Perpetual Notion Machine

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine again explores the realm of gene editing. Five years ago this month, PNM talked with biomedical engineer Kris Saha about the process and techniques of gene editing. Borrowing an innate immunity mechanism in bacteria called CRISPR, and its Cas9 protein, scientists have been learning how to use, or essentially program, CRISPR to target specific genes to cut them from a DNA or RNA sequence. This ability has profound potential in treating inherited genetic diseases or disorders like Sickle cell anemia, Down’s syndrome, and Muscular dystrophy. And Kris has been working to enhance CRISPR for a specific disorder called Pompe. Pompe disease occurs in newborns and infants when glycogen cannot be broken down into smaller glucose sugar particles used by muscles for energy. This becomes life-threatening when the muscles are in the heart or lungs.

Also, Pompe disease has an added complication in that it occurs on multiple genes in different locations on EACH of the male and female chromosomes of the DNA sequences. But Kris and his team were able to program CRISPR to cut ALL the genes AT THE SAME TIME. Remarkable! But that’s not all . . . Since human testing was currently out of the question, and since no animal model could contain the exact human genome, computer modeling was used to test the CRISPR experiments.

For more information, check out this UW Communications press release.

If you are interested in reading the complete published article, go here to Nature Communications.

This week on PNM, Ary & Josh discuss current COVID-19 vaccines: what they are, how they work, how they came out so quickly, and whether or not you should be nervous about them. (Spoiler alert: you shouldn’t be nervous!)

We used Ary’s master Google Doc to shape this show, so feel free to check out our sources and additional topics & resources here.

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine looks back on some of our best shows for the year 2020. We don’t usually do this for our last show of the year, but this year has been so debilitating, caustic, and just plain pathetic. Maybe, starting tomorrow, things can change, even for just a little bit. During this program, you will hear four short clips from some of PNM’s shows. The first clip comes from a PNM panel discussion of COVID-19 and potential vaccines that aired September 10. We have had many guests on PNM talking about various aspects of the coronavirus from Karen Smith, explaining stress related to isolation, to Matt Reynolds, discussing the immune system. But, on this show Ary Clarke discusses clinical trials and Kelly Schwartz explains the safety protocols that go into vaccine development.

Clip 2 comes from the January 9 show where Ary, Matt Blackburn, and Kevin Lauterjung discuss some of the science from the sci-fi movie Ad Astra.

Clip 3 comes from the June 4 show where Wisconsin Energy Broadcast producer Heather Allen talks about a microgrid installation with Steve Nieland, Director of Energy Solutions for Faith Technologies. If 2020 wasn’t bad enough, WEB ended their program on September 3rd. Thanks Heather and Nan Fey for a great three year run! We’ll miss you!

And finally, clip 4 combines two short samples from shows produced by two of our three new PNM volunteers. The first part has Anita Nsubuga talking with UW-Madison astronomer Robert Mathieu for a show from August 20. Then, Robert W. Monthey talks with retired DNR biologist Patrick Kaiser about the reintroduction of wild turkeys back to Wisconsin for the Thanksgiving Day show. The third newcomer is Emily Morris who did a show on December 10 concerning a new chemical process to break down plastic.

You can find the complete audio for all of these shows on the PNM webpage. Look for the date the show originally aired.

Most of the music heard throughout this show was provided by PNM’er Robert W. Monthey. But the closing music to end the show, and a fitting end to a year that discredited science, is the song “Science is Real” by the band They Might Be Giants. Let’s all hope that 2021 is better than 2020!

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine has aired an edited version from a previous episode of the WORT daily afternoon program A Public Affair. PNM has done a fair number of its own episodes concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. But on Dec. 1, 2020, host Carousel Bayrd talked with Dave O’Connor about what we have learned about the coronavirus in the last 6 to 8 months, what soon-to-be released vaccines will consist of, and whether developing a vaccine too soon might be safe. Dave works in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. He has several areas of research, the primary focus being, until Sars CoV-2, HIV/AIDS pathogenesis. But this previous research knowledge has helped him understand some similarities the coronavirus has with HIV.

Tonight the Perpetual Notion Machine rebroadcasts a show that originally aired on Feb. 2, 2006. Distinguished professor of anthropology Neil Whitehead was our guest. Generally, Neil studied indigenous peoples in the isolated regions of the Amazon rainforest, and their often brutal tribal practices. Thus, he was interested in the human nature of violence, and wrote two books on the subject called Violence and Terror: Imagination and the Unimaginable and just Violence. According to Neil, as he mentions to PNM reporter and interviewer John Helgeson, the attitude toward violent acts depends on one’s perspective. For instance, we condemn a ruthless ruler’s or tyrant’s subjugation and killing as despicable. Yet, we seem to accept torture of an enemy as necessary and justified. In another sense, we have sympathy for the victims of violence. But yet, when a victim seeks violence on his/her attacker for revenge, that seems okay. This show also had a Science News Roundup segment presented by Bill Scanlon.

Unfortunately, this was the only time Neil was a guest on PNM. He passed away in 2012. UW-Madison Communications wrote a nice tribute to Neil at the time of his passing.

Tonight the Perpetual Notion Machine talks with Professor George Huber and Professor Reid van Lehn of the University of Wisconsin – Madison Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Department of Energy’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. They are the co-authors of the paper ‘Recycling of multilayer plastic packaging materials by solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation’, which details a new process to recycle complex postindustrial waste that is as cost effective to manufacturers as using new plastics.

PNM discusses their technique, which is the first (!) to recycle multilayer plastics that have always gone to landfills, plus the plastic lifecycle, recycling industry, and how their work can be used to cut down on plastic waste.

Seeing plastic everywhere you go now? It’s a common side effect of talking about plastic. Join host Emily Morris at the end of the show for ways you can reduce your plastic footprint. And if you want more ideas on how to start your own personal zero waste movement, check out Trash Is For Tossers.

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine rebroadcasts a show which originally aired on Nov. 30, 2006. PNM has done a fair number of shows describing Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD, which infect deer and cause death due to brain degeneration after about 18 months. And since 2006, CWD in the Wisconsin deer population has spread virtually unchecked. There is still speculation on how CWD effects humans who have eaten infected deer. On this rebroadcasted show, former PNM’er Bill Scanlon talked with senior research scientist Debbie McKenzie about the microbiology of the prion proteins which cause CWD, and a number of other diseases like Mad Cow Disease. She explains what happens in the brain from a different form of the protein, but we don’t know why. And she adds that the protein isn’t quite the same from animal to animal, which can also develop a prion-like disease. Also part of this show was Kate Raiford who did the Science News Roundup.

At the time of the show in 2006, Debbie McKenzie was working in Judd Atkin’s lab in the Department of Animal Health and Biochemical Sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UW-Madison. She still studies prions, but is now at the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta in Canada.

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine heads to nature. Bird songs come in all varieties. They’re melodic, harsh, intricate, diverse, and creative. Our guest, Lauren Riters, professor in integrative biology at UW-Madison, says most of the remarkable songs occur in the springtime during mating season. But some bird species like to congregate, or flock together, in the Fall that might indicate a kind of social behavior. And sometimes birds will have a simpler, softer vocal sound. Lauren speculates that this might be only for practicing songs that will have importance later, such as for mating. But it might also be to elicit a response from another bird. Lauren studies European starlings because of their unique and assorted songs. And she has found in her experiments that certain songs can produce an opioid endorphin that gives the birds a pretty darn good feeling!

If you would like to hear bird songs of all kinds of birds, check out this website Bird Note.

Also, for more information on birds, check out this website from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The Cornell Lab website has a link to a webpage with links to many LIVE bird cams. Here is a direct link to that webpage: Bird Cams

Tonight on PNM Ary sits down with Dr. Christina Hull, a UW Madison Professor in Biomolecular Chemistry and Medical Microbiology & Immunology. Dr. Hull studies the process by which a dormant fungal spore transitions (germinates) into an actively growing fungus (yeast) in order to identify therapeutic targets and learn more about the basic biology of fungi. Take a break from the election tonight at 7PM CST & learn all about the fungus among us!

Links:

Hull Lab Webpage

CDC Fungal Awareness Week

It’s the one year anniversary of our series ‘PNM Goes to the Movies!’. This time around, we discuss Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002) & the sequel 28 Weeks Later. 28 Days Later is considered one of the first ‘fast zombie’ movies & kick-started the zombie revival in pop culture; but how does the science check out? Could Rage virus be the next global pandemic? What are real-life examples of so-called ‘zombification’?