BLab Coats

John had the bad fortune of doing a double degree in Music and German right as the US financial collapse happened in 2008. Joining the army was the only way he was going to pay off his student loans. He's almost been killed a couple of times in Afghanistan, made it back and then moved to Hawaii, and now is studying agriculture science.

Why are there more men in the STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) than women? Is it Genetic or a product of our culture? Brooke talks to us about her research in gender disparity. We also talk about her journey, depression, fears and aspirations.

Alex's lecturer begins the semester with a story of how he witnessed an initiation ceremony that involved penile sub-incision. As painful as this experience was for these kids, their faces were lit up with joy and happiness. But why? The answer...? Their religion. A person's belief can change a painful experience to a pleasurable one. This fascinated Alex and fueled his fascination with Religious Studies.

In part #2 Meow talks to us about Transhumanism, AI, exponential growth in technology, and living forever,.

This week we talked with Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow Meow. You probably know him as the guy who put the Opal card into his hand, yet this is probably the least interesting thing about him. In this episode we talk to Meow about Biohacking, grinding, the democratization of science, Monsanto, big organic and why Neil deGrasse Tyson needs to take his own advice. And this was just the first half of our hour and 40 minute conversation. We hope you enjoy.

As an 8 year old, there was one deeply Psycholinguistic question that fascinated Karen. That is, when people talk, do they move their mouth because other people do it? Or do they do it because it's essential to speaking? Listen to this episode to hear how she turned this spark of curiosity into a roaring flame.  Dr Karen Mulak conducts Psycholinguistics research in the baby lab at the MARCS institute.

Dr Martin Smith works at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre. His field of research is bioinformatics; a field which combines mathematics, statistics, computer science, and engineering to analyse biological data. Martin talks about how he fell in love with Bioinformatics, how he found his supervisors, and the applications of his work. This type of work is critical for the advancement of personalised medicine.

Daniel's father developing Bipolar inspired him to get into Psychology in an attempt to better  understand what was happening. In this episode, we talk about his journey in psychology, a few interesting psychological phenomena, and what his research is focused on.

After seeing Coral for the first time on a family trip, Vivian knew what she wanted to study. Dr Vivian Cumbo researched corals in her honours and PhD and now is focusing on oysters. In this episode, she talks about her journey and how she found her way. She also discusses some of her fears and aspirations, and any advice she can pass onto us.

After reading Hunter S Thompson's book "Hell's Angels", Britney came out with a completely new conception of bikie gangs. She wondered how she ever developed the concept in the first place? This question sparked her curiosity in how we, as humans, come to develop concepts of abstract groups such as refugees, bikie gangs, etc.