IndSciComm podcasts

Despite the multitude of languages that exist in India, communication of science is often limited to only a few and often centred around major cities. This obviously leads to the problem of scientific knowledge and ideas not reaching those who would benefit from it the most.

But all is not doom and gloom. Armed with the reach of social media, open source softwares and local networks, several individuals are attempting to fill these gaps by innovative yet low cost alternatives.

This podcast series is aimed at sharing such efforts and to inspire many more to communicate science in the many languages that call India their home. Our first episode features Dr. Kollegala Sharma

Links:

Jaanasuddi on SoundcloudPriya Prakash Warrier: WinkingEjana: Science and Tech blog in Kannada

Listen to our first ever yearly round-up of what we do for work, in our free time, our favourite shows and our scientific, nerdy and geeky pet peeves.

Featured in Newslaundry on July 25th 2017

While Toxoplasma causes long-lasting infections that resist treatment, research on this neglected parasite promises to unveil new ways to treat malaria. But there is more to this microbe than meets the eye. Listen to our podcast to find out.

References:

1. General introduction

2. TORCH member

3. CDC assigned category NPI

4. Early research and establishment as parasite: Ferguson, David JP. "Toxoplasma gondii: 1908-2008, homage to Nicolle, Manceaux and Splendore." Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 104.2 (2009): 133-148.

5. Use of the Sabin-Feldman test to find Toxoplasma infections worldwide

6. The life cycle of Toxoplasma

7. Toxoplasmosis as zoonosis

8. Studies in India to measure Toxoplasma infection

9. Concerns about sexual transmission of Toxoplasma (here and here)

10. Malaria in India (Searo, NCBI, NCBI, WHO)

11. Resistance of malaria to standard medication

12. Whitehead Institute’s use of CRISPR on Toxoplasma

13. Apicomplexans

14. Crippling host invasion protein CLAMP (here and here)

15. Aid to research on inflammation

16. No obvious symptoms of Toxoplasma infection in otherwise healthy people

17. Eye infections by Toxoplasma

18. Toxoplasma and neurological disorders (here and here)

19. Immunosuppression by HIV or by medical treatments, leading to reactivation of Toxoplasma (here and here )

20. Toxoplasmosis in organ transplant recipients

21. Organ transplantation related diseases (here and here)

22. Anti-parasitic drugs to destroy active parasites

23. Infection in women passing to foetus

24. Spiramycin therapy

25. CDC recommendations (here and here)

26. Autophagy (here and here)

27. Interfering with autophagy damages and destroys parasites (here and here)

Published in Newslaundry on April 18th 2017

References:

The Regulatory Status of Genome-edited Crops: Wolt, Wang and Yang (2015) Plant Biotechnology JournalGreen European Journal: New Breeding Techniques, New GMOs in a legal LimboGenetic Literacy Project FAQs     Legal Briefing Paper: Regulatory Status of Plants resulting from NBTs : NBT PlatformRegulatory Status of NBTs outside the EU: NBT PlatformCommittee formed in USA to redefine genetic modificationHow some GMOs have escaped US regulation; non-browning white mushroomsResearch paper on crop domesticationSafety testing of GMOs

இது, அறிவியல் கடல் வலையொலி தொடரில் ஒரு சிறப்பு அத்தியாயம். 

This is a special episode within our Sea of Science podcast series.

இந்த சிறுதொடரில், இந்தியா மற்றும் இந்திய நாட்டை சார்ந்த விஞ்ஞானிகளோடு, அவர்களின் அறிவியல் ஆர்வம் மற்றும் வாழ்க்கைப்பயணத்தை பற்றி உரையாடுவோம். இந்த முயற்சியை முன்பு ஆங்கிலத்தில் வேறு விஞ்ஞானிகளோடு, இண்ட்சைகாமின் இணைய ஸ்தாபகி ஷ்ருதி முரளிதர் செய்திருக்கிறார் (சூப்சோன் ஆஃப் சைகாம்). 

In this mini-series, we will talking to Indian and Indian-origin scientists about their scientific interests and their life stories (in Tamizh). IndSciComm's co-founder Shruti Muralidhar has previously completed a similar project, in English, with other scientists (Soupcon of Scicomm).

தமிழ்நாட்டில் பிறந்து வளர்ந்த உயிரியல் ஆராய்ச்சியாளர் டாக்டர் கிஃப் லியாகத்-அலி, தற்போது அமெரிக்காவின் ஸ்டான்போர்டு பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் மூளையின் நரம்பு உயிரணுக்கள் அதாவது செல்கள் மீது ஆராய்ச்சியில் ஈடுபட்டுக்கொண்டிருக்கிறார். இதற்கு முன், அவர் இங்கிலாந்தில் தோலில் செயல்படும் செல்கள் மீது ஆராய்ச்சி செய்தார். அவர் வாழ்க்கை மற்றும் வேலையைப் பற்றி நான் கேட்ட சில கேள்விகளுக்கு, அவரளித்த பதில்கள் அவர் குரலிலேயே இப்போது கேட்கலாம்.  

Born and brought up in Tamilnadu, biologist Dr. Kif Liakath-Ali is currently working at Stanford University in USA, where he is engaged in conducting research on neurons in the brain. He has previously worked, in England, on stem cells in the skin. You can now hear some of his responses to my questions, about his life and work, in his own voice.

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வலையொலியின் உரை கீழே, படிப்பதற்கு:

The podcast transcript is below, if you would like to read:

அபிஷேக்: இந்த வலையொலியை கேட்கும் நேயர்களுக்கு, என் மனமார்ந்த வணக்கம். என் பெயர் அபிஷேக் சாரி. நான் இண்ட்சைகாம் என்கிற தொடர்புக்குழுவின் இணைய ஸ்தாபகன். இந்திய மக்களுக்காக சுவாரசியமான அறிவியல் கட்டுரைகள் மற்றும் வலையொலி தொடர்கள் தயாரிக்கும் முயற்சியில், இது எங்கள் புத்தம்புதிய முயற்சி. இந்த தொடரில், இந்தியா மற்றும் இந்திய நாட்டை சார்ந்த விஞ்ஞானிகளோடு, அவர்களின் அறிவியல் ஆர்வம் மற்றும் வாழ்க்கைப்பயணத்தை பற்றி உரையாடுவோம். இந்த முயற்சியை முன்பு ஆங்கிலத்தில் வேறு விஞ்ஞானிகளோடு, இண்ட்சைகாமின் இணைய சஸ்தாபகி ஷ்ருதி முரளிதர் செய்திருக்கிறார். (சூப்சோன் ஆப் சைகாம்). 

தமிழ்நாட்டில் பிறந்து வளர்ந்த உயிரியல் ஆராய்ச்சியாளர் டாக்டர் கிஃப் லியாகத்-அலி, தற்போது அமெரிக்காவின் ஸ்டான்போர்டு பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் மூளையின் நரம்பு உயிரணுக்கள் அதாவது செல்கள் மீது ஆராய்ச்சியில் ஈடுபட்டுக்கொண்டிருக்கிறார். இதற்கு முன், அவர் இங்கிலாந்தில் தோலில் செயல்படும் செல்கள் மீது ஆராய்ச்சி செய்தார். அவர் வாழ்க்கை மற்றும் வேலையைப் பற்றி நான் கேட்ட சில கேள்விகளுக்கு, அவரளித்த பதில்கள் அவர் குரலிலேயே இப்போது கேட்கலாம்.  

நீங்கள் பிறந்த ஊரும், உங்கள் தாய்மொழியும்?

Abhishek: My heartfelt greetings to those listening to this podcast. My name is Abhishek Chari. I am a co-founder of science communication collective IndSciComm. This podcast is the latest production in our efforts to produce interesting articles and podcast series for the Indian public. In this new series, we will  be speaking with Indian and Indian-origin scientists about their scientific interests and their life journeys. Shruti Muralidhar, a co-founder of IndSciComm previously did a similar series in English (Soupcon of Scicomm) 

Now, I am very happy to introduce Dr. Kif Liakath-Ali to all of you. Born and raised in Tamilnadu, he is currently engaged in researching neuronal cells at Stanford University, in USA. Prior to this, he was working on skin stem cells in England. You can listen to him now, as he answers some of my questions about his life and work.

Where were you born, and what is your mother tongue?

கிஃப் லியாகத்-அலி: நான் பிறந்து வளர்ந்தது நீலகிரி மாவட்டத்தில் ஊட்டிக்கு அருகிலுள்ள மசினகுடி என்கிற அழகான கிராமத்தில். என் தாய் மொழி தமிழ். 

Kif: I was born and raised in Masinagudi, a scenic small village near Ooty in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. My mother tongue is Tamizh.

அபிஷேக்: உங்கள் படிப்பு, மேற்படிப்பு எங்கே நடந்தது? பிறக

This is the second episode of a two-part series on Neuroscience and Hindustani Music.

It explores a research program on understanding the emotions that Hindustani music can evoke in people. This research is guided by Dr. Nandini Singh Chatterjee, a scientist at the National Brain Research Centre at Manesar, India, where she heads the Language, Literacy and Music Laboratory.

This episode specifically focusses on the second study that was published in 2019, based on the responses of Indian participants to a set of Hindustani music samples.

The music used in this podcast is a part of the samples used in the research study, played by sarod artist Pandit. Mukesh Sharma. Hymavathy Balasubramanian kindly provided access to the music files.

Here is the website where you can listen to the music samples and contribute your responses to the ongoing research program.

Dr. Nandini Singh Chatterjee is on our database of Indian women neuroscientists, NeuroFem India.

Apart from her, the other people who were interviewed for this episode are:

Dr. Suhas Vijayakumar, who created the website where the listener survey for the research on Hindustani music is conducted. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University.

2. Pandit. Mukesh Sharma is the sarod artist who created the music used in this study. He belongs to the Senia gharana.

3. Vishal Midya, the lead author on the 2019 study, is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Penn State College of Medicine.

4. Dr. Thomas Bak is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Edinburgh

Dr. Nandini's group based their calculation of tonality on the method shown in this earlier research on Carnatic music by another group of researchers.

Here is the previous research from scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Pennsylvania on emotion expressions in Indian Classical Dance.

The NIH Director's blogpost about NIH funded research on universality of human song

Update on Feb 12th, 2020: After rebalancing for better overall audio quality between voices and background music, the audio file has been re-uploaded.

This is the first episode of a two-part series on Neuroscience and Hindustani Music.

It explores a research program on understanding the emotions that Hindustani music can evoke in people. This research is guided by Dr. Nandini Singh Chatterjee, a scientist at the National Brain Research Centre at Manesar, India, where she heads the Language, Literacy and Music Laboratory.

This episode explores the first study that was published in 2015, based on the responses of Indian participants to a set of Hindustani music samples.

The music used in this podcast is a part of the samples used in the research study, played by sarod artist Pandit. Mukesh Sharma. Hymavathy Balasubramanian kindly provided access to the music files.

Here is the website where you can listen to the music samples and contribute your responses to the ongoing research program.

Dr. Nandini Singh Chatterjee is on our database of Indian women neuroscientists, NeuroFem India.

Apart from her, the other scientists who were interviewed for this episode are:

Dr. Avantika Mathur, the lead author of the 2015 study, and currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Centre for Brain, Biology and Behavior at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA.

Dr. Megha Sharda most recently completed a postdoctoral research stint at the University of Montreal, Canada.

Dr. Bhismadev Chakrabarti is Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Reading, United Kingdom.

This is our first podcast in Telugu – the sixth in an ongoing series titled ‘Sea of Science’, or ‘ విజ్ఞాన సాగరం ’.

This podcast is a joint venture with Deepthi Tadepalli and Sumana Chavali.

Deepthi works as a freelance writer with a background in biotechnology and communication. Sumana is an engineer working at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

This episode is part of our ongoing effort to make science podcasts in many Indian languages. Click and listen to this podcast in Tamizh, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and Assamese.

Here is an English transcript for this Telugu podcast:

Deepthi: Hello! My name is Deepthi and I am a freelance writer with a background in biotechnology and communication. 

Sumana: Hi! My name is Sumana and I am an engineer working at Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

Deepthi: This podcast is a collaboration between us and IndScicomm, a science communication collective. In its ongoing efforts, IndSciComm has published podcasts as well as written articles that discuss interesting aspects of scientific research, the researchers involved in this effort, their discoveries and the effects of scientific progress on the past, present and future of human society. IndSciComm also collaborates with Indian scientists, researchers and writers at all levels of the scientific enterprise in creating its science communication materials.

Sumana: We are very happy to present this podcast in Telugu, which is one of the national languages of India. With the help of other collaborators, IndSciComm is publishing this podcast in other Indian languages as part of its ongoing project.

Deepthi: In this podcast, we will be talking about model organisms that are used in biological research. Now, let’s discuss model organisms. Here are some examples of model organisms that are used to study aspects of the human body’s growth, development, functioning and disorders: different species of microbes, flies, zebrafish, birds, mice, rats, guinea pigs and monkeys.

In the context of biomedical research that is done to understand human biology,  the foremost reason for the use of model organisms is that it is not possible to conduct some forms of biological experiments on humans. So, scientists have chosen organisms that are a close enough match to humans in terms of their genes and other biological features, and use these as model organisms for their research.

Sumana: Apart from how similar model organisms are to humans in terms of their genes and genomes, there are other important reasons for some organisms being chosen as model organisms rather than others. The ease with which certain organisms can be reared and maintained in the laboratory and the kind of experiments that they can be used for… These are the factors that scientists use to choose the appropriate organism to use as a model, to answer questions about specific biological phenomena.

Deepthi: Sumana, could you give us some examples of model organisms that are used in specific areas of biological research?

Sumana: Specific model organisms are used in different areas of research. For example, regeneration is studied using certain species of worms. The relationship between genes and the environment is researched using certain species of flies. Zebrafish are preferred model organisms for researching embryonic development. Zebrafish larvae have transparent bodies which makes observing their internal organs really easy. Another example is the use of mammals like mice in biomedical research.

Deepthi: Is there an advantage to using model organisms like mice in biomedical research?

Sumana: Some diseases take years to show symptoms in human beings. But, in certain lineages of model organisms, diseases can show symptoms in relatively reduced timeframes, like weeks. Due to this, it is easier to conduct research about certain diseases in such model organisms. This is why scientists use model organisms li

This is our first podcast in Assamese – the fifth in an ongoing series titled ‘Sea of Science’, or ‘ বিজ্ঞান সমুদ্ৰ ’.

This podcast is a joint venture with Dr. Joli Rumi Borah and Pranab Jyoti Bhuyan.

Dr. Joli Rumi Borah works as a Conservation Officer at the Royal Society for Protection of Birds in Northern Ireland. She also communicates the latest developments in scientific research (in Assamese) through Twitter and blogging. Pranab Jyoti Bhuyan is a Phd student in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

This episode is part of our ongoing effort to make science podcasts in many Indian languages. Click and listen to this podcast in Tamizh, Hindi, Marathi, and Kannada.

Here is an English transcript for this Assamese podcast:

Pranab: Hello! My name is Pranab Jyoti Bhuyan. I am a Phd student at the Department of Physics in Indian Institute of Science.

Joli: Hello, I am Dr. Joli Rumi. I am a conservation scientist. I am working as a Conservation Officer at Royal Society for Protection of Birds in Northern Ireland.

Pranab: We are really pleased to collaborate with IndScicomm, a science communication collective in their ongoing efforts. IndScicomm has created podcasts as well as written articles that discuss interesting aspects of scientific research, the researchers involved in this effort, their discoveries and the effects of scientific progress on the past, present and future of human society. They also collaborate with Indian scientists, researchers and writers at all levels of the scientific enterprise in creating our science communication materials.

We are very happy to present this podcast in Assamese, which is one of the national languages of India. IndSciComm has previously published translated versions of this podcast in many Indian languages and is expanding this project into other languages. Joli will now introduce the topic of our conversation.

Joli: In this part of the podcast, we will be talking about model organisms that are used in biological research. In the next part of this podcast, we will specifically talk about the use of mice as model organisms.

Pranab: Now, before talking about mice, let’s discuss model organisms. Here are some examples of model organisms that are used to study aspects of the human body’s growth, development, functioning and disorders: different species of microbes, flies, zebrafish, birds, mice, rats, guinea pigs and monkeys.

In the context of biomedical research that is done to understand human biology, the foremost reason for the use of model organisms is that it is not possible to conduct some forms of biological experiments on humans. So, scientists have chosen organisms that are a close enough match to humans in terms of their genes and other biological features, and use these as model organisms for their research.

Joli: Apart from how similar model organisms are to humans in terms of their genes and genomes, there are other important reasons for some organisms being chosen as model organisms rather than others. The ease with which certain organisms can be reared and maintained in the laboratory and the kind of experiments that they can be used for… These are the factors that scientists use to choose the appropriate organism to use as a model, to answer questions about specific biological phenomena.

Pranab: Joli, could you give us some examples of model organisms that are used in specific areas of biological research?

Joli: Specific model organisms are used in different areas of research. For example, regeneration is studied using certain species of worms. The relationship between genes and the environment is researched using certain species of flies. Zebrafish are preferred model organisms for researching embryonic development. Zebrafish larvae have transparent bodies which makes observing their internal organs really easy. Another example is the use of mammals like mice in biomedical research.

This is our first podcast in Kannada– the fourth in an ongoing series titled ‘Sea of Science’, or ‘ವಿಜ್ಞಾನ ಸಾಗರ’.

This podcast is a joint venture with Mr. Kollegala Sharma and Dr. J. R. Manjunatha. They have taken the lead in producing this Kannada version from our original English script.

Mr. Sharma specialises in science communication in multiple formats. He is the force behind 'Janasuddi', a science news podcast in Kannada. Dr. J.R. Manjunatha is an NMR expert and Senior Technical Officer at CSIR CFTRI in Mysuru.

This episode is part of an effort to make science podcasts in many Indian languages.

Click here to listen to our first episode focused on the same topic in a different Indian language – Tamizh and read the script in English.

Intro, Interlude and Outro music – adapted from Perennial by Pictures of the Floating World from Free Music Archive.