to meditate consistently, and the long history of this practice!
To learn more about the Dr. Pascoe's work, please visit https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michaela-Pascoe
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
03:01 Meditation and Lockdowns
05:01 The Science Behind Meditation
10:09 How Scientists Study Meditation
13:16 How to Meditate Consistently
15:37 History of Meditation
17:32 Indigenous Cultures and Wellness Practices
20:17 Resources on Meditation
Kerry Vaughan is a Program Manager of Early Science at Leverage Research. He studies the history of how we developed electricity. Specifically, he analyses what makes some scientific inventions succeed and others fail.
To learn more about his work, please visit: https://leverageresearch.org. Or see his research paper here: https://leverageresearch.org/research-voltas-electrophorus
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
02:37 Overview of Electricity's History
05:38 What's a Leyden Jar?
07:31 Importance of Leyden Jars
08:51 Electrician Culture
11:24 Science & Having Fun
14:30 Benjamin Franklin + Electricity
19:29 Alessandra Volta + Electrophorus
24:55 Scientific Discoveries + Public Attention
27:22 Electricity and Business
29:25 Math is the foundation
33:29 Asking good questions
38:26 Getting information sources
40:40 What's next for Kerry
P.S. Some fancy words Kerry used:
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Maxwell: James Maxwell was a Scottish mathematician in the 1800s. He contributed to the math describing electricity.
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Gilbert: William Gilbert was an English physicist in the 1500s. He contributed to early theories of magnetism.
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Lodestone: A mineral that is a naturally-occurring magnet.
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Capacitor: a device that separates negative and positive charges to create electricity
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Leyden Jar: An early capacitor. More here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=O3HQR2H5v04
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Alessandro Volta: An Italian physicist from the 1700s who created early versions of batteries, as well as a special capacitor called the electrophorus.
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Electrophorus: A capacitor created by Alessandra Volta to show a mysterious property of capacitors called 'repeated sparks'. More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaTfwVPKfI8
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Repeated sparks: An effect where an electrophorus is charged once, but seems to create 'shocks' multiple times. It is difficult to understand where the electricity to create these 'shocks' comes from.
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Natural Philosopher / Electrician: Natural philosophers are the precursor to modern scientists. Electricians are natural philosophers who study electricity.
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Ørsted: Hans Christian Ørsted was a Danish physicist who first showed the connection between electricity and magnetism.
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Benjamin Franklin: A famous natural philosopher in the 1700s who studied electricity.
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Ground: a path where electrical charge can return to neutral (often by travelling into the Earth or 'ground').
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Musschenbroek: Pieter van Musschenbroek was a Dutch scientist who invented the Leyden jar in the 1700s.
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Deepmind Go: An artificial intelligence algorithm that beat human-level performance at Go, one of the most complex games ever.
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Bell Labs: A department that started under the telecommunications company, Bell, in the 1900s. It made many advances in early electronics and telecommunications.
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Shannon: Claude Shannon was an American mathematician and electrical engineer who founded the field of Information Theory in the 1900s.
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Information Theory: the science of how we measure, store, and communicate information digitally.
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The Enlightenment: a philosophical world view in the 1600s and 1700s. It focused on human capacity for reasoning and supported the development of modern science.
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Effective Altruism: a philosophical world view in modern times that supports the use of rational thinking to do good in the world.
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Primary sources: historical sources of information written by eyewitnesses of the topics they discuss at their time.
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Secondary sources: historical sources of information not written by eyewitnesses who directly observed the events.
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Artificial General Intelligence: A man-made creation that can perform any intellectual task as well as a human.
Christian Diem is a PhD Candidate at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, Austria. His work studies risk modelling in the financial sector. Specifically, he models how banks do business with each other to minimise the risk of banks failing.
To learn more about his work, please visit https://www.csh.ac.at/researcher/christian-diem/
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
01:03 Christian's background
02:33 Complexity science and network science
03:46 Historical examples of banking risks
07:25 Importance of quantifiable evidence
10:24 Correlated financial risks
12:45 Predictions and economic modelling
13:42 How bank risks are analysed
16:27 Risky interactions between banks
18:48 Optimisation goals in modelling
19:55 How does one bank measure risk?
21:24 How does a sector measure risk?
24:56 Challenges with modelling risk
26:02 What mathematicians really do
28:38 What's next in this field
Dr. Maria del Rio-Chanona is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, Austria. Her work studies data-driven modelling in economics. Specifically, she has modelled how the UK's industries react to the shock of COVID-19 and how this influences the UK economy as a whole.
To learn more about Ms. del Rio-Chanona's work, please visit https://mariadelriochanona.info/
Dr. Rhyne King is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the New York University in the US. His work studies the history of the Achaemenid (or Persian) Empire using archaeological remains. Specifically, he has studied the economic system and taxation of the Persian Empire.
To learn more about the Dr. King's work on the Persian Empire, please visit https://oi.uchicago.edu/persepolis-ancient-iran
Dr. Moujan Matin is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada. Her work studies the history of ceramic-making in the Islamic world. Specifically, she uses scientific techniques to analyse how this crafting process improved over time.
To learn more about her work, please visit her Google Scholar profile
Sarah Kennedy is a PhD. Candidate in Archaeology at the University of Pittsburgh in the US. Her work focuses on the history of colonial Peru under Spanish rule. Specifically, she studies the history of indigenous workers at silver mines during this time period.
To learn more about her work, please visit: https://sarah-kennedy.wixsite.com/sarahkennedy. You can also visit some resources she mentioned:
- http://pares.culturaydeporte.gob.es/pares/en/inicio.html. Online catalogue of the Seville General Archives of the Indies.
Dr. Benjamin Goldstein is an Assistant Professor of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University in Canada. His work focuses on tracking the supply chains of corporations. Specifically, he's developed a new methodology to analyse the sustainability of corporations, working on case studies like linking factory farmed cattle to Costco's beef.
To learn more about his work, please visit: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5VCGc9kAAAAJ&hl=en. You can also visit some resources Dr. Goldstein mentioned:
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https://trase.earth/. A project to track agricultural product sustainability.
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https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800918313818. Dr. Goldstein's research paper on his new methodology
Dr. Gunther Bensch is a Researcher at the RWI Leibniz Institute for Economics Research in Germany. His work focuses on development economics, specifically regarding energy use. He especially analyses issues like spreading improved cooking technology and lighting in countries like Senegal.
To learn more about his work, please visit: https://en.rwi-essen.de/gunther-bensch
Dr. Mac Callaham is a research ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. His work studies soil ecology with a focus on the organisms that live within soils. Specifically, he's researched how soils play a role in restoring the health of ecosystems, especially after disturbances like invasive species.
To learn more about Dr. Callaham's work, visit his Google Scholar Profile
Dafni Avgoustaki is a PhD Student at the Aarhus University in Denmark. Her work studies the optimisation of vertical farming for businesses to implement. Specifically, she's researched how to decrease energy and lighting costs for vertical farms, as well as starting her own company to find solutions for this.
To learn more about Dafni's work, visit: www.researchgate.net/profile/Dafni_Avgoustaki. You can also check out her company's work here: http://verde-cube.com/
Dr. Mike Irvine is the Biostatistical Lead at the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute in Canada. His work uses mathematical models to help prepare public health responses to disease. Specifically, he's researched the effects of interventions on infectious diseases and opioid overdoses.
To learn more about Dr. Irvine's work, please visit his website: https://sempwn.github.io/
Dr. Francis Poulin is a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo in Canada. His research studies oceanic processes like currents and vortices, especially in regards to their effects on marine ecology and climate. Specifically, he uses mathematical and computational models to analyse features of these processes like the stability of ocean currents.
To learn more about Dr. Poulin's work, please visit: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=EFm5gG4AAAAJ&hl=en
Dr. Jesse Reynolds is an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law in the US. His research studies the regulation of future technologies to achieve environmental sustainability, including solar geoengineering.
To learn more about his work, please see his blog (http://jreynolds.org/blog/) or his research (http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016EF000416)
Dr. Zack Blount is a Research Assistant Professor at the Michigan State University in the US. His research focuses on studying evolutionary contingency - that evolution is influenced by random events. Specifically, he works on one of the longest-running evolution experiments studying how E. coli evolve.
To learn more about Dr. Blount's work, please visit https://www.blount-lab.org/
Dr. Nishant Malik is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the US. His research focuses on problems in applied mathematics, especially regarding complex systems like the climate. Specifically, he shares his recent work on analysing time series of past climate data.
To learn more about Dr. Malik's work, please visit: https://nishant-malik.github.io/
Some key ideas we discuss in this podcast:
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A system: a collection of smaller units
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Dynamical/dynamics: describing something that is constantly changing (ex. weather)/the branch of physics that studies these objects or systems.
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A complex system: a system with many changing parts that interact with each other.
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Regime: a particular behaviour of complex systems that is mostly maintained until a large, sudden change. Ex. Weather stays mild in a region until its local lake has completely dried up.
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Differential equation: specific types of equations that you can read about here (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_equation). All we need to know is they often describe relationships in physics, are hard to solve, and allow us to use one variable to predict another.
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A stochastic Process: a random process. This CANNOT be described with differential equations.
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A deterministic Process: a process where the final value / output can be predicted based on the initial value / input. This CAN be described with differential equations.
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Time series: a sequence of data ordered by time. Ex. Temperature at a weather station recorded every minute.
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Network analysis: learn more here (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_theory#Network_analysis)
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Paleoclimatology: the study of Earth's past climate.
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Speleothems: cave formations that can be studied to give clues about the past.
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ENSO: El Nino-Southern Oscillation. A recurring climate pattern that changes the temperature of waters in the Pacific Ocean. You can learn more here (www.weather.gov/mhx/ensowhat). Visuals made with musicvid.org
Dr. Manuela Nagel is the Head of Cryo and Stress Biology at The Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Germany. Her research focuses on plant cryopreservation - a process to store genetic materials from plants for decades. Specifically, her work involves preserving agricultural crops for gene banks.
To learn more about Dr. Nagel's work, please visit: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manuela_Nagel
Dr. Niko Wanders is an Associate Professor of Hydrology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His work studies the effects of drought in various regions around the world, from Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe. In particular, he uses computational models to study droughts.
To learn more about his work, please visit: www.uu.nl/staff/NWanders/Profile or https://twitter.com/niko_wanders
Dr. Christian Schubert has a MSc in Mathematics (University of Regensburg), PhD in Physics (Technical University Munich), Habilitation in Theoretical Physics (Humboldt University Berlin), and is presently Full Professor of Physics at the State University of Michocan in Morelia, Mexico.
His work focuses on studying theories like quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory, especially regarding the mathematics used in these theories. To learn more about his work, please visit: www.ifm.umich.mx/ifm/index.php/fisca/academicos/schubert_eng/ or http://www.ifm.umich.mx/ifm/
Dr. Pedram Rowhani is a Senior Lecturer in Geography and International Development at the University of Sussex in the UK. His work studies the impacts of climate change on food security, especially in developing regions like Kenya and Tasmania.
To learn more about his work, please visit: www.twitter.com/pedramrowhani
Dr. Monica Emelko is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Water Science, Technology & Policy at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Her work studies the interconnected impacts of forest wildfires on water reserves. Specifically, she analyses how this affects drinking water, having been among the first to discover how climate change can harm drinking water supply based on wildfires.
To learn more about her work, please visit: www.researchgate.net/profile/Monica_Emelko
Dr. Nives Della Valle is a Scientific Project Officer at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra, Italy. Her work studies behavioural economics to guide government policies on energy sustainability. As an example, she has studied how people make decisions around adopting electric vehicles or addressing energy poverty.
To learn more about her work, please visit: https://twitter.com/Nives89 To learn more about the JRC, please visit: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en
Dr. Roman Hoffmann is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. His work studies the response of human populations to climate change. In particular, he has studied patterns of climate migration, as well as the role of education in helping prepare for climate change.
To learn more about his work, please visit: http://www.wittgensteincentre.org/en/staff/member/hoffmann.htm
Dr. Rino Lovreglio is Senior Lecturer in Digital Construction and Fire Engineering at the University of Massey in New Zealand. His work focuses on studying fire safety in evacuations, studying people's behaviour in these situations using tools like virtual and augmented reality.
To learn more about Dr. Lovreglio's work, please visit: http://www.lovreglio.info/
Dr. Yuval Engel is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. His work focuses on the study of uncertainty, especially in contexts like entrepreneurship. In particular, he has analysed entrepreneurs' responses to uncertainty in decision-making, as well as solutions to reduce stress from uncertainty like meditation.
To learn more about Dr. Engel's work, please visit: https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/e/n/y.engel/y.engel.html?cb
Dr. Jane Irwin is a Lecturer in Veterinary Physiology and Biochemistry at the Dublin University College in Ireland. Her research focuses on the study of biochemistry in microbiology, examining questions like the role of different biological enzymes and compounds. This has led her to learn about the incredible world of extremophiles, living organisms that make us question the limitations of life .
To learn more about Dr. Irwin's work, please visit: https://people.ucd.ie/jane.irwin
Dr. Daniel Schepis is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Western Australia. His research focuses on the study of business networks and network science, especially in regards to business innovation and sustainable markets.
To learn more about his work, please visit: https://www.uwa.edu.au/profile/daniel-schepis
Dr. Ben Handel is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California Berkeley. His research focuses on the study of industrial economics in healthcare, especially when it comes to analysing policies and behavioural outcomes in the insurance market.
To learn more about Dr. Handel's work, please visit: www.benjaminhandel.com/
Dr. Theodore Giannaros is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Observatory of Athens in Greece. His work centres around the development of computational models to predict the weather and climate.
He especially focuses on studying extreme meteorological events like urban heat islands, extreme weather like droughts, etc.
To learn more about his work, please visit his website at https://tmgiannaros.github.io/
Dr. Gerald Corzo is Associate Professor of Hydroinformatics at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands. His research focuses on the intersection of machine learning and hydrological science, creating models to study extreme weather events like droughts, landslides, etc.
To learn more about Dr. Corzo's work, please visit www.un-ihe.org/gerald-corzo-perez
Charlotte Reemts is an Ecologist and Science Project Director at The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation nonprofit. Her work involves on-the-ground activities in managing invasive species and fire risk in the ecosystems of Texas. On top of this, she also conducts research in restoration ecology, especially when analysing different methods to manage ecosystems.
To learn more about Charlotte's work, please visit www.researchgate.net/profile/Charlotte_Reemts or learn about The Nature Conservancy at www.nature.org
Laura Adery, Ph.D. is a Clinical Instructor and Postdoctoral Scholar with the Center for Assessment and Prevention of Prodromal States (CAPPS) in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry.
She has worked with individuals with developmental disabilities in both research and clinical settings with special interest in inclusion in the arts and cultural community. Her postdoctoral work focuses on expanding treatment and intervention resources and investigating self, identity and community inclusion for adolescents at risk for psychosis.
To check out more of her work, you can visit the PEERS Clinic website: https://www.semel.ucla.edu/peers
Dr. Michael Getzner is the Head of the Institute of Spatial Planning at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria. His research focuses on the field of ecological economics, where economic tools are applied to problems like ecological conservation.
To learn more about Dr. Getzner's work, please visit his Google Scholar profile
Dr. Caroline Pukall is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Director of the Sex and Relationship Therapy Service at the Psychology Clinic at Queen’s University.
Caroline’s research lab—the Sexual Health Research Laboratory—conducts inclusive research projects examining various aspects of sexuality, including vulvodynia, persistent genital arousal, sexual arousal, women’s health issues (e.g., postpartum pain and sexuality), and other topics.
You can check out more of her work at: https://www.sexlab.ca
Dr. Alexander Smith is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the US. His research focuses on studying prosocial behaviour like cooperation with tools like game theory and experimental economics.
He's especially interested in studying the factors that lead people to contribute to providing public goods that help society as a whole! To learn more about Dr. Smith's work, please visit: http://adksmith.weebly.com/
Dr. Mark Nielsen is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia. His research focuses on the socio-cognitive development of children, especially through the lens of evolutionary psychology and the influences of ritual and culture on children.
To learn more about Dr. Nielsen's work, please visit: https://psychology.uq.edu.au/profile/2458/mark-nielsen
Dr. Signy Sheldon is a cognitive neuroscientist and assistant professor in psychology at McGill University in Montreal. Her research mainly focuses on discovering how and why we remember events and episodes with behavioural and neuroimaging experiments.
She was recognized as a “Rising Star” for 2016 by the Association for Psychological Science, won the 2019 CSBBCS Vincent Di Lollo Early Career Award, and has been awarded a Tier II Canada Research Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory for 5 years.
To learn more about her work, you can check out her lab website: https://www.sheldonmemorylabatmcgill.com/
Dr. Jennifer Murray is a behavioural neuroscientist and assistant professor in psychology at the University of Guelph. Dr. Murray's research focuses on how learning history influences drug abuse. She is primarily interested in how developmental factors intersect with such experience to drive the development of addiction.
To learn more about Dr. Murray's work, please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/murrayaimlab
Dr. Vincent Geloso is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the King's University College in Canada. His research focuses on the field of economic history, a discipline that uses economic theories to explain historical events.
He's especially interested in studying North American history to identify how cultural, political, and other factors can influence countries' economic growth. To learn more about Dr. Geloso's work, please visit https://vincentgeloso.com/
Dr. Stephen Mattingly is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Notre Dame in the US. His research focuses on the computational software and hardware used to observe psychological phenomena like sleep and stress.
He's especially interested in novel ways of collecting data for psychological experiments, such as with wearable devices and phones.
To learn more about Dr. Mattingly's work, please visit researchgate.net/profile/Stephen_Mattingly or read his research on doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0250-6
Dr. Martin Tajmar is the Director of the Institute of Aerospace Engineering at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany. He has decades of experience working in the aerospace industry/academia. He has designed space propulsion systems in agencies like NASA's JPL and has researched advanced propulsion systems like ion thrusters.
This is an interview of Dr. Tajmar's thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of various propulsion systems and how much potential this industry has in the future. To learn more about his work, please visit: tu-dresden.de/ing/maschinenwesen/ilr/rfs/die-professur/inhaber-in
Dr. Daniele Cocco is a Staff Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US. His research focuses on studying the sensors and instrumentation used in X-ray optics, a specialised field that studies the technologies used to observe the behaviour of X-ray light.
This is an interview of Dr. Cocco's thoughts on the many applications of X-ray optics (including imaging and scanning technology in healthcare) and the challenges still left in developing technology in this field. To learn more about the field, please visit: www.cxro.lbl.gov
Dr. Jennifer Murray is a behavioural neuroscientist and assistant professor in psychology at the University of Guelph. Dr. Murray's research focuses on how learning history influences drug abuse. She is primarily interested in how developmental factors intersect with such experience to drive the development of addiction.
To learn more about Dr. Murray's work, please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/murrayaimlab
Olivia Varley-Winter is a Senior Consultant at the Royal Statistical Society. Her past interests include research on the use of biometric technology (like facial recognition) and their privacy concerns.
This is an interview of Olivia's thoughts on the status quo, opportunities, and challenges of biometric tools like facial recognition. To learn more, please visit: https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/
Dr. Ehsan Kiani is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of New England in Australia. He has years of experience studying 'agtech' / precision agriculture (technology for the agricultural sector) like autonomous tractors and AI algorithms to recognise plant diseases.
This is an interview of Dr. Kiani's thoughts on the importance of precision agriculture in the industry and new developments in the technology. To learn more about his work, please visit his Google Scholar profile.
Dr. Manon Schweinfurth is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of St. Andrews in the UK. Her research focuses on studying the role of cooperation and reciprocal behaviour in animals like rats and non-human primates.
This is an interview of Dr. Schweinfurth's discoveries with this important aspects of animal (and human) societies and what we're able to learn from this field. To learn more about her work, please visit her profile at the University of St. Andrews.
Peter Christopher is a PhD Candidate in Ultra Precision Engineering at the University of Cambridge in the UK. His research is focused on the field of holography, especially its software components.
This is an interview of Peter's thoughts on the status quo of holography, its challenges, and what we can expect next with this futuristic technology. To learn more about his work, please visit: linkedin.com/in/peterjchristopher
Dr. Eva Koppelhus is an Assistant Professor and Curator of Palaeobotany and Palynology at the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Alberta.
Her research concentrates on floras of the Upper Cretaceous of northwestern North America. She primarily works with material from dinosaur bearing formations such as the Pachyrhinosaurus bonebed in Pipestone Creek, the Albertosaurus bonebed in Dry Island Park, and the Danek bonebed in Edmonton.
Her work has taken her to all corners of the world, including Antarctica, Madagascar, Mongolia, New Zealand, and many more countries. In June of 2011 she received the Stefansson Medal of the Explorers Club for outstanding contributions to paleontological field research and in March 2012 she received the Antarctica Service Medal of the United States of America in recognition of valuable contributions to both exploration and scientific achievement under the U.S. Antarctic Program.
Dr. Christopher Hassall is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Leeds in the UK. He has many interdisciplinary research interests that stem from his initial work in studying insect biology in response to climate change. Now, he studies ecological conservation in general, including its economic, political, and communications aspects!
This is an interview of Dr. Hassall's thoughts on the value of interdisciplinary work when it comes to ecological conservation and what we can learn from studying insects specifically. To learn more about his work, please visit: biologicalsciences.leeds.ac.uk/school-of-biology/staff/79/dr-christopher-hassall
Dr. Bernard Crespi is a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the Simon Fraser University in Canada. He has many interdisciplinary research interests spanning the fields of evolutionary biology, genomics, and psychiatry especially regarding the analysis of mental health disorders like autism and schizophrenia.
This is an interview of Dr. Crespi's thoughts on the world of evolutionary biology, its applications, and future approaches in this field. To learn more about his work, please visit: sfu.ca/biology/faculty/crespi/
Dr. Robert Black is an Associate Professor at the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich, UK.
He has decades of experience in academia in both law and biology, especially on the topic of biosecurity regulations to manage invasive alien species. Additionally, he has practical experience advising on biosecurity regulations for international organisations including the World Trade Organisation and the Asian Development Bank.
This is an interview of Dr. Black's thoughts on the status quo, challenges, and potential developments in the world of biosecurity regulations. To learn more about his work, please visit: https://www.nri.org/people/black-robert
Dr. Tanya Latty is an Associate Professor at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, Australia. She has many research interests, especially when it comes to invertebrate biology and non-human intelligence!
This is an interview of Dr. Latty's thoughts on the world of non-human intelligence, its applications, and future approaches in this field. To learn more about her work, please visit: https://www.tanyalatty.com/
Dr. Mélanie Guigueno is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at McGill University. Her research group combines field and wet lab work to examine behaviour, cognition, and the brain in natural populations, how they are linked, and what influences them, whether it be ecology and evolution or environmental contaminants.
Dr. Guigueno’s lab primarily focuses on spatial behaviour and neurogenesis (the production of new neurons) in several avian systems (brood parasitism, migration, foraging behaviour), but research also includes social behaviour and its neural correlates in fish.
In the past three years, Mélanie has received the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award, the Alice Wilson award from the Royal Society of Canada, and the Early Career Researcher award from the Society of Canadian Ornithologists. Her research has been featured in BBC Earth Online, National Geographic Online, and The Globe and Mail. To learn more about her work, you can check out her lab website: http://www.guiguenolab.ca/
Dr. Irina Artsimovitch is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Ohio State University.
She has decades of experience in the field of biology and has published numerous publications on the mechanism and regulation of RNA chain synthesis in bacteria. In addition, much of her research has focused on the bacterial virulence factor, RFAH. Dr. Artsimovitch is currently working on developing potential antibiotics to combat COVID-19.
To learn more about her work, please visit: https://microbiology.osu.edu/people/artsimovitch.1
Dr. Fiona Soper is an ecosystem ecologist, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and School of Environment at McGill University.
Her lab’s research focuses on the how nutrients mediate the interactions between plants and their environment, and especially how the interactions shape global change. Though Dr. Soper's enthusiasm for ecology was born in the arid landscapes of Australia, her work now spans many ecosystems from savannas to the temperate biomes, and in particular, tropical forests.
To learn more about Dr. Soper’s work, you can check out her website: http://www.fionasoper.com
Dr. Caleb Gardner is the Head of the Centre for Fisheries and Aquaculture at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He has years of experience as both an economist and a biologist studying fisheries in multiple countries around the world.
This is an interview of Dr. Gardner's thoughts on the status quo, challenges, and potential developments in the world of fisheries. To learn more about his work, please visit: https://www.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/imas/Caleb-Gardner