The Science Basement Podcast

Here's the secod episode of our TSB-iCAN mini Series!

We are collaborating with iCAN for 5 episodes about cancer and cancer research.

Today we have the pleasure of interviewing Prof. Sirpa Leppä MD PhD, talking about cancer treatment and how to translate cancer research into new innovative weapons against cancer!

Full transcript of the episode:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17YKHFBfRSCgAGG5Ij1_l2TFPQ0-MNasN/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106655879995290261316&rtpof=true&sd=true

iCAN website

ican.fi

Since 2004 Professor Leppä has worked as a medical oncologist at the Helsinki University Hospital Cancer Center, since 2010 as the head of the lymphoma unit and since 2012 as a professor of clinical oncology.

Since 2007, she has been a chair of the Nordic large B-cell lymphoma working group. Her ongoing special research interests are the optimisation of the treatment of patients with lymphomas and the identification of biologically relevant prognostic factors.

Your hosts this week are Giuliano Didio & Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Editing by Rhiannon Newman.

Episode cover by Katja Kaurinkoski.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]

The TSB Podcast is back with a new Mini Series!

We are collaborating with iCAN for 5 episodes about cancer and cancer research.

Today, on the World Cancer Day we have the pleasure of interviewing Prof. Tomi Makelä MD PhD, asking the questions that are on everyone’s mind:

What really is cancer? And importantly, can we defeat it?

Full transcript of the episode:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-AaVZfHJiaGrrNUSwAC-6XV8jY_gu2ND/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106655879995290261316&rtpof=true&sd=true

iCAN website

https://ican.fi

Mäkelä is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is an EMBO Member, and member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and acts on the Board of EU Mission Cancer.

Mäkelä is recognized for his work on cell growth signaling and its deregulation in cancer,

He is is Executive Officer of the iCAN Digital Precision Cancer

Medicine Flagship project - a public-private partnership aiming for discoveries and improved treatments at the intersection of molecular and digital health.

As Scientific Director of the Finnish Cancer Institute, Mäkelä has been instrumental in establishing the Finnish National Cancer Center FICAN.

Your hosts this week are Tomás Garnier Artiñano & Eleanna Asvestari.

Editing by Cecilia Cannarozzo.

Episode cover by Katja Kaurinkoski.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]

Hello everyone! This is our very first holiday special!

No special guest this time, just four members of the TSB podcast team chatting about sciency fun-facts, evil christmas decorations and ...bird dress code!

This is the last episode of the year 2021.We will take a short break but we'll be back at the end of January 2022!

Amazing science ahead!

Full transcript of the episode at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oflnW-rxROX1WoOh7iu0VpdxHamV12hz/view?usp=sharing

References

-Good friends are literally on the same wavelength:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02722-7

-Fully degradable plastic made out of… salmon sperm:

https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c08888

-In the past, there were giant penguins in Peru!:

Ksepka, Daniel T., and Tatsuro Ando. "Penguins past, present, and future: trends in the evolution of the Sphenisciformes." Living Dinosaurs (2011): 155-186.

-Mistletoe is EVIL:

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7262

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fVX0WVGshQ

Your hosts this week are Tomás Garnier Artiñano, Giuliano Didio, Katja Kaurinkoski and Steven Simmonds.

Editing by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Episode cover by Katja Kaurinkoski.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]

“Always question your own morals” is the key message of our new episode, where Eleanna and Giuliano interview Marianna Saartio-Itkonen, doctoral student at the University of Helsinki, investigating evil as a mass phenomenon.

Listen through to find out how group dynamics can affect our ethics and drive our actions.

Full transcript of episode:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nA6lBMT1W0q5OvaZOXgMHNI6stH1LJt3/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106655879995290261316&rtpof=true&sd=true

References violent videogames:

1-https://www.iflscience.com/brain/violent-video-games-dont-make-violent-gamers-confirms-study/

2-Suziedelyte, Agne. "Is it only a game? Video games and violence." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 188 (2021): 105-125.

Walmart removes videogames but not guns:

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/walmart-removes-violent-video-game-displays-after-shootings-el-paso-dayton_n_5d4d7a11e4b01e44e47947dc

Your hosts this week are Eleanna Asvestari & Eleanna Asvestari

Editing by Rhiannon Newman.

Episode cover by Katja Kaurinkoski & Giuliano Didio.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]

In this episode Giuliano and Eleanna interview Manlio Fusciello, PhD student working on anti-cancer tharepies.

Did you know that some viruses hate cancer cells and they like to destry them? And killing cancer cells is ...good!

Turns out that many scientists like Manlio are looking for ways to use viruses to cure or, even better, prevent cancer.

..."The enemy of my enemy is my friend"...endeed

Manlio Fusciello is a PhD student in the Immuno Viro Therapy laboratory (IVT) led by Prof. Vincenzo Cerullo.

He is completing his PhD studies in drug development and research. He spent his last 5 years studying and creating new anticancer therapies and cancer vaccine platforms.

Full transcript of episode at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OwZxebpExOD3BFAeDRl1V5ylgNvj47Q9/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109371469017525390516&rtpof=true&sd=true

References "anticancer molecule from caterpillar":

1-https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/anticancer-drug-derived-from-caterpillar-fungus-shows-huge-potential-in-clinical-trial/

2-https://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2021/10/27/1078-0432.CCR-21-1652

Your hosts this week are Giuliano Didio & Eleanna Asvestari.

Editing by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Episode cover by Katja Kaurinkoski & Giuliano Didio.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]

Spiders, pumpkins and witches... it's THAT time of the year, and the Science Basement is here to get you through this dark scary night.

Are you scared? Well that's just fine (got the quote?), 'cause turns out that scientists can treat your phobias in many creative ways: spiders, the eiffel tower and... your smartphone!

Are you curious? Well that's just fine! ;)

Anja Zimmer studied clinical psychology and neuroscience and is currently doing a PhD at the University of Basel in Switzerland. Her research is about the development and use of virtual and augmented reality smartphone apps for the treatment of specific phobias through exposure trainings. Her main project is about the gamified augmented reality app Phobys to reduce fear of spiders, which has been tested on its effectiveness in a clinical trial and it available on all app stores.

Twitter @anja_m_zimmer

PLEASE NOTE:

This is NOT a sponsored episode.

No member of the Science Basement Podcast received any compensation for the advertisement of the Phobys app.

Phobys app

https://www.phobys.com/

Clinical trial Phobys app

Zimmer, Anja, et al. "Effectiveness of a smartphone-based, augmented reality exposure app to reduce fear of spiders in real-life: A randomized controlled trial." Journal of Anxiety Disorders 82 (2021): 102442.

References "Haunted house":

https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/100yearold-haunted-house-mystery-solved-by-professor-and-ophthalmologist/?fbclid=IwAR2G9gpMyXQzH5d_MfzJcuBMvZLY7UsCkCWJxvWZ1If2cFZZ1Y1jdo4Vaeo

Wilmer, W. H. "Effects of carbon monoxid upon the eye." American Journal of Ophthalmology 4.2 (1921): 73-90.

Your hosts this week are Giuliano Didio & Cecilia Cannarozzo.

Editing by Cecilia Cannarozzo & Giuliano Didio.

Episode cover by Rhiannon Newman & Giuliano Didio.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]

Gold! Gold! That sweet yellow metal that shines and makes people rich. It also makes fancy spoons, tacky teeth, and… dragonflies?!

Well not exactly, we are cheering in that last one; but we promise it's useful!

In today’s episode we will tell you some unexpected ways in which we can use gold.

Eduardo is a PhD candidate at the laboratory of Prof. Antonio Echavarren at the Institut Catalá d’Investigació Química (ICIQ) in Tarragona. He loves weird organometallic chemistry (chemistry that happens with metals and carbon structures).

With the special chemical properties metals have, he hopes to “cheat” the system and develop chemicals that make impossible reactions well… possible.

Eduardo is currently working in bioinspired metal-catalysed cyclisations and on the computational and experimental determination of the mechanistic pathways.

Eduardo's instagram: @edu_gp97

References "coriander is evil":

Callaway, E. Soapy taste of coriander linked to genetic variants. Nature (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2012.11398

Your hosts this week are Tomás Garnier Artiñano & Giuliano Didio.

Editing by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Episode cover by Katja Kaurinkoski.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]

Aaaaaand we're back!

After a nice (and long) break, we're back to provide you your bi-weekly dose of science!

In this interview, we jump down the rabbit hole of psychedelic drugs and their potential use in treating depression, with the help of our very own mad-hatter Rafael Moliner.

Rafael is a PhD candidate in the laboratory of Eero Castrén at the University of Helsinki.

Rafael lost his mind long ago to the pharmacology of neuroplasticity induced by drugs. He believes that making the adult brain more malleable through enhanced plasticity holds huge therapeutic potential to treat devastating mental disorders like depression.

He is currently investigating the mind-moldable properties of psychedelics and the molecular mechanisms behind their potent effects on neuroplasticity.

You can find him on Twitter: @RafaelMoliner

Full transcript of the episode at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PNLpRIYnrSqnXyPMlh6-8l8Xt9uFpVDS/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106655879995290261316&rtpof=true&sd=true

Your hosts this week are Giuliano Didio & Eleanna Asvestari.

Editing by Cecilia Cannarozzo.

Episode cover by Katja Kaurinkoski.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]

Sweet, sweet sleep... We all love a good nap. That moment when we switch off the lights, get cozy in our beds, close our eyes and fall in the blissful arms of Morph... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

...zzzz...

Sorry! I'm awake! Where were we?

Sleep! Right!

So, we all love it, but what is it exactly? What do our brain actually do when we sleep? Do they shut down or something?

To try to answer these questions, Tomás and Eleanna interviewed Sarah Steffens, PhD student from the University of Helsinki, studying sleep and the involvement of a specific type of brain cells called M... you know what? Listen to the interview to find out! ;)

Sarah has studied Biology in Bonn and Neurobiology in Freiburg, Germany. She is now at the Helsinki University working at her PhD project, which focuses on the relationship between sleep and immune cells (microglia) in the brain.

How does insufficient sleep affect microglia? And do they play a role in sleep homeostasis?

Your hosts this week are Tomás Garnier Artiñano & Eleanna Asvestari.

Editing by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Episode cover by Katja Kaurinkoski & Giuliano Didio.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]

Did you ever wonder how solar eruptions affect the space, as they travel away from the Sun? In this episode Eleanna Asvestari and Guliano Didio are interviewing Dr. Matti Ala-Lahti about plasma in space, solar eruptions, and the "sheath region" that is formed when mass ejected during a solar eruption travels in space.

Dr. Matti Ala-Lahti is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki where he recently defended his doctoral thesis. He received a grant to start working in autumn 2021 as a postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan. Matti's research focuses on space plasma environments driven by solar eruptions, i.e. sheath regions driven by interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). His love for space might one day take Matti to space LITERALLY as he applied for the astronaut program in Europe!

Dr. Matti Ala-Lahti's email address: [email protected]

References bees fun-fact:

Bees can count:

Howard, Scarlett R., et al. "Numerical ordering of zero in honey bees." Science 360.6393 (2018): 1124-1126.

Bees might have been cheating:

MaBouDi HaDi, Barron Andrew B., Li Sun, Honkanen Maria, Loukola Olli J., Peng Fei, Li Wenfeng, Marshall James A. R., Cope Alex, Vasilaki Eleni and Solvi Cwyn 2021Non-numerical strategies used by bees to solve numerical cognition tasksProc. R. Soc. B.28820202711

Your hosts this week are Eleanna Asvestari & Giuliano Didio.

Editing by Cecilia Cannarozzo.

Episode cover by Katja Kaurinkoski & Giuliano Didio.

TSB Podcast logo by Tomás Garnier Artiñano.

Jingle by Havelocke. thisishavelocke.bandcamp.com

Follow The Science Basement:

Homepage: www.thesciencebasement.org


Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScienceBasement


Instagram: @sciencebasement


Twitter: @ScienceBasement


Email: [email protected]