Inspiration Dissemination

Science strives to be apolitical, but that was not possible for bacteriophage research during the Cold War era. Bacteriophages are viruses that attack very specific bacteria; antibiotics also attack bacteria but they are not targeted and can kill both the good and bad bacteria. The Cold War saw the initial phases of Soviets researching bacteriophages while the Americans and their allies levied heavy investments into all things antibiotics. During World War II, antibiotics were widely used and bacterial resistance was becoming more apparent. Because the US and its allies focused on antibiotics, they failed to recognize this natural antibacterial resistance, something that could be ameliorated by bacteriophages. Miriam Lipton is a PhD Candidate in the History of Science program examining the history of this era, as well as the actual scientific papers on bacteriophages and questions why the West has still not embraced this potential solution to bacterial resistance. We had a wide ranging discussion on the 1920-1960’s era history, the science available at the time, and Miriam’s travels to Russia and her personal experience with antibiotics.

Hosted by Adrian Gallo and Lisa Hildebrand

Guest: Miriam Lipton

Inspiration Dissemination Blog: https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/2021/11/22/two-ways-of-killing-bacteria/

Have you ever thought of how a pregnancy test works? You probably know you can get a pregnancy test at a hospital to be 100% sure, but that test requires lab work, people power, time, and money (cough cost of healthcare cough) to get that answer. Instead, you can pee on a small piece of plastic and get an answer within minutes! But under the hood of the at-home pregnancy test is a lot of physics and chemistry happening in an automated fashion. First, the sample (urine) needs to be pulled, by capillary action, to be exposed to a few different reactions in a specific order to find a specific molecule indicative of being pregnant and it shows up as an easy to read color. Imagine if this rapid point of care diagnostic tool could be available for other uses.

Lael Wentland is a PhD Candidate in the Bio-engineering department who’s researching paper-based microfluidic diagnostic tools for rare diseases. While these little devices are not made of regular binder paper, they are made of a porous membrane that pulls up the sample in a predictable way - hence the ‘fluidics’ part of her work. The ‘micro’ in microfluidics is because she’s focused on samples where there are only a couple drops available. Lael’s first device she’s manufacturing is to help people with a rare metabolic disorder (phenylketonuria -  where people cannot break down phenylalanine, an essential amino acid) that can be exacerbated or ameliorated by the food they eat. There are tests available to monitor the body’s concentration of phenylalanine, but they take days to get results! Since us humans can’t wait days in between meals, there is a need for these individuals to monitor their own phenylalanine levels because too little of this amino acid will prevent the body from performing basic functions but a build up of this amino acid and you may go into seizures. Lael successfully made a new device that is rapid, accurate, disposable, and is shelf stable for at least two weeks. Why only two weeks? Well in the middle of her long-term testing COVID-19 shut everything down; getting blood samples from patients to run her tests was no longer a viable option to continue shelf-life tests. Instead, she pivoted to yet another rare disease, but expects to return to her initial research before she finishes her PhD. In the future, Lael expects to move into industry so she can continue her proof-of-concept work from the academic setting, can be scaled up and mass produced so it is more accessible to a wider range of people. 

Hosted by Adrian Gallo and Lisa Hildebrand
Inspiration Dissemination Blog: https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/2021/11/14/healthcare-but-in-paper-form/

“I always loved science class and science questions, and I went to science camps – but as a kid I didn’t really put it together that being a scientist was a career or something other than sitting at a microscope in a lab coat,”. Our guest this week, Dr. Samara Haver, has come a long way from not realizing the myriad of careers in science when she was a child. She now works as a marine acoustician, researching underwater soundscapes and ocean noise to understand the repercussions for marine ecosystems and animals, such as humpback and blue whales. Samara’s PhD research revolved around analyzing the recordings from the 12 hydrophones to explore several questions regarding differences in U.S. soundscapes, including baleen whale presence which she was able to identify by their unique vocalizations. 
Guest: Samara Haver
Host: Lisa Hildebrand
Inspiration Dissemination: https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/2021/11/06/hearing-is-believing-characterizing-ocean-soundscapes-and-assessing-noise-impacts-on-whales/

Jason J. Dorsette is a Black man with a family full of civil rights activists and leaders with a rich history in the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). As he described, “I was a country boy from the Jim Crow South and went to Oregon.” The NAACP of his upbringing did not exist here in Corvallis; literally, there was no collegiate branch in the Pacific Northwest when he arrived in 2014. Feeling like he didn’t belong, he helped to start the Oregon State University-NAACP branch in February of 2015 and continues to be involved in a variety of ways on campus and in the community. We briefly discussed his PhD research - Race Spaced Theory - that provides a geographical lens on Critical Race Theory*.. Because Jason is such a busy person, we had to keep the interview brief, but we hope to have him on the show again. As a reminder, the Corvallis-Albany NAACP branch is hosting the Freedom Fund as a fundraising event on November 6th at the Student Experience Center on Oregon State University’s campus. See our blog for links to the events, ideas, and theories discussed in this episode. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand and Adrian Gallo.

In a rapid fire interview, Rebecca Mostow connects her research on dunegrasses along the coastline of the Pacific Northwest and Dune, the new film adapted from a SciFi book series. The book series envisions a planet with constantly shifting sand dunes, an idea that the books’ author originally had when he visited Oregon’s sand dunes in Florence in the 1950’s. During this time period, federal and local agencies were planting a variety of plant species to keep the sand dunes stable making the lives of coastal communities less … sandy. It worked, and some would consider it a real-life example of terraforming. This concept is exemplified by a character in the Dune series named Pardot Kynes, a plant ecologist helping locals adapt to their sandy environment through their knowledge of plants as a sand dune stabilizer. In real life, there have been trade-offs between more stable sand dunes, helpful for local communities and limiting coastal erosion, but at the detriment of two currently threatened birds who depend on sand dunes that are constantly shifting in the winds. We discuss Rebecca’s findings of a new hybridized beach grass as part of her PhD, a community science project mapping more of these dunegrasses, and its implications for how to manage ecosystems and communities moving forward.

Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand and Adrian Gallo.

Inspiration Dissemination Blog: https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/2021/10/25/the-promise-and-peril-of-new-plants-on-oregons-sand-dunes/

It’s been nearly 20 months since we’ve been back in the radio booth. Science has not stopped, but we as a team needed a break. Some of us on the Inspiration Dissemination team have graduated, some spent weeks at sea following whales, while others pivoted to research COVID-19 itself. It has been a wild ride, but we’re happy to be back doing regular shows again, even happier to have the opportunity to continue podcasting and learning from our fellow graduate students. Want to be on the show? Fill out our form on the website and we’ll get you scheduled. 
Hosted by Adrian Gallo and Lisa Hildebrande
Inspiration Dissemination Blog: https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/2021/10/19/the-science-continues/