Science for the People

This week we're talking about meningitis and legal issues surrounding parents and standards of care. We speak with three members of The Maiden Lab, a multidisciplinary group working on understanding the biology of bacterial pathogens, including meningitis. From their team we were joined by Martin Maiden, Professor of Molecular Epidemiology in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford; Charlene Rodrigues, Wellcome Trust Clinical Doctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford; and Kanny Diallo, a Wellcome Trust Training Fellow working on her PhD at the University of Oxford, who studies ecology and molecular epidemiology in the African Meningitis Belt....

This week, we're revisiting a previous episode and exploring genetics, neuroscience, and psychology, to find out what makes every person - and personality - unique. We'll talk to science writer Jennifer Ouelette about her newest book "Me, Myself and Why: Searching for the Science of Self." And science writer Ed Yong takes a critical look at the hype surrounding the hormone oxytocin.

This week we're taking a look at two very different types of white collar crime -- financial fraud and painting forgery -- and how we use investigation and science to detect them. We'll speak to Jennifer Fiddian-Green, a partner at Grant Thornton and lead of their National Forensic and Dispute Resolution Advisory practice, about forensic accounting and the ways we try to discover fraud. And we'll talk with Dr. Jehane Ragai, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry with the American University in Cairo, about her book "The Scientist and the Forger: Insights into the Scientific Detection of Forgery in Paintings".

This week we're looking at astrophysics, zooming out to get a better idea of how universe works and what it might look like. Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel returns to talk about his new -- and first -- book "Beyond the Galaxy: How Humanity Looked Beyond Our Milky Way and Discovered the Entire Universe". And we'll speak with astrophysicist Katie Mack about the discovery of gravity waves, first predicted by Einstein. This episode is partially hosted by Bethany Brookshire, science writer from Science News. If you're looking for more on gravity waves, check out this great explainer article and video on Science...

This week we're exploring our evolving understanding of neurodiversity and the different ways people think. We've invited award winning science writer Steve Silberman back to continue the conversation about autism, neurodiversity, and his book "Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity."

This week on Science for the People, we’re talking with three guests about the technology challenges, possible repercussions, and ethical quandaries of self-driving cars. We'll speak with University of Waterloo Professor and Director of the Waterloo Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory Steven Waslander about the technological hurdles involved in creating autonomous road vehicles, and how these problems might be solved. Author and technologist Martin Ford will help us better understand how a world of driverless cars will impact job markets, and what automation means for the future of work. Chief Ethics Analyst of the Open Roboethics Initiative and University of Ottawa Postdoctoral...

This week, we're looking at the field of Evolutionary Psychology: what is it, how the research is done, what types of questions it might be good at answering, and times its ideas may have led us astray. We are joined by a panel of four: Maeve O'Donovan, Associate Professor and chair of Philosophy at Notre Dame of Maryland University; Kirk Honda, Chair of the Couple and Family Therapy Program at Antioch University Seattle, practicing psychotherapist, and host of the Psychology in Seattle podcast; Catherine Salmon, Professor of Psychology at the University of Redlands in Southern California and co-editor of the...

This week, we're looking at how food -- and the containers it comes in -- have changed over time, and some of the factors that have influenced these changes. We'll speak with Anastacia Marx de Salcedo about her new book "Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes The Way You Eat" about the ways military needs have influenced the food we all eat. And we'll speak with statistician Patrick McKnight about the BPA controversy, and how statistics can be used and misused in scientific studies.

This week, we're looking back at a previous episode to get a gripping first person account of the challenges involved in mental health diagnosis and treatment. We'll spend the hour with Dr. Christine Montross, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, and the Director of Counseling Resources at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, to talk about her book "Falling Into the Fire: A Psychiatrist's Encounters with the Mind in Crisis."

This week we're looking at the surprisingly robust science research that can be done with animals that have died along our highways. We'll speak with Sarah Perkins, an ecologist at Cardiff University in Wales, about the Project Splatter, a citizen science project tracking roadkill on UK roads. And we'll speak with Kyle Elliott, an ecologist at McGill University in Montréal about his work studying the toxicology of birds of prey in urban environments.

This episode is hosted by Bethany Brookshire, science writer from Science News. You can also read her article on roadkill at Student Science.