Daily Discoveries

Thelonious and Rhea check-in for the last time. They take a trip down memory lane and discuss their favorite articles and podcast episodes during their time recording. 

Rhea and Thelonious discuss an IHME study showing that actual global deaths from COVID-19 are likely double what has been previously reported by other organizations and governments.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss a UW geography study analyzing AI manipulation of geospatial data. They discuss the study’s call for data literacy, and the real world impacts that falsified data can have.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss UW popup vaccine clinics, King County’s COVID rates, boosters, and breakthrough cases (vaccinated people who still contract COVID). 

Rhea and Thelonious discuss the implications of the recent announcement that UW is planning for a mostly in person fall quarter, and that students who return will be required to be vaccinated.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss a UW research project on natural language processing, the automatic manipulation of speech and text by software. The data you feed software isn’t always diverse, and specific and harmful language processes can be overrepresented.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss the recent pause on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine due to a small number of those vaccinated experiencing major side effects. Additionally, they discuss a UW study that found significant vaccine distrust among incarcerated populations.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss recent news and its implications from the UW Daily. The University Provost has said that UW is aiming for a mostly in person fall quarter and that the vaccine won’t be required for students.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss two projects at UW: the first, research on smart speakers that can detect problems in heart beat, and the second, looking at the efficacy of home delivery HIV treatments in curbing the virus.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss the 70 million dollar UW project to attempt to cure HIV and other blood disorders using a gene editing technology. They also discuss a UW study on racial and socioeconomic disparities in mammogram access.

UW researchers have discovered a new law of physics that allows researches to define the maximum slope of an aircraft fuselage, which will aid in reducing drag. Rhea and Thelonious discuss how this discovery could lead to more fuel efficient aircrafts.

If you have COVID, the viral particles will show up in your waste. Rhea and Thelonious discuss the surprising way researchers are testing the sewage of neighborhoods to track if COVID is in the area.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss UW researchers who are using electric spinal cord stimulation to help people with spinal cord injuries regain upper limb function.

Rhea and Thelonious give listeners an update on COVID, discussing the the contagious UK variant, and UW’s response. They also talk about vaccine rollout, and how we can stay safe as we wait.

Rhea and Thelonious interview UW Sociology Major Roshan Selden about her research on how politicians frame Twitter and Facebook’s new fact-check labels. Should you listen to the Republicans who tell you to switch from Twitter to Parlor in order to maintain your free speech? Tune into this episode to find out. Additionally, if you’d like […]

Rhea and Thelonious discuss the current debate around elementary school reopening in the midst of COVID. They talk about the obvious dangers of reopening, but also the many undiscussed welfare benefits that in person schools provide to disadvantaged children.

This week, Rhea and Thelonious discuss the intersection of science and politics. They interrogate how the Trump administration handled issues of climate change and COVID, and offer hope for the future of science in our government. 

Rhea and Thelonious discuss an article in The Daily featuring the discovery of abnormal protein structures found in the brains of Alzheimers patients. They also talk about a possible new diagnostic test that could help doctors understand the disease better.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss the health effects of old age, and specifically, how sex robots are being used to alleviate loneliness in senior citizens.

Thelonious updates Rhea on his thesis research on gentrification in Seattle. They focus on broader implications of scientific research as well as fundamental philosophical problems in research.

This quarter we talked about COVID— a lot. Rhea and Thelonious look back on the quarter’s episodes and discuss future episodes and topics.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss new breakthroughs in COVID vaccine research and what comes next in living through the pandemic.

Thelonious and Rhea discuss 2020 election implications and the nature of data and statistics in the estimates involved.

This week, Rhea and Thelonious discuss their own experiences with online schooling and how teachers have been adapting, as well as how students doing hands-on research have had to pivot for the pandemic.

Thelonious and Rhea discuss the politics and optics of President Trump’s positive coronavirus test and examine steps huskies can take in their own backyard to stay safe. 

Black lives matter. Scientists to follow on twitter: @kareem_carr, @hood_naturalist, #BlackBirdersWeek, @astronaia, @tressiemcphd, @bye_ology, @Sternarchella, @wildearthnotes. 

Thelonious and Rhea give an overview and wrap up of the research symposium and discuss the impact of student research.

Thelonious and Rhea discuss current research examining COVID-19’s effect on pregnant women and look at some of the upcoming warm weather in Washington.

The novelty song “Istanbul (not Constantinople)” famously said that “It was nobody’s business, but the Turks,” but when it comes to tech, it’s everybody’s.  Rhea and Thelonious discuss exploitive Mechanical Turk labor at Amazon and Uber, a new iPhone app that can detect critical and non-critical COVID-19 cases based on skin conditions, and discuss the […]

Thelonious and Rhea discuss two articles: one about Amy Ko’s research developing a better computer science curriculum and a conversation with a UW atmospheric sciences professor on climate change. 

Thelonious and Rhea (virtually) discuss the state of the environment on Earth Day amidst COVID.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss how science intersects with medicine in a variety of ways: through blood donations to help fight coronavirus, scientists sending tissues to space, and an undergraduate researcher using machine learning to help with psychiatric behavior prediction.

Thelonious and Rhea discuss a myriad of topics: The online quarter, the coronavirus, animal crossing, and Bernie Sanders’s election campaign ending among other things.

SoCiaL d A t A sCiEnTiSt Thelonious Goerz and Natural Scientist Rhea John discuss election science. Today, they talk about disinformation, staying informed about consuming political information like statistics, policy, and being skeptical of research; they also talk about environmental issues on the political stage.

Rhea and Thelonious talk about the mysterious algorithm behind a college campus love-matching service and other nerdy topics like applied math and computational finance.

Thelonious and Rhea have on special guest, Armon Mahdavi, editor of the arts and leisure section of The Daily, for a special episode where arts and science come together in a discussion about SCI-FI MOVIES!

This week, Rhea and Thelonious take a deep look at the birth control options available to students, and the science behind them. They also dive into who has more, less, and virtually zero access to birth control from a global health perspective.

Rhea and Thelonious discuss the latest science articles from this quarter and provide sleep-deprived commentary on the coronavirus. 

Thelonious and Rhea dive into two articles for this final episode of the fall quarter! They’re talking about the biases that technology forms, such as in the case with Amazon’s automated recruitment program as well as the efforts by the GAMER group to expand the accessibility of interactive games to wider audiences.

Thelonious and Rhea discuss an article that grapples with the controversy behind genetic editing to remove genes that cause deafness.