The Science Scholars Podcast

Based on a listener recommendation, we discuss psychopaths - the clinical terminology, how they are different for sociopaths, and how their brains might be different. Their brains seem to have altered reward signaling, different emotional processing and fewer connections between prefrontal cortex and other areas. We also mention the possible role of genetics and environment in psychopathy. Despite these differences, we advise against using neural markers as the only diagnostic technique.

Bonus: Katie and Caleigh take a quiz to see if they are psychopaths.

Katie and Caleigh have computer scientist and friend of the pod, Woody Zantzinger, on to discuss what we got wrong (and right) in our AI series and to talk about quantum computing. We discuss the implications of quantum computing and what it could mean for things like bitcoin.

This week, Katie and Caleigh discuss a new paper about prioritizing basic needs - focusing on the competition between hunger and pain. The authors discovered how this competition between need states is represented in the brain. A connection between two different types of cells in the hypothalamus is mediating the behavioral response to acute, but not inflammatory pain when you're hungry.

This week, Katie and Caleigh try out a new slogan, talk about the rankings of our basketball bracket (prize coming soon!!!) and discuss plastic in the ocean. We cover how the plastic gets there, how much there is, and what happens once it is in the ocean. Caleigh also covers some new techniques for reducing plastic in the ocean.

Katie and Caleigh are joined by friend of the pod, Mike Pokrass, to discuss their lives and the life of Stephen Hawking. We attempt to explain his contribution to science, talk about the disease that ultimately killed him and sprinkle in some fun facts.

Mike has been featured in Episode 10 and 13 so make sure to check out those as well!

Katie and Caleigh discuss transplants - what you can transplant, the not-so-long history, and some problems. We both discuss reviews on types of transplants - a classic, the kidney transplant, and the new kid on the block, the face transplant.  Don't @ us about UVA basketball.

We talk UVA basketball in March, the Bachelor finale, reintroduce why we are doing the podcast, and introduce our women in STEM series! We start the series by discussing Eqbal Dauqan, a female nutritional chemist from Yemen who is defying all odds. In our women in STEM series, we want to highlight what it's like to be a female in science and promote the shine theory.

This week, we discuss the heart in honor of American Heart Month (a little belated). We talk about how blood flows through the heart, how ion channels generate our heart beat, and heart disease. Katie throws it back to a 1985 paper about the discovery of a new calcium channel in cardiac myocytes. Caleigh discusses a new paper about how cardiac development and disease cause changes in gene expression via epigenetics.

This week, we discuss forensic science (and some problems with it) with special guest, friend of the pod and lawyer, Andy Esposito. We discuss the use of DNA analysis and toxicology in forensic science. Based on report by the National Academy of Sciences, we talk about potential problems with some subfields of forensic science and how we think they should change.

In part three of the artificial intelligence mini series, Katie and Caleigh discuss the ethics and responsibility of artificial intelligence. We focus on problems with privacy, job security, and facial recognition and how to deal with singularity (aka how you would act in Westworld). Added bonus: we talk about the Olympics and UVA basketball (We are number 1?!?!).