Paras interviews a previous post-doc at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Ryan King. They chat about Ryan's long-lasting interest in how the heart functions and what was it like being a first-time dad in graduate school. During this interview, Ryan was a post-doc in Dr. Scott Johnstone's lab, who was featured in a previous episode titled "A pannexin for your thoughts."

Big Lick of Science brings a first for us, we sit down with a summer undergraduate research fellowship (SURF) student at the Fralin Biomedical Research Insititute at Virginia Tech. Gabe focused on addiction research during his summer months in Roanoke and also talks a little bit about his educational background, including his time being homeschooled!

We bring you a special episode today with Dr. György Buzsáki, Biggs Professor of Neuroscience at New York University School of Medicine. Paras and Dr. Buzsáki discuss his Inside Out approach and philosophy to how brain rhymes support cognitive function. Dr. Buzsáki is the author of over 300 papers and 2 books, the latest titled “The Brain From Inside Out”.

Dr. Stefanie Robel is a primary investigator at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech who focuses on these little star-shaped cells within our brains called astrocytes. These cells are important for brain health and function, but that can all change during traumatic brain injury, as her group studies. Additionally, we chat about her interests outside of the lab, including team building and mentorship.

Big Lick of Science sits down with new Principal Investigator, Dr. Scott Johnstone to discuss his research into cellular communication via pannexins and connexions and his unique experience working in academia in both the United States and the United Kingdom, along with opening a new lab during the pandemic.

"If all of your friends were to jump off of a bridge, would you do it?" Peer pressure can be a powerful social influence, but can this phenomenon be used to help people to better decision-making?

Rachana discusses all of this and more with Mark Orloff, PhD candidate at Virginia Tech!

Today on Big Lick of Science, we do something a little different and discuss the history of one of the most famous Black scientists, George Washington Carver, who created 105 recipes for the use of peanuts and was an advocate for environmentalism.

Additionally, Paras gets to enjoy one of his passions, linguistics, by highlighting the research into African American Vernacular English (AAVE) by Dr. Lisa Green at UMass Amherst.

Rachana virtually sits down with Dr. X.J. Meng, vaccine expert, and professor at Virginia Tech to discuss the ins and outs of vaccine creation. They get into the specifics of the making of the COVID-19 vaccines and answer our listeners' questions. 

Our host, Paras, virtually sits down with Dr. Jamie Symth, virologist and cellular communication expert at Virginia Tech to talk about his work, how viruses can ruin everything and how different viruses have been so successful at integrating into our lives and are tightly woven into the human experience. 

Today's introduction delves more into viruses, how they cause pandemics, and humanity's tepid history with these microscopic aliens. Rachana and Paras muse and discuss more details about the current COVID-19 pandemic. Wear your mask, folks!