Einstein A Go-Go

Dr Lauren, Dr Ray and Dr Jen join Dr Shane in the studio. In news - how we measure time needs fine-tuning via atomic clocks; artificial photosynthesis; Epigenetics can identify differences in DNA for identical twins; Chinese scientists have been looked at modifying the human embryo to prevent a fatal blood disease.Euan Ritchie joins the team to discuss the state of science in Australia, including government spending on research and development.Vaccinations is back in the news after the Australian Vaccination Sceptics Network released a controversial (and offensive) advertisement. Australia has a terrible record for species that have gone extinct since Europeans arrived.Finally, the Big Roo Count, the Pozible campaign to get Dr Jen and Euan back north to assess kangaroo species. Check out the campaign and dig deep to support their cause here www.pozible.com/project/195117.

EAGG 19th April 2015

Hosts: Dr Krystal, Dr, Kathryn, Dr Jen, Dr Shane

News items: The possible origins of antibacterial resistance, How does the skeletal muscles respond to a high fat diet?, New research in the placebo effect, Earthquake warning from mobile phones.

First guest: Chiara Paviolo, PhD. The most common treatments for cancer are surgery or a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Recently, gold nanoparticles have been employed in cancer cell therapy under laser illumination or as drug delivery systems. We showed that gold nanorods can also inhibit cell proliferation through a mechanical blocking of receptor clustering. Membrane receptors are proteins that provide the first line of communication between the extracellular environment and the cell cytoplasm.

Second guest: Dr Natalie Thorne is a statistician, and mother to three young children. She had an early interest in genetics during her Bachelor of Science degree in the late 90's. She worked with Professor Terry Speed, a world renowned bioinformatician and statistician, when she was in second year university. She went on to complete her Honours and PhD work in bioinformatics at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute with Terry.

Third guest:Professor Jo Douglas, Head of the Department of Immunology and Allergy, Royal Melbourne Hospital. Jo Douglass is a specialist physician who is Head of the Department of Immunology and Allergy at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, an Honorary Clinical Professor at the University of Melbourne and Research Associate at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute. She undertook medical training at Monash University and specialist physician training in Allergy and Respiratory Medicine in Australia and the UK, receiving her MD in 2000 with a thesis based on bench-top immunology and continues to contribute to publications and clinical research. She is a Fellow of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and a former President of the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA). Her current research projects are in severe asthma, allergies and immune deficiencies. She also maintains an active clinical practice.

http://www.dayofimmunology.org.au/Home/

Remember, "Science is everywhere", including:

http://www.rrr.org.au/program/einstein-a-go-go/

http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/category/Einstein%20A%20Go%20Go

and every Sunday at 11a.m AEST on RRR 102.7mHz FM

On this week's episode Dr Shane and the team discuss dormant hair follicles, the resurrection of the brontosaurus, determining causes for population height change and the economics of reinvigorating ancient canal systems.

Special guest Emily Rochette from Melbourne Girls Grammar talks about teaching science and technology incorporating social media.

Lastly, Dr Stephen Leslie from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute discusses his work (from the cover of Nature!) in which he created the first detailed genetic map of a complete population.

All this and much more on yet another jam-packed episode!

rrr.org.au/program/einstein-a-go-go/

Dr Shane, Dr Chromo, Emily P & Dr Ray discuss the lunar eclipse; Autism Awareness Month and inflammitary diseases, and possible links with bleach and food additives; the NASA Swift Satellite's 10 year anniversary; fur seals attacking sharks; plants that synchronise with the moon; and reviving ancient remedies.

They also discuss the 5th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and Dr Chromo reports from his experiences at a conference about the effects of alcohol on fetal development (FASD).

Program page: http://www.rrr.org.au/program/einstein-a-go-go/Facebook page: Einstein A Go GoTwitter: https://twitter.com/einstein_agogo

Dr Shane and Dr Crystal discuss the 'Value of Science' and how it's more to the average person than just free Wifi and GPS. Followed by possibly the ultimate control experiment spanning over 12 months and involving identical twins and NASA.

First Guest: Dr Beth Healey - Live from Antarctica, Concordia Base. Beth discusses the land based space experiment, isolated and at high altitude for 9 months including 3 months of complete darkness.

Second Guest: Dr Jo Abbott - Research Fellow, Health Psychologist & Acting Deputy Director at the National E-Therapy Centre for Swinburne University of Technology. Jo discusses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Insomnia and sending things into space.

Third Guest: Dr Christoph Rudiger - Senior Lecturer Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University. Christoph discusses hydrology and working with NASA using satellites to measure water levels in soil.

Program page: http://www.rrr.org.au/program/einstein-a-go-go/Facebook page: Einstein A Go GoTwitter: https://twitter.com/einstein_agogo

Dr Shane, Dr Jen, Dr Ray and Dr Catherine discuss ultrasound technology to treat Alzheimer's disease, how brain chemistry relates to empathy, quasicrystals in meteorites and the mars one project.

First guest: Dr Michelle Smith, School of Botany and Ecology, University of Maine, USA (via Skype call). Michelle discusses active learning techniques being tested to improve student engagement.

Second guest: Joe Micallef, Victorian State Manager of Engineering Australia, discusses the wonderful "SUBS in Schools Technology Challenge" program.

Third guest: Adam Taylor, Centre for Micro-Photonics, Swinburne University discusses how gold particles stability is under question due to their peculiar reshaping behaviour below melting points.

Program page: http://www.rrr.org.au/program/einstein-a-go-go/Facebook page: Einstein A Go GoTwitter: https://twitter.com/einstein_agogo

Dr Chromo and Dr Ray join Dr Shane in the studio.In news: the jury is back in on homeopathy - it doesn't work.Australian science made it into Nature this week for not funding their scientific infrastructure. Time for science to fight back.Today's guest is Emily Petroff from the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburn University. Emily works with telescopes and radio astronomy instrumentation to look for short timescale events in the radio sky, like pulsars; and a new type of object called fast radio bursts. Bright, single bursts that appear to originate billions of light years away.Support Dr Chromo in the World's Greatest Shave.

EAGG 8th March 2015

Hosts: Dr Shane, Dr Krystal, Dr Lauren, Chris KP.

News items: Welcome to International Womens Day, The effect of federal funding cuts, Researchers have found a new fossil in Ethiopia dated back to 2.8 million years ago, Use of tools changed the physiology of the human jaw bone and teeth, A new/old moth family discovered Aenigmatinea glatzella. On one island. On one tree, The DAWN space craft has been put into orbit around Dwarf Planet Ceres.

First guest:Maree Treadwell Kerr, Bat Night Coordinator Australasian Bat Society Inc

Australasian Bat Night is a series of local community events throughout Australasia held over the months of March and April (and into May) to raise awareness of bats both the large flying foxes and the small insectivorous microbats, both of which carry out essential eco-services. This week there are events in Parramatta and Melbourne (Flying fox count) on evening of Wednesday 4 March and on 7 March in Berri SA. More events can be found at http://ausbats.org.au/find-a-bat-night-event/4560496090

Second guest: Heather Maginn, Melbourne Aquarium.

On Friday the 13th of March, SEA LIFE Trust Melbourne will be holding their inaugural Ocean Fundraising Gala at the incredible SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium. This cocktail event will be supporting White Tag and their Great White Shark tagging and tracking program.http://www.melbourneaquarium.com.au/news/gala-dinner-for-white-shark/

Third guest: Dr Karli Treyvaud, Senior Research Officer and Team Leader, Clinical Psychologist (MAPS) Victorian Infant Brain Studies (VIBeS) Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

"My research has advanced understanding of child and parent outcomes after preterm birth beyond the perinatal period, and provided contemporary evidence for the critical importance of parenting to outcomes for high-risk children. My research indicated that warm, synchronous parenting was associated with better cognitive and social-emotional development in 2 year old very preterm children."

Other items: Wednesday 11th March at 10:30

How is new genetics transforming the diagnoses of rare genetic diseases?

https://www.mcri.edu.au/event/healthy-kids-seminar-series-how-new-genetics-transforming-diagnosis-rare-genetic-diseases

Science is everywhere, including:

http://www.rrr.org.au/program/einstein-a-go-go/

http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/category/Einstein%20A%20Go%20Go

and every Sunday at 11a.m AEST on RRR 102.7mHz FM

On this week's show, Dr Shane, Dr Lauren and Dr Catherine discuss how precious metals move under the surface of the earth, the perception of colours, light (and dresses), preventing peanut allergies and... how to transplant a human head.

Guests include Jacqui Young from the Mount Rothwell Biodiversity Interpretation Centre, discussing the preservation of threatened species, Thomas McCoy from the School of Chemistry at Monash University, discussing water purification using graphene and Vera Ignjatovic from the Haematology Research Team within the Melbourne Children's Campus, discussing blood clots in children (and how they differ from those in adults).

rrr.org.au/program/einstein-a-go-go/

Dr Shane, Dr Jen and Dr Ray bring you all that's hot in science - parasites that are migrating due to climate change, the Queensland cyclones (with Andrea Peace from the Bureau of Meteorology), using lasers instead of sparkplugs, the continuing effect of UV rays after sun exposure, and the Growing Tall Poppies program's call for mentors.

They are joined by Ben Sanders, Wildlife Conservation Officer with Zoos Victoria, who described the Guardian Dog project that the zoo is currently trialling- a plan to save the Eastern Barred Bandicoot from extinction and get it back in to the wild using Maremma Guardian Sheep Dogs.

The team welcome Dr Katie Mack, DECRA Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Physics, University of Melbourne, to talk about dark matter, and the grand plan to build a dark matter detector in Victoria.

Finally they were joined in the studio by Louisa Di Pietro, Group Leader at the Genetic Support Network of Victoria, to describe how they deliver services to Victorians impacted by genetic and rare diseases, in the leadup to Rare Disease Day on Feb 28.

Program page: http://www.rrr.org.au/program/einstein-a-go-go/Facebook page: Einstein A Go GoTwitter: https://twitter.com/einstein_agogo