Not Another Science Podcast

Ever been so hungry that you have considered eating a mound of plastic as your next meal? Dr. Jo Sadler is a newly appointed Principal Investigator at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Biological Sciences and an innovative builder of new molecules. Synthetic biology - the ability to manipulate biological systems using chemistry and biological processes - is Joanna’s way of breathing new life...

Get ready for this second food-themed episode to lift your spirits as Dr. Jane White - research scientist and Director of Undergraduate Studies for Distilling and Brewing at Heriot-Watt University - deep-dives into the pot of knowledge behind the ale and whisky industry in Scotland. Find out what happens chemically to the by-products of whisky and beer and answer those burning questions you have a...

Think you know a lot about food? Wait until you have met Stan Blackley: Co-Programme Leader of the MSc in Gastronomy at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. In this episode, we hear about the importance of diverse food in creating healthy lifestyles (it’ll surprise you to hear how many types of potatoes there are in the world!), how to tackle the current climate change crisis using our stomachs...

This final episode of the season is truly out of this world. The team speaks to Rosa Santomartino, a space microbiologist in the School of Physics and Astronomy. Rosa was one of the lead scientists on the BioRock and BioAsteroid experiments, which sent microbe samples to the International Space Station, to study how the microbes reacted to different gravity conditions. This could impact both biomi...

It’s time to let your creativity juices flow with this bonus episode for international music day. New host Alix speaks to Professor Colin Campbell who wants to bring science out of the lab and into the recording studio. But how do you take some scientific data and turn it into music? There’s no one answer, but Colin takes us through the thinking behind some of his awesome and varied pieces of musi...

Ever wondered what drones and whales have in common?... In honour of World Oceans Day 2021, guest host Jake talks to PhD student Tom Grove about his inspiring research, investigating the ecological impacts of the Icelandic whale-watching industry. Get ready for some whaley-good chat covering everything from spirituality and icelandic cultural history to cutting-edge research technology and gob-sma...

In this bonus to the main episode, we bring you extra sections of our conversation with Daniel Brener, including why he's the black sheep of the family, what PhDs used to be like, the origin of the "butterfly effect", concerns over communicating complexity, and the metaphysics of quiche.   Daniel is on Twitter @daniel_brener . To find out more about him, make sure to check out his website: ht...

Ramen? Raman! We all love Ramen noodles, but this week is about Raman spectroscopy with PhD student Heather McEwan. It’s time to explore the ups and downs of starting a PhD and how to move from Physics to Chemistry. Heather has used her Physics background to move into an exciting multidisciplinary project which uses the light scattering technique Raman spectroscopy on human tissues and has fantast...

A self-described "cloud guy", Daniel Brener has been fascinated by weather forecasting for years. But he is also an all-around physics nerd (a compliment we do not bestow lightly). As part of Prof. Arjun Berera's group at the University of Edinburgh, Daniel has been working out whether panspermia — the idea that particles from Earth could be knocked out of the upper atmosphere and seed life on oth...

The place where science and creativity meet: the diverse and wonderful world of Science Communication! Dr Sarah-Jane Judge, Public Engagement Manager at the Wellcome Centre for Cell Research, and Dr Farrie Nzvere, ChatSci Manager for InterSci, talk about the importance of sharing science with different audiences, teaching scientists to communicate, and their own engagement activities. They also ex...

What will the future of plants look like if currently 2 in 5 are threatened with extinction? That depends on how we act now! Join us as we dive into our last theme of the mini-series, Conserving Plants, with Dr Pete Hollingsworth, Director of Science and Conservation at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Pete shares with us a diversity of ways plants are being conserved that give us hope for safeguar...

Do plants need passports? And why did some members of the UK public receive mysterious seeds through the post that they didn’t order last summer? The plant health inspectors and officers of the UK are tasked with keeping the country’s plant life healthy, which means keeping an eye on, and eradicating if possible, all plant pests and diseases of concern. Leading the team is Nicola Spence, Chief Pla...

Sourdough is a form of bread baking that leverages a complex community of yeasts and bacteria to give it flavour and rise. Thought to have originated in Ancient Egypt, the practice has since spread to communities all over the world, each with a unique method of creating and maintaining their starter. Behind each starter is a human story: dangerous journeys, mass migrations, traditions and cultures...

Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel started her maths career as an actuary, where she spent her days wrangling data and studying after work for her exams. She loved working with data, but doing the exams… not so much. So she embarked on a PhD in statistics, where she discovered a love for teaching and all things pedagogical. Mine’s career since has combined these two passions, and now she works to promote acces...

How many mathematicians does it take to optimise your internet shopping deliveries? In conversation with the Winners of the 12th AIMMS-MOPTA Optimization Modeling Competition, we hear how team NP Die Hard discovered their previously untapped skills to solve this problem in 3 months… and get a paper published from their work! From choosing your warehouses, to using the most appropriate optimisation...

Less than 1% of tropical plants have been screened for their potential medicinal uses. Yet many common drugs today are derived from plants. On this episode of Plants & Our Health, we talk with Dr Markus Ruhsam on the impressive potential of plants to the pharmaceutical industry and to help us look after our own health, now and in the future. We also discuss a research project Markus led using...

Did you know some plants grow crystals to scatter light? And some bacteria can sense the Earth's magnetic fields? This week, we chat to Dr. Fabio Nudelman from the University of Edinburgh's School of Chemistry, who tells us about how living organisms incorporate minerals into their biological structures, the wonderful uses they have for such materials, and how studying them can help us create new...

Where would we be without the plants that feed us? Why should we grow our own, and grow them together? This week on Plants & Our Health, we dive into the delicious new theme of ‘Plants on our Plates’ with Elinor Leslie, Community Gardener at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Elinor works on the Edible Gardening Project, assisting diverse groups with horticultural interests to engage in growing t...

Who do you go to when you have problems with crabs? Meadows Share obviously! This was only one of the fascinating questions that arose when we spoke to the team from Robocean in our second episode of season 2. The team recently won the Edinburgh Innovations Students Business Ideas Competition with their plan to restore the UK’s seagrass — a vital natural mechanism for carbon capture. Hear about th...

Is a coral a really smart rock or a very stupid plant? In the first episode of season 2, we dive into the biology of corals with Nadia Jogee, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences. More specifically, Nadia studies coralliths, a type of mobile coral, and the role they might play in reef recovery and expansion — a particularly important topic in the current changing cl...

For the final episode of the season, we have another joint interview! Prof. Miguel Anjos and Dr. Lars Schewe both work in the field of mathematical optimisation, looking at different aspects of energy networks. They dive into how optimisation can be used to solve problems at any scale, from sorting out your local bus route to managing the decarbonisation of a country's energy system. And ultimatel...

This week’s guest is Sorrel Lyall, a third-year ecology student at the University of Edinburgh, a stupendously talented birder and artist, and president of the Edinburgh University Ornithological Society (also known as BirdSoc). We talk birdwatching, running a society during a pandemic, and about how we can promote diversity in birding. Sorrel can be found on Twitter ( @SorrelLyall ), and you can...

Dr Ed Hutchison almost dropped his cup of tea when he found out that the research he had been working on since his postdoc, on which he had founded his lab, had been scooped. What followed is a heartwarming story of collaboration, teamwork, generosity, and kindness in science. Today we bring you our conversation with Dr Hutchinson, and with one of his collaborators from the University of Edinburgh...

“There’s a terrible myth that scientists are supposed to be all-knowing. And no, we’re blunderers around in the dark. The whole of science is about that: if we knew what we were doing it wouldn’t be research.” Jamie Davies has had a fascinating career in academia, and along the way he’s learned some important lessons. In this episode, he passes on his wisdom and treats us to some great stories fro...

At school, Jamie Davies was fascinated by how impossibly complex things can arise from very simple beginnings. He decided that he would become a radio astronomer and investigate the formation of galaxies from the stars and planets of our universe. But then he went to university. During his degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, he came across the field of developmental biology and instantly knew...