Petri Dish

Ep. 185 How to Make a Drug Pt 2: Libraries and Design

On this second episode about drug discovery, we discuss small molecule drug libraries and the challenges behind rational design! Don't know what that means? Tune in to fi

Ep. 184 How to Make a Drug Pt 1: A Target

Hey everyone! Today's episode is about getting into the nitty gritty of drug discovery. We often benefit from the research and development that goes into the creation of

Ep. 183 Influenza Pt 4: Vaccines and Pandemics

Sorry for the COVID-related break in episodes everyone! In our return, we complete our series on influenza by discussing past epidemics and pandemics to understand how in

Ep. 182 Influenza Pt 3: Whaddya Gonna Do About It?

You've had the flu. You've had a cold. Maybe you've even had allergies! But how can you tell them apart? And if you even figure out that you do have influenza, are there

Ep. 181 Influenza Pt 2: The Piggies

Last episode we discussed the current H5N1 flu that is hitting birds pretty hard. But is bird flu different from swine flu? Is there just a 'human flu', or do we only cat

Ep. 180 Influenza Pt 1: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Today's episode is the first in a four-part series on influenza! This time we are covering just enough background information to discuss the recent H5N1 pandemic in birds

Ep. 179 The Silence of the Plants

Sure, plants can sometimes smell good and they do cool stuff like make carbs for us to eat and oxygen for us to breathe. But they sort of look like they're just passively

Ep. 178 A Baby Born of Two Daddies

Hi everyone! This week's episode is about recent work trying to figure out a way to make a baby mouse that has two genetic dads. We also dive into why mammals don't seem

Ep. 177 Black Holes Pt 2: Quasi-Stars and Quasars

Today's episode is our second and final episode on Black Holes! We cover some exotic black hole concepts, like whether they are a source of dark energy, what a white hole

Ep. 176 Black Holes Pt 1: Curvy Thicc Spacetime Stuff

Here in our first episode on our 2-parter on Black Holes, we explain what a black hole is in theory and what it probably actually is in practice. We dive into why it is s

Ep. 175 The Norfolk Southern Environmental Trainwreck

In February, a train was partially derailed while carrying a number of chemicals. The subsequent attempt at containment resulted in the release of many thousands of gallo

Ep. 174 Desalination Pt 2: A Not-So-Salty Future?

On this week's episode, we complete our series on desalination by discussing the near future technologies that are coming to either improve or attempt to supplant the cur

Last of Us Rerelease! Fungus Pt 2: Cordyceps and More!

Hi Everyone! We're interrupting our series on desalination to put out a quick rerelease of one of our episodes on Fungi! We're doing this in honor of the season 1 finale

Ep. 173 Desalination Pt 1: So Salty

Climate change is happening, two billion people don't have a reliable and safe supply of fresh water, and the problem isn't likely to get a whole lot better on its own!

Ep. 172 VEXAS: A Mystery Syndrome

While science and medicine have come a long way over the centuries, there are still illnesses that cannot be explained -- and many of them are autoinflammatory disorders.

Ep. 171 Side Quests 2: Cancer and Concrete

Occasionally we do episodes where we speak about a couple different topics that don't have a specific underlying theme -- they're just fun science papers that have croppe

Ep. 170 Death Pt 2: A Twitching Heart

We return with our second episode on Death, the final frontier! What is it? Actually though, like what determines the moment when someone dies? This question has actually

Ep 169 Death Pt.1: Disembodied Pig Brains

On our first episode about Death, we look into a paper published a few years that described the reanimation of a pig brain! Spooky! Let’s get into the science behind it a

Ep 168. The Tridemic

This winter season the world is dealing with not two but three respiratory illnesses at the same time. While these are familiar names at this point, they’re definitely di

Ep. 167 Coffee Pt 2: Dry, Wet, Honey, and Poop

Hi Folks! Part 2 of our series on coffee focuses on how coffee beans can be imparted with different flavors through their picking and processing! We mentioned this in th