RadioBio

This week on RadioBio, we explore insect wings. Did you know insect wings are more than just beautiful appendages? They are a part of an amazing circulatory network. We discuss the biomechanics of insect wings and what makes them so amazing with Dr. Mary Salcedo, a postdoc at Virginia Tech.

Link to Dr. Salcedo's Review: https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaa124

Link to Dr. Salcedo's Website: https://www.maryksalcedo.com

What if I were to tell you that you had hundreds, if not thousands of microbes living on you hands, you would probably respond with ewwwwww...gross and immediately want to sanitize or wash our hands. If I were to tell you that not all of them are bad, but rather most of them are good, you might still be skeptical. Let’s take it one step further. What if I told you that we can use naturally occurring bacteria as a form of pest control. Wild right! One of these bacteria is Wolbachia. Wolbachia affects the reproductive system in certain insects and can make them sterile. The cool part is that Wolbachia do not affect humans or other large invertebrates, but it does infect many insects that we classify as pests. Today we explore the world of Wolbachia and learn about how these little bacteria can kick some insect pest butt with Dr. Amelia Lindsay......This is RadioBio!

Bats are vital for maintaining balance in the ecosystems they are a part of: Bats keep insect populations in check, pollinate flowers, and disperse seeds. Bats are also an incredibly diverse group of species that come in all shapes and sizes! Did you know, that if you randomly picked a mammal, you would have a one in five chance of picking a bat? Today we have Dr. Alexa Sadier with us to talk about what studying bats can teach us about evolution.

Imagine the world 430,000 years ago. What were our ancestors like? What if there was a population of people that no one ever knew about? Can we unravel the mystery of our history? Now imagine, your garden at home is full of aphids. Did you go buy some ladybugs at your local home depot? Have you ever thought where those ladybugs came from or what happens after they leave? Now these two situations may seem very different but they have one common theme. They both have questions that can be studied using population genomics. This week on RadioBio we talk about popgen, ancient humans, ladybugs and ghost populations (ooo spooky!) with Dr. Arun Sethuraman, an assistant professor at San Diego State University.

Throughout this historic pandemic, there have been many changes to our social and work environments that have been far from our baseline. Work from home, has led to greater isolation and less ability to socialize with our coworkers and friends. This has undoubtedly affected the mental health of people all over the world, and this topic came up during chapter 4 of our COVID interview series, when Dr. Allen spoke about the mental health crisis emerging in Mariposa due to the stress of this pandemic. This inspired us to reach out to a mental health professional, specifically Dr. Tania Gonzalez, our very own director for Counseling and Psychological Services (or CAPS) at UC Merced. In this interview, we delve into the mental health impacts of this pandemic on undergraduate and graduate students at UC Merced, and the importance of maintaining laughter and routine as we come out of this experience. This is chapter 5 of our COVID interview series, in which we interview a series of professionals on different topics related to the pandemic. This is our final chapter in this release series, and we hope you have enjoyed hearing from many perspectives to gain greater context for what we have all been experiencing this past year.

All over the news, we hear about drug development and vaccines, masks wearing, and being in a red or purple tier,  but have you considered how this is affecting communities, maybe your community? In this interview with Dr. Kristina Allen, Deputy Director of Public Health from Mariposa county, we discussed coordinated response to the COVID-19 outbreak as well as the mental state of communities that have been affected by COVID-19, and how local governments and rural areas are fighting to keep their community alive. This is chapter 4 of our COVID interview series, in which we interview a series of professionals on different topics related to the pandemic. Tune in for our next chapter, an interview with Dr. Tania Gonzalez, the director for counseling and psychological services (CAPS) at UC Merced , on her experiences with the pandemic!

COVID 19 has changed so many things about the world we live in, but few things have changed as much as our perceptions of public health and its role in our modern society. How has the US reacted to COVID 19, and what things could we have done better? What if our social services and health services could be better integrated? How does testing and contact tracing actually happen to monitor the transmission of coronavirus? Today, we answer all of these questions and more by talking with Dr. Zweifler, a medical consultant from the Fresno County Health Department. This is chapter 3 of our COVID interview series, in which we interview a series of professionals on different topics related to the pandemic. Tune in for our next chapter, an interview with Dr. Kristina Allen, Deputy Director of Public Health with Mariposa county, on her experiences with the pandemic!

This past year, we have been in the midst of a historical pandemic that has touched the lives of everyone around us. As part of our interview series on COVID-19, our team was interested in gaining the perspective of a medical doctor and how this pandemic has affected healthcare workers. For this episode, we interviewed Dr. Xavier Gaeta, a doctor currently in pediatric residency in a LA county, as well as a PhD. Dr. Gaeta gave us invaluable perspective on being a doctor during the pandemic and insight into the differential impacts of COVID on children versus adults. This is chapter 2 of our COVID interview series, in which we interview a series of professionals on different topics related to the pandemic. Tune in for our next chapter, an interview with Dr. John Zweifler, a medical consultant with the Fresno county Health Department, on his experiences with the pandemic!

Vaccines and drugs to mitigate sickness have become a central part of modern life, and they have become a central topic right now as the COVID 19 pandemic has progressed. But how are vaccines developed? What is the difference between a vaccine and therapeutic drugs? And could we actually one day treat coronavirus with a pill? Today, we talk to Dr. Robert Davey, a professor of microbiology from Boston University, who is currently working on ways to find treatments for dangerous viruses. This is chapter 1 of our COVID interview series, in which we interview a series of professionals on different topics related to the pandemic. Tune in for our next chapter, an interview with Dr. Gaeta, a pediatric resident, on his experiences with the pandemic!

Life is complicated. Breaking down the living world into understandable pieces requires good experiments AND good theories. Science thrives on the feedback between theory and data. Our guest today specializes in connecting theories and models to empirical data from experiments. Join us for a fascinating discussion of ecological models, ecological experiments, and everything in between!