Episodes

  • Controlled Human Malaria Infections: Infecting people in the name of health – Katharina Grabowski, Matteo Putra, and Jo Salkeld

    Controlled Human Malaria Infections: Infecting people in the name of health – Katharina Grabowski, Matteo Putra, and Jo Salkeld
    Jun 11 2024
    What is a Controlled Human Malaria Infection, and why are researchers at the University of Oxford and University of Edinburgh leaning on it to advance public health? Come along to a talk hosted by Katharina Grabowski and Matteo Putra to learn more about the ins and outs of this research approach, how it will be used to break new ground in understanding one of the most complex immune responses to an infectious disease, and how it could help save hundreds of thousands of lives by developing novel public health interventions alongside vaccines. Katharina Grabowski (BSc, MSc) is a Research Assistant and Matteo Putra (BSc, MRes, MScR) a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh who are working with the Oxford Vaccine Group and Department of Biochemistry on an upcoming Controlled Human Malaria Infection clinical trial. This study aims to understand how people become immune to malaria so that we can learn how to protect the most vulnerable from disease. And as bizarre as this may sound
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • Myths and Mindsets in a Decade of Electric Transport – Robert Llewellyn

    Myths and Mindsets in a Decade of Electric Transport – Robert Llewellyn
    Apr 28 2024
    In the last 10 years consumer production models of EVs have become more readily available. In spite of data which shows EVs are more efficient than fossil fuel vehicles, with reduced CO2, emissions and particulates, in a recent policy U-turn, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak kicked back the date for full transition to EVs to 2035, eliciting heavy criticism from the world’s major car manufacturers, who had already invested billions to meet the original deadline. There’s also been a significant uptick in anti-EV media headlines. Pervasive stories about EVs have returned. Aren’t they too expensive? Too heavy? With dangerously flawed batteries? Can our energy infrastructure even cope with the demand? Are they really ‘greener’ anyway? With 2023 global fossil fuel subsidies at a mind-blowing $7 trillion (IMF data) it’s no surprise there’s been pushback. In this talk, Robert Llewellyn aims to get us up to speed on progress during the last 10 years of electric vehicle production. They’ll aim to dem
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • How cholesterol skepticism became a pseudoscience – Dr Christopher Labos

    How cholesterol skepticism became a pseudoscience – Dr Christopher Labos
    Apr 15 2024
    There was a time when you could be skeptical about cholesterol’s role in cardiovascular prevention. There was uncertainty about causality, diet seemed to have little impact and the drugs were either ineffective or potentially dangerous. But then things changed. Medications improved, genetic causes of high cholesterol became clear, and the cardiovascular benefits of cholesterol reduction were demonstrated in multiple trials. So how did cholesterol denialism become a thing and why has it become the latest pseudoscience? By reviewing the history of the “cholesterol controversy,” Dr Christopher Labos will show how this scientific debate played out in a real time over the span of the 20th century and why the best description of the cholesterol controversy now is that there isn’t one. Dr. Christopher Labos is a cardiologist with a master’s degree in Epidemiology. He is a columnist with the Montreal Gazette and Medscape, featured on the Sunday Morning House Call on CJAD radio, and has a r
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    1 hr and 40 mins
  • First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time – Dr Emma Chapman

    First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time – Dr Emma Chapman
    Mar 17 2024
    Astronomers have successfully observed a great deal of the Universe’s history, from recording the afterglow of the Big Bang to imaging thousands of galaxies, and even to visualising an actual black hole. There’s a lot for astronomers to be smug about. But when it comes to understanding how the Universe began and grew up we are literally in the dark ages. In effect, we are missing the first one billion years from the timeline of the Universe. This brief but far-reaching period in the Universe’s history, known to astrophysicists as the ‘Epoch of Reionisation’, represents the start of the cosmos as we experience it today. The time when the very first stars burst into life, when darkness gave way to light. After hundreds of millions of years of dark, uneventful expansion, one by the one these stars suddenly came into being. This was the point at which the chaos of the Big Bang first began to yield to the order of galaxies, black holes and stars, kick-starting the pathway to planets, to c
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    1 hr and 23 mins
  • Tourette Syndrome: Sounds, movements and myths. – Adrienne Hill

    Tourette Syndrome: Sounds, movements and myths. – Adrienne Hill
    Mar 3 2024
    During her presentation, Adrienne will delve into the myriad myths surrounding Tourette Syndrome, the intriguing TikTok Tics phenomenon that started during the pandemic, and the pseudoscientific “cures” targeting vulnerable parents who seek to support their children. Be ready with pencil and paper to experience what it is like to live with TS+. Adrienne, a retired high school mathematics teacher, has been a volunteer educating teachers, students and community members about Tourette Syndrome and its comorbid disorders (TS+) since 2005. She is a board member and educational consultant for the Tourette OCD Alberta Network. Her personal journey as a mother of three children includes two who have been diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome +. Beyond her involvement with the network, Adrienne actively contributes as a board member to Susan Gerbic’s nonprofit organization, “About Time.” She also volunteers as a Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia editor and is a regular reporter for “The Skeptic
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    2 hrs and 2 mins
  • The science of mental health; how it goes wrong, how it’s treated, and the many misunderstandings in between – Dr Dean Burnett

    The science of mental health; how it goes wrong, how it’s treated, and the many misunderstandings in between – Dr Dean Burnett
    Feb 19 2024
    Mental health awareness is a very big concern in 2021, particularly with the impact of the pandemic and lockdown. But while being aware that mental health can and does go wrong is important, very little attention is paid to how and why this happens. In his new book, Psycho Logical, neuroscientist, author, and former Psychiatry lecturer Dr Dean Burnett explores all that and more, using the latest science to explain what happens in the brain when mental health goes awry, how these problems and treated and why they work (or often don’t), and why the whole issue is so slippery and uncertain, and why stigma still endures despite everything. Dean will also be answering questions and challenging misconceptions about mental health flagged up by the SITP community, making this talk very unique. Dr Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist, lecturer, author, blogger, podcaster, pundit, science communicator, comedian and numerous other things, depending on who’s asking and what they need. Previously
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    1 hr and 41 mins
  • Does life know about quantum mechanics? – Professor Jim Al-Khalili

    Does life know about quantum mechanics? – Professor Jim Al-Khalili
    Feb 5 2024
    Physicists and chemists are used to dealing with quantum mechanics, but biologists have thus far got away without having to worry about this strange yet powerful theory of the subatomic world. However, times are changing. There is now solid evidence that enzymes use quantum tunnelling to accelerate chemical reactions, while plants and bacteria use a quantum trick in photosynthesis – sending lumps of sunlight energy in multiple directions at once. It even appears that some animals have the ability to use quantum entanglement – what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance” – as a compass to ‘see’ the earth’s magnetic field. In our research at Surrey we are discovering that life may even have evolved mechanisms to control genetic mutations caused by quantum tunnelling of protons between strands of DNA. Welcome to the exciting new field of quantum, biology. Jim Al-Khalili CBE FRS is a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Surrey and a well-known author, broadcast
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Born to dance? The evolutionary origins of music making – Dr Jacques Launay

    Born to dance? The evolutionary origins of music making – Dr Jacques Launay
    Dec 25 2023
    What’s the point in making music? Is there a point? Although music surrounds us for a large proportion of our time it doesn’t seem to serve an obvious purpose, and this talk will explore that problem. Darwin suggested music could be involved in sexual selection, used to flaunt genetic fitness to potential partners, but there are also several alternative explanations, ranging from Pinker’s null hypothesis (it’s auditory cheesecake) to the Mozart Effect (music makes you clever). Spoiler alert – those theories are probably both wrong! This talk will primarily explore the role of music in social bonding, and whether music is best understood as the alternative to language. Dr Jacques Launay is an expert in music and social bonding, and has worked on this from a range of perspectives, including the origins of music making, the health benefits of singing in choirs, and the neuroscience of moving to sounds. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.
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    1 hr and 32 mins