Petri Dish

Welcome back to Petri Dish! Hope Americans had a nice Thanksgiving break, and are refreshed and recharged for another episode. We're picking up where we left off last time with part 2 of Cannabinoids. We discussed the plant, compounds, and briefly covered what they can do to you last episode. But this episode, we dive deeper into the purported health benefits and hazards of THC and CBD. We talk about cancer, glaucoma, and more!If you have any feedback, positive or negative, let us know! You can tweet at us @dishpodcast or you can email us at petridishpod at gmail.com. You can also swing over to our patreon for early releases and other stuff! References:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791144/https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmra1407304https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00415-012-6634-zhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332216321060https://www.nature.com/articles/npp201751https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5616224/https://www.nature.com/articles/nutd20139https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08897077.2016.1219438https://www.nature.com/articles/nrcardio.2017.130https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wps.20341

Hello and happy almost Thanksgiving to folks in the USA! In honor of a holiday that features stuffing yourself, we're covering the muchies-inducing plant, Cannabis, and the chemicals it produces. With more and more locations around the world decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana, this is a great time to ask yourself "what the fuck does this shit actually do, like real science-wise"? This episode, the first half of a two-parter on cannabinoids, covers info about the plant itself, the chemical class of compounds that includes THC and CBD, your own internal endocannabinoid system, and a fast run-through on what the current science says about medical benefits of cannabinoids! And tune in next week for the second part, where we dive into the current science of whether cannabinoids help with fighting cancer, treating glaucoma, and fighting addiction to other substances. If you like (or don't like, or really have pretty much any feelings about) what you hear, let us know on twitter @dishpodcast and/or via email: petridishpod -at- gmail.com! Also, feel free to hit us up on patreon at www.patreon.com/petridish !References:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4740396/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6340993/https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FTW9DgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=cannabinoids&ots=-if-4V8guT&sig=UwmXmKmGlUs4DUl6q47FM0I-RzY#v=onepage&q=cannabinoids&f=falsehttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-017-0775-9https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2017162

Hi Everyone! This week Sean and Nathan are joined by certified young person Griffin Allen, who has street-level knowledge about VAPING -- the recently-in-the-news drug delivery phenomenon that has seen an unexpected uptick in sending people to the hospital over the past year. How does vaping work, and how does it compare to traditional smoking? What can you vape? When people are sucking on USB drives, was that actually them vaping or are they just dumb? We'll get into it! Remember though! We're not a medical advice podcast (those probably don't exist). Don't get medical advice from a podcast, people. References:https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/9/1853/htmhttps://academic.oup.com/ntr/article/19/10/1224/2631648#113610483https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44295336https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/health/vaping-illness-cdc.htmlhttps://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/severe-lung-disease.htmlhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4363846/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3930618/https://e-cigarettes.surgeongeneral.gov/documents/surgeon-generals-advisory-on-e-cigarette-use-among-youth-2018.pdfhttps://chemrxiv.org/articles/Potential_for_Release_of_Pulmonary_Toxic_Ketene_from_Vaping_Pyrolysis_of_Vitamin_E_Acetate/10058168https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2019/10/26/0008-5472.CAN-19-2997.full-text.pdf

On this week's episode, Sean and Nathan explore the human side of outer space! What happens to our bodies in microgravity? What are galactic cosmic rays? Will Disney own the Lunar Gateway Space Station?! Listen to find out, more or less!CORRECTION: Sean messed up! At a certain point, when discussing Van Allen Belts, Sean states that he thinks a portion of the International Space Station's flight path may slightly touch the edge of the inner Van Allen Belt. N O P E ! The ISS hugs the Earth pretty close, and never really gets nearby the Van Allen dudes. Try to like, actually read something next time, Sean.If you have other space stuff you know and want to tell us about, or if we got something else wrong, or if Nathan offended you, please contact us! On Twitter we are @dishpodcast, or you can email us at petridishpod at gmail.com. Please rate and review us on stuff, and consider supporting our work over at patreon.com/petridish!References:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42829-zhttps://asbmr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jbmr.1647https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologieshttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00198-012-2243-zhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-017-0013-0https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-319-50909-9_23-1.pdfhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-50311-zhttps://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/space_radiation_ebook.pdfhttps://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/real-martians-how-to-protect-astronauts-from-space-radiation-on-marshttp://www.nifs.ac.jp/report/NIFS-886.pdf

Spooky episode 13 is just dropping just a few days after Halloween! This episode is about disease vectors -- specifically ticks, mosquitoes, and the diseases they carry!Learn about how climate change is somehow going to make this stuff worse too! Find out which hemorrhagic fevers are percolating in those little critters.Sponsors: RAGE SALON; SUCKERS - The Sexy Vampire Dating App References:https://sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2672.2009.04598.xhttps://www.cdc.gov/ticks/tickbornediseases/https://www.cdc.gov/features/stopmosquitoes/index.html

This weeks episode is a spooky sci-fi romp about how we're hooking up brains to computers and minds to machines back to minds again! Except it is all real science! Tune in to hear Nathan and Andrei tell Sean he's crazy, learn what Elon Musk is doing with his latest company, and whether this technology is going to destroy humanity before CRISPR does. For some visual references, I highly recommend this article by "Wait But Why": https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.htmlQuantum shit is not really Sean's expertise, but this article specifically was what we was referring to when he suggested photosynthesis may involve quantum stuff: https://www.cell.com/trends/plant-science/pdf/S1360-1385(18)30049-9.pdf References:https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/361/361ra141.fullhttps://www.nature.com/articles/nature10489https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/703801v4.fullhttps://www.wired.com/story/brain-machine-interface-isnt-sci-fi-anymore/https://www.cell.com/neuron/pdfExtended/S0896-6273(17)30703-1https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10489https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41895-7https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10957-zhttps://www.quantamagazine.org/the-maestro-of-memory-manipulation-20160623/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5681944/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4907333/http://nerve.bsd.uchicago.edu/FB/NatureReviews.pdf

Part two of CRISPR and genetic editing! This time, we talk about what plants and animals we have already CRISPR'd! Also, we discuss CRISPRs in the context of human health. Then, at the insistence of Nathan and Andrei, Sean is forced to discuss the ethical conundrums that come up surrounding the democratization of genetic modification. Nathan starts this episode out with a trigger warning about GMOs, but a less facetious trigger warning for this episode is that we discuss CRISPR and genetic modifications in the context of bioterrorism later in the episode (48:30-55:10), so if for whatever reason you find such things hard to listen to, you know which chunk to skip!Sean mentions silkworms as an organism that has been successfully CRISPR'd, but missed a paper that wasn't just proof of concept -- they shoved in spider silk genes and make a hybrid silk, which is super cool! Stuff is getting CRISPR'd all the time, and new forms of CRISPR are getting engineered in labs all over the world, so this episode is pretty much immediately out of date, but whatever, whaddya gonna do.If you have a gene you want to CRISPR, or want to yell at us for misrepresenting something, tweet us @dishpodcast or email us at petridishpod at gmail.com! Check us out on patreon.com/petridish for early release of episodes and some other kinds of stuff.References:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177966https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pbi.12832https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pbi.12927https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jipb.12620https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-34104-4http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/174/2/935.fullhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359511316309047https://www.nature.com/articles/cr2013146https://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6357/1303.abstracthttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965174816301394https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-1144-4#Sec1https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0106718#abstract0https://www.nature.com/articles/srep13878https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6643211/https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108622https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3439https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3473https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embj.201899243https://www.nature.com/articles/cr20189https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/pdfExtended/S1525-0016(16)45428-6https://synbiobeta.com/crispr-clinical-trials-a-2019-update/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6414166/https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/3/2/413/1751234#98305641https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6058482/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05843-9https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4779287/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278802/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41580-019-0131-5https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-019-0508-6https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3145266/

Tenth episode of Petri Dish! Going to be honest, didn't think we'd make it this long. Sean and Nathan have a special guest for this episode, Andrei Daye. He's a dude who has read some stuff about CRISPR-Cas9 and how it is a --r e v o l u t i o n a r y-- technology, and wanted to know more! In case you hadn't heard, CRISPR-Cas9 is the hot new way to genetically modify DNA, and has been used in labs for all sorts of research including the controversial CRISPR-ing of those twins in China!But this episode (part 1 of 2) is about the nitty gritty of how CRISPR works and what its limitations are. Something Sean didn't get to go into but wanted to (Nathan rushed him) was that there are other members of the Cas endonuclease family that are proving to be very useful, like Cpf1, Cas3, Cas13 -- not to mention that Cas9 from different bacterial species can have different properties! So much stuff to know! References:https://www.nature.com/articles/cr201776https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/powerful-crispr-cousin-accidentally-mutates-rna-while-editing-dna-targethttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06129-whttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05477-xhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40181-w

Our animal episodes seem popular, so episode 9 is a return to silly beasties -- in this case Sean and Nathan are talking about organisms that like to live in EXTREME environments, organisms called extremophiles.Sean and Nathan discuss the plural of octopus, with Sean starting out wrong with octopi (wrong!), Nathan offering octopussies (hmm) then switching to octopuses (best accepted answer). Sean tosses in octopodes, which is the correct plural form based on the etymology, but pretty much no one says it.Sean mentions at one point that at some depths amphipods would normally have their exoskeletons dissolve, but H. gigas is an amphipod that secretes an aluminum hydroxide gel over their exoskeleton to protect it. Which is metal. References:https://www.pnas.org/content/111/12/4461https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967063716300656?via%3Dihubhttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0206710https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/these-intrepid-crickets-hawaii-s-lava-home-sweet-homehttps://www.nature.com/articles/310225a0.pdfhttps://www.pnas.org/content/104/36/14401.shorthttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4187170/https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/space-station-mold-survives-200-times-radiation-dose-would-kill-human

This week Nathan and Sean discuss the origin of life on Earth! Every cell in your body came, ultimately, from the zygote that was made when your dad’s sperm wiggled its way into your mom’s egg. And those little dudes came from another cell, and another, leading all the way back in time - a physical chain of cell divisions leading back to that very first cell. But what existed in the moments before that? Where did that cell come from?Error Thingy: Nathan asked Sean for a timeline on the origin of life, and Sean low-balled it at 3 billion years ago, which is a little short of the current scientific estimates, which place the first cellular life as emerging as recently at 3.5 billion years ago and as far back as 4.2 billion years ago. Given that the Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago, that could mean that life got going pretty quickly. We’ll see how those estimates hold up as our scientific knowledge expands!Contact us on twitter @dishpodcast or via email petridishpod at gmail.com! Sign up for our patreon www.patreon.com/petridish and rate us on your podcast app!  Some References:https://www.pnas.org/content/114/43/11327.fullhttps://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/5/1/294/htmhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215006818