Zach and I have been swamped with work lately, and are about to go on our very belated honeymoon. We will begin updates when we get back from the honeymoon in a few weeks.
<3, The Weinersmiths
The Weinersmiths are on vacation!
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Episode 44: Caffeinated and telepathic rats
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This week Zach and Kelly talk about how the smell of coffee changes gene expression and protein production in rat brains, and discuss a study that hooked rat brains up to one another so the rats could share information and perform tasks together.
Links
Submit an application for the Festival of Bad Ad Hoc Hypotheses!
#SciFund Challenge is looking for a django developer!
Coffee on the brain
Rat brain-to-brain interface
Episode 43: The Valentine’s Day Episode
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For Valentine’s Day, Zach and Kelly talk whether or not brazilian waxing is causing the extinction of pubic lice, and about how housework influences the frequency of sex.
Links
Zach and Kelly news!
Check The Story Collider for our nerdy love story!
JJ Darling took our photos while we were in NYC. Our favorite photo can be found below.
Kickstarter for Zach’s book of science-themed comics (featuring a story by Adam Savage!)
Is brazilian waxing causing the extinction of pubic lice?
Popular press coverage
Bug Girl – debunking the pubic lice are going extinct claim: here and here
Scientific articles/letters
Waxing common amongst undergrads
Did the “brazilian” kill the pubic louse?
Housework and sex
Scientific article: Egalitarianism, housework, and sexual frequency in marriage
Erectile dysfunction and income inequality
Episode 42: Fecal transplants and eye development
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This week Zach and Kelly discuss a study that used infusion of donor feces to treat a bacterial infection, and a second study that found that light is important for eye development in fetal mice.
Links
Zach and Kelly stuff!
Zach has a Kickstarter running for his new science-themed comic book!
Zach and Kelly will be part of the Story Collider show in NYC on Feb. 5th!
The Small Dinosaurs have put out their first album!
Bandcamp (where the album can be streamed):
http://smalldinosaurs.bandcamp.com/album/household-songs-2
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-small-dinosaurs/id592783699
Music video: http://youtu.be/-5B4067Y2u8
Paper 1: Nood et al. 2013 Duodenal infusion of donor feces for recurrent Clostridium difficile
Episode 41: Science and Math
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This week Zach and Kelly talk about how fear and/or awe of math differs between academic fields.
Links
What are Zach and Kelly up to?
Zach and Kelly will be at the Story Collider show on Feb. 5th in NYC. Join us!
Kickstarter for Zach’s new science-themed comic book
SCIENCE
Paper 1: The Nonsense Math Effect
Paper 2: Heavy use of equations impedes communication among biologists
Episode 40: The Reproducibility Initiative with Dr. Elizabeth Iorns
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This week Zach and Kelly bring back Dr. Elizabeth Iorns to talk about the Reproducibility Initiative through Science Exchange. Elizabeth was recently named one of Nature’s 10 People Who Mattered This Year!
Links
Zach and Kelly news
Check out other Brachiolope Media Network podcasts!
Science…sort of
The Titanium Physicists
Press coverage for the Reproducibility Initiative
EconTalk episodes on reproducibility and bias in science
Brian Nosek on Truth, Science, and Academic Incentives
Ed Yong on Science, Replication, and Journalism
This American Life episode that discussed research using electromagnetic waves to kill cancer cells: So Crazy It Just Might Work
Episode 38: Jessica Richman and William Ludington on uBiome
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This week Zach and Kelly talk to Jessica Richman, a PhD student at Oxford University, and Dr. William Ludington, the Bowes Fellow at the University of California Berkeley, about uBiome. uBiome is a project that connects citizens to scientists in an attempt to better understand the microbiome.
Links
Candida albicans (yeast that is part of the microbiome)
Vagus nerve
Toxoplasma gondii
Episode 3: Bacteria, Butts, and Brains (a previous Weekly Weinersmith episode on the microbiome)
Operational taxonomic unit
Episode 37: Trevor Bekolay on Spaun, a large-scale simulated brain
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This week Kelly and Zach talk to Trevor Bekolay about his work on a large-scale brain simulator. Trevor is a PhD student in the Computational Neuroscience Research Group at the University of Waterloo.
Links
Scientific paper: Eliasmith et al. 2012: A large-scale model of the functioning brain
Popular press articles on Spaun
Nengo.ca - download software for simulating neural systems
Episode 35: Aging and antidepressants
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This week Zach and Kelly talk about how the blood of young mice makes old mice brains look young again, and whether or not genomics can help to predict the kinds of antidepressants to which a person will respond.
Links
Weinersmith news
Trial of the Clone–Zach’s new choose-able pathways book
Paper 1: Villeda et al. 2011 – The aging systemic milieu negatively regulates neurogenesis and cognitive function
Why Zebra Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky
The Guardian article covering Dr. Villeda’s talk on aging at the Society for Neuroscience conference
Serge Voronoff – surgeon who grafted monkey testicles on to human men
Paper 2: Tansey et al. 2012 – Genetic predictors of response to serotonergic and noradrenergic antidepressants in major depressive disorder: a genome-wide analysis of individual-level data and a meta-analysis
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
Noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (NRIs)
Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)
Episode 34: Fear and BPA
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This week Zach and Kelly discuss research on how to eliminate certain types of anxiety, and chat about Bisphenol A (BPA).
Links
What are Zach and Kelly up to?
Zach at New York City Comic Con October 11-14th
Final Season of SMBC Theater sketches
Sign-up for Round 3 of the #SciFund Challenge!
Kelly is excited about genomes. What this video, and you will be too.
Paper: Disruption of reconsolidation erases a fear memory trace in the human amygdala
FDA’s 2010 public statement on BPA
Washington Post article on the difficulties of removing BPA from products