ResearchPod

A millisecond may seem a short time to you, but for molecules, this may be longer than their entire lifetime.  Dr Sergio Carbajo and his team at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory  capture these high speed changes using a laser that is several kilometres long, known as a free-electron laser (FEL).

Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or read the original research at https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.14400

Optical microscopes, with the help of cell-staining to colour cells, can help us peer into the invisible world of cells. However, they only show us a 2D image of a very thin slice of tissue. But how can we see what the cells and tissue actually look like in 3D?

Dr Madleen Busse from the Technical University of Munich has been developing X-ray stains that can be used to visualise cells and tissues in 3D using cutting-edge X-ray imaging techniques developed by her colleagues Prof Franz Pfeiffer and Simone Ferstl MSc.

Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or read the original research:  https://doi.org/10.1109/TMI.2019.2952028

Dairy farming can have negative effects on the environment, polluting waterways with an excess of nitrogen that can have long-term impacts. Past work has addressed this problem by looking at ways to reduce the cow’s urinary urea nitrogen concentration, but this has involved mitigation techniques that paint the cow as the problem rather than the solution.

Cameron Marshall, a PhD student under Prof Pablo Gregorini at Lincoln University, New Zealand, investigates how cow genetics may hold the key to reducing the environmental impact of pastoral livestock production.

Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or read the original paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139994

This year has proven a unique challenge to the mental health and resilience of many across the globe. Dr Christine Wekerle discusses how, for young people with mental health concerns, the challenges and opportunities of distanced society can be faced and embraced.

You can find more information about the app at youthresilience.net and the ResilienceInYouth YouTube Channel

Download the JoyPop app in the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/joypop/id1483835598?ign-mpt=uo%3D2 

Dr Christine Wekerle discusses the MAP study on trauma resilience among youth, well-venture interventions, and the JoyPop mobile platform for well-being and recovery support among survivors.

You can find more information about the app at youthresilience.net and the ResilienceInYouth YouTube Channel

Download the JoyPop app in the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/joypop/id1483835598?ign-mpt=uo%3D2 

While nicotine is perhaps the most notorious component of tobacco smoke, what can be said of its biological and chemical activity by itself? A recent paper by Dr Leonie Price and Dr Javier Martinez has dug into a century of scientific literature to find out.

Read their paper in F1000 Research: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.20062.2

How can non-profit National Sport Organizations in Canada create effective brands, especially on social media, from which they can co-create value with stakeholders such as athletes, fans, sponsors, and the media? In a three-phase project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Marijke Taks, Benoit Séguin (University of Ottawa) and colleagues examined the challenges faced in managing and governing sports brands, and offer solutions to maximise benefits.

Read more about their research in Research Outreach and in the journal European Sport Management Quarterly: https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2019.1690538

Leo van Bergen is a medical historian who has spent his career chronicling the history of health and humanitarianism in warfare. In 2009 Van Bergen was awarded the J.A. Verdoorn-prize for his work, and his upcoming book A Cap of Horror will feature a collection of poems  written on the First World War by nurses and carers.

For more of his books, articles and columns, visit www.leovanbergen.nl , or view his ResearchGate profile here

Prof Kazushige Yokoyama, State University of New York Geneseo College, investigates how peptide interactions lead to fibrillogenesis, the process in the brain responsible for some  symptoms of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Their research involves coating gold nanoparticles with peptides and using spectroscopic techniques to investigate how these peptides interactions lead to the onset of disease.

Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or find their original research article in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20215354

Cannabis and its derivatives have been at the centre of whirlwind of social, legal and medical change, from criminalisation to commercialisation in a single decade. This comes of the back of generations of work, research and advocacy in the potential medical advances and social justice that could come about through its approval and study

Steve Goldner, perhaps most famous for inventing liquid dosage methadone, is CEO and founder of Pure Green Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a cannabis drug company at the forefront of research into the therapeutic qualities of cannabis. In this episode, we discuss Steves history in drug research and advocacy, the changing landscape of cannabis legality and usage, as well as the ongoing clinical trials that aim to uncover the potential of cannabis derived medicines for patients world wide.