ResearchPod

The Serotonin Power Diet is a clinically-proven, practical, and easy to follow 12-week program that gives you the tools to stop weight gain naturally, regain control over cravings, and achieve real, sustainable weight loss.

The Serotonin Power Diet by Dr Judith Wurtman  and Dr Nina Frusztajer  is available on Amazon and through the website.
Follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

When thinking of tiny fruit flies, one doesn’t usually have their brainpower in mind. But even these small insects, like all animals, can learn behaviours in response to different stimuli.
 
Prof André Fiala studies the learning behaviour of fruit flies, aiming to dig deeper into the computational principles underlying the encoding of learned information. 

Find more from Prof Fiala at his University of Goettingen website, and follow him on Twitter. 

Read the original paper this episode is based on : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.03.010

Deciphering the patterns of nature is something that has occupied curious minds for countless generations, from swarms of bugs to the flight of birds to the movement of your bodies own cells.

Prof Andrea Cavagna of the Institute for Complex Systems leads a research group bringing together the worlds theoretical physics and experimental biology, building mathematical models of natural systems and uncovering the universal laws that underly the organisation structure of life.

Read the original paper on swarm behaviours: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.268001

Financial innovation presents a significant opportunity that goes beyond its impact on financial services firms; the entire economy can benefit. Prof Anne-Laure Mention, Director of the Global Business Innovation Enabling Capability Platform at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, is a prolific contributor to the Open Innovation literature, with a keen research interest in FinTech. 

Find more from Prof Mention on Twitter , and her personal website.

Find more on the Open Inno Train at https://www.openinnotrain.eu/

Read more about her work in Research Outreach.

Read her most recent papers :
Exploring how social interactions influence regulators and innovators: The case of regulatory sandboxes. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 160, 120257. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120257 

The Future of Fintech. Research-Technology Management, 62(4), 59-63. Available at: https://www.doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2019.1613123  

Ecosystem loss, extinctions and climate change are ongoing challenges to life on Earth, and coming up with a plan to tackle their effects requires an accurate picture of what's happening where, and who is involved.

Prof Tim Haas has taught and refined such models for years. In his latest paper, he lays out the case for a model unifying human behaviour, climate and ecosystem data, the computational power required to run it, and the credibility criteria any model should meet to prove its worth.

Read the original paper at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226861

Dr Pollard-Wright has formulated a transdisciplinary theory of mind as energy, which has implications for mindful control of experiences, emotions and responses.

Read more about her work in Research Outreach, and find the original articles this episode is based on in:

• Medical Hypotheses - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2020.109909 
• Communicative & Integrative Biology - https://doi.org/10.1080/19420889.2020.1846922

Dr Pollard-Wright can be reached via Wild Ride Wildlife Services, and darkandnormalmatters.org 

Finding a fitness plan that will help you reach your goals is a unique personal challenge for anyone embarking on a new exercise regime, and for personal trainers tailoring their instructions to clients. So what can research teach us about which exercise works best? And for whom?

Prof Kjell Hausken of Stavanger University, Norway, outlines assesments made during structured fitness classes to assess the impact of different exercise sequences on heart rate and energy expenditure.

Read more about Prof Hauskens work in Research Features, or find the original academic article at: https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2010.11868522

Listen to more of Prof Hauskens research about the range of events at the Summer and Winter Olympics here.

Speed Display Signs inform drivers if they are breaking local limits, and are part of road systems internationally.  But how much effect do they have on stopping recurrent speeding? And could changing their use offer a psychological nudge to drivers to slow down?

Smadar Siev and Doron Kliger report on experiments to change speeding behaviours and reduce road traffic accidents.

Read the original paper at: https://doi.org/10.1080/19439962.2019.1682732

Music in this episode is by Scott Holmes

While the Winter Olympics may not have as high a profile as the Summer Olympics, the featured events are some of the most exciting sports around – but, with fewer events and categories available to compete in, there are reduced opportunities for athletes.

Professor Kjell Hausken of the University of Stavanger, Norway, looked in detail at the physiological demands of five Winter Olympic sports and proposes new formats for the competition that will allow a fairer and more exciting event for both athletes and spectators.

Read more about this work in Research Features, or find the original research at: https://doi.org/10.23736/S0022-4707.18.08977-6

Equal access to education was an essential facet of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and has since come to be enshrined in law internationally. However, that is not the whole story of equality in education.

Jen Neitzel, executive director of the Educational Equity Institute, is committed to improving educational experiences for students and practice for teachers, through tackling injustices built into the systems and architecture of state education. We spoke in early December 2020 about her work and her hopes for building a more just and equal education system.

Her book, Achieving Equity and Justice in Education through the Work of Systems Change,  available through Rowman & Littlefield publishers.