Petri Dish

On this second episode about drug discovery, we discuss small molecule drug libraries and the challenges behind rational design! Don't know what that means? Tune in to find out! References: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2019.00107/full https://next.cancer.gov/discoveryresources/resources_ndl.htm https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc. E22-08-0377 https://www.fda.gov/n...

Hey everyone! Today's episode is about getting into the nitty gritty of drug discovery. We often benefit from the research and development that goes into the creation of drugs we use to treat illnesses without really understanding what goes into that process. In this first part, we will discuss how you conceptually begin the process. References: https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd2399 https://...

Sorry for the COVID-related break in episodes everyone! In our return, we complete our series on influenza by discussing past epidemics and pandemics to understand how influenza has repeatedly led to large scale medical events. Then we will finish by discussing the current and future state of influenza vaccines! References: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmp058281 https://www.nature.com/a...

You've had the flu. You've had a cold. Maybe you've even had allergies! But how can you tell them apart? And if you even figure out that you do have influenza, are there any treatments you can take that can help? References: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/gastroenteritis-in-adults-a-to-z https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/182/4/294/113092 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.c...

Last episode we discussed the current H5N1 flu that is hitting birds pretty hard. But is bird flu different from swine flu? Is there just a 'human flu', or do we only catch influenza from other animals? Let's get into the evolutionary history of the flu and primary hosts! References: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7328453/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK8611/ https...

Today's episode is the first in a four-part series on influenza! This time we are covering just enough background information to discuss the recent H5N1 pandemic in birds, which was responsible for the egg shortage and has been killing a lot of wild birds. References: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074182/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5198887/ https://www.ncbi.nl...

Sure, plants can sometimes smell good and they do cool stuff like make carbs for us to eat and oxygen for us to breathe. But they sort of look like they're just passively sitting there, right? Just chilling. If only we could hear just a slightly broader range of frequencies, we would hear a whole new world of plants -- one where they are complaining about being thirsty! Find out about the scre...

Hi everyone! This week's episode is about recent work trying to figure out a way to make a baby mouse that has two genetic dads. We also dive into why mammals don't seem to have virgin births! References: https://www.nature.com/articles/cr201115 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17034046/ https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02402 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11435 https://www.natu...

Today's episode is our second and final episode on Black Holes! We cover some exotic black hole concepts, like whether they are a source of dark energy, what a white hole is, and whether black holes are fuzzy or not! References: https://www.science.org/content/article/dark-energy-supermassive-black-holes-physicists-spar-over-radical-idea https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-i...

Here in our first episode on our 2-parter on Black Holes, we explain what a black hole is in theory and what it probably actually is in practice. We dive into why it is still hard for us to really know what the true nature of black holes are and we discuss the different kinds of black holes. References: https://forums.space.com/threads/how-to-calculate-a-black-hole%E2%80%99s-event-horizon.27467/ h...

In February, a train was partially derailed while carrying a number of chemicals. The subsequent attempt at containment resulted in the release of many thousands of gallons of these chemicals. What were those chemicals? What are the risks involved in their release? References: https://www.nytimes.com/article/ohio-train-derailment.html https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20230214.aspx...

On this week's episode, we complete our series on desalination by discussing the near future technologies that are coming to either improve or attempt to supplant the current front runners that we discussed last week. We will also discuss the downsides of desalination and work that is being done to try to minimize or circumvent them! References: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/five-thi...

Hi Everyone! We're interrupting our series on desalination to put out a quick rerelease of one of our episodes on Fungi! We're doing this in honor of the season 1 finale of The Last of Us, which heavily features a fungus called Cordyceps, which we covered in this episode. Check it out and learn more about cordyceps, similar fungi, and much nicer fungi that improve human life rather than turning us...

Climate change is happening, two billion people don't have a reliable and safe supply of fresh water, and the problem isn't likely to get a whole lot better on its own! Desalination is the process of making fresh water from salt water, but what is the current state of the technology? Find out on this episode of Petri Dish! Next time, we will discuss the near-future iterations on desalination! Refe...

While science and medicine have come a long way over the centuries, there are still illnesses that cannot be explained -- and many of them are autoinflammatory disorders. Many people all over the world have been inflicted with these disorders with no clear cause. But recently, scientists were able to find a mutation that can help explain what some of these people are going through, a mutation that...

Occasionally we do episodes where we speak about a couple different topics that don't have a specific underlying theme -- they're just fun science papers that have cropped up recently! This time we discuss the confluence of two different hot technologies, CRISPR base editing and CAR T cells. We also do a little dive into Roman Concrete! References: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63859184 https://...

We return with our second episode on Death, the final frontier! What is it? Actually though, like what determines the moment when someone dies? This question has actually had a different answer through the years, and we dive into the definition and how it has changed as technology has advanced. We finish with an example of cutting-edge technology that may further muddy the line between alive and d...

On our first episode about Death, we look into a paper published a few years that described the reanimation of a pig brain! Spooky! Let’s get into the science behind it and some of its implications for humans!

This winter season the world is dealing with not two but three respiratory illnesses at the same time. While these are familiar names at this point, they’re definitely different from one another, so let’s get into COVID, the flu, and RSV!

Hi Folks! Part 2 of our series on coffee focuses on how coffee beans can be imparted with different flavors through their picking and processing! We mentioned this in the show notes for the last episode, but we will be going on a couple month hiatus while Nathan and Stacey take a vacation in Korea! We will be re-releasing some of our older episodes in the meantime, in case people are really itchin...

The first episode on our three part series is on the history of human consumption of coffee (as far as we know) and the several species of plant that can produce those sweet, sweet beans! As a note, we are going to be taking a hiatus after Pt 2 next week for Nathan and Stacey to take a well-earned break and enjoy some time in Korea! We are going to do re-releases of older episodes, so if you haven...

In our second and final episode on viral hepatitis, we discuss Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C! One has a vaccine, the other can be treated with antivirals, but both can be pretty serious and bad if you aren't protected or treated. Our sponsor is Athletic Greens, a really solid and easy way to get your vitamins if you're like me and are too silly/busy to cook proper meals every day and need to get tho...

In our first episode of a two parter, we discuss what the liver does, what hepatitis is generally, and which hepatitis viruses cause acute issues! References: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00705-022-05375-0 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK13296/ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0227670 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482374/ https://my.clev...

Last week, we discussed a very big bacterium, one you can see with your naked eye! But back in high school we all learned that bacteria and prokaryotes in general were pretty simple cells and were definitely smaller than our cells. While we've found a lot of examples that push back against this idea, there is a fundamental truth behind it -- a simple cell has definite physical constraints on how b...

In today's episode, we discuss a recent discovery of a reaaaaaally big bacteria, like way big! Big enough that you can see it without a microscope! Longer than a fruit fly! BIG! How can a bacteria get so big? What is going on there? Let's discuss it! References: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb3634 https://www.science.org/content/article/largest-bacterium-ever-discovered-has-unexpec...