This is part one of our conversation with Moad Abd El Hay, neuroscientist PhD student at the Excellence Cluster CellNetworks in Heidelberg and founder of the UniMind network, a Europe wide initiative that organizes journal clubs on the scientific study of psychedelic substances (psychedelic research will be adressed in part 2 of our conversation).

We explore Moad's work on temperature perception from a biochemical perspective, talk about why it is important for neuroscientists to start by studying simple systems, how heat receptors work and why they makes chilli peppers taste hot and menthol taste cold.

In the second half of the conversation we talk about some of the most pressing problems of modern science. We address the constant pressure to medicalize research, and how this interferes with foundational research. We talk about the problematic incentive structures in a broken publication system, power politics, and the lack of education in statistics, leading to p-hacking, small sample sizes and negligence of multiple comparisons.

The podcast is hosted by Manuel Brenner.