Inside the Breakthrough - How Science Comes to Life

The discovery of insulin and building of the first Jeep. Two stories to explain why innovation and capitalism have a complicated relationship. Voted best episode from season 1. Originally published May 3rd, 2021. Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/

The story of Antarctic Explorer Roald Amundsen, and a giant squid. What do they have in common? Listen to find out. Reprised from season 1. Originally published May 31st, 2021. Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/

The Nazi scientist that powered NASA’s moonshot and the Roman emperor who built the Colosseum have more in common than you think. To find the connection, follow the money. Our most controversial episode from season 2. Originally published January 22nd, 2022. Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/

A man gets a lobotomy to cure his epilepsy, and the government tries to rid India of cobras. Neither of those efforts go as planned. Dan Riskin’s favourite episode from season 2 Originally published November 29th, 2021. Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/

Scurvy was a bigger threat to the Royal Navy than the French were, meanwhile the biggest threat to six men in a British hospital was their medicine! The connection explains how clinical trials are run. A landmark episode from season 2. Originally published October 18th, 2021. Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/

What is really in ‘snake oil’ and why did an innocent man go to prison for murder. What’s the connection? Listen to find out. This is one of our favourite episodes from season 1. Originally published April 5th, 2021. Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/

Science communication has impacted our lives more than we ever thought it would. Getting complicated scientific and medical information out to a large number of people is crucial to our public health. And it is not easy. We will look at how stories can help spread and preserve information. We start with the oldest true story ever told and ask why and how it stood the test of time. Then we will lis...

Let’s talk about the use of animals in medical research. It’s not a subject that people are very comfortable discussing, but we are going to do it anyway. We will start with an incredible story of a fire in Bar Harbor Maine that impacted the health of people all over the world for years, even though they never even knew about it. Then we will ask the question ‘what really causes Ulcers, and how di...

The relationship between researchers and funders is complicated. Some people think that researchers should be left to their own direction and that all financial support should be ‘no-strings attached.’ But is that possible? Is it desirable? We look at how the Roman Colosseum was funded, and ask ‘what impact did that have on its design and its use?’ Then we turn our attention to NASA --- is the spa...

The Amish community in Pennsylvania is heavily impacted by genetic diseases. You might think that their resistance to modern technology would make it difficult to treat these conditions. But actually their philosophies around family and community make it easier to manage these diseases. John Franklin’s ships were lost to the world for more than a century and a half. They were only discovered by a...

We often complain about having too little of something: Too little time, too little money. But today in first world countries a lot of our problems come from having too much of something: Too much sugar, too much technology. We point this lens at a pair of historical stories to better understand if tragedies and hardships of the past were really the result of having ‘too little’ of something, or i...

We’ve all heard the saying about “the best laid plans….” but there is a caveat to that. Not all unexpected consequences are bad. Sometimes something really amazing occurs unexpectedly. This episode tells the story of Henry Molaison, better known as Patient HM, or “the most important brain in the history of neuroscience.” Henry didn’t set out to be a guiding light for the world of neuroanatomy. He...

Join us for a wild ride through Vienna and Paris. We will hang out with Mozart, Marie Antoinette, and the incredible Dr Mesmer. We will drink cocktails and stay up way too late. All in an effort to answer the question: Is it possible that being blinded could help you see new things? I’m not talking about literal blindness here, I mean when you intentionally deny yourself some key piece of informat...

Sometimes great discoveries have to wait for the creation of the perfect tool. What is the best screw ever invented? If you said the Phillips, you are wrong. The Phillips is the most popular screw type, but not the best. The standard slot screw is also very popular, but it isn’t the best either. The best screw type ever invented is the Robertson, and the story behind why it never became the bigges...

Ten years ago, in a hospital in London England a drug company conducted a clinical trial. That trial went horribly wrong. The lessons learned from that event have informed every pharmaceutical trial since then. We will hear from one of the men who took that experimental drug. We will also look to history -- and uncover the origin of the first ever clinical trial. It was conducted on a sailing ship...

Kick back and enjoy a cold Corona beer as we tell stories about the importance of names. From cameras to resumes to hormones, names matter. George Eastman decided to name his company Kodak after playing a game of Anagrams with his mother. But the choice wasn’t an accident. It was a deliberately constructed name with a very clear intent. Similarly the brewers of Corona beer didn’t pull that name fr...

Dan Riskin invites you to listen to season 2 of Inside the Breakthrough - How Science Comes to Life. This innovative series combines stories of the distant past with modern updates to get a better understanding of how science works. In season two we will explore the connections behind naming a new hormone, ridding a city of snakes, and battling Napoleon on the high seas. Along the way we will lear...

SciMar does more than produce a podcast. They are a real medical research company doing really amazing work in the field of type 2 diabetes. This episode tells the story of how they got here. ‘Here’ being: on the verge of a transformational breakthrough in metabolic health. It starts with a Eureka moment in a lab… travels to a biological science conference in Minnesota… and then spends a quiet wee...

We made it! This is the final episode in season one… and it is a huge day for the medical research group SciMar. Some scientific discoveries are exciting because they reveal something that was previously unknown. But a lot of ‘discoveries’ are actually visual confirmation of a proven fact. Roald Amundsen already knew the South Pole was in the middle of Antarctica. He already knew it was covered in...

Starting a story at the beginning makes sense… but what if there is a mistake in that first sentence? Does it invalidate the rest of the story? What if your experiment is based on an assumption that later turns out to be false? And how can you protect your tower of discoveries from tumbling down? We start with an unbelievable story about New York City being buried in horse manure, and discover the...

You’ve probably heard that Banting and Best gave away the patent for Insulin for one dollar. But why did they do that? And did it achieve what they wanted? We often associate being successful with being profitable. And for a lot of enterprises that is true. But what if your goal is to win the second world war, and you do, but you go bankrupt in the process… is that a ‘success?’ What if your goal i...

How many astronomers does it take to discover a planet that doesn’t exist? The Answer: Generations. Depending on where you live, (and a thousand other variables) your life expectancy is probably between 75 and 85 years. Even at the high end, that’s not enough to solve all the world’s problems. That’s why most big questions can only be answered by multiple generations. We follow the story of a Roma...

What do you think of when you hear the term Snake Oil? Do you think of miracle vitamins with outlandish claims? Do you think of sneaky sales people trying to separate you from your money? Or do you think of actual snakes? The truth is, those are all true. Snake Oil is a complicated concept that includes shiffy profiteers, and an audience that is, if not ‘gullible,’ at least ‘susceptible.’ Joseph S...

The answers to life’s biggest questions will vary widely based on one simple variable: who you ask. If you do an experiment on men, you might get a different result than when you do it on women. Rich, poor, black, white, young, old… people are diverse and you learn more when you ask your questions of a diverse audience. Joseph Henrich figured out that a lot of experiments were being done on a very...

When someone tells you “that is a stupid idea,” how do you react? Do you reconsider your position? Do you dig your heels in and get defensive? Do you quit, or work harder? Being unpopular is a regular state of affairs for scientists. The nature of the work requires you to disrupt paradigms and make people uncomfortable. How a scientist reacts to that criticism is crucial to their success. Galileo...