Nice to Know - Conversations with Everyday Scientists

Turns out, pigeons are way more interesting than your average street critter. Their ability to navigate has been known and used by people for centuries, but we still don't know how they are able to sense the earth's magnetic fields.Greg Nordmann (@GregNordmann) is a PhD student in the lab of David Keays (@keays_lab) at the IMP in Vienna (@IMPvienna), where he is trying to answer this question, by studying the pigeon brain's response to magnetic stimuli.Check out keayslab.org for more about Gr...

Dr Nadine Gloss is an anthropologist/sociologist studying the sociology of sex work and sex work activism. Despite sex work being the "oldest job", there are many barriers in place that treat sex workers unfairly compared to other industries. Nadine shares her experience in observing and participating in sex work activism, debunking common tales about who does sex work and why, and why, at the end of the day, they deserve the same working rights as any other job.For more information about sex...

Dr Iromi Wanigasuriya is a molecular biologist studying epigenetics, or how our genes are regulated, in embryos. We talk about sex differences in gene expression, but also in medical research and for being an international student.For more info on the gender gap in medical studies, I encourage you to check out this article, by Kelly Burrowes in The Conversation > https://theconversation.com/gender-bias-in-medicine-and-medical-research-is-still-putting-womens-health-at-risk-156495

Prof Sommer Gentry is a mathematician working in the area of Operations Research, and her husband, Prof Dorry Segev, is a transplant surgeon and epidemiologist. Together, they use their research to improve organ transplant policies in the USA, with the goal of improving the health and equity of healthcare for people requiring organ transplantation.Sommer (@shelikesmath) is a Professor of Mathematics at the US Naval Academy, and Dorry (@Dorry_Segev) is Professor of Surgery and Associate Vice C...

A brief monologue / verbal essay on some interesting things I learned while reading about the evolution of human ageing.See https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00239-019-09896-2For more information about Nice to Know, follow me on Twitter @RobynSciences, instagram @nicetoknowapodcast or email [email protected]

Michael Borg (@dr_borg) is a developmental biologist and expert in the molecular workings of plant reproduction. In this episode, he tells me how different organisms reset their DNA in order to start again with the next generation. We also talk more broadly about why we should care about plants and study biology in general. For more information about Nice to Know, follow me on Twitter @RobynSciences or Instagram @nicetoknowapodcast. You can also get in touch via nicetoknowthepodcast...

Dan Quintana (@dsquintana) combines biology, neuroscience and endocrinology (the study of hormones) to study how the so-called "cuddle hormone" oxytocin influences behaviour. Turns out, it's more than just cuddling!!Dan is also co-host of the podcast Everything Hertz: https://everythinghertz.com/aboutYou can also check out his blog (https://www.dsquintana.blog/) and his free book on how to Twitter for scientists: https://t4scientists.com/For more information on future episodes of Nice to Know...

A selection of my favourite Nice to Know moments from Season 1, covering episodes 10 - 18.Timestamps:01:26 Ep. 10: Proteins & PhD Life with Dr Rhiannon Morris02:51 Ep.11: Cancer, COVID, and Childcare with Dr Margs Brennan04:34 Ep. 12: Doing Tai Chi with Drones with Design Researcher Joseph La Delfa06:35 Ep. 13: Negative Results to Positive Interactions with Dr Bernhard Hochreiter07:48 Ep. 14: TEAbacco, and use of other illicit drugs, with Dr Cheneal Puljevic09:16 Ep. 15: Ancient Meso...

A selection of my favourite Nice to Know moments from Season 1, covering episodes 1 - 9.Timestamps:01:33: Ep. 1: Fat, immunity, and winning the Nobel Prize with Dr Hatoon Baazim03:45: Ep. 2: From cocktails to chemistry with Giovanni Di Mauro05:09: Ep. 3: Empathising with neuropsychologist Kate Bray06:10: Ep. 4: Bone-eating cells and Blue Monday with Dr Julia Brunner07:57: Ep. 5: 23 and me and Dr André Rendeiro09:41: Ep. 6: Squids dealing with climate change with Dr Ca...

Climate change - we all know that it's happening, but how do we actually know this scientifically? Bruce Vaughn studies glaciers up at the North Pole, looking at ice cores to study how our climate has changed over the Earth's history. We talk about how this is done, and also how we are now entering uncharted territory of atmospheric CO2, warming, and what we as a species can do about it. Bruce Vaughn runs the stable isotope lab at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at ...