Science Friday Podcast Recap: What’s ‘I,’ and Why?

How does one define a person? What are the grounds for defining a person – religious, genetic, intellectual, scientific, personal, etc.? Do scientific approaches such as having a genome sequenced serve to be most accurate? What about personality quizzes? Scientific writer Jennifer Ouellette recently attempted to answer that question with her recent publication “Me, Myself, and Why” in which she answers this question from a scientific standpoint. Normally a writer who discusses topics of physics, Ouellette was inspired to write her new book for multiple reasons. One is that she had recently found her perception of herself clashing with what her prior grades told her. She was also inspired by the concept of nature versus nurture that she often finds herself questioning as she is and adopted child. One thing she found difficult about writing this book of hers was defining the terms essential to the book’s overall meaning. For example, defining “self” was most difficult for her. She discovered through research and careful analysis that self is not defined solely by genetics, intellectual standards, or one thing in particular. Rather, she reached the conclusion that self is rather the integration of all of these things into one where “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Science Friday Podcast Recap: The Lineup of Cancer Threats Is Changing

Though lung cancer is currently and shall most likely continue to be the leading cause of death by cancer in the United States, a recent report projected that by 2030, pancreatic cancer will be only a few paces behind lung cancer in that category. This may have something to do with the frequent late diagnoses that are characteristic of this type of cancer. According to a member of the American Cancer Society, pancreatic cancer currently is the fourth leading cause of death in men and also the fourth leading cause of death in women. Despite this, he says that the reason that pancreatic cancer is not discussed nearly as much as breast cancer and prostate cancer is because this cancer generates very few survivors. Also, the late diagnoses of this disease he affirmed to be part of the reason why it is so deadly, while its fatality also results from the fact that it is a type of cancer more prone to spreading and thus eliminating surgery as an option for treatment. This deadly cancer is, most unfortunately, likely to gain steam over the course of the next few decades.

Science Friday Podcast Recap: The Debate Over Net Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission or the FCC recently released to the public its net neutrality proposal. The rules set forth in the proposal are intended to promote and protect an open Internet. On the other hand, how to go forward from there and put the plan into motion has yet to be determined. Also, what does this plan mean for Web-users? For those who provide on the Web? Is this proposal bringing about the end of the open Internet? Net neutrality, though there are still conflicting definitions thereof, is that Internet traffic should be treated equally no matter what content of service is being accessed. This limits if not completely removes the power of companies to Internet providers to limit their customers to certain realms of the Internet. The FCC did this for two main reasons. One is that it is an initiative for which President Obama provides hefty support and endorsement. Second, there are currently no established laws of net neutrality in the United States.

Science Friday Podcast Recap: A Decade After the Genome, Scientists Map the 'Proteome'

Only a decade has passed since scientists finished determining the human genome that dwell in the trillions of cells that all people possess. Now, however, scientists are now looking to be able to better distinguish between different types of cells in the human body – and the answer lies in the proteins of a cell. Akhilesh Pandey of Johns Hopkins University discussed recent scientific studies that have been underway in order to create a “proteome” or map of the differing proteins throughout the cells of the human body. According to Pandey, proteins are considered the workhorses of the human body, as they are the source of almost all functions. The millions of proteins that reside within a cell are determined by the genome. Also, these proteins are only able to function once they are folded from their primary to their quaternary structure. Lastly, awareness of this proteome map may help us in curing certain diseases in order to understand what is abnormal, one must first discover the standard of normality set. This protein-mapping, according to Pandey, is the first piece of the puzzle for understanding what is normal.

Science Friday Podcast Recap: How Touch Helps Us Emotionally Experience the World

Touch is perhaps one of the most underrated of the five senses and is only regarded when one encounters a radical sensation thereof, touching something extremely hot or cold. Researchers have recently found a connection between the set of nerves that respond to touching something soft and social cues. Liverpool-based researcher commented on the discrepancies amongst the ways that one responds to touching something. There are many different receptors, for example, that respond to different surfaces with which one’s skin comes into contact. They allow someone to not see the world but rather feel the world. It has been known for a long time that there are different microphones of sorts in the skin that detect mechanical stimulation. The portion of the skin that most quickly responds to touching is of course the hands that send messages of the brain processing the touch in record time allowing a person to feel what their hand touches instantaneously. This, quite literally but also figuratively, prevents things from slipping through our fingers - these things not only being feeling itself but also the emotions that are corresponsive to touch.

Science Friday Podcast Recap: Laser Blast Can Regrow Teeth, in Rats

Stem cells, though they may often be perceived as something that only exists in a laboratory setting, as it turns out, lurk all throughout a person’s body, anywhere from a person’s brain to their heart to their bones. What, then, triggers these cells? Researchers recently discovered a way to manually turn these cells in order to regenerate the tissues in which they live These Harvard-based researchers accomplished this through the use of a laser light on rat teeth. Though the use of lasers is not quite new in the medical field as they have frequently been used to destroy tissue, the key information behind why these methods work has been unclear to scientists. These researchers, however, tried to discover not only the result but also the method itself and the reason why the method works in a recent experiment. They specifically put a filling in the damaged teeth of rats, directed a laser at the damaged teeth, and measured resulting dentin levels of the teeth. They found that dentin regenerated significantly more in the laser-treated teeth than in the untreated teeth, and they activated stem cells to become dentin and regenerate the tooth structure.

Science Friday Podcast Recap: How Can Airline Tracking Improve?

The Malaysian Airline crash that leaves many still wondering what exactly happened to that flight that was missing for longer than one would anticipate in this technological day and age has sparked innovation in regard to airline tracking, in order to prevent this from happening again. Robert Mann of R.W. Mann and Company discussed the basics of airline tracking. According to Mann, while the airplane itself knows very well where it is located, the real question is how well the airplane can communicate that back to air traffic control and what that entails. This, in Mann’s opinion, is not due to a lack of technology. He says that the technology has been well known for a while now, and that they problem is merely that people are not executing. He also said that this would not be an expensive implementation. Thus, the only thing in the way of the advancement of this sort of technology is the people who control it.