6
Apr 2021
Can science help solve a real-life mystery? In episode 97 of Parsing Science, we talk with Alexander Puzrin from ETH Zurich about his research into The Dyatlov Pass incident, a 62-year-old mystery involving the deaths of nine hikers in the freezing Russian wilderness, a tragedy that’s been attribute...
9
Mar 2021
How much can you trust people's retelling of information the've read? In episode 95, Shiri Melumad from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business discusses her research showing that when – much like the children’s game “telephone” – news is repeatedly retold, it undergoes a stylist...
10
Nov 2020
How could a gene that causes one type of ALS be switched off? In episode 87, Tim Miller from the Washington University in St. Louis discusses his research into therapies that target the single strands of DNA or RNA which cause many cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou G......
7
Jul 2020
What if mosquitos weren't just annoying bugs, but instead were bio-inspiring features? In episode 78, we talk with Richard Bomphrey from the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College about how mosquitoes can detect surfaces using the airflow caused by the movement of their own wings … and th...
29
Apr 2020
Are drivers of more expensive cars really the jerks we make them out to be? In Episode 73, Courtney Coughenour and Jennifer Pharr from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas discuss their research into what differentiates drivers who are likely to yield for pedestrians in crosswalks from those who do...
29
Oct 2019
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 open-acces......
20
Aug 2019
How can a satellite the size of a loaf of bread take the heat of operating in the extreme conditions existing in space without overheating? In episode 56, we're joined by Naia Butler-Craig from the Georgia Institute of Technology to discuss her open access article “An investigation of the system a...
11
Jun 2019
Just how rampant is scientific misconduct? In episode 51, Elisabeth Bik talks with us about her research suggesting that as many as 35,000 papers in biomedicine journals may be candidates for retraction due to inappropriate image duplication. Her open-access article, “Analysis and Correction of In...
2
Apr 2019
Might enabling computational aids to "self-correct" when they’re out of sync with people be a path toward their exhibition of recognizably intelligent behavior? In episode 46, Neera Jain from Purdue University discusses in her experiments into monitoring our trust in AI's abilities so as to drive ...
19
Feb 2019
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, might the manipulation of statistics in marketing research be costing companies millions? In episode 43, Ron Berman from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business discusses in his open-access article "p-Hacking and False Discovery in A/B ......
13
Nov 2018
Might our brains have greater plasticity than commonly thought? In episode 36, Marlene Behrmann from Carnegie Mellon University, discusses her 3-year longitudinal investigation of a young boy who had the region of his brain which recognizes faces removed, but regained this ability through neural p......
16
Oct 2018
Because 98% of the human genome doesn't serve a direct role in gene expression, many biologists have long thought of them as nothing but "junk DNA." But might they hold the key to helping stem the formation of deadly cancers? In episode 34, Mike Feigin from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center...
2
Oct 2018
Can we put the brakes on cancers' ability to metastasize? In episode 33, John Lewis from the University of Alberta talks with us about his research into inhibiting cancer cell movement and metastasis through genomic targets. His open-access article "Quantitative in vivo whole genome motility scree...
11
Jun 2018
Do people who willingly hold down multiple careers at the same time struggle like the rest of us to find authenticity in their work? Brianna Caza, Sherry Moss & Heather Vough (of the University of Manitoba, Wake Forest University, and the University of Cincinnati) talk with us about what their...
29
May 2018
Might police shootings of unarmed African Americans have anything to do with state-level structural racism? Anita Knopov from Boston University joins us to talk about her study "The Relationship Between Structural Racism and Black-White Disparities in Fatal Police Shootings at the State Level," pu...
6
Feb 2018
Niki den Nieuwenboer from the University of Kansas' School of Business talks with us about her research on how middle-managers can manipulate organizational structures to coerce their staff into unethical behaviors to inflate both of their apparent performance. Her paper, "Middle Managers and Cor...
19
Sep 2017
Many people hear voices that aren't really there. It drives some to seek psychiatric treatment, but others are able to make use of it in healthy ways. In this episode, Al Powers and Phil Corlett from Yale University talk about their research into the similarities and differences between these two ......
9
Aug 2017
How well can doctors and nurses really predict the outcomes of their ICU patients? In this episode, Scott Halpern from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine, discusses how he and his colleagues explored the accuracy of ICU physicians and nurses in predicting the health outcomes of th......
