Learn Real Good

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. We have a lot of it on Earth and if we can safely use hydrogen fuel then it becomes a very appealing energy source because it turns into water when it burns. Because it’s such a small molecule, storing it is tricky because any tiny cracks or gaps will cause it to escape, which is generally a bad thing. This is why Jonas Welsch, a PhD student in Electrical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, is studying ultrasonic transducers and how they can be used to monitor for leaks. Katie and Vinny talk about hippos and teeny pulses of light.

The world is built around fossil fuels. Cars, shipping, air travel, it’s all powered by carbon emitting combustion engines. What if we could use something else? What if we could use chicken fat?? That’s exactly what Master’s student Zak Kaal is researching at the University of Alberta .Vinny and Katie talk about asteroids and immune systems.

Yeast is everywhere. We use it to make bread and beer but it’s a fungus with its own biology. Science is turning to yeast once again to make wonderful things for us. We can bioengineer it to turn its natural processes into building compounds that humans can use, like medicine. That’s the research being done by this episode’s guest, Asia Vighi, a PhD student in Bioengineering at McGill University. Katie and Vinny talk about heat sensing and how babies feel pain.

The human brain has receptors for cannabinoids which the body naturally produces to regulate stress. The connection between cannabis use and mental health has long been discussed but still requires much study. Lyne Baaj is a Master’s student in neuroscience at McGill University examining the effect of cannabis use on depression and anxiety. Vinny and Katie talk about early humans and treating obesity.

Kids learn about shapes from a very young age. Circles, squares, triangles are familiar territory. But when it comes to high-energy physics, the topology gets a good deal more complicated. Recent PhD grad and mathematician, Christopher Mahadeo, joins us to talk about the geometry of shapes that are used in cutting edge physics. Vinny and Katie talk about detecting radioactivity and the human genome project.

Anyone who enjoys potato chips knows how great salty foods are. We, as humans, need salt for so many of our functions including our neurons and muscle contractions so it makes sense that we find it so enjoyable. But how do our brains know when we’re getting some of that salty goodness? We talk with zoology PhD student Sasha McDowell from UBC who is studying the neurology of how fruit flies taste salt to give us insight into our own brains. Katie and Vinny talk about Venus and cork trees.

Gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry more than double the size of the movie and music industry combined. But for the longest time a huge group of gamers, people with physical disabilities, were excluded due to the nature of the controls, whether it’s controllers or keyboards. That’s rapidly changing and people like Carleton University’s Georgia Loewen, a Masters’ student in Human-Computer Interaction, are working on improving accessibility to games. We discuss the growing field of wearable technology. Vinny and Katie talk about special frogs and a problem with Voyager 2.

Epigenetics is the study of which parts of our genetic code are turned on or off based on environmental signals. Dorothy Lin, a graduate in medical genetics, takes a statistical look at the factors that can affect childhood development. Katie and Vinny talk about playing with rats and next-generation urinals.

Mosquitos are a real pain when you’re going camping. But cattle get pestered by bugs even when they’re hanging out on the farm, more specifically by stable flies. They can number in the hundreds on any given cow, bite painfully, and feed on their blood. Saif Nayani, a Master’s student in biology, studies how stable flies find cows through the chemicals they emit and then using those chemicals to build a trap. Katie and Vinny share facts about the thymus and sexist cars.

We think of hospitals as clean and sterile environments. But there will always be bacteria in any environment, including in and on the people in the hospitals. This week’s guest, Rita Lam, is an engineer/microbiologist who investigates how sunlight affects the microbiome in hospitals. Vinny and Katie share science facts about the origins of clothes and science’s new disco mice?

Polar bears are incredible animals native to the Arctic and manage the feat of being both adorable and fearsome. Camille Jodouin is doing her Master’s at University of Alberta studying how polar bears move around the sea ice in Hudson Bay and how that affects their populations. Katie and Vinny share science facts about X and Y chromosomes and the failed American version of the CERN particle accelerator.

There are always competitive pressures in nature. Alexa Scott studies how species in competition with each other are affected by environments that have a natural cycle, like the tide or seasons, at the University of Guelph. Katie and Vinny talk about attracting mosquitos and what a supercomputer has to do with the moon’s origin.

Our circadian rhythms regulate our lives: how we sleep, when we eat, and our energy levels throughout the day. Cassandra Goldfarb is a PhD student investigating chronotypes in the psychology department of Concordia University. Vinny and Katie share science facts about the Voyager satellites and fish sounds.

Competitive sport spends a lot of effort to catch athletes who abuse drugs to gain an edge on their competitors. But what about cannabis? It’s legal to consume in Canada but does it help or hinder? Christian Cheung studies the effects of cannabis on the cardiovascular system. Vinny and Katie share science facts about artificial sweeteners and double liquid water.

Bison used to roam North American in the millions but were hunted to near-extinction by settlers during the late 19th century. Alexander Araujo is this week’s guest and his research covers the reintroduction of wild bison to the Banff National Park. Vinny and Katie chat about the secret lives of quarks and dinosaur eyes.

Turning the raw materials of food into all the products we find in our stores is a science unto itself. Learning how to make, store, and preserve food without generating waste is a tricky and important problem to solve. This week’s guest is Louis Colaruotolo, a food science researcher to tell us about the incredible work that goes into what we eat. Katie and Vinny talk about dinosaur-human hybrids, lactose intolerance, and the opposite of leap seconds.

Manipulating DNA has offered the potential to revolutionize medicine and nanomaterials for decades. That potential is becoming a reality. Ghufran Rafique researches methods to synthesize DNA nanostructures one nucleotide at a time. Vinny and Katie talk about boiling water and vole predators.

The field of robotics is moving rapidly from science-fiction to everyday experience. Our guest, Pawel Kudzia, researches wearable robots to restore functions for people who need rehabilitation or assistance. His focus is on building exoskeletons to help people walk. Vinny and Katie talk about building new telescopes and odors caused by viruses.

Medicinal chemistry is the study of building synthetic medicine in the lab. Our guest, Vanessa Ruscetta, researches how to synthetically copy an already existing successful cancer treatment drug that will be effective, safe, and affordable. Katie and Vinny talk about the distance to the moon and butterfly wings.

Our bodies are made up of bazillions of cells, each one specialized to serve a function. Cells have an external structure to give it shape called a cytoskeleton. Researcher Claire Edrington is looking into the microtubules that make up cytoskeletons and how they can be grown in the lab. Katie and Vinny share facts about particle accelerators and giraffe necks.

Too much sugar in the blood can lead to all sorts of health problems, including diabetes, and we rely on insulin to properly process it in our bodies. But that’s not always possible for a variety of reasons. Emily McGaugh’s research looks into using stem cells to create not simply pancreatic cells but more specifically the insulin producing cells in the pancreas. Katie and Vinny talk about the Moon and chewing gum.

Sea Lamprey are an invasive species in the Great Lakes. Our guest Victoria Heath works in marine labs doing research into chasing them out of sensitive areas using sounds that don’t harm the environment. Vinny and Katie share the latest research about babies and moon dirt.

Talking to computers is tricky because people use a lot of context clues to figure out exactly what people mean. Computers like to take things literally so it’s a challenge for them to untangle any ambiguity or multiple meanings. Frederick Gietz is a computational linguist working on research to help computers understand how these messy humans use verbs. Katie and Vinny talk about mosquitofish and what happens to DNA in microgravity.

Pesticides can be found in so many of our waterways thanks to industrial farming. Monitoring the levels of pesticides in our water is important to ensure the health of our water supplies and everything that lives in them. MSc student Moira Ijzerman studies new ways to detect and measure their presence using a new type of material, biofilms. Vinny and Katie share facts about Mars and millipedes.

When you think of an earthquake, you think of a sudden destructive event that lasts minutes or even seconds. Our guest this week is Meghomita Das who studies “slow earthquakes”. Slow earthquakes release the same amount of energy but over a timescale of weeks or even months. We talk about what slow earthquakes can tell us about the Earth’s history and earthquake predictions. Katie and Vinny talk about the whales and the bees.

Fainting is an unpleasant and sometimes dangerous experience. We talk to Erin Williams about the cardiovascular system and research into new and simple tools, like swaying, to prevent fainting (aka: syncope). Vinny and Katie talk about wild animals getting drunk and nuclear missiles.

The world of sub-atomic physics is always fascinating and most people know that the CERN lab is where lots of the latest experiments run. Our guest this week is Ben Davis-Purcell who did his research as part of the ATLAS experiment running at CERN, examining the fundamental particles that make up our universe. Katie and Vinny talk about plant tubes and robots that fight fires.

Sea Cucumbers are amazing animals. They hang out all over the ocean and have a surprising defense mechanism. Em Lim studies their pee and how the nitrogen in their pee is perfect for growing seaweed. Vinny and Katie talk about embryos and sharks.

We don’t really think too much about how we read or speak but our brains are doing a lot of work to make that happen. Alex Cross studies how our minds learn and develop our language skills, specifically how school age kids learn to read, including those who struggle with reading. Vinny and Katie talk about the center of the galaxy and blood sugar.

Given the modern reality of industrial farming, Animal Scientists are always looking for ways to raise animals with as little suffering as possible. Chickens often peck each other and pluck out each other’s feathers when placed under stress. Claire Mindus joins us to discuss how to reduce chicken stress with probiotics. Vinny and Katie talk about elephants and mitochondria.

People around the world drink a LOT of coffee and all those grounds go somewhere, often into our garbage dumps. What if we could use it for something other than compost? Our guest Alivia Mukherjee is studying a way to sequester carbon dioxide using coffee grounds to help mitigate climate change. Vinny and Katie talk about Spirit Bears and drilling holes on Mars.

Bioengineering is the field of using and modifying natural processes to produce new materials. This week’s guest, Lizzie Baker, bioengineered a new kind of spider silk to promote the growth of nerves and treat spinal cord injuries. Vinny and Katie share facts about space clocks and hybrid animals.

Tracking toxins in our environment is an important part of our food and health safety. Our guest Isabel Hilgendag talks about tracking the presence and effects of mercury in Arctic food webs. Vinny and Katie talk about fighting infections and bird navigation.

Cierra Stiegelmar joins Vinny and Katie to share her work with robotic prosthetics. Vinny also talks about the smell of petrichor after the rain and Katie dishes the hot goss about protists.

Our guest this week is Saiful Hoque who researches textile science. His specialty is making protective gear for firefighters. Katie and Vinny share facts about coral bleaching and mind-machine interfaces.

This week we meet researcher Amanda Kotila, who is studying glacier retreat, which is the process of how glaciers melt and get smaller. Katie and Vinny talk about fires in winter and decapitated worms.

This week we meet Sujani Gomes who is solving “The Mysterious Case of Bacteria and Nitrogen”. Vinny and Katie talk about wolves saving lives and wiggling tubes.

Meet Tessa Krause who is investigating using lasers to control laser welding and preventing lithium fires. Katie and Vinny talk about protecting the bees from mites and getting rechargeable batteries from the ocean.

Meet Kevin Guo who is exploring new treatments of diabetes using everyone’s favourite organic molecule, Vitamin K. Katie and Vinny talk about bats wearing party hats and a mysterious object that could replace Pluto as the Sun’s ninth planet.

Our first episode! Meet grad student Ida Derish who is working to use blood cells to repair broken hearts. Katie and Vinny also talk cicadas and planets.

The hosts of Learn Real Good, Vinny Francois and Katie Pagnucco, introduce the podcast, and share their own unique backgrounds in science and comedy. Come learn about the hosts, but don’t expect any conclusions.