Oneto, J.M.M., Khan, I., Seebald, L., & Royzen, M. 2016. In Vivo Bioorthogonal Chemistry Enables Local Hydrogel and Systemic Pro-Drug To Treat Soft Tissue Sarcoma. ACS Central Science 2(7): 476-482.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acscentsci.6b00150

In this episode, we talk about better living through chemistry. Like, actually though. Tyler and Joe aren’t really quite sure what to make of this paper, but at least it’s well-written and leads to a great discussion.

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Ellis, J., Fosdick, B.K., & Rasmussen, C. 2016. Women 1.5 Times More Likely to Leave STEM Pipeline after Calculus Compared to Men: Lack of Mathematical Confidence a Potential Culprit. PLoS One 11(7).

We found a study that took the shortage of women in math, science, and engineering head-on! This in turn led to a good conversation about our own experiences with Calculus I and the realization that we’re all probably nerds. The academic job market is pretty rough to begin with, so being aware of what might bar women from entering a desired science, engineering, or mathematics-based field would be a step towards gender parity in academia.

Long story short: women don’t pursue science because they think they’re bad at math, regardless of actual mathematical aptitude.

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Pitman, R.L., et al. 2016. Humpback whales interfering when mammal-eating killer whales attack other species: Mobbing behavior and interspecific altruism? Marine Mammal Science.

#TeamKillerWhale

Today we talk about a paper that’s been making the pop-sci rounds. Some people have claimed that humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are unilaterally fighting killer whales (Orcinus orca) just because they can, but we’re skeptical. Also, we’re #TeamKillerWhale.

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Savadis et al. 2016. Identification of Zika Virus and Dengue Virus Dependency Factors using Functional Genomics. Cell Press 16(1): 232-246.

Kelsey is officially a PhD candidate!

We celebrate by delving into a molecular bio paper and get horribly lost. Joe rants a little bit about Cell Press, and we all learn more about Academic Publication.

We apologize in advance–this week’s paper was sort of dense and we didn’t realize until we had already gotten into it.

One small note this week:

Geology and Cinema is a real course at the University of Minnesota (ESCI 1005) and it fulfills both physical and environmental science requirements there. The textbook is The Essential Earth by Jordan and Grotzinger.

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This episode was recorded at San Diego Comic-Con 2016.

Joe goes to Comic-Con every year. This year, he was adamant that he’d be able to find science at a science fiction convention, so he met up with his good friend Dr. Billy San Juan, who writes extensively on psychology in popular culture and holds a PsyD. They talked about a couple of different things, but mostly focused on the psychology of Magic: the Gathering and other trading card games.

A lot of this discussion is about personality in both the community and the story elements of Magic: the Gathering, though we also touched on Batman and had a further discussion on the role of science fiction in driving science fact. This is San Diego Comic-Con, after all.

Some notes:

• The three player psychographic profiles were created by Mark Rosewater. There’s an interesting article on them here, and Billy and I actually ran into Mark soon after this interview.
• Joe references “limited” as a format and Billy mentions that drafts are also “limited.” Both sealed deck and draft are subsets of limited formats, where you are presented a “limited” pool of cards at the event with which to construct a deck. Joe was referencing limited in terms of sealed, sometimes used for Grand Prix and Pre-Release events.
• Slivers are a hive-minded race in the Magic multiverse. In-game, they share abilities and power with other slivers. They appeared in both Magic 2014  and Magic 2015, as well as several older sets.
• Judges know the rules of Magic. That does not mean they are good at Magic.
• Brian Kibler was at the panel! He talked about how being a geek has more or less shaped his entire career and livelihood, but that’s a different discussion altogether.
• Dr. Travis Langley wrote Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Night and has contributed to several other publications on the interface between popular culture and psychology. Dr. San Juan has contributed to a couple of them!
• We’re actually talking about the final episode of Justice League Unlimited: “Epilogue.” It’s available on Netflix right now–Season 2, Episode 26. We get to see some more of the complexity behind Batman on it.
• Alan Kistler is a pop culture historian and consulting geek. He has a great podcast called “Crazy Sexy Geeks” on iTunes and SoundCloud which I highly recommend and is also the author of Doctor Who: A History and has co-authored chapters with Billy in The Walking Dead Psychology and Captain America vs. Iron Man: Freedom, Security, Psychology.
• Dr. Janina Scarlet is a scientist, psychologist, and a full-time geek. She has a book due out this year called Superhero Therapy  and has contributed to other literature alongside Drs. Langley and San Juan and Mr. Kistler.

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This is the first part of a miniseries within the show on what graduate school is like.

On this episode, Kelsey and Tyler talk about PhD Qualifying Examinations, or “quals” as they’re often called. They go in a little bit of detail about the grad school culture surrounding it and how quals may be very different from school to school and may be very different even in different programs in the same institution.

It’s really interesting and I strongly recommend you give this a listen if you intend on going to graduate school.

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Rimfeld, et al. 2016. Genetics affects choice of academic subjects as well as achievement. Scientific Reports.

In this episode, we discuss genetics, psychology, and how much Pokemon GO has ruined our productivity. We get really deep about what education means as well as the further implications of concluding things with insufficient evidence in science.

We also talk about Pokemon. Like, a lot. It’s helpful that Pokemon is literally teaching impressionable small children how to be field biologists. How do you think two of our hosts wound up in biology? Pokemon, my friend. Pokemon.

P.S. This week’s paper is Tyler’s fault and he can’t even spell his own last name.

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Higuchi, et al. 2016. Contribution of Visual Information about Ball Trajectory to Baseball Hitting Accuracy. PLoS ONE.

In our very first episode, we discuss this paper about our favorite summer sport, baseball!

With the All Star break coming up we’re going to be without baseball, or really sports of any kind, for nearly a week, so fill the gap in your life with some sports related science out of Japan. (Go Toyo Carp!)

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