Science Fare

Our guest today is Dr. Leo Otterbein, a professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. Leo’s research group focuses on the role of carbon monoxide as a therapeutic agent in medical applications ranging from organ transplant to infection to cancer. Inhaled carbon monoxide is currently in numerous FDA trials based in large part due the research in Leo's lab over the past decade. Leo is also chair of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. As the site miner for the BIDMC Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology and member of the Boston Biomedical Innovations Center Technology Assessment and Development Group, Leo mentors and provides specialized expertise in entrepreneurial start-up ventures for innovative technologies. Leo trains graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, surgical residents, and junior faculty in basic research, grant proposals and career guidance. 

On the episode, we talk about the myriad possibilities of carbon monoxide (yes, carbon monoxide!) in medicine, ranging from its use in organ transplantation, cancer, wound care, and sickle cell anemia.

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Season 2, Episode #2. 

Dr. Dan Hatfield is a senior public health researcher at FHI360 with 15 years of experience developing, evaluating, and replicating community and behavioral interventions promoting healthy eating and physical activity, particularly in children, adolescents, and families. Previously, as a Research Assistant Professor at Tufts University, he served as principal or co-investigator on 13 federal and foundation-funded research grants, and he taught graduate courses in behavioral theory, health communications, and public health. His subject-matter expertise spans diverse domains, including nutrition, physical activity, obesity prevention, health communications, and theory-based intervention design.

Dan talks with us about the opportunities for and barriers to programs that aim to get communities more physically active.

Highlights of the episode:

*Susan introduces Dan [0:56];

*Dan’s background and path to becoming a scientist [2:08];

*Dan talks about the more and less well known benefits of physical activity [7:27];

*Some of the impediments to getting individuals and communities active [12:37];

*Dan’s work in helping to establish physical activity programs in a community in East Boston [18:11];

*Dan’s current NIH study in partnership with New York Road Runners [29:13];

*Dan’s hopes for the next 5 - 10 years for getting more people moving more [30:39];

*Was there a time when people in the US were moving a lot more? [34:46];

*High school science section — Dan talks about how when solving a problem, you determine the “necessary qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions,

including any requirements set by society,” (From the Technology and Engineering Massachusetts standard HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major global challenge to specific a design problem that can be improved.) [37:12];

*Dan shares a memory from high school science [44:20];

*Dan gives advice to high school students interested in studying science [46:04]

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Season 2, Episode #1. 

Mike Shelley is an applied mathematician who uses modeling and simulation to better understand the physics and biology of complex systems. He is the director of the Center for Computational Biology, which is part of the Flatiron Institute — the scientific research arm of the Simons Foundation located in NYC. He also co-founded and co-directs the Courant Institute’s Applied Mathematics Laboratory at New York University.

Today, Mike is going to talk about elucidating how things in the cell find their proper place. Most listeners likely know that the cell is the basic unit of life, and within the cell are important structures like, for example, the nucleus which holds the DNA, and the ribosomes, where proteins are made. There are other structures that are actually transient, like the spindle, for example, and yet are crucially important for cell division — the process of making new cells. 

Mike and his colleagues have done extensive work to understand how the spindle and related structures form, get in the right place, and stay in the right place for successful cell division. His work is a beautiful example of how physics and biology together help solve problems and push forward our understanding of the complexities of life. 

Papers mentioned in this conversation:

“Forces positioning the mitotic spindle: Theories, and now experiments,” 2016, Bioessays

“Stoichiometric interactions explain spindle dynamics and scaling across 100 million years of nematode evolution,” 2020, eLife

“Laser ablation and fluid flows reveal the mechanism behind spindle and centrosome positioning,” 2023, Nature Physics 

Highlights of the episode:

*Susan introduces Mike and today’s topic [0:56];

*Mike’s background and path to becoming a scientist [2:50];

*The art of biophysical modeling and how it’s different from mathematical modeling [6:52];

*The technological and computational advances that have strengthened modeling [9:20]; 

*What is the spindle and why is it so important? [15:36];

*Different sets of forces have been proposed as key drivers in positioning the spindle — how was Mike’s group able to combine experiments and biophysical modeling to determine that pulling forces were predominant? [18:00]; 

*An earlier review paper from 2016 suggested that pushing forces were predominant — how changes like this are part of the scientific process [27:08];

*Other scientific problems Mike is excited about [28:45]; 

*High school science section — Mike talks about how understanding forces in the cellular world is quite different from what we see in the typical macroscopic world of the physics classroom with its ramps, balls, pendulums, etc. [32:18];

*Mike shares a memory from high school science [40:02];

*Mike gives advice to high school students interested in studying science [42:15]

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In this episode, I give a quick summary of the interview with Christie del-Castillo Hegyi and Jody Segrave Daly that aired on Science Fare on Monday, June 17, 2024. Christie and Jody are the founders of the Fed is Best Foundation and authors, along with Lynnette Hafken, of the forthcoming book, Fed is Best. 

In today’s episode, we talk about:

*The Next Generation High School Science Standard entitled, “Engaging in Argument from Evidence.” In this standard, high school students are asked to evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning behind currently accepted explanations or solutions to determine the merits of arguments. I ask Christie and Jody how their work demonstrates this standard. [3:33];

*The advice Jody and Christie would give to high school students interested in science [14:50]

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In this episode of Science Fare, I interview Christie del-Castillo Hegyi and Jody Segrave-Daly, founders of the Fed is Best Foundation and authors, along with Lynnette Hafken, of the forthcoming book, Fed is Best. 

Links mentioned in the episode:

Fed is Best Foundation

Fed is Best Book

New York Times Parenting article on How to Deal with Low Breastmilk Supply

Sibling study on breast- and formula-fed babies and outcomes (appearing in Social Science & Medicine, 2014)

In the interview, we talk about:

*Christie’s and Jody’s experiences that led them to start the Fed is Best Foundation [4:15];

*The Fed is Best book and dispelling the myth that every mother makes enough milk to feed her baby [15:30];

*Dispelling the myth that supplementing a baby is at odds with breastfeeding [22:15];

*Dispelling the myth that baby formula harms babies [28:45];

*The sibling study on breast-and formula-fed babies and outcomes [34:45];

*Postpartum mental health and breastfeeding [39:50];

*Practical feeding guidance in the Fed is Best book [43:05];

*The impact of the Fed is Best Foundation on policy and public attitudes [46:15];

*Where to find the Fed is Best book [54:45]

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Lisa Ammirati, high school science teacher and chair of the science department at Abington Friends School talks to us about her career as a science teacher and strategies to integrate classroom curriculum with events in the broader world.

In this conversation, we talk about:

*Lisa’s career in teaching [3:25];

*What it’s like being a department chair [4:58];

*What is uniquely special about teaching 10th grade chemistry [6:30];

*What Lisa has done in her classroom to connect the curriculum to the broader world [8:35];

*Why the Flint, MI chemistry unit worked so well [10:22];

*What are some challenges teachers face in connecting classroom curriculum to the broader world? [17:43];

*Why is it important to do this? [20:40];

*What can public school teachers, who may be more constrained in their curriculum, do to link the classroom to world events? [24:40];

*How can a podcast like best help in the effort to draw connections between the high school science classroom and the world of scientists and what they do? [27:50]

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Jill Herschleb, senior director of cell biology at 10x Genomics, talks about her path as a scientist and her work in building the tools that have helped make single-cell genomics the robust and flexible technology it is today. 

Here is an informative video on single cell genomics and its use in the effort to make a comprehensive human cell map (aka, the Human Cell Atlas). 

In Part 2 of this conversation, we discuss:

*the idea of a cell as a test tube in single-cell genomics, and setting up massively parallel (millions and millions!) experiments [1:58];

*the Human Cell Atlas is a Human Genome Project-type effort, but with throughput that dwarfs that of the 1990s [4:00];

*Single-cell perturb-seq — the evolution of the classic mutant screen [5:25];

*Mechanics of how single-cell analysis works —partitioning via droplets [8:30];

*Implications for drug discovery and development [9:40];

*How do we analyze all these data? [12:35];

*How scientist communities are changing [20:00];

*What Jill’s job at 10x Genomics is like [21:05];

*What trouble-shooting as a scientist at a biotech company looks like [26:00];

*Jill’s advice on how to progress in a scientific career [29:14];

*Connection to a California state high school science learning standard on engineering design [32:08];

*Jill’s memory from high school science — her AP Chemistry teacher conveying both the difficulty and possibility of doing well on the AP exam [36:51];

*Jill’s advice to high school students interested in science — first, science is fun, and remember that! make sure to find the joy in it, in whatever way, when it gets hard, and second, keep your eyes open to all of the various ways you can be a scientist. [40:13]

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Episode #8.

Jill Herschleb, senior director of cell biology at 10x Genomics, talks about her path as a scientist and her work in building the tools that have helped make single-cell genomics the robust and flexible technology it is today. 

Here is an informative video on single cell genomics and its use in the effort to make a comprehensive human cell map (aka, the Human Cell Atlas). 

In Part 1 of this conversation, we discuss:

*How Jill got interested in science as a kid [2:30]

*Jill’s grad school realization that scientists could build tools, and that was what she wanted to focus on [4:15]

*Jill’s path after graduate school, and the many opportunities for scientists beyond academia [6:05]

*Jill’s role at 10x Genomics [10:15]

*Prelude to single-cell genomics: next-generation sequencing (NGS). What is it and why it is important? [14:20]

*How did NGS lead to single-cell genomics? What is single-cell genomics? Moving beyond the limits of hypothesis-based research with single-cell genomics [18:45]

*One example of an important discovery from single-cell genomics: the pulmonary ionocyte and its role in Cystic Fibrosis [28:00]

*The necessity of more data at this resolution — the single cell — to make important discoveries [32:30]

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At the halfway point of Season One of the Science Fare podcast, let’s have a listen to this special High School Science highlights episode — a collection of clips from previous episodes when the scientists link their work to the high school science learning standards. We have Hashim Al-Hashimi (Episodes 1 and 2) talking about how complexity evolves, Jamie Morton (Episodes 3 and 4) talking about the scientific process and feedback in biological systems, and Kelly Knudson (Episode 5 and 6) talking about how strontium gets into bones. 

Specific timestamps:

*Hashim Al-Hashimi: New York state high school curriculum in Life Sciences disciplinary core idea: “Although DNA replication is tightly regulated and remarkably accurate, errors do occur and result in mutations which are also a source of genetic variation.” How can we think about mutations and the evolution of variation in terms of a sweet spot between evolutionary fitness and peril? [2:10]

*Jamie Morton: In the Maryland state high school curriculum under the topic of The Nature of Science, students are expected to master the idea that “scientific inquiry is characterized by a common set of values that include logical thinking, precision, open-mindedness, objectivity, skepticism, replicability of results, and honest and ethical reporting of findings.” How did the study on autism and microbiome incorporate some of these values? [9:50]

*Jamie Morton: Also in the Maryland state high school curriculum, we have the Life Science learning standard that says, “Feedback mechanisms maintain a living system’s internal conditions within certain limits and mediate behaviors allowing it to remain alive and functional even as external conditions change within some range. Feedback mechanisms can encourage through positive feedback or discourage through negative feedback what is going on inside the living system.” Can we talk about the microbiome and autism in these terms? [14:25]

*Kelly Knudson: In the Arizona state high school curriculum, in the Chemistry section of the learning standards, students are asked to “explain how the structure of atoms relates to patterns and properties observed within the periodic table.” How does the way Strontium gets into bones relate to this idea? [17:30]

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Part 2 of the conversation with Kelly Knudson, professor of Anthropology in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, and director of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research and the Archaeological Chemistry Laboratory, who talks to us about archaeological chemistry, her path as an archaeological chemist, and about a paper she and others published in PNAS entitled “Feasting and the evolution of cooperative social organizations circa 2300 B.P. in Paracas culture, southern Peru,” in which the chemical isotope data help determine where objects at a feasting site came from, and from there, lead to inferences about the evolution of social complexity at the site. 

We discuss: 

*What Kelly and her colleagues learned about where the objects at the site were from [2:45]; about 25% of objects coming from significant distances, and interpret that to mean the feast-goers were coming from significant distances [3:00];

*Were the results expected? Surprising? [3:54];

*What kinds of distances are we talking about, and how does the concept of distance today differ from what it may have meant in the past? [6:30];

*How the archaeological and chemical data come together [9:30];

*What happens when the archaeological and chemical data conflict? An example [12:45];

*How the field of archaeological chemistry has changed since Kelly was in graduate school [16:49];

*What excites Kelly the most about archaeological chemistry research — trying to understand what people’s lives were like the past [17:40];

*Connection to an Arizona state high school science learning standard on how the structure of atoms relates to patterns and properties observed in the Periodic Table [19:10];

*Kelly’s memory from high school science — an AP Bio project that was her first “field” experience and how much she loved it [23:45];

*Kelly’s advice to high school students interested in science — explore, be attuned to what interests you, be open to new paths and opportunities that open up [26:00]

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