First off we talk about this year’s flu season. The H3N2 strain is known for causing more hospitalizations. So you should get your flu shot. Next I talk about how the supplement Biotin can skew some blood tests. We then move on to talk about the Nobel Prizes. First talking about the lack of female winners and then about the Nobel ‘disease’ wherein past winners are prone to adopting pseudoscientific beliefs. We then move on to talk about a new and odd dinosaur with aquatic traits. And finally we talk about two acoustic stories. First, eavesdropping on crows to decipher what their calls mean. And finally we talk about two researchers who are sonifying data, currently from hurricanes, in order to make the data easier to process. They hope that sonification of data will become more widely used.
Listen to the live broadcast, every Friday at 6pm – only on Valley Free Radio, WXOJ-LP 103.3fm or streaming on valleyfreeradio.org
Tonight I start by letting you know that zdoggmd, one of the YouTubers from the music episode is no longer to be recommended. Then we’ll start the night’s stories with a discussion on the ruins found under Lake Van in Turkey. We then talk about the discovery of the first tangible proof of Julius Caesar’s landing in England. We then move on to talk about a new snailfish found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. We then talk about two kinds of marine eyes that are unique. We then talk about the discovery of a cache of pterosaur eggs, and two stories about representations of extinct animals. And we finish up with a discussion of the brains of several carnivores including cats and dogs.
Tonight we had a special interview with Dr. Sheila Jaswal and Anna Makar-Limanov ’20 of Amherst College who shared their experiences with a new initiative called Humans in STEM. Dr. Jaswal of the department of Chemistry and Megan Lyster, Asst Dir, Innovation & Experiential Learning Programs at the Center for Community Engagement have developed a curriculum aimed at exploring how students and faculty can better serve the full human experience of learning in STEM fields. The course aims to develop ways to increase diversity and support traditionally underserved student populations in STEM fields. A similar course has been developed at Yale University and will hopefully spread out to institutions throughout the country.
Listen to the live broadcast, every Friday at 6pm – only on Valley Free Radio, WXOJ-LP 103.3fm or streaming on valleyfreeradio.org
This show is dedicated to the memory of my little black cat, Meara, who passed on Friday afternoon. Tonight we’re talking animal stories. First off, a beluga who has learned to mimic or even potentially communicate with dolphins. Bees turn out to sometimes have a left or right handed preference. And life was lonely and dangerous for male mammoths. We then take a quick look at whether or not the dimetrodon that we all know and love has been depicted with the correct leg stance. We’ll then go back to living animals to talk about a new form of predation called kleptopredation and discuss the weird way in which shrews survive the harsh conditions of winter and also talk about a fish that can repair the damage to its brain from freezing in winter. Then we’ll talk about how baby bats learn to talk and how that might apply to humans. And finally, we take a moment to remember another great animal, Laika, the first animal to enter low earth orbit.
Listen to the live broadcast, every Friday at 6pm – only on Valley Free Radio, WXOJ-LP 103.3fm or streaming on valleyfreeradio.org