Perpetual Notion Machine

Tonight’s edition of the Perpetual Notion Machine has a preview of this year’s Wisconsin Science Festival. Yes, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the science festival will still be going on with about half the usual number of sessions. Most will be virtual, with some actually going live, and a few at various places around the state having safe outdoor events, like a corn maze. Joining us is Laura Heisler, director of the Wisconsin Science Festival, and Karen Schloss, a psychologist at UW-Madison, and with the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. Karen describes that her research is to learn about and teach visual reasoning and perception. Much of her recent research involves virtual reality, and she will talk about its potential and future in a WSF session called Big Ideas for Busy People: Futurescape. The session will be held Oct. 15 at 5:00 pm.

Laura also mentions some other standout sessions. Kids will have the opportunity to interact with scientists and perform experiments at home. The Duck Pond will have a couple of drive-in science-related movies. Shane Mauss, a science and comedy podcaster, will have his podcast Here We Are available on Oct. 17 at 8:30 pm. And physicists Brian Greene and Janna Levin will discuss their recent books virtually live.

All the information about every session can be found at the website wisconsinsciencefest.org. Take note, that for those sessions that are virtually live, you will need to register ahead of time through a crowdcast link for that session.

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine has a special pledge drive edition. Thanks to everybody that has pledged donations so far, and thanks to all the loyal listeners of PNM. Keep the pledges coming!

Communicating science is probably the basis of PNM as a radio broadcast entity. Our guest thinks that communicating science as a brand could get the message across in another way. He is Todd Newman, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at UW-Madison, and the co-author of the book Brand. A brand could be seen as a way of promoting merchandise in order to increase sales. But even Harley-Davidson doesn’t market their motorcycles as roaring, macho, mean machines. Their brand is the way to travel the open road, to see the country and commune with nature. Todd even explains that the March for Science a few years ago, that even had demonstrations in Madison, promoted science in general as a way to improve society and the way of life, as opposed to those who are anti-science. Also, Todd mentions a survey that asked respondents what comes to mind when they hear the word “science.” Overwhelmingly, hope was the response. Todd writes about this in an article for The Conversation. Check it out by clicking here.

This week on PNM Josh & Ary catch up with friend of the show Zack Quirk, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, to discuss the week-long grad student strike for COVID-19 protections, transparency, and defunding & divesting from campus and city police. We also discuss the current climate at UW Madison.

Learn more:

UM Grad students strike

UM Admin files injunction against students

UM students reach deal to end strike

UW Madison Grad Student Union (TAA) position on Smart Restart

On this week’s PNM: Josh, Ary, & Kelly are back to talk about current COVID-19 events in Madison, including the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial & explosion of cases within the UW Madison community. We talk about vaccine safety, a recent development in the UW vaccine trial, the current situation on campus & how we feel about it as students and community members ourselves.

Learn more:

AstraZeneca vaccine trial announcement

AstraZeneca trial on hold

Trust in vaccine survey

These Scientists Are Giving Themselves D.I.Y. Coronavirus Vaccines

UW Smart Restart Dashboard

ASM calls for move to online instruction

Dane County Exec calls to send students home

TAA response to Smart Restart

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine gets a glimpse of what it’s like to be an astronomer. Our guest is Robert Mathieu, professor of astronomy at UW-Madison. He studies the structure, kinematics and dynamics of star clusters and star-forming regions, and maps alternative stellar evolution pathways. Robert talks with new PNM volunteer, and first-time producer, Anita Nsubuga, who was wondering how much math figured in an astronomer’s research. It’s important, but Robert considers it mostly as a tool, even though, at times, original mathematical algorithms and simulations can lead to discoveries. But Robert thinks of astronomy, and being an astronomer, a matter of curiosity and wonder of the cosmos. Trying to learn what is going on out there in the cosmos, and discovering something brand new.

Tonight’s episode of the Perpetual Notion Machine continues the discussion of COVID-19 to a set of clinical trials being administered by UW-Madison and UW Health. Vaccines may be the best way of combating this pandemic, and several appear to be on the cusp of clinical trials. However, in the meantime, some drug cocktails could also be effective in fighting coronavirus. One such drug, REGN-COV2, has been developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Tarrytown, New York, and is beginning the late phases of three separate clinical trials. So, our guest tonight is the coordinator of those trials, Dr. William Hartman, who is officially a professor of anesthesiology at UW-Madison. Dr. Hartman describes REGN-COV2 as a cocktail of two specific antibodies that are very potent in targeting the virus’s spike proteins. Without the spikes, the virus cannot attach to healthy human cells to infect them. The clinical trials will be divided into three separate ones based on the patient’s state of infection. One is for those who exhibit severe breathing and other health issues where the patient has to be hospitalized. Trial two are for those patients that are infected, but not severely, and don’t need to hospitalized. And finally, the third trial concerns test subjects who are not even infected, but are in close contact with someone who is, like a family member at home. This last one is interesting in that it tests the drug to see if it can prevent someone from being infected. Dr. Hartman explains the process of each trial. UW-Madison is just one site of over 100 around the country that will accumulate testing data on this drug.

For more information, here is an AP online article.

To follow the trials, click on this link to clinicaltrials.gov.

Back on June 25, the Perpetual Notion Machine learned a little about the immune system – how it works, the organs and cells, that it can remember previous infections, and what triggers an immune response. Our guest was Matt Reynolds, an immunologist in pathobiological sciences at UW-Madison. Tonight, Matt is back to extend our conversation of the immune system to the coronavirus. One thing Matt tells PNM’er Dennis Shaffer is that COVID-19 may actually be multiple types of pathogens, which gives the immune system a hard time fighting it. As an example, some people who test positive don’t exhibit any symptoms at all, while others experience high fever and difficulty breathing. There have been treatments for those that are currently sick. But the ultimate remedy is a vaccine, or more likely, many different vaccines. Any vaccine has to go through rigorous testing and clinical trials. But any early vaccine for general distribution is better than nothing, even if it suppresses infection by only 50%, and it doesn’t cause side effects. And even if a vaccine is highly effective a year from now that eliminates the pandemic, the coronavirus, SARS CoV-2 will still be around. This may mean, like the general flu, we will need to get a vaccine every year.

There are over 300,000 research studies around the world looking for a COVID-19 vaccine. Some are in the clinical trial phase. If you would like to know about these clinical trials, the National Institutes of Health has a website to search. Go to ClinicalTrials.gov.

With the coronavirus still raging pretty much out of control, the Perpetual Notion Machine wants to take a different look into human health. So, for tonight’s episode, we want to know how the human immune system works. How does the immune system fight off dangerous invading pathogens, and how does it deal with something new like COVID-19? Our guest is Matt Reynolds, an immunologist in pathobiological sciences at UW-Madison. Matt’s interview with PNM’s Dennis Shaffer lasted more than one show could fill. Tonight, Matt discusses some of the many immune systems in the body. One is the lymphatic system, which Matt describes like highways going from city to city, but in this case from lymph node to lymph node. When a lymph cell recognizes a pathogen, it calls back for mass production and circulation to fight the pathogen. But the immune system is not perfect. Some pathogens can resemble normal cells of the body. The immune system may not “see” them as dangerous, or if the immune system does recognize the pathogen, it may kick into overdrive and start attacking normal cells.

The rest of the interview will air on the July 9 show. Matt discuss how the immune system reacts to something new like COVID-19, and the importance of a vaccine.

If you would like more information about the immune system, here are a couple of resources:

National Institutes of Health

Live Science

Okay, we’re in a pandemic, and we need to self-isolate at home as much as possible to protect ourselves and each other. But nature all around us goes on and can provide some peace of mind. Who doesn’t like to listen to the songs of birds? Funny, tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine welcomes back to the program science writer and bird lover Jennifer Ackerman. In June 2016, Jennifer talked about her book The Genius of Birds. Now, she has a new book just released called The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think. Jennifer describes to PNM’er Dennis Shaffer how intelligent and innovative birds are through their extraordinary, and sometimes unusual, behavior. For instance, many bird species have what Jennifer describes as a mobbing call. It’s not like the usual danger or warning calls. Mobbing calls attract birds of all species in a kind’ve call to arms, to gather “forces” to harass a potential threat. This is an example of cooperation not usually seen in the animal world. Also unusual is brood parasitism, the practice of laying eggs in other bird’s nests, among other similar behaviors. But, according to Jennifer, this may have a healthy long-term effect. Each, that is the brood parasite birds and the host birds, have to learn and then adapt to each other’s counter moves. It’s kind’ve an intellectual arms race!

To learn more about the book, check out this link from Penguin Random House.

One of the best places that study birds is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. To see some birds in the wild, here is a link to their bird cams.

Jennifer mentions the amazing calls and songs of a few birds. Here is a YouTube video of the lyrebird.

Another bird with an extraordinary range of different calls is the New Holland honeyeater.

What makes an idea dangerous? In tonight’s episode, Kevin Lauterjung and Kelly Schwartz discuss the intellectual dark web (IDW), from subversive origins to Youtube mainstay. How did the IDW become associated with the political right? Where should we draw the line in discussing identity? Is there a free speech issue on US campuses? Join us as we tackle these questions!