Not Another Science Podcast

Ever wondered what drones and whales have in common?...

In honour of World Oceans Day 2021, guest host Jake talks to PhD student Tom Grove about his inspiring research, investigating the ecological impacts of the Icelandic whale-watching industry. Get ready for some whaley-good chat covering everything from spirituality and icelandic cultural history to cutting-edge research technology and gob-smacking whale encounters!

Tom Grove is @whalewise on Instagram and @WhaleWiseLive on Twitter, and Jake Edmiston is @JakeWEdmiston on Twitter.

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu (@helenacornu) and Tom Edwick (@edwicktom), brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie (@alixbailie). The logo was designed by Apple Chew (@_applechew), and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones (@heatherfrancs).

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music by Kevin Macleod: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama; https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this bonus to the main episode, we bring you extra sections of our conversation with Daniel Brener, including why he's the black sheep of the family, what PhDs used to be like, the origin of the "butterfly effect", concerns over communicating complexity, and the metaphysics of quiche.  

Daniel is on Twitter @daniel_brener. To find out more about him, make sure to check out his website: https://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/~s1704203/

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu (@helenacornu) and Tom Edwick (@edwicktom), brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie (@alixbailie). The logo was designed by Apple Chew (@_applechew), and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones (@heatherfrancs).

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music by Kevin Macleod: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama; https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ramen? Raman! We all love Ramen noodles, but this week is about Raman spectroscopy with PhD student Heather McEwan. It’s time to explore the ups and downs of starting a PhD and how to move from Physics to Chemistry. Heather has used her Physics background to move into an exciting multidisciplinary project which uses the light scattering technique Raman spectroscopy on human tissues and has fantastic applications in the field of healthcare. You can find Heather on her LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-mcewan-74645b20a/

Find out more about the detector Heather is working with: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2508459

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu (@helenacornu) and Tom Edwick (@edwicktom), brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie (@alixbailie). The logo was designed by Apple Chew (@_applechew), and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones (@heatherfrancs).

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music by Kevin Macleod: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama; https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop; through a creative commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Here are some extra parts of our conversation with Daniel Brener that we weren’t able to include in the main episode, but are well worth a listen. We chat about Daniel’s second career as a baritone, how his PhD is structured in the way that PhDs used to be done, how “the butterfly effect” has nothing to do with butterflies, why physicists may be reluctant to discuss their work, how scientists and activists alike don’t always know how to communicate complexity, and finally, the metaphysics of quiche.

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu (@helenacornu) and Tom Edwick (@edwicktom), brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie (@alixbailie). The logo was designed by Apple Chew (@_applechew), and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones (@heatherfrancs).

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music by Kevin Macleod:

https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama; https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A self-described "cloud guy", Daniel Brener has been fascinated by weather forecasting for years. But he is also an all-around physics nerd (a compliment we do not bestow lightly). As part of Prof. Arjun Berera's group at the University of Edinburgh, Daniel has been working out whether panspermia — the idea that particles from Earth could be knocked out of the upper atmosphere and seed life on other planets — is theoretically possible. We delve into these two topics, stopping to examine the difficulties of bridging the gap between theory and observation, the competitive nature of physics research, and how to communicate ambiguity. 

Daniel is on Twitter @daniel_brener. To find out more about him, make sure to check out his website: https://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/~s1704203/

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu (@helenacornu) and Tom Edwick (@edwicktom), brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie (@alixbailie). The logo was designed by Apple Chew (@_applechew), and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones (@heatherfrancs).

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music by Kevin Macleod: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama; https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This spring, Ben Porter, Lucy Hodson (AKA Lucy Lapwing), Nina Constable and Indy Greene are running a project for people to make their own DIY parabolic reflectors to record birdsong, encouraging people to get out on their doorsteps and connect with the avian chorus in a way they might not have before. Then, on May 2nd — International Dawn Chorus Day — the plan is for as many people as possible to head out (weather permitting) in their local areas to record the dawn chorus with their makeshift parabolic reflectors. Nina will piece the audio clips together into a ‘Dawn Orchestra’ of birdsong across the country, to be released alongside an accompanying piece about the plant pot parabolic reflector in Nina Constable’s spring special of her award-winning ‘Wild World’ film series. 

Have a go at making your own parabolic reflector, and share your results and recordings by tagging your posts with the hashtag #PlantPotParabolic. To feature in our Dawn Orchestra event, get out with your parabolic reflector on International Dawn Chorus Day (May 2nd) and send in your recordings and clips to [email protected].

You can download a beautifully illustrated guide to make your own DIY parabolic reflector from the talented Sarah Dowling here: https://bit.ly/3e9Ieq2

Head over to Nina Constable’s website for a how-to video and all the information you need to get involved. Link here: https://www.ninaconstable.co.uk/plantpotparabolic

Links to the team on instagram//twitter:

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu (@helenacornu) and Tom Edwick (@edwicktom), brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie (@alixbailie). The logo was designed by Apple Chew (@_applechew), and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones (@heatherfrancs).

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music by Kevin Macleod.

This week we close the series with Carlos Magdalena, Senior Horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Carlos is known widely as The Plant Messiah for his innovative successes assisting rare and endangered plants to reproduce and for thereby saving them from extinction. Together we muse on everything to do with The Future of Plants, from the ethics of deciding which plants live and which can’t be saved, to how we might tackle the lack of empathy for plants in order to get people excited enough to fight for their preservation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it seems we all have a role to play in protecting nature for the future, whether as a scientist, a horticulturist… even at home in the near future your own plant collections might include some rare protected species. To find out more about Carlos, you can follow him @Plantmessiah on Twitter. 

‘Plants & Our Health’ is a 10-part miniseries made in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and kindly supported with funding from the British Ecological Society.

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu and Tom Edwick, brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie. The logo was designed by Apple Chew, and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones.

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music is Wallpaper by Kevin MacLeod (Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4604-wallpaper; License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license)

The place where science and creativity meet: the diverse and wonderful world of Science Communication! Dr Sarah-Jane Judge, Public Engagement Manager at the Wellcome Centre for Cell Research, and Dr Farrie Nzvere, ChatSci Manager for InterSci, talk about the importance of sharing science with different audiences, teaching scientists to communicate, and their own engagement activities. They also explore the surprising ways the arts have been used to bring the general public into high level research and share their advice on how to get started in SciComm. There are so many ways to give science a voice, and we want to inspire you to get involved — you definitely don’t need a PhD to be an amazing science communicator!

Be sure to check out InterSci on social media, they are @InterSciEd on Twitter, InterSci on Facebook, and Intersci_ed on Instragram. If you'd like to get involved, you can also email them directly at [email protected]. Find out more about Dr Sarah Jane Judge on her LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahjanejudge/), and about Dr Farrie Nzvere on his (https://www.linkedin.com/in/farrienzvere/). Finally, you can see some of the amazing work from the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology at www.wcb.ed.ac.uk.

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music by Kevin Macleod: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama; https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

What will the future of plants look like if currently 2 in 5 are threatened with extinction? That depends on how we act now! Join us as we dive into our last theme of the mini-series, Conserving Plants, with Dr Pete Hollingsworth, Director of Science and Conservation at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Pete shares with us a diversity of ways plants are being conserved that give us hope for safeguarding biodiversity for the future. We also explore how conservation decisions are made, the need to integrate plant conservation with how we live alongside nature, and what you can do to help protect plant life.

‘Plants & Our Health’ is a 10-part miniseries made in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and kindly supported with funding from the British Ecological Society.

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu and Tom Edwick, brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie. The logo was designed by Apple Chew, and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones.

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music is Wallpaper by Kevin MacLeod (Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4604-wallpaper; License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license)

Do plants need passports? And why did some members of the UK public receive mysterious seeds through the post that they didn’t order last summer? The plant health inspectors and officers of the UK are tasked with keeping the country’s plant life healthy, which means keeping an eye on, and eradicating if possible, all plant pests and diseases of concern. Leading the team is Nicola Spence, Chief Plant Health Officer for the UK. Nicola joins us on this episode of Plants & Our Health to discuss the UN International Year of Plant Health, how she advises government ministers on how to manage risks to the UK’s plant life. We also consider the individual responsibility we all have to protect plants, and the impacts our everyday actions can have if we’re not careful.

‘Plants & Our Health’ is a 10-part miniseries made in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and kindly supported with funding from the British Ecological Society.

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu and Tom Edwick, brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie. The logo was designed by Apple Chew, and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones.

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music is Wallpaper by Kevin MacLeod (Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4604-wallpaper; License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license)