Finding Genius Podcast

How does California and the US at large handle their water and prevent a crisis? Research and work on sustainable storage and flood prevention may lead us to the ultimate solution. Listen in and learn: Why California struggles with a consistent water supply If flood water can be used to manage water crises How local ecology can be used to control flooding Retired Water Resources Engineer from the California Department of Water Resources, Ricardo S. Pineda, discusses his continuing lifetime of work researching water access, quality, and storage. Water is a resource necessary for life everywhere, but due to specific hardships posed by locations around the country, it can be challenging to manage. Between pollution and flooding, finding a sustainable solution has remained elusive to engineers worldwide. While the United States has a competent water management system, it still faces challenges like contamination and flooding regularly, especially in California. Other countries, like Honduras, have come up with creative solutions, but a permanent fix has yet to be discovered due to the unpredictability of weather from year to year. For more information, visit water.ca.gov. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

How can diagnostic accuracy benefit both patient and physician alike? If breast cancer is diagnosed precisely and accurately the first time, treatment can be much more effective. Press play to learn: How various types of breast cancer be differentiated How some lesions may be more lethal than others What makes cancer act differently in various tissues  Sandy Borowsky, Doctor and researcher at the UC Davis Center for Comparative Medicine, describe their work with diagnosing breast cancer and its accuracy. By utilizing various categorization and detection techniques, specific breast cells can be determined as the culprit for breast cancer. Due to the highly variable nature of breast cancer, this diagnostic technique allows for a more targeted treatment and therapeutic path. The level of variation may even warrant breast cancer being treated as a set of almost ten different diseases. Each form offers its own risk, with some slipping under the body's radar and others directly fighting the immune response. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

How can you be sure any medical treatments are safe and regulated? Organizations around the world are responsible for the information, but are they telling the truth? Listen up to learn: If proper safety procedures were used in trials during the current virus situation If new treatments enhance the abilities of diseases How someone may fight against the misinformation fed to citizens worldwide The founder of ICAN, Del Bigtree, discusses medical risk assessment and informed consent revolving around the central issues facing society today. A rush to develop a treatment for burgeoning diseases historically leads to botched trials and ultimately risks the health of individuals globally. Informed consent before treatment has become a movement being backed by millions of wary consumers through education and activism efforts. Efforts to cover up negative repercussions of rushed treatments may cause even more significant harm than was initially necessary. Corruption throughout global leadership hampers efforts to reveal the truth, but many organizations continue to fight back. To learn more, search for @delbigtree on Twitter or visit https://www.icandecide.org. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/30PvU9C

Do your circumstances dampen or enhance your ability to make a decision? Studies show that high-pressure decision-making can be much more difficult without certain factors put in place. Listen in to learn: What situations can hinder decision-making ability The skills that can make decisions more straightforward to come to If a foundation of basic training is necessary for advanced decision-making President of ShadowBox LLC, Gary Klein, Ph.D., discusses his research into decision making during strenuous situations and how to enhance your cognitive ability. Making decisions can be difficult even under the most conducive situations, but it can be practiced and trained like many other skills through various techniques. For instance, the ShadowBox technique developed by Dr. Klein has been proven to enhance decision-making ability under duress. Paying attention to specific cues in their body and the situation can lead to more effective and meaningful decisions. By training under challenging conditions early rather than focusing on the basics, evidence shows that an individual will retain the learned practices for an extended period. Visit shadowboxtraining.com for more information. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

How can artificial intelligence modify psychiatric treatment to benefit the patient? Analyzing large sets of data and the study of genomics can target specific doses of medications more effectively for each individual. Listen in the learn: How machine learning can fit into psychiatric treatment Why some medicines are not effective in specific sets of individuals How trial and error prescription can be reduced Maurice Chiang, the cofounder of Prairie Health, describes his work using machine learning and data analysis in psychiatric treatment. By analyzing longitudinal data sets collected over decades, treatment in psychiatry can be tailored more effectively for each patient based upon their response to medication. By studying the data with artificial intelligence systems, genetic trends can be discovered, and analysis techniques can be refined and made more effective in the years to come. For patients who have tried and found particular treatments ineffective, this research opens a new opportunity to investigate why their bodies may not have responded to medication. Through the continuing study, these patients will be able to fit treatment precisely for their genetic makeup. Visit prairiehealth.co to learn more.  Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

How can Tasmanian Devils give cancer researchers a hint into the spread of tumors and how they interact with the body? The spread of facial tumors in the population may be an appropriate starting point. Press play to learn: How Tasmanian devil facial tumors are spread If extracellular vesicles play a role in the incubation of the disease How vaccines and other treatments may be effective  Camila Espejo, a researcher at the Tasmanian School of Medicine in the College of Health and Medicine, shares her work with Tasmanian Devils and oncology. When Tasmanian devils bite each other, there is a chance that a tumor-laden devil can spread the cells into healthy devils through saliva. If the disease can be detected early before the tumor begins to form, treatment becomes an option and can extend the lifetime during the disease's incubation. It is crucial to understand how the disease spreads and can be treated to prevent a possible extinction event. Without devils present as apex predators, the ecosystem may be thrown out of balance, and native species could be impacted. To learn more, contact Camila Espejo on twitter at @CamilaEspejo19. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

Where can quantum computing take the next step to continue improving and begin outperforming current computers. Theoretically, physical transformations may be the next stage of development. Listen up to learn: The basic unit of quantum computation The challenges that face quantum computation development If biological systems can be emulated in quantum computers A Research Fellow working in the Physics Department of the University of Oxford, Chiara Marletto, joins the conversation to discuss the quantum theory of computation. While our current understanding of computers focuses mainly on speeding up and bolstering computing power, research leads quantum computational researchers in a new direction. Constructors theoretically have the capability to modify shape within the laws of physics and appear to be on the horizon for quantum computing. Constructor theory relies on solving the problems from the current generation of computing machines, such as the noise, need for cold, and computational powers. What sets constructors apart from classical computers is the possibility of self-reproduction and a wide variety of other previously thought to be impossible tasks. For more information, visit http://constructortheory.org. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

"The evolution of the nucleus may have initially occurred . . . because of this coevolutionary dynamic with giant viruses," says Professor Frank Aylward. He shares several mysterious tidbits of giant virus evolution and how these particles may have caused evolutionary pressures that produced everything from the silica shell of diatoms to cellular metabolism. Listen and learn What determines giant viruses, an interesting group of DNA viruses that infect eukaryotes, How scientists think microbial evolution led to their large size, What genomics and bioinformatics tells scientists about giant viral genomes and why they're still surrounded by mystery, and Why giant virus genome evolution indicates some exciting dynamics of viral indigenization. Frank Aylward is an assistant professor of biological sciences, at Virginia Tech.  He specializes in microbial diversity and is fascinated by the abundance of microbes "that play critical roles in human health, the evolution of life on Earth, biogeochemical cycling, and the biosphere." Lately, he's focuses on giant viruses. These viruses are distinct for their size and their propensity to only infect eukaryotes. This means, for example, that while giant viruses and bacteriophage have different domain hosts, they're just as abundant, present in waters alongside marine bacteria, in soil, and even in freshwater. He shares numerous fascinating aspects of what these viruses tell us about our world. For example, they may have developed their size from an evolutionary effort of tricking amoeba into eating them. They practice biological mimicry, mimicking the look of the microbes that amoeba like to eat, so the amoeba will phagocytose it: the Mimi virus actually stands for mimicking microbe. Professor Aylward shares more about the natural history of these viruses, down to their connection with cellular nuclei and metabolism. Listen in for more about the magic in microbial diversity. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

Are genetically modified food products the best option you have when shopping for food? Emerging research shows that there may be better choices both for your health and for the environment. Listen up to learn: The origin of GMO foods How glyphosate interacts within the environment How GMO fish impacts the environment Expert in his field, Dr. Bill McGraw, lends his experience with GMO research and its implications on the long-term health of individuals around the world. Originally thought to have no negative repercussions to consumer health, genetically modified products seemed to be the key to many logistic problems plaguing produce manufacturers. However, in the years since their introduction, GMO products have begun to show their true colors. Without proper labeling required in supermarkets, it can be challenging to determine if a product is genetically modified or comes into contact with other GMO products. GMO salmon or salmon fed with GMO ingredients can leave lasting impacts on the environment by spreading plasmids throughout the area. Visit www.newaquatechpanama.com for more information. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

Is time what clocks measure, or is it the difference between the shape of two triangles? Explore the answer, and discover: Why Barbour believes the universe is changing shape rather than expanding Why it is important to remember that size is relative What kinematic relativity is, and why it is so essential to Barbour’s work   What the theory of black holes requires of the universe Physicist and author of The Discovery of Dynamics and The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time, Julian Barbour, joins the show for an eye-opening and mind-probing deep dive into his ideas of time and space, and how they’ve been shaped by and differ from the ideas of other great thinkers in history, like Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Johannes Kepler. “Science is always tentative, but my feeling is that people have lost some contact with the real foundation of things, of what reality is really like, and so I think it certainly doesn’t harm to go back and see what people like Kepler did,” he adds. Barbour explains the development and details of his books, elaborating on this statement: “You cannot imagine finding your way if there’s nothing by which you can see your way.”  He also shares his most recent ideas with listeners, such as the idea that the complexity of the universe might literally be time itself, and the most important part of energy itself. Interested in learning more? Tune in and be sure to check out Barbour’s most recent book, The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C