How can what engineers learn from how barn owls pinpoint the location of the faintest sounds apply to their development of nanotechnologies capable of doing even better? In episode 61, we’re joined by Saptarshi Das, a nano-engineer from Penn State University, who talks with us about his article “A biomimetic 2D transistor for audiomorphic computing.”
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Parsing Science: The unpublished stories behind the world’s most compelling science, as told by the researchers themselves., which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
In this episode I talk to Bill Janeway about previous eras of venture capital and startups, how bubbles drive innovation, the role of government in innovation. Bill describes himself as “theorist-practitioner”: he did a PhD in Economics, was a successful venture capitalist in the 80’s and 90’s with the firm Warburg Pincus and is now an affiliated faculty member at Cambridge and the member of several boards.
Key Takeaways
Bubbles have arguably been the key enabler of infrastructure-heavy technology.
Venture capital may be structurally set up to only be useful for computing and biotech.
Most technology that venture capital invested in was subsidized at first by the government in one way or another.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Benjamin Reinhardt, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Caroline Adegun began her career as a human resources recruiter. Then a stint working for a celebrity in Los Angeles inspired her to open The Hollywood Wingwoman Talent, the first non-profit talent development firm serving low-income (and sometimes homeless) artists trying to make it in the industry. And recently, she has become a force on social media, taking the new Clubhouse app by storm. With more than 50,000 members now (and growing daily) in her faith-based “club,” Caroline channels her background in human development to create a sense of community for people around the world — at a time when they need it most.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael J. Feuer, Dean of the GW Graduate School of Education and Human Dev, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Very few animals can combine information to adjust their predictions in a flexible way by using domain-general intelligence as humans do. In episode 74, Amalia Bastos from the University of Auckland discusses her research demonstrating that kea parrots can make predictions based in probabilities, and adjust those predictions based on physical and social information.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Parsing Science: The unpublished stories behind the world’s most compelling science, as told by the researchers themselves., which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
This week, we dig into the mailbag to answer your questions!
What’s in a Name?
We start with an email from Tegner about what happens when your department changes its name before you even begin your trainining:
I have recently been admitted and have accepted admission to a PhD program in “Immunology and Infectious Disease.” The only issue is that upon talking with the department about classes for my first semester it seems that they have just recently merged my program with the Microbiology PhD program and [the program I applied to] doesn’t really exist anymore. I was wondering: is this common? Have other people been admitted to programs that don’t exist anymore?
We certainly HAVE seen this before, and usually it’s not a big deal. Departments and programs change names all the time, and it shouldn’t have much of an impact on your experience, nor on your long-term prospects.
Most postdocs positions and hiring committees care about your research papers and recommendations, not so much about the words at the bottom of your diploma.
Avoiding Comparisons
Next up, Jessica asks:
I joined a lab at the same time as another first-year student in my program. I would really appreciate advice on “How to not let your thoughts run rampant with comparison in your lab”. I feel like he has more experience than me in a lot of research areas related to the lab. I know no one wins in the comparison game so any insights you have about how avoid it would be great!
Well, Jessica, you’re not the only one to experience this – we did too! And I’d wager most people do at some point in their careers.
Dr. Haas’s article focuses on the comparisons we make when perusing social media and how that can affect our mood. But the advice is useful in this context as well.
For example, Dr. Haas recommends becoming aware of the events and triggers that lead you down the comparison rabbit hole. The more you can be aware of those traps, the more you can avoid them.
Josh recommends looking back on your own growth in order to appreciate just how far you’ve advanced compared to where you began. That self-comparison can help you acknowledge your own evolution over time.
Clinical Experience for Bench Scientists
And last, but not least, Francesc is noticing an internal drive to work with patients, not just samples at a lab bench.
I am a 3rd year PhD student working in a project about cancer but I feel that research is not my vocation. Intsead, I think that my real passion would be to work directly with patients. What options do I have?? I have done quite a lot of research but I find it really difficult to come across anything directly related with patients having a PhD.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Joshua Hall and Daniel Arneman, PhDz, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Uyen Nguyen and Joshua Conrad Jackson are back to discuss some things you might not have heard about sugar. More sugar consumption may lead to risky business in kids. We also examine whether the increasingly popular taxes on the sugar industry actually reduce sugary drink intake.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Useful Science, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Earlier this year Eindhoven University of Technology faced a social media backlash after announcing that from July 2019, all academic staff vacancies will be open to female applicants only for the first six months. Many people questioned the legality of the move.
In this first episode of a six-part series about careers in physics, Cornelis Storm, who leads the theory of polymers and soft matters group at the Dutch university, tells Julie Gould why the “radical step,” was sorely needed. He also describes why the physics department, and the discipline more generally, will benefit from being more diverse.
“For whatever reason there is a large group of people that are not considering a carer in physics.” he says. “There’s not a single piece of research that suggests men are better at this job than women.”
Astrophysicist Elizabeth Tasker, an associate professor at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, was hired through a similar policy, and tells Gould about her experience.
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nature Careers, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
The internet should have transformed science publishing, but it didn’t. We chat with Michael Eisen (Editor-in-Chief of eLife) about reoptimizing scientific publishing and peer review for the internet age.
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Episode citation
Quintana, D.S., Heathers, J.A.J. (Hosts). (2020, December 21) “122: Reoptimizing scientific publishing for the internet age (with Michael Eisen)”, Everything Hertz [Audio podcast], DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/USYFC
The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dan Quintana, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
