RadioBio

Matter in a random universe. How does it behave? Can we predict it? When physics meets biology, this intersection between two disciplines can crack some major gaps in our understanding of how matter transforms from one state to another. Today we discuss proteins that change their physical state and the theory that goes into understanding this state change.

Water. It is one of the basic requirements of life as we know it, especially in California. The Washoe people of California's Sierra Nevada mountains believe that all water bodies contain water spirits known as water babies that dictate if you will catch fish or if the river will run dry. And these beliefs are founded in the reality of water's significance...the Sierra Nevada mountains are the res...

How do you search for a virus? Even worst, how do you search for a virus's DNA? A virus you've never seen before and have no clue what it looks like! If you think of one of your cells as the size of a baseball stadium, a virus would about the size of a baseball. You could try a targeted approach by sequencing your best, educated guesses but with metagenomics you can sequence everything but the kit...

Imagine a world with no leaders. No Presidents. No generals. No bosses. No central control. Ants have successfully occupied every continent on earth and even though they have a queen, they use a system with no central control which we term collective behavior. But what is collective behavior? How do we begin to understand behaviors that emerge in a spontaneous way? Dr. Deborah Gordon, Professor of...

Have you ever wondered what powers us? We all consume food for energy, but HOW does that actually turn into energy?  You may be familiar with the molecule ATP, or adenosine triphosphate. ATP is used to store energy from the breakdown of food, and through a process called hydrolysis, that energy can be released and transferred to power reactions. This tiny but mighty molecule is what powers nearly...

"The thymus is a really ugly-looking organ, but tastes fantastic. Have you ever had sweet breads?" In case you don't know, sweetbread is the culinary term for the thymus, but what is the thymus, besides a tasty dish? In this episode Genevieve and Stephen sit down with Dr. Jarrod Dudakov and discuss what the thymus is, its function, and why it is worth researching.

When you are thinking about how the world works, how often do you think about the tiny forces of nature? Just about never, what do you mean? I mean microbes! They play an important role in ecosystem processes such as decomposition and nutrient cycling. But what do we know how these microbes live in nature? It turns out they live in communities, just like we humans do. In this episode we talk with...

A lot of people don't like bats, even Batman is afraid of them. But maybe people are just afraid of what they don't know. Today Dr. Greg Mutumi talks to us about what makes bats so unusual, interesting, and, like he said earlier....cute!

Do you think you can put a number on the amount of species you've seen in your life? Absolutely not. Just stepping out onto the city street, there are countless species around us at all times. It's a huge amount of biodiversity. But what does that even mean and how do we study it? This week on RadioBio, we are joined by Dr. Felipe Zapata from University of California Los Angeles to discuss just th...

Symbioses, the interactions between two different species, make the world go ‘round. Everything from our agricultural systems to our own gut depends on groups of interacting organisms doing their thing. Our guest today, Dr. Alison Hansen, studies how a common aphid gets its nutrition. It turns out that its entire diet is dependent on a bacterium living inside each and every aphid. But how did it g...

We often imagine a cell as a large balloon filled with jelly, but really it is more like a large city. Packages need to go from one place to the other in an organized fashion as to not disrupt other processes. For example, when we need an item, we go to the store or click away on retail websites, but how do these items find their way to the retail place or our house? There are vehicles on roads an...

What if you could prevent something bad from happening? When it comes to epilepsy, you never know when a seizure could happen next. The ability to predict an incoming seizure can be a game changer. Today we have the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Jeanne Paz about her incredible work aimed at seizure prediction and prevention.

We are all probably familiar with antibiotics, we have probably even taken them. Resistance to antibiotics have been in the news recently. But what is it? How does antibiotics resistance develop and are there ways to combat it? Dr. Tricia Van Laar chats with us and shares insights on antibiotic resistance.

Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black, friend of Jack. Some species use bright colors in different combinations to tell potential predators to back off, bub. Eat me and you'll be sorry. But not always.... Throughout the animal kingdom, species have evolved ways of faking out their enemies. Dr. Alison Davis Rabosky tells us about natures con artists, the mimics, and how these crafty creatures...

When you think of ways to slow down climate change, what pops into your mind? Reduce, reuse, recycle!! Perhaps to never use fossil fuels again? These are things that we, as humans, can actively do to decrease our impact on earth's climate. We're not alone in the fight against climate change tho-- plants play an important role just by being, well, plants. This week on RadioBio, Dr. Silver from UC B...

Do you ever stop and smell the flowers? Do you feel like you only like certain kinds? Well, a bee would agree. Did you know scents are different because of species interactions? In a field of flowers, there are a lot of complex interactions at play that allow those flowers to coexist. But how does it all work? Today on RadioBio we talk with Dr. Sharon Strauss about the complexity behind species co...

Extreme drought is one of many impacts of climate change. Globally, we have seen droughts increase in duration and intensity, with many negative impacts on natural ecosystems, crops, and our economy.  This begs the question - how do plants deal with drought?  Our guest today, Dr. Jarmila Pittermann, studies plant ecophysiology — how plants are structured and what that structure means for how plant...

Infections occur when foreign invaders take root in the human body. When most people think of infections, they think of bacteria and viruses. These however, are not the only invaders our body has to watch out for - fungi are also able to cause disease in humans. You all may be familiar with mild fungal infections, such as athletes foot and yeast infections. Some fungi however can cause life threat...

Presenting Radiobio’s first dispatch episode! This podcast focuses on the UC Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve featuring interviews from several scientists who do research on the reserve. Hydrologist Dr. Mark Rains, Herpetologist and conservation biologist Dr. Brad Shaffer, and fairy shrimp biologist Dr. Shannon Kiernan, and Reserve Director Monique Kolster. Discover what vernal pools are...

Autoimmune diseases occur when our immune systems start to attack our own cells, rather than foreign invaders. Unfortunately, very little is known about how these disorders arise in otherwise healthy individuals. Join us as we talk with B-cell immunologist and autoimmune clinician, Dr. Julie Zikherman, as we discuss how to control these inappropriate immune responses.

Genetics is a majorly hot topic in biology right now -- everything is genome sequencing this, gene expression that -- but how much do we really know? We know a lot about which genes are present in which organisms, and what certain genes do, but not a lot about how or why they do it. Our guest today, Dr. Rob Philips, is a researcher at CalTech who is working to understand the language of gene regul...

Whenever you're sick, your immune system springs into action, but how? T-cells are like the generals of your immune system, and they command your immune system in battle against pathogens. Dr Rothenberg from @CalTech tells us all about this process and how these cells train into the powerful generals they are on this episode of RadioBio.

Dr. Heinrich Jasper shows us new tools using Stem Cells that can help with both our longevity as well as degenerative disease. The Jasper lab is focused on regulatory mechanisms that control stress tolerance, metabolism and aging with the help of fruit flies. In particular, Dr. Jasper has been recognized for making seminal discoveries about the effects of aging on stem cell behavior, and about the...

Two words: Flying Lizards. How'd it happen? Evolution. Evolutionary history is complicated. It can sometimes be helpful to look at funky animals to see what their unusual traits tell us about their history. For example, Dr. Jim McGuire from the University of California Berkley, studies the evolutionary correlates of size, color, and flight in lizards.

Viruses are iconically challenging to define, but they have DNA so they evolve. In the 1980s, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) shook the world and propelled a massive undertaking to study the evolution of drug resistance in viruses. On world aids day, December 1st, 2017, we spoke with Dr. Pleuni Pennings from San Francisco State University about how viruses adapt to treatments through time.