Eavesdrop on Experts

One of anthropologist Professor Andrew Dawson’s research papers is titled ‘Why Marx was a bad driver: Alienation to sensuality in the anthropology of automobility’.

The name gives an insight into his interest in the way movement, mobility and migration informs cultures and communities around the world.

“Anthropologists often see cultures and communities as outcomes of people living in places. The fact is that people have always been mobile, and increasingly are mobile, especially with globalisation. So, we have to change the way we think about our objects of study,” says Professor Dawson.

By joining people as they move around in cars or on buses, he gets a unique understanding into why they’re moving in the first place; toward or away from something.

“Moving is absolutely natural, it’s part of the human condition, unfettered movement”.

Interview recorded: June 14, 2019.

Interviewer: Steve Grimwade.

Audio engineer, producer, editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner image: Getty images.

Genomics is a rapidly evolving technology that can help identify the genetic cause of a condition in a person. It can also find a person’s predisposition to various diseases like some cancers.

When science first sequenced all the genes in the entire human genome, it became possible for scientists to compare the genomic patterns of larger groups of people – looking for more clues to health and disease in the ‘big data’.

Professor Clara Gaff was awarded the Most Valuable Woman in Leadership in the Biomedical Space for 2019 for her work as Executive Director of the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance.

And the way genomic technology has advanced still stuns her.

“The rates of diagnosis using this technology surpasses what I had expected,” she says. “It’s something I could never have imagined.”

Episode recorded: May 16, 2019.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner image: Shutterstock.

There’s been a growing shift in animal welfare; an increasing awareness of the mental wellbeing of animals rather than purely their biological functioning – that is, an animal’s physiology, reproduction and injury.

Mike Mendl, professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Bristol University in the UK, is drawing on animal behaviour, human psychology and cognitive neuroscience to improve animal welfare.

“Data from human studies shows that people who are unhappy or depressed tend to be much more pessimistic about the future and they make more careful, cautious decisions about ambiguity,” says Professor Mendl.

Professor Mendl is working develop ways of measuring animal welfare scientifically and with aim of improving the quality or conditions for all animals.

Episode recorded: May 15, 2019.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner image: Getty Images.

Previously seen as an older man’s disease, increased rates of prostate cancer in younger men has been associated with an increased incidence of obesity.

“There are a number of changes that happen in the body when you have obesity, that could lead to the progression of cancer,” says Professor Watt, Head of the Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

“Essentially what we’ve found is that, unlike other cancer types, which rely heavily on glucose to fuel both their growth and their proliferation, prostate cancer cells are very highly reliant on fatty acids.”

Working with researchers at Monash University, Professor Watt’s group have shown that they can block the capacity of these prostate cells to take up fatty acids which slows their growth dramatically.

“We think this has very important implications in understanding both the progression of the disease, but also ways in which we might be able to therapeutically target prostate cancer in the future.”

Episode recorded: May 6, 2019.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner image: Shutterstock.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. By the time we reach the age of 80, around 15 per cent of us will have glaucoma.

By using gene therapy, University of Melbourne ophthalmology professor, Keith Martin, and his team are aiming to encourage the cells that connect the eye to the brain to make new photoreceptors that pick up light, replacing those that have been lost.

“The cells I’m most interested in glaucoma are called retinal ganglion cells and these are the cells that connect the eye to the brain,” says Professor Martin.

“When light hits the eye, photoreceptors pick up that light and they signal through to these retinal ganglion cells that send the messages back to our brain. If we lose that cable that connects the eye to the brain, the picture quality degrades.”

These days, if glaucoma is identified early - it can be effectively treated in most cases. But Professor Martin’s research goes a step further.

“We’re moving beyond the era where all we could do for this chronic degenerative disease was slow things down, and we’re now really talking about restoring function in a realistic way.”

Episode recorded: April 10, 2019.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner image: Shutterstock.

Chiptune is the electronic music that was integral to the experience of playing the early computer games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. And the art of composing a chiptune was all about being innovative in the face of the constraints that came with using a simple sound chip.

“One of the really nice things about Chiptune is because it is so raw and open and simple, you are forced into a situation where you have no option but to create,” says Professor Kenny McAlpine, a Melbourne Enterprise Fellow in interactive composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and author of Bits and Pieces: A History of Chiptunes.

“Because of the constraints of the sound chip, because they could only do limited music, the composers, when they tried to step outside of those constraints and push beyond them, had to look for other ways of achieving complexity and that had to happen through code,” he says.

The irony is that despite all the creativity and ingenuity that goes into making a great Chiptune, Professor McAlpine says the best soundtracks shouldn’t be noticed.

“They should get under your skin, they should affect you. All I want you to do is play and be in the moment.”

Episode recorded: March 28, 2019.

Interviewer: Steve Grimwade.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner image: Waring Abbott/Getty Images.

Before paper, we had papyrus - made from reeds in Egypt, or parchment - made from the skin of various animals. And then China invented paper in order to collect Buddhist texts. From there, over the next two centuries, the use of paper moved through Central Asia used by merchants, government and commerce.

But, how did we get from Ancient Egyptian scrolls to modern-day office paper?

Jonathan Bloom is the now-retired Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College. He is also the soon-to-be retired Hamid Bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. Sheila Blair is the Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College Emerita, as well as the soon-to-be retired Hamid Bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Between them, they have explored how paper spread around the world, transporting ideas and information.

Episode recorded: March 12, 2019.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: Getty Images.

Sir Peter Cook is well known for his ‘big and naughty’ architecture.

The Emeritus Professor at University College London, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Frankfurt Staedelschule, Sir Peter co-founded the avant-garde architectural group Archigram and worked on constructions like the radical Art Museum in Graz, Austria.

Sir Peter says that buildings and structures must be designed for people.

“...it’s also a question of timing, positioning, spacing, iconography, to what extent something is special. Now, that almost comes back to architecture. If you just give a very bland piece of architecture, then you’re putting an enormous amount of onus on the inhabitant to do something special which they may not be up to. The result is boredom into boredom.”

Episode recorded: January 31, 2019.

Interviewer: Louise Bennet.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall & Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner image: Banner: Roof of Kunsthaus in Graz, Austria/Shutterstock.

While progress has been made, men still hold 60 per cent of senior positions within the Australian Medical Research Institute’s 49-member organisations, according to 2018 data.

For International Women’s Day, six female leaders in medical research come together to discuss the professional challenges they’ve overcome, to help encourage more women in science to build successful, enduring careers.

Professor Fabienne Mackay, head of the School of Biomedical Sciences, joins Professor Kathryn North AC, Director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute with Laureate Professor Ingrid Scheffer AO and others to dispel some myths about women working at the cutting-edge of medical research.

“Role models will not ask aspiring young women what would help them, but rather what stops them,” says Professor Mackay.

“At a point in your life something will drive your passion, it will come early or later depending on the person, but once you have that passion nothing should stop you.”

Recorded: March 7, 2019.

Reporters: Dr Andi Horvath and Buffy Gorrilla.

Producers: Dr Andi Horvath, Buffy Gorrilla and Arch Cuthbertson.

Audio engineer: Arch Cuthbertson.

Banner: Getty Images.

Professor Eva Nogales started her career in a time where barely any women were seen in science departments. In college, she skipped biology to focus on physics, relying on her high-school knowledge of the former to shape her career as a biophysicist.

Now, she’s using her understanding of the microtubules in our cells for improving disease management, including slowing the uncontrollable growth of cancer.

This niche understanding of our cell behaviour at the molecular level is already improving the lives of humans everywhere, and the technique used by Professor Nogales called “cryo-EM” is taking the world of structural biology by storm.

She recently visited the University of Melbourne to receive the 2019 Grimwade Medal, and to deliver the oration titled: Visualising the molecular dance at the heart of human gene expression.

Episode recorded: February 14, 2019.

Interviewer: Steve Grimwade.

Producer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: Berkeley Lab.