Although most developmental genes are silenced in adult somatic cells, some can be reactivated in cancer cells and promote tumor growth. Listen to Dr. Guo-Liang Chew of the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore discuss the discovery of a novel role for developmental genes in regulating the immune response to cancer.

In this episode of the Science Focus Podcast, we chat through the February 2021 issue of the magazine, which is on sale now. Managing editor Alice Lipscombe-Southwell opens the episode by telling us why it's so important artificial intelligence learns how to tell stories. Next up is editor Dan Bennett, who tells us about the world’s first airport for drones and flying cars, which is opening in Coventry, UK. Finally, commissioning editor Jason Goodyer tells about the latest developments in the study of dark matter. Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts. * Subscribe to the Science Focus Podcast on these services: Acast, iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, Overcast Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast: * Hannah Fry: How much of our lives is secretly underpinned by maths? * Robert Elliott Smith: Are algorithms inherently biased? * Bergur Finnbogason: Project Discovery and its search for exoplanets * Ritu Raman: Can you build with biology? * Robin Ince: Inside the mind of a comedian * Finding the fun in science – Dara Ó Briain   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Will loud music deafen my dog? Why are some dog breeds more docile than others? Why do Covid-19 outbreaks follow cycles of boom and bust? What gives a person their "second wind"? Why do ants invade my kettle and other electronic devices ? Is ant invasion in you home a sign that the place is dirty? Why have I got vibration sensations in my foot? Join Dr Chris Smith and 567 Cape Talk's Saskia Falken to find out... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

What is coevolution? How has coevolution between insects and plants shaped human history and culture? In this episode of Big Biology, we talk with _Rob Raguso_, a professor at Cornell University, who studies insect-plant interactions. Rob discusses his work on diffuse coevolution between night blooming flowers and their long-tongued hawk moth pollinators, and how his and others’ ideas leading to geographic mosaic theory has helped us understand the evolution of novel traits. Rob says that plant-pollinator coevolution has had a huge and varied impact on human life and culture, well beyond its obvious effects on our agriculture. Coevolution between plants and their pollinators shaped our trade, our religious practices, and even the contents of our liquor cabinets. Photo: Robert Raguso --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bigbiology/message

In this episode we begin our history of metagenomics with Matthew Schechter. Beginning with highlights like the initial ability to see microbes with a microscope and growing microbial colonies, we work our way through the history of metagenomics leading to modern day sequencing. Matt describes a discrepancy between culturing and what is present in a sample, and how sequencing began to overcome this discrepancy. Matt covers what 16S sequencing is and where it fits in the history of metagenomics. We end with a discussion of a seminal work on reconstructing genomes from sequenced metagenomes. Read Matt's full article of the history of metagenomics at https://merenlab.org/2020/07/27/history-of-metagenomics/

In this episode, hiring and training expectations for future biomedical life sciences faculty, and the roles of bacterial symbionts in deep-sea hydrothermal vent tubeworms. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode: * Expectations for life sciences faculty (Life Sci Edu) * Academic career readiness assessment (UCSF) * Tubeworm bacterial symbionts (eLife) * Traveling on the Alvin (Dark Life II) * Image credit Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission. Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

This entire episode serves as cautionary advice to anyone seeking to add osmium to their element collection.

We're looking at the most critical variants of the coronavirus, and finding out how to tell whether they're flummoxing COVID vaccines. Plus: the cost of catching a serial killer; DNA with four strands instead of two; and a mutant fish whose fins have started turning into limbs! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Nels and Vincent consider evolution of antibody immunity to SARS-CoV-2, and update the situation on novel virus variants of concern with potentially altered fitness and reactivity with antibodies. Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiEVO Links for this episode * Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (Nature) * mRNA vaccine-elicited antibodies to variants (bioRxiv) * Scott Hensley thread (Twitter) * Analysis of B.1.17 lineage (virological) * Trevor Bedford thread (Twitter) * Andrew Rambaut on variant naming (Twitter) * Letters read on TWiEVO 64 * Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks! Science Picks Nels – Biden Administration PCAST and The Hill We Climb Vincent – Four inaugural quotations – Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Biden Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Euclid spends a lot of time in the Elements constructing figures with his ubiquitous ruler and compass. Why did he think this was important? Why did he think this was better than a geometry that has only theorems and no constructions? In fact, constructions protect geometry from foundational problems to which it would otherwise be … Continue reading Why construct?

Dr. Sarah and Dr. Danica Marsden are here with me in Seattle, Washington for our live show at the AAAS! We talk about how quantum computers do their quantum computer thing. Our guests are Old friends of the show: Matt Sheehy (from Lost Lander), and Brent Knopf (From Ramona Falls and El VY)

On 18th February the Perseverance rover should land on Mars. Katie Stack-Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab tells Roland Pease about the technological advances that mean that the spacecraft should be able to land in Jezero Crater. Imperial College geologist Sanjeev Gupta discusses what this crater can reveal about the history of life on the red planet. After months of negotiations, and weeks of work on the ground, a team brought together by the World Health Organisation has just concluded its first attempts to find out the origins of SARS-Cov2 in Wuhan. Peter Daszak, who has worked closely with Chinese virologists in the past, briefed Roland Pease on what had been discovered. The South African government has announced that it will not be rolling out the Astra Zeneca Covid vaccine as it appears it is not very effective against the dominant strain in the country. Helen Rees, of Witwatersrand University and a member of South Africa’s Health Products Regulatory Authority, explains that the ‘ban’ is an overstatement. At least 35 people died in a flood disaster in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in India on February 6th. The details are still unclear, but the trigger seems to be associated with a glacier overhanging an upstream lake in the steep valley. Rupert Stuart-Smith of Oxford University, who has just published an analysis of a glacier melting disaster in waiting in the Andes, talks about the impacts of climate change on the stability of mountain glaciers. (Image: An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars. Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech) Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Deborah Cohen

Osteoarthritis is a painful condition caused by wear and tear to the slippery cartilage that normally coats and lubricates the bone surfaces in our joints. This doesn't repair itself very well, so, when it wears out, joint replacement is usually the only option. But recently, scientists out of Penn State University in the US have shown that the antidepressant drug paroxetine has an interesting side-effect: it encourages the cells that make and build cartilage to grow. So, perhaps, in the future we'll be able to pop a pill, rather than have a hip replacement. Fadia Kamal told Katie Haylor what... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Polygenic risk scores (PRS) rely on the genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to predict the phenotype based on the genotype. However, the prediction accuracy suffers when GWAS from one population are used to calculate PRS within a different population, which is a problem because the majority of the GWAS are done on cohorts of European ancestry. In this episode, Bárbara Bitarello helps us understand how PRS work and why they don’t transfer well across populations. Links: * Polygenic Scores for Height in Admixed Populations (Bárbara D. Bitarello, Iain Mathieson) * What is ancestry? (Iain Mathieson, Aylwyn Scally)

Dr. Patrick Moore was a founding member of Greenpeace. In the years past its inception he worked tirelessly on ecological issues. Over time, he saw the group’s positions as less than scientific, leading to his [...] The post 280 – Greenpeace Beginnings, and Golden Rice first appeared on Talking Biotech Podcast.

Keeping you cosy this week is an episode all about warmth - emotional, physiological and geological. We have an unexpected start to the show, with bees taking the spotlight, but it turns out these cold-blooded little insects can generate immense warmth when necessary. The team then takes a much bigger view of warmth, discussing the heat of the planet, and of the many uses of geothermal energy. Finally they wrap up by finding out what it takes to make a robot seem warm and friendly. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Anna Demming and Timothy Revell. Find out more at newscientist.com/podcasts

Mathematician Lily Khadjavi does more interviewing than we do in this episode, as she proposes a taxonomy of theorems.

Taking teeth to the extreme! Tusks have evolved numerous times, particularly in mammals, and they’ve come in a striking array of shapes and sizes for a variety of uses. From the monstrously huge ivory tusks of mammoths to the modest yet effective tusks of fanged deer to the bizarre and perplexing tusks of babirusas and narwhals, in this episode we discuss trends, drivers, and mysteries in the evolution of tusks. In the news: razor-toothed mosasaurs, walk the dinosaur, sidewinder skin, and really old giant sloths. Time markers: Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00 News: 00:03:30 Main discussion, Part 1: 00:38:00 Main discussion, Part 2: 01:15:30 Patron question: 01:54:30 Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures: http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/ Find merch at the Common Descent Store! http://zazzle.com/common_descent Follow and Support us on: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast Instagram: @commondescentpodcast PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2 The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org. Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/