Green energy technologies like solar and wind have been improving for decades. So why aren’t we closer to replacing our fossil fuels with clean energy? One major bottleneck is energy storage. Tune in to learn about building-sized batteries and other exciting technologies that could make green energy more feasible.
Author: In Plain English
Season 4, Episode 5: Unionize your University
Now more than ever, academic unions are critical for supporting workers, creating a strong and sustainable institution, and defending research from political attacks. Join Eileen Schaub, Jacob Walker, and Carla Villanueva to learn about the role of academic unions and how you can form or support a union at your institution.
Season 4, Episode 4: Modeling the Brain with Math
What does your brain have in common with water, earthquakes, and maybe even society itself? Join expert Leandro Fosque and guests Alejandro Gonzales and Peter Thatcher to learn about the theory of criticality, an idea from physics that could help explain how the brain is able to take in so much information, why we need sleep, and what goes wrong when someone has epilepsy or dementia.
Season 4, Episode 3: The UMAP Algorithm: Look Pretty and Do As Little As Possible
In this episode, In Plain English joins the discourse on the All of Us Genomics project and their use of UMAP, an algorithm that reduces complex data to 2 dimensions. Join guests Konrad Kording, William Lima, and Jake Walker to learn why this mathematical model made such a splash on Twitter, and how scientists can analyze and communicate large data sets more rigorously.
Season 4, Episode 2: Lifesaving Treatment for Premature Infants: An Interview with Dr. Sharon Abada
Dr. Sharon Abada shares the story of her grandfather, Dr. Marshall Klaus, and how he helped discover a lifesaving treatment for premature infants called surfactant. This story weaves together family, scientific curiosity, failure, and collaboration to tell the story of a treatment that has saved countless lives.
Season 4, Episode 1: Do Police Target Black Drivers for Traffic Stops?
Do police disproportionately target Black drivers for traffic stops? This is an important question to ask, but actually answering it poses a surprisingly difficult problem. Join expert Luke Brinkman and guests Sofia Angulo Lopera and Grace Moore to discuss a paper that proposes one way to answer this tricky question.
Season 3, Episode 24: Science, Meet SciFi
Science can be found everywhere, even in your favorite board games, books, and video games! In this fun-filled episode of In Plain English, I sat down with James Reed of Science Night, Maura Lydon of Her Dark Ministrations, and Max Wolslegel to discuss the science concepts embedded in our favorite nerdy hobbies!
Season 3, Episode 23: Interviews in Pain Research, Part 6
In April 2024, I attended the conference for the United States Association for the Study of Pain (USASP) in Seattle, Washington. This episode is the sixth in a series of interviews I conducted there, and features research on endogenous opioids – opioids that your brain makes – and the connection between pain and alcohol use disorder.
Season 3, Episode 22: Rigor “In Plain English” – LIVE at UPenn
Scientific rigor is an incredibly important topic…but what does rigor actually mean? And how can we create communities where rigor is the norm? Join Konrad Kording, Kaela Singleton, Arjun Raj, and me for the first ever In Plain English live show, where we discuss these issues and more!
Season 3, Episode 21: Interviews in Pain Research, Part 5
In April 2024, I attended the conference for the United States Association for the Study of Pain (USASP) in Seattle, Washington. This episode is the fifth in a series of interviews I conducted there, and features novel animal models for studying back pain, innovative research into diabetic nerve pain using human tissue, and early studies into the link between facial pain and nervous system dysregulation.
In Plain English Podcast 