Perpetual Notion Machine

IUDs, or intra-uterine devices, are gaining in popularity with as a form of birth control, with more than a 99% efficacy at preventing pregnancy.

But, it wasn’t always like this. Some might still be wary of past failures, like the Dalkon Shield in the early 1970s. The Dalkon Shield was taken off the market only after it caused multiple deaths, infertility and sterility, and miscarriages stemming from pelvic infections caused by the Shield’s design.

What can we learn about this and other past failures in designing reproductive health devices?

Our guest on this episode of Perpetual Notion Machine is Dr. Catherine Klapperich, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University and the Founding Director of the BU Precision Diagnostics Center. She says that having a diverse team is integral to preventing failures and tragedies down the line, and why scientists need to “look around the table when [designing] something and ask yourself, ‘Y’know, who’s not here, that should be here?'”

She and new host Lauren Hicks discuss the shortcomings and ultimate failure of reproductive health devices, from the Dalkon Shield to Essure, a device designed as an alternative to tubal litigation. They also discuss the weaponization of surveillance technology in a post-Roe nation.

About the guest: 

Dr. Catherine Klapperich is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, where she leads the Laboratory for Diagnostics and Global Healthcare Technologies, and is a member of the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Her research is focused on engineering medical devices for trans women’s and women’s health, use in low resource settings, and at the point of care. 

She’s a recipient of multiple research awards, and contributes to several health news outlets. You can read her article, “From the Dalkon Shield to Britney Spears’ IUD: Why Diverse Teams Need to Be Involved in Contraceptive Design,” here, and find more about her at profklapperich.com.

Photo by Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash

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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource’s Frog and Toad Survey is the longest running survey of its kind in the country. Every spring and summer, thousands of citizen scientists strike out on routes all over the state to listen for the breeding calls of Wisconsin’s eleven frog and one toad species. Perpetual Notion Machine host Catherine Garvens brings you an overview of these efforts. We’ll hear from volunteers as they run their routes, and from folks at the Wisconsin DNR who work to organize the survey and collect the data. And, we’ll listen to some frogs and toads along the way.

Click here to go to the Wisconsin Frog and Toad Survey website.

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How much are you willing to pay for a public benefit that you can’t pick up with your hands? Our guest this week is Daniel Phaneuf, Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics at UW Madison. On last Monday’s 8 o’clock buzz, Dr. Phaneuf discussed his recent study on measuring the value people place on watershed quality. Today we have a chance to hear more about the challenges of putting a dollar value on things that are harder to quantify, and how that can inform environmental policy.

 

Image: Mississippi River, Iowa. National Park Service.

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Cosmology is the branch of science that seeks to understand the origin, evolution, and large-scale structure of the universe. It encompasses a wide range of topics, from the study of the early universe to the formation of galaxies and the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Simulations have become a powerful tool in cosmology, allowing researchers to recreate and explore the complex and intricate processes that shape our universe.

Dr. Andrew Pontzen joins us to discuss his new debut book that discusses these topics. The Universe in a Box: Simulations and the Quest to Code the Cosmos is out now. 

Dr. Pontzen is a cosmologist and professor at University College London where simulations play a major part of his research that spans cosmology, physics, and computation. He’s the co-director of UCL’s Cosmoparticle Initiative, and has been featured as an expert on on PBS’s NOVA and the Discovery Channel’s How the Universe Works.

 

 

Image courtesy: Terranaut / PIXABAY

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The Perpetual Notion Machine host Catherine Garvens speaks with Jason Stein, Vice President and Research Director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum. In March 2023, they published a report titled This Land is Our Land: The Past and Future of Conservation Funding in Wisconsin, which examines how Wisconsin ranks nation-wide in public land use and funding, the economic impact of outdoor recreation in the state, and how conservation funding in the state has changed.

Here’s an excerpt from the report:

Despite its strong reputation for conservation and outdoor pastimes, the state has seen steady erosion in state tax funding (also known as General Purpose Revenue) for conservation programs and for the state Department of Natural Resources more broadly, and a rise in other funding sources such as fees imposed on state park visits and garbage heading to landfills (know as tipping fees on solid waste).

We also discuss possible alternative funding models used with success in other states.  Click here to read the full report.

 

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How do you make science news interesting and understandable? Why is anti-science on the rise? Award-winning science journalist Claudia Wallis joins Perpetual Notion Machine host Patrick Sajbel to talk about the art of science communication and to delve into the alarming trend of a growing anti-science movement within the United States.

Claudia Wallis has served as science editor for 40 Time magazine cover stories, managing editor of Scientific American Mind magazine and contributing editor and columnist at Scientific American. Her work has appeared in a wide range of other major publications including The New York Times, Fortune, Parade and Rolling Stone.

Cartoon Credit: Tom Dunne for American Scientist

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On today’s episode, we continue our journey through the world of experiments, curiosity and the people who made them. In this second part, we explore more of the people behind the experiments.

What if…

We could go back in the time and see how the atom was split. Or, discover the mystery of light, both wave and particle. Examine X-rays for the first time.

What if we could travel to the present and see how these experiments changed the world? In Suzie Sheehy’s book, The Matter of Everything, we can.

On Perpetual Notion Machine, host Anita Nsubuga explores the many discoveries, people, and science with particle physicist, Dr. Suzie Sheehy in her book. More than theorems and experiements, the scientists stand out as people on a quest for knowledge. Some spurred on by competition; others through merticulous methods and principles.

This is part 2, the journey continued.

Stay tuned (again).

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Bioelectronics is a new area of study and industry that combines biology and electronics to develop devices and systems capable of interfacing with living organisms. It focuses on creating biocompatible sensors, implants, and bioelectronic circuits to monitor and modulate biological functions. These advancements have the potential to revolutionize healthcare by enabling precise diagnostics, targeted therapies, and even restoring lost sensory or motor functions.

Dr. Ying Li joins us to discuss his research team’s recently published paper on computational simulations of potential bioelectronics.

Dr. Ying Li is an Associate Professor at the U-W College of Engineering in Madison. Dr. Li has received numerous achievements in research including the NSF CAREER Award (2021), Air Force’s Young Investigator Award (2020), 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2020), and multiple best paper awards from major conferences. He has authored and co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles. Most recently his research team has released a paper in the journal Science Advances about flexible bioelectronics.

 

Conformability of flexible sheets on spherical surfaces

Dr. Ying Li

 

Image courtesy: WikimediaImages / PIXABAY

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A study published in Science in 2019 found that 3 billion birds have been lost since 1970. The Perpetual Notion Machine takes a look at existing and new programs to save Wisconsin’s declining bird population. Host Catherine Garvens speaks with folks from the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin about the Great Wisconsin Birdathon, which raises money for the Bird Protection Fund. We also feature two of the programs in the state that receive support from that fund–Important Bird Areas, and the SOS Save Our Songbirds program.

Other organizations mentioned in this story:

Wisconsin Bird Conservation Partnership

Audubon Great Lakes

The image used in this posting is courtesy of SOS Save Our Songbirds. Original graphic by Earl Madden.

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If you take a stroll down the lakeshore path skirting Lake Mendota, you are likely to encounter one of Madison’s most charismatic residents, the Sandhill crane. These graceful and stately birds are beloved by Madisonians for their distinctive trumpet-like calls and their tall stature. While a cultural and ecological pillar of Madison, the Sandhill crane is also a conservation success story. Due to habitat loss and overhunting in the first half of the 20th century, it was estimated that only a few dozen individuals remained in the state. However, through pioneering legislative protection and the efforts ENGO’s and the Wisconsin DNR, the population has recovered and now numbers in the thousands. Unfortunately, conservation challenges currently afflict many species of cranes all of the globe. Two species of particular concern are the Red-Crowned and White-naped cranes of southeast Asia.

To learn more about the plight of these two species and the efforts currently being made to preserve their dwindling populations, we spoke with Dr. Eugenia Bragina whom recently published an article in the Journal of Ornithological Science on this very topic. Dr. Bragina is an Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow with the SILVIS Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and also the Coordinator of Scientific Capacity Development for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Arctic Beringia Program. Dr. Bragina is a native of Russia, and educator whom earned her undergraduate and doctoral degrees in population ecology and Zoology from Moscow State University. As a subject matter expert, Dr. Bragina has been featured in the NY Times and published numerous peer-reviewed publications on wildlife and habitat conservation methods.

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