This week on Crystallise: Rosie tells us about a clinical trial where sight was restored to a blind man using light-sensing proteins from algae! Ash discusses how the face markings of peregrine falcons act like sunglasses, helping them to hunt in sunny climates.   

Episode Sources:  

• Blind man regains some vision, with help from light-sensing algal protein. 
• Eye on the Cure: Can Algae Genes Restore Vision in First Optogenetics Human Trial?  
• Malar stripe size and prominence in peregrine falcons vary positively with solar radiation: support for the solar glare hypothesis. 

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Music:   

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).   
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.   
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.  

This week on Crystallise, Ash discusses analysing the DNA of ancient poo to discover how our gut microbiome has changed over the millennia. Rosie shares some brand new research where gene editing was used to lower cholesterol - potentially permanently - in primates, and could soon be available for humans.     

Episode Sources. 

• Piles of ancient poop reveal ‘extinction event’ in human gut bacteria. 
• In vivo CRISPR base editing of PCSK9 durably lowers cholesterol in primates. 
• One-time CRISPR hit lowers cholesterol in monkeys. 
• Got mutation? ‘Base editors’ fix genomes one nucleotide at a time.  

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Music:   

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).   
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.   
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.  

This week on Crystallise: Rosie shares some new research that may take us a step closer to a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Ash discusses the release of genetically modified mosquitos in the Florida Keys in an attempt to curb the spread of infectious diseases.   

Episode Sources:

• Experimental drug shows potential against Alzheimer's disease. 
• Chaperone-mediated autophagy prevents collapse of the neuronal metastable proteome. 
• First genetically modified mosquitoes released in the United States. 

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!     


Music:   

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).   
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.   
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.  

This week on Crystallise: Ash discusses some incredible new research that extracted DNA from cave soil to give us an insight into how Neanderthals lived over 100,000 years ago, and Rosie explores the science and ethics behind creating human-monkey chimeric embryos.   

Episode sources: 

• Neanderthal DNA extracted from cave dirt shows population movements 100,000 years ago. 
• Unearthing Neanderthal population history using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from cave sediments. 
• First monkey–human embryos reignite debate over hybrid animals. 
• Human-Monkey Chimeras Shed Light on Development. 
• As scientists move closer to making part human, part animal organisms, what are the concerns?

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!   


Music:   

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).   
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.   
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.        

Why do humans enjoy eating spicy food? This week, Rosie explores the psychology behind why we choose to eat food with chillies in it, even when it can be physically painful, and the possible health benefits of adding more spice to your life. In our SNPit, Ash discusses a study investigating how humans perceive emotions in screams.   
 
Episode Sources:  

• Why Does Spicy Food Taste Hot?  
• A pleasure to burn: Why do people like spicy foods?  
• Gender differences in the influence of personality traits on spicy food liking and intake. 
• Antimicrobial and Anti-Virulence Activity of Capsaicin Against Erythromycin-Resistant, Cell-Invasive Group A Streptococci. 
• Antimicrobial Properties of Chili Peppers. 
• Food bacteria-spice survey shows why some cultures like it hot. 
• Spicy food may curb unhealthy cravings for salt.  
• Chili peppers for a healthy gut: Spicy chemical may inhibit gut tumors. 
• Neurocognitive processing efficiency for discriminating human non-alarm rather than alarm scream calls. 

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Music:    

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).     
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.     
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.    

How many senses do you think you have? This week, Ash takes us on a tour of the senses, from those you know to those you might never have even known existed. In our SNP, Rosie shares the story of a woman who urinates alcohol.

Episode Sources:  

• The Five (and More) Senses. 
• Humans have a lot more than five senses — here are 18. 
• You Know the Five Human Senses — Here Are Four You Don't. 
• People blind from birth use visual brain area to improve other senses: Can hear and feel with greater acuity. 
• Preserved Functional Specialization for Spatial Processing in the Middle Occipital Gyrus of the Early Blind. 
• Is there a universal hierarchy of human senses?  
• Doctors Have Reported The First Known Case of a Person Who Urinates Alcohol. 

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Music:  

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).   
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.   
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.    

Honey is often said to have healing powers, but how much of that is true, and how much a myth? In this episode, Rosie looks into the effects of honey on healing and hay fever, and why eating too much of some types of honey might be a bad thing. In our SNPit, Ash discusses some new research showing that, like humans, octopuses might be having dreams.   

Episode Sources:  

• Wasps, bees and ants: nature’s honey makers. 
• Manuka honey inhibits the development of Streptococcus pyogenes biofilms and causes reduced expression of two fibronectin binding proteins. 
• Honey could be effective at treating and preventing wound infections. 
• Honey: A Biologic Wound Dressing. 
• Patients Should Ask Surgeons About Using Honey To Heal Wounds. 
• New Study Says Honey Is Better For Colds Than Drugs. Here's What You Need to Know. 
• Honey Could Be Making Us Sick Due to Contamination With Liver-Harming Toxins, Study Suggests.
• Octopuses, like humans, sleep in two stages. 

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Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. 

The placebo effect is a powerful phenomenon where non-active treatments result in an improvement of symptoms, but how does it work? In this week's episode, Ash explains some of the reasons behind this effect, and how our brains can be tricked into thinking a treatment is working.
In the SNPit, Rosie discusses how the 18-year-old murder conviction of Kathleen Folbigg may have just been overturned by the power of whole-genome sequencing.

Episode Sources. 

• Is the placebo effect real?  
•  The weird power of the placebo effect, explained. 
• The neuroscience of placebo effects: connecting context, learning and health. 
• A radical new hypothesis in medicine: give patients drugs they know don’t work. 
• What is the placebo effect? An impressive demonstration of mind over matter. 
• Explainer: what is the placebo effect and are doctors allowed to prescribe them?  
• Placebo Effect in the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety. 
• Kathleen Folbigg’s children likely died of natural causes, not murder. Here’s the evidence my team found. 

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen! 


Music: 

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. 

Are we spending too much time looking at screens? In this episode, Rose investigates the potential negative health effects of blue light—from poor sleep, to macular degeneration, and even premature aging—and what we can do to avoid it. In our SNPit, Ash discusses a new study where scientists have created tiny crying tear glands in a dish.   

Episode Sources:

• Blue light emitted by screens damages our sleep, study suggests  
• Artificial light from digital devices lessens sleep quality. 
• Blue light may not be as bad for sleep as suspected, new study argues. 
• Daily blue-light exposure shortens lifespan and causes brain neurodegeneration in Drosophila. 
• Chemists discover how blue light from digital devices speeds blindness. 
• Study links night exposure to blue light with breast and prostate cancer. 
• Blue Light Exposure May Make You Hungrier, Study Suggests. 
• Individuals exposed to blue wavelength lights experienced faster reaction times. 
• Blue-enriched white light to wake you up in the morning. 
• Two hours of evening reading on a self-luminous tablet vs. reading a physical book does not alter sleep after daytime bright light exposure. 
• Scientists grew tiny tear glands in a dish — then made them cry. 

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Music:  

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. 

Do you look after your personal flora? Doing so might be crucial to living a healthy life! In this episode, Ash explores the human gut microbiome—what it is, what it does for us, and how to take care of it. In our SNPit, Rosie discusses a recent study that combined biology and physics to explain the mystery behind how egg cells get so large.   

Episode Sources:

• Role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health. 
• The Nutrition Source: The Microbiome. 
• Antibiotics alter the gut microbiome and host health. 
• The gut microbiome in health and in disease. 
• Dynamics of hydraulic and contractile wave-mediated fluid transport during Drosophila oogenesis. 
• Study reveals how egg cells get so big. 

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!  


Music:  

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.