• The CERN Sparks! Podcast

  • By: CERN
  • Podcast
The CERN Sparks! Podcast By cover art

The CERN Sparks! Podcast

By: CERN
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  • Summary

  • Sparks! is an annual thematic event exploring future technology and how it will affect society. The CERN Sparks! Podcast brings together the brightest minds in the chosen field and explores the visions and challenges of the future. The podcast aims to broach the annual theme with a wider public and allow science lovers to have an insight into future trends from multiple, multidisciplinary angles. The second season of the CERN Sparks! podcast, hosted by Bruno Giussani: 6 episodes focused on discussing some of the present of health tech and science and taking a deep look at the many exciting, often risky and generally thrilling possibilities of future technologies for health. With Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna; the founding father of genomics, George Church; the WHO’s chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan; and many other guests. In the first series about Artificial intelligence, hear the sparks fly as Mark Rayner and Abha Eli Phoboo collide pairs of the leading coders, neuroscientists, entrepreneurs, philosophers, psychologists and physicists who are shaping the future. CERN - the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is derived from the French acronym Conseil européen pour la recherche nucléaire. We probe the fundamental structure of the particles that make up everything around us. Production CERN, Geneva: Claudia Marcelloni, Lila Mabiala, Sofia Hurst Whistledown Productions, London: Will Yates and Sandra Kanthal Copyright: CERN, 2022
    CERN
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Episodes
  • S2 Ep6: S2 #6 The Public Good: Maximising Outcomes

    S2 Ep6: S2 #6 The Public Good: Maximising Outcomes
    Oct 26 2022
    “Major advances, even in a crisis, are made in the years and decades before the crisis (...) these are not miracles that happen by chance.”  - Jeremy Farrar

    We have all felt the impact of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 - but we have not felt it equally. In this episode, the last of this series, host Bruno Giussani dives into the ecosystems around scientific innovation, looking at the way different forms of collaboration, legal frameworks, and the respective roles of public institutions, private companies and philanthropy in enabling (or not) technological advances. Joining Bruno are the director of the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar, reflecting on the role of philanthropic organisations as well as the necessity of long-term investment in science, discovery and education; Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the WHO, talking about the role the WHO plays on the international stage and the struggles for equity in treatment - and the WHO’s first mRNA technology transfer hub in Africa; Els Torreele, biomedical scientist and researcher in equitable public health policy, diving deep into the effects of patent-driven and commercially-funded medical research; and Ben Perry, medicinal chemist involved in drug discovery, commenting on the complexities of molecule control.

    Guests: Els Torreele, Ben Perry, Jeremy Farrar, Soumya Swaminathan
    Host: Bruno Giussani


    Production
    CERN, Geneva: Claudia Marcelloni, Lila Mabiala, Sofia Hurst
    Whistledown Productions, London: Will Yates and Sandra Kanthal
    Copyright: CERN, 2022
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    26 mins
  • S2 Ep5: S2 #5 A Global Perspective: The Power of Collaboration

    S2 Ep5: S2 #5 A Global Perspective: The Power of Collaboration
    Oct 26 2022
    “There’s no such thing as too many scientists” - Ben Perry

    Join host Bruno Giussani as he delves into the rationale and practice of large scale scientific collaborations. In this episode Ben Perry, medicinal chemist with DNDI (Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) talks about the nature and successes of open science. Rolf Apweiler, co-director of the European Bioinformatics Institute that collects, analyses and distributes data to the worldwide scientific community, explains the challenges researchers face in accessing the data they need and the way EBI seeks to streamline the process. The Wellcome Trust’s director Jeremy Farrar discusses the interconnectedness of the world and how frameworks for international collaboration are essential for the future especially in areas where the scientific and the political overlap. And Charlotte Warakaulle, director for International Relations at CERN, describes the “CERN model” and elaborates on its scientific and technological contributions to health.

    Guests: Ben Perry, Rolf Apweiler, Jeremy Farrar, Charlotte Warakaulle
    Host: Bruno Giussani

    Production
    CERN, Geneva: Claudia Marcelloni, Lila Mabiala, Sofia Hurst
    Whistledown Productions, London: Will Yates and Sandra Kanthal
    Copyright: CERN, 2022
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    22 mins
  • S2 Ep4: S2 #4 Healthtech & Ethics: Getting it Right

    S2 Ep4: S2 #4 Healthtech & Ethics: Getting it Right
    Oct 26 2022
    “We are so taken in by technology that we forget that technology is a tool that should be used with an outcome in mind.” - Soumya Swaminathan

    In this episode, host Bruno Giussani and his guests wade through the quagmire of healthtech ethics and fairness, exploring topics such as how the notions of right and wrong are changed by technology, data ownership and privacy, mind-manipulation technologies and the marvels of machine-learning systems which often are black boxes that not even the specialists understand. In conversation with Bruno are Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist of the WHO; George Church, the founding father of genomics; Pushmeet Kohli from DeepMind; technoethicist and entrepreneur Juan Enriquez; neuroscientist Olaf Blanke of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; and Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna.

    Guests: Soumya Swaminathan, George Church, Pushmeet Kohli, Juan Enriquez, Olaf Blanke, Jennifer Doudna
    Host: Bruno Giussani

    Production
    CERN, Geneva: Claudia Marcelloni, Lila Mabiala, Sofia Hurst
    Whistledown Productions, London: Will Yates and Sandra Kanthal
    Copyright: CERN, 2022
    Show more Show less
    30 mins
Philosophy Social Sciences Physics
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