The Pulse

Typically, getting in a nasty car accident hinders your life, but in the case of 24-year-old Albert Leva, rear-ending a car full of undercover cops saved his. But how? Pulse host Maiken Scott goes in search of a medical explanation.

The American Association for Cancer Research hosted its annual meeting in Philadelphia this week, drawing cancer researchers and oncologists from all over the world. Pulse contributor Kerry Grens was there and joins us for a recap of what’s going on in the hunt for a cure to cancer.

Hooman Noorchashm and Amy Reed are both physicians, they’re married, they have six kids together, and they’re on a mission. You see, in 2013, Reed had surgery in Boston, for what was supposed to be an uncomplicated hysterectomy to treat fibroids. But when a mistaken diagnosis was made exponentially worse by a piece of medical equipment, Reed found herself suddenly riddled with cancer. Ever since, they’ve made it their mission to get out the word. Reporter Taunya English sat down to ask them about their media strategy.

Forget the Apple Watch, the tech giant has another big rollout this spring with potentially sizeable implications to modern medicine. The product, Research Kit, is a new software platform designed to let scientists collect vast amounts of data from iPhone users, and as part of our new series Bit-by-Bit: How Data is Shaping our Health, Todd Bookman looks into the up and down sides of this new platform.

Last week, California health officials finally declared the Disneyland measles outbreak over, but the national debate over vaccinating is anything but. And though every time this war of words flares back up, we treat it like a revelation, the fact is, the row over how we protect the our nation against deadly diseases is substantially older than the United States. Elana Gordon and Pulse contributor Avir Mitra have the story of a famous founding father’s role in the modern vaccine debate.

And finally this week, the Philadelphia Science Festival kicks off this weekend, and we have a preview. Nerd alert!

This week, The Pulse kicks off a new series looking at the role technology is playing in our well being…”Bit By Bit: How data is shaping our health.” Our inaugural story looks at how health insurance companies have begun plugging the massive amounts of data they collect about us into algorithms in an attempt to predict who is most at risk for ending up in the hospital again and again because of chronic conditions. We sent Todd Bookman to check out how exactly big brother is watching us.

On April 19, 1965, chemist Gordon Moore made the astute observation that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year, then he predicted that the trend would continue. He was right, and his prediction turned into the driving force behind the success of Silicon Valley. It became known as “Moore’s Law.” But as the law turns 50, it’s future is threatened. Moore biographer Arnold Thackray joins us to discuss why.

Med students tend to describe getting an MD as a grueling journey, with endless studying, tough exams, and sleepless nights. MBA students in business school say much the same about their degree, noting the “super competitive” environment for good measure. What’s motivating a new generation of docs who want both of these degrees? Taunya English dives into the world of the over-achiever.

Only about half of people with depression respond to antidepressant medications. Yes, you read that right. But researchers are trying to improve those numbers by better understanding the mechanisms that cause this illness, and they may have found a link between inflammation and depression that could help explain the problem. Yvette Sheline heads the Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress at Penn, and she joins us to take a look at this new finding.

It’s that time of year when transitional weather and countless tons of pollen wreak havoc on our immune systems. This week, in fact, at least half The Pulse staff came down with one thing or another. So we started talking about the foods we crave when we’re under the weather and the science behind those cravings. Then we sent sniffler-in-chief Carolyn Beeler out onto the mean streets of Philadelphia to look for some answers.

Imagine you have one all-consuming passion in life. Something you can’t live without. And suddenly, an illness threatens to take this very thing away from you. In our series patient files, your stories of illness, coping and healing, we hear from Mike Hopes of Lancaster, Pennsylvania…also known as pro wrestler Tim Donst. At 27 he’s already held several wrestling titles, but at present, his future is a little uncertain. I caught up with him three days before a very serious cancer surgery to get his take on life and risk.

When we discuss the impact of obesity, we’re usually talking about health issues or economic concerns. But a researcher Maurice Schweitzer joins us this week to examine how obesity changes people’s careers and chances for advancing in their jobs.

Do you crack your knuckles. Do you know what causes the “crack”? No one did for certain until a recent paper was published in a scientific journal. Elana Gordon tells us the researchers finally got the bottom of this annoying phenomenon with the help of an MRI machine.

College students around the country are demanding that their schools divest from fossil fuels. That would mean selling off investments in coal, oil and gas companies from endowments. Endowments are the “savings accounts” of colleges that earn interest and help fund everything from financial aid to keeping the lights on. Students’ efforts succeeded at Stanford, which got rid of its portfolio of coal in 2013. But at the place where this whole national movement began about four years ago, Swarthmore College, students at this school are still struggling to make their voices heard. Reporter Carolyn Beeler met up with student leaders as they staged a sit in.

The PBS mini series “Twice Born” takes viewers inside an intense surgery unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – where doctors operate on babies still inside their mothers’ wombs. We spoke with some of the main characters featured in this dramatic documentary: Dr. Scott Adzick, Surgeon-in-Chief at the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment and a pioneer in this field, and Bobby and Shelly Ross – who used the center’s services after finding out their unborn daughter had a life-threatening birth defect.

If you’re trying to lose a bunch of weight, chances are you’ll get excited once you’ve lost ten pounds. Nine pounds is not bad at all, but ten pounds? That’s a milestone! We celebrate round birthdays, anniversaries, we buy gift cards for $20, or $50, but not $36. Regular Pulse contributor Christopher Intagliata takes us on a mathematical journey to explain our love affair with round numbers. And wait ’til you hear the very intriguing reason why eggs are still sold by the dozen!

Autism was first described in 1943, as a very rare condition. Starting in the 1990s, there was a dramatic rise in autism diagnoses. Why remains a million dollar question, but the increase sparked frantic research into the causes and treatments of this developmental disorder. Children born with autism today have more than two decades of intensive research to draw on – there are best practices for early interventions and education. But for the first big cohort of children with autism born in the 90s who are reaching adulthood now, these kinds of resources and roadmaps don’t quite exist. Katie Hiler reports on ways families are trying to forge new paths.

Have you ever found yourself staring at the tile in your kitchen – and suddenly you see something? A face, perhaps? Elana Gordon brings us an audio exploration of a weird brain phenomenon called pareidolia.

At the dawn of America, science was not just a passionate pursuit of knowledge – it became a bit of a patriotic hammer. Along with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson was a chief promoter of American science. A new exhibit at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia details his dedication to finding examples of power and strength in nature to make a case for the might of his young nation.

Finally on the show, this week marked a massive comeback for the only dinosaur to go extinct twice, if you will, the Brontosaurus. Brontosaurus was named in 1879 by famed paleontologist Othniel Marsh who found the specimen. But – in 1903, paleontologist Elmer Riggs proclaimed that Brontosaurus was apparently the same as the Apatosaurus, which had been found first, so it was game over for the Brontosaurus. New research reestablishes the Brontosaurus as its own species – which has thrilled paleontologists and dino fans of all ages alike.

Electronic cigarettes are a booming business with a growing customer base. Some see them as a great hope for smokers who want to quit, others worry they will get a new generation of Americans hooked on nicotine. A year ago, the government announced a proposal to regulate them, but public health officials are only just now beginning to untangle some basic questions about them. Reporter Taunya English takes a look at the complicated issues surrounding “vaping.” And while we’re on the topic of nicotine-delivery devices, we get an update on the proposed use of graphic photos on tobacco cigarette packaging from Dan Romer of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy.

Last year on the show, we met Temple University biologist Erik Cordes, as he embarked on a mission to the bottom of the gulf of Mexico to study corals affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He and his team took a close look at the toxicity of the dispersants deployed in the aftermath of the spill in hopes of mitigating the disaster, but as is often the case with oil spills, it turns out the damage may just have been exacerbated by the clean-up. He joins us to discuss his findings.

Last week, NASA formalized plans for a rendezvous between an unmanned spacecraft and an asteroid. The program has two goals: First, to test a solar electric propulsion system that will be necessary for a future trip to Mars. Second, to help prevent mankind’s extinction by asteroid. Do those priorities seem out of order? We sent reporter Todd Bookman to find out how a new space telescope (not funded by NASA), might just save us from the next mass-extinction event.

Have you ever tried to find out how much a medical procedure is going to cost before actually getting it? In an attempt to create some transparency around the pricing of medical procedures, last month we launched a new initiative called WHYY PriceCheck in partnership with the organization Clear Health Costs. Elana Gordon joins us for a glimpse of what we’re learning about the surprising cost of a colonoscopy.

In this week’s installment of our series Patient Files, we didn’t have to look far for a harrowing tale of recovery. WHYY Vice President of News, Chris Satullo almost lost his vision in one of his eyes, and he recounts the challenge of spending two weeks face down in hopes of keeping his vision. Spoiler alert, this story involves March Madness and pancakes.

Friday, March 20, 2015 is Match Day—the NBA draft for future doctors. At every medical school in the country, students will open envelopes that will tell them where they’ll be doing their residency. It’s a huge moment that many in medicine feel defines their careers. Pulse reporter Marielle Segarra followed two medical students in the weeks leading up to this nerve-wrecking day, and learned about the hopes and heartaches pinned to this big decision.

Would you quit your dream job if you thought it could do you harm years down the road? What if it came with a million-dollar-a-year salary? Tough choice, right? Well San Francisco 49er linebacker Chris Borland faced that decision and, after just a year in the league, decided it wasn’t worth the risk. He retired at age 24 this week. We called up ESPN’s Mark Fainaru-Wada who broke Borland’s story to discuss the ramifications of his decision.

This month, we’re doing a series of stories about cancer in the lead up to the premiere of the new Ken Burns production The Emperor of all Maladies on PBS. This week we look at the language of cancer: hope, fight, battle, cure…inspirational terms, but are they conducive to realistic conversations about these diseases? Reporter Elana Gordon parses the language. Then we hear from Ann Marie Wiesen, who’s grappled successfully with cancer several times but isn’t interested in being called a “survivor.”

If you think of life on Earth as chapters in a really long book, then every once in a while, a chapter comes to a dramatic end and most of the characters die. In science they call these “extinction events,” when the vast majority of species and life on earth is basically all but wiped out. But what causes these chapters to end? A new theory traces those catastrophic moments in Earth’s history back to another theory: dark matter. Reporter Audrey Quinn tries to explain all of this.

Do you have an inner scientist that’s perhaps lain dormant over the winter and is ready to get out there and investigate the wonders of nature? Are you eager to count birds, or chase evil parasites? Darlene Cavalier of SciStarter.com joins us to discuss several research projects that require the help of…well…you!

If someone tells you they have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, what thoughts run through your mind? Be honest. Of course many of us are going to say “Oh, that’s terrible!” but really, on the inside, aren’t we all rolling our eyes, thinking, ‘sure.. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. right.’ It’s a controversial disease and there’s no real test for it. But there’s a push for more research and the disease just got a new name – Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease. Elana Gordon reports on what that new name means for people who actually have the illness.

We’re doing a series of stories on the issue of cancer this month, leading up to the new Ken Burns production “The Emperor of all Maladies” which airs on PBS stations at the end of this month, This week, we hear from David Bolgiano about his grueling cancer treatment in a story by Carolyn Beeler and the toxic stress and physical toll that can come from battling survival in a story by Maiken Scott. 

This March marks a once in a lifetime occasion of epic proportions: It’s the ultimate Pi Day – not just 3/14 as usual, it’s 3/14/15. So, this won’t happen for another hundred years. Joining us this week to talk about Pi and its allure is Aatish Bhatia, a writer for the Emperical Zeal blog for Wired.com and the associate director of Princeton University’s Council on Science and Technology.

This week, we launch a new segment called Lab Rat, in which we test out the latest health and science apps, products and treatments. In our first edition, we take on the topic of genetic testing – an exciting frontier of personalized medicine that’s also run into some early controversy. Zack Seward visited a local startup that’s making it easier for you to know your own DNA.

We’ll also hear about the science of wind tunnels and a Franklin Institute after school program aimed at dispelling the notion that science is the domain of stodgy, old white men with thick glasses.

What if every time you bought a bottle of Poland Spring or Evian water to quench your thirst, you first poured a third of it onto the street? Sounds wasteful and crazy, right? Well, that’s what happens to Philadelphia tap water—more than a third of it is lost in transmission. Reporter Carolyn Beeler went in search of the missing water. All that talk about tap water got us wondering: What should water taste like? So we tracked down a foremost expert in water flavor, Arthur von Wiesenberger to discuss why our water tastes the way it does.

Four words are fueling a major fight in the nation’s capital: “established by the state.” That short phrase is at the heart of a Supreme Court case (King v Burwell) challenging the subsidies people are receiving to pay for their insurance plans under Obamacare. We’re joined by health management and law professor Rob Field from Drexel University to discuss the intricacies of the arguments and hear his prediction for an outcome in June.

Andrew Cohen is a professor of engineering at Drexel University, and he helps researchers visualize how cells change over time with the help of a custom-built 3D movie theater. Cohen recently stopped by for a conversation with musician Keith Pierce from the band Northern Arms for the next chapter in our series “So What Do You Do?”

In the lead up to the release of Ken Burns’ upcoming PBS special “Cancer: The emperor of all maladies,” The Pulse is featuring a series of stories about cancer. In the first installment, reporter Todd Bookman takes us back to a discovery that linked cancer to genetics and fundamentally changed how we thought of the disease.

Also on The Pulse this week: an update on our Clear Health Costs initiative, a new play about kidney transplants, and imagining what the check might look like if restaurants billed customers like hospitals bill patients.

On Wednesday, March 4, the Supreme Court will hear a case that challenges one of Obamacare’s key provisions: subsidies that make coverage affordable for millions of people who get insurance through federally run online marketplaces. The fate of the law could boil down to one, single word in a 900-page document: “state.” We’re joined by Supreme Court watcher Lisa McElroy for a preview of the arguments.

Since the passage of Obamacare, medical device manufacturers have paid a 2.3-percent sales tax. Some of that money goes toward those insurance subsidies that make coverage affordable for millions of people. But, as Taunya English reports, the new Republican-controlled congress is hoping to repeal that tax and weaken the President’s signature health law in the process.

Not every dentist gets to stare into the mouths of royalty. But Thomas Evans got to do just that. Evans earned fame, influence and a sizeable fortune by treating the teeth of 19th century nobles, while he simultaneously contributed to the modernization of dentistry. Reporter Todd Bookman tells Evans’ unlikely story.

If you’ve ever tried to find out how much a medical procedure might cost but no one could tell you, you’re not alone. The Pulse is launching a new project to lift the veil on some of these oh-so-mysterious costs—WHYY PriceCheck. Reporter Elana Gordon explains how you (yes you!) are a crucial link in the chain of transparency, and we talk with KQED’s Lisa Aliferis about how the project faired in California.

Vitamins are everywhere. The take up an entire aisle of your local grocery store and they were probably added to both the cereal you ate this morning and the milk you poured over it. In fact, Americans spend more than 5 billion dollars on multivitamins alone. But are we making ourselves healthier? Catherine Price wrote Vitamania: Our obsessive quest for nutritional perfection, and she joins us to talk vitamins.

Medical students spend four long years studying the science and theory of modern medicine, treating patients only under close supervision. But when the all-knowing resident is gone, and there are no books to reference, treating a real-life emergency gets a whole lot scarier. Daphne Owen found that out first-hand on a red-eye flight from LA to Philly last Thanksgiving. She tells Avir Mitra her terrifying tale.

While walking through the lobby of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine in Philadelphia, enroute to an interview, reporter Elana Gordon stumbled across a beautiful moment. Med student Linda Wang had sat down at the hospital’s piano to play an impromptu concert, and Gordon captured it all on tape. 

We spend large portions of our lives in and around our homes. It’s where we eat, sleep, and heal. Some of us were born in our homes, others will die in theirs, but the point is, there’s a lot happening at our home addresses, and not just social stuff—medical and astronomical breakthroughs happen under our own roofs every day. So, with the mercury bottoming out in the dog days of winter, we decided to dedicate this episode of the show to our homes.

How’s this for a prescription from your doctor: 10 days of no cognitive stimulation—no phone, no TV, no loud noises…nothing! That’s what Theo Balcomb was prescribed after she suffered a severe concussion when she slipped while getting out of bed one morning. Disoriented and exhausted from her the aftermath of her fall, Theo’s sister Hallie swooped in to help her on the journey back to health. The sisters tell us their story. This got us wondering what is the best course of action after a concussion? To answer that question and others, we are joined by Sarah Allen, a pediatric neuropsychologist at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

When you’re in the hospital, “home” is where you want to be, so being discharged is the goal. The thing is, a lot of recently discharged patients end up not staying home for long, and, instead, they wind up back in the hospital. Reporter Elana Gordon spends a day with a nurse whose sole mission is to keep discharged patients from becoming readmissions.

The expression “weight loss” harkens images of broccoli and 7-minute workouts, right? But did you know the configuration of your kitchen may be having a big effect on your waistline as well? It does, according to author and researcher Brian Wansink, who, for years, has been studying how our kitchens affect our weight. Brian joins us to impart some fascinating and eye-opening weight-loss advice.

In the 1950s, the Dupont chemical company, based in Delaware, came out with a product that might have made the biggest impact on how you live in your home—acrylic paint in every color of the rainbow. Oil paint required a crew of professionals, and it took forever to dry. With Dupont’s invention, you could suddenly redesign the look of your home yourself…in a day! And with this invention came the idea of “color psychology”…the idea that specific colors can make you feel certain ways. But as Peter Crimmins reports, linking wall colors and our psyches is not an easy science.

Dragging a telescope to some far-away mountaintop is no longer necessary if your goal is to make meaningful contributions to the field of astronomy. As reporter Todd Bookman discovered, an explosion of publicly available space data means hobbyists can make discoveries that matter and advance the breadth of human knowledge without ever getting off the couch.

Also on this week’s show: how the Xbox changed Paul Ballas’ life, how to force your flowers into thinking it’s spring while it’s still snowy out, and the dangers of radon…that colorless, odorless gas that’s oh so 1983. Stay home with us this week!

This is the final weekend to sign up for Obamacare in 2015, and Latinos are one of the groups that could really stand to benefit from this insurance option—they make up about one-third of the nation’s uninsured. Even so, sign ups have lagged. Elana Gordon reports on new strategies to change that.

“The honest truth is that I had never expected to stay this long,” said FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg in a recent interview. After six years running the organization, she’s making her exit. We sit down with an FDA watcher to discuss the high and lows of Hamburg’s record tenure and discuss the people who could succeed her.

Scientific and medical issues can and do turn into political footballs—think global warming, vaccines, fracking. But watch out politicians: there’s a new sheriff in town! SciCheck is a new branch of the website FactCheck.org, and it’s leader hopes to keep politicians attempts to bend science in check as an election season nears.

Each winter, the city of Philadelphia uses 20 to 40 thousand tons of rock salt to keep its roads ice-free. In a bad season, like last year, that number can balloon to more than 80,000. That’s just one city, and that huge number doesn’t include you and me, throwing a thick coat of salt on our sidewalk every time we see a flake of snow. Jessica McDonald reports on what all that salt is doing to our health.

It appears that Americans are becoming more unified on the issue of climate change, and more supportive of governmental action to reduce carbon emissions. Why the change in attitudes? Maybe it comes on the back of the recent Buzzfeed.com report that climate change could have a massive impact on fine wine. NO! We invited that reporter, Sandra Allen, to talk to us about these horrific findings.

Birds are beautiful, I’m sure we can all agree on that. The parasites that live on and in birds? Not so much…But don’t tell an ornithologist that. In our regular segment “So What Do You Do?” writer Chris Norwood sits down with bird expert Jason Weckstein to learn more about something you never thought you’d want to know.

Did you know operating room gloves, used by every member of a surgical team, are actually the product of a budding romance? Reporter Taunya English takes us back to the turn of the twentieth century, when the operating room was not the place you wanted to be.

Also on this week’s show, the peculiar nesting habits of the hornbill, and #healthpolicyvalentines tweets. For example: “Baby, your love is addictive. But not as addictive as the added sugar that permeates almost our entire food supply.” We’ll ready the funniest.