Orbitals

We have some bittersweet news: Orbitals is coming to a close. BUT there's a new science podcast headed your way in 2022! It's called Tiny Matters, and it's a show about things small in size but big in impact. Every other Wednesday, hosts Sam Jones and Deboki Chakravarti uncover the little stuff that makes the big stuff possible, answering questions like, “how does our brain form memories?” and “why haven't we terraformed Mars yet?" The first full episode drops on Wednesday, January 26, 2022.

If there's one flavor you can always count on, it's vanilla. Sweet, creamy, and nostalgic, it comes from a creeping orchid vine. But with increased demand, scientists are finding new ways to make it, including starting from an unexpected plant…rice! Solutions is made with funding and featuring scientists from 3M, Ascend Performance Materials, Baker Hughes, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, PPG, Royal DSM, SABIC, Solvay, and W. L. Gore & Associates, none of whom influenced any editorial decisions.

Think the science behind sponges must be boring? You're so, so wrong. Shrink down to the microscopic level with us and take a walk among sponges designed to keep bacteria alive, clean with just water, and literally cut through your holiday cleaning. Solutions is made with funding and featuring scientists from 3M, Ascend Performance Materials, Baker Hughes, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, PPG, Royal DSM, SABIC, Solvay, and W. L. Gore & Associates, none of whom influenced any editorial decisions.

Bacteria often get a bad rap, which is fair—they are responsible for diseases like strep throat, pneumonia, and tuberculosis, and antibiotic resistance is a legitimate threat to humanity's existence. But some bacteria might actually save lives by cleaning up things like massive oil spills and radioactive waste. Featuring Dr. Cara Santelli.

Polymer membranes make everything from rain jackets to medical devices. But they're also integral parts of hydrogen fuel cells, powering cars that give off nothing but water vapor. How do fuel cells work, and why aren't you driving one yet? Solutions is made with funding and featuring scientists from 3M, Ascend Performance Materials, Baker Hughes, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, PPG, Royal DSM, SABIC, Solvay, and W. L. Gore & Associates, none of whom influenced any editorial decisions.

When you hear the word “molasses” you probably imagine super slow-moving, brown-colored sweet stuff that you add to a cookie recipe. And that is what molasses usually looks like, but under certain conditions and in large enough quantities, molasses can be dangerous. Just over a century ago, the North End of Boston learned just *how* dangerous.  Featuring Alex Dainis, PhD and Nicole Sharp, PhD

5G is coming… but can your phone handle it? Surprisingly, a lot of that comes down to the chemistry inside! Let's crack open your phone to figure out how chemistry is making it smaller, faster, and a little more sticky!  Solutions is made with funding and featuring scientists from 3M, Ascend Performance Materials, Baker Hughes, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, PPG, Royal DSM, SABIC, Solvay, and W. L. Gore & Associates, none of whom influenced any editorial decisions.

Sweat is this thing that many of us seem to loathe, but also pay a lot of money to do while being yelled at by professionals. So what is sweat? And why do we do it? And why are we often so embarrassed by it? This episode features writer Sarah Everts, who recently wrote a book called The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration.

A team of researchers making workout gear that never stinks realized that their invention could actually have a bigger impact fighting a global pandemic. It all starts with a high-performance fabric found in your closet and a common mineral in your breakfast cereal. Solutions is made with funding and featuring scientists from 3M, Ascend Performance Materials, Baker Hughes, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, PPG, Royal DSM, SABIC, Solvay, and W. L. Gore & Associates, none of whom influenced any editorial decisions.

In 2020, researchers discovered that more than 1,000 tons of plastic—that's over 100 million plastic water bottles worth—rains down on National Parks and wilderness in the western U.S. every year. How is that possible? This week's episode features microplastics researcher Imari Walker. Check out her YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoiqwAaGW6-xANs3XOCO_Pg 

Many of us slather sunscreen on in the summer to keep sunburns at bay. But new materials can improve sunscreens without adding more of the sticky, greasy compounds we all hate. The surprising origin of those new ingredients? Wood!  Solutions is made with funding and featuring scientists from 3M, Ascend Performance Materials, Baker Hughes, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, PPG, Royal DSM, SABIC, Solvay, and W. L. Gore & Associates, none of whom influenced any editorial decisions.

Sam Kean's latest book, The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science, dropped earlier this week. It's about when knowledge becomes everything—the only thing. At whatever the cost. You'll hear about what made Sam want to write the book, and about a couple of the characters within its pages. You can find the book here: https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/sam-kean/the-icepick-surgeon/9781549102929/ 

How do you keep moths from munching on apples? By confusing them with a field full of mating pheromones brewed in a lab. The same fermentation strategy can also make enzymes to help chickens digest their feed and keep their farmyards a little less… sticky. Today we'll talk about the biochemistry that helps food make it from the field to your fridge without getting eaten first! Solutions is made with funding and featuring scientists from 3M, Ascend Performance Materials, Baker Hughes, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, PPG, Royal DSM, SABIC, Solvay, and W. L. Gore & Associates, none of whom influenced any editorial decisions.

A lot has happened in the last year (understatement of the millennium), so we wanted to bring our listeners something a bit sillier than usual. In this episode we're talking food and drink chemistry—just fun bits of trivia that you can take with you as you venture back out to bars and restaurants this summer. Sam's joined by Orbitals executive producer George Zaidan (as promised in the episode, you can see his hot pepper struggle here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R98O29Fs7s)  Featuring Matt Hartings, PhD and Selina Wang, PhD

Vaccines help our immune system to learn to recognize invading pathogens before we ever get infected. But some vaccines include molecules that act like an extra alarm system, alerting our immune cells to pay attention! These molecules are called adjuvants, and scientists are working on creating new ones that could help create vaccines against pandemics that haven’t even happened yet!

Over half a million people in the US have died from an opioid overdose over the last 20 years, and a lot of the time they were prescribed those opioids by a doctor. So what makes these drugs so dangerous? And if we know they can be this dangerous, why are they still prescribed?  This month’s episode is about opioids—their history, their use, and the research that might help us emerge from this epidemic. Featuring opioid researcher Kelly Dunn, PhD

In this episode of Solutions, we’re going to travel from mangrove coasts to outer space, to the middle of Nebraska, and even to Norway to answer the question of how microscopic algae could help save our oceans from overfishing by making literal tonnes of omega-3 fatty acids.

April 22nd is Earth Day, so this month’s episode is all about our warming planet--what the data are telling us about our planet's future, how scientists are working to find solutions to deal with it, and how you the listener can actually make a difference.     

We humans are pretty smart, but sometimes our best solutions to big problems are inspired by nature! We’re talking to scientists about how deep-sea diatoms can inspire more efficient solar panels and how tiny marine plants can lead to boats that float on air… literally. Solutions is made with funding and featuring scientists from 3M, Ascend Performance Materials, Baker Hughes, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Proctor & Gamble, PPG, Royal DSM, SABIC, Solvay, and WL Gore and Associates, none of whom influenced any editorial decisions.

In today’s episode, we’re talking about life. What it is, how it started here on Earth, and how we’re trying to find it in other parts of the universe.  Featuring NASA astrobiologist Dr. Jason Dworkin and MIT astrophysicist Dr. Sara Seager.

Natural extracts are in everything from food to medicine to beauty products. But how do we know which molecules from the natural world have benefits? And how can we verify that the ingredients advertised on the outside of the bottle are actually what’s on the inside? We’ll talk with three scientists who answer those questions with an unlikely case study: shampoo.

Dr. Steven Townsend is a professor of Organic Chemistry at Vanderbilt University, studying the chemistry of breast milk—what makes it so good for babies, and why that’s so hard to replicate in infant formula. Dr. Townsend’s interest in the field came from a personal experience he had almost a decade ago, walking around New York City with his pregnant wife and seeing inequalities in who was being marketed what information.

Welcome to the first episode of Solutions, an Orbitals spin-off podcast for 2021! We need to move people and stuff around the globe, but the options we have to do that aren’t great for our planet, and we’re the ones who are going to feel those effects. We’re talking with experts who are trying to make transportation more sustainable with innovative solutions like temperature reducing paint and new materials to make cars lighter.  Solutions is hosted by Alex Dainis, PhD, produced by Mike Rugnetta and George Zaidan, and edited by Garrett Crow. Music and sound design by Michael Simonelli and fact checking by Michelle Boucher, PhD. The Solutions executive producer is Jason Oberholtzer.

Introducing Solutions, a fun new Orbitals spin-off podcast hosted by Dr. Alex Dainis. Every month of 2021, we'll be releasing an episode that will give you a front row seat to chemists in industry today—the work they do and how it can solve problems in our lives. We’ve teamed up with chemical companies from around the world to talk about everything from airplane paint inspired by eggplants to new drug delivery systems that can deposit medication only where it’s needed. Can't wait for you to listen!  

In the first half of the 20th century, there were very few environmental laws in the United States. Then, in 1962, environmentalist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, opening the eyes of many Americans to the environmental destruction and detrimental impacts on human health caused by unchecked toxic chemical use and industrial waste. One of those chemicals was the highly effective synthetic insecticide DDT.  8 years later, the Environmental Protection Agency was created. 

As of November 16, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 1.3 million deaths globally, more than 246,000 of which have been in the United States. Although this country has done very little to control the spread of this virus, there are people out there working tirelessly to get us back on track by developing and improving materials that protect us from the novel coronavirus. 

The only thing that's standing between life and lifelessness is about six feet of loose soil material covering the Earth.  In this episode of Orbitals, soil biogeochemist and political ecologist Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe breaks down why soil is a key controller of our climate and essential for our existence.

Imagine buying mascara that makes you go blind, or picking up hair removal cream that causes your teeth to fall out. Before 1938 products like these were all over the place. Legally. The American Chamber of Horrors was a traveling exhibit, created by the FDA, that exposed these atrocities, and it helped push forward a law that changed consumer protection in the United States forever.  Want to see some of the products in the American Chamber of Horrors? https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/histories-product-regulation/american-chamber-horrors

Antiviral drugs could help us fight the new coronavirus, but we don’t currently have a highly potent and effective antiviral that cures COVID-19. Why not? We called a few virologists to find out.

The COVID-19 pandemic has scientists considering a few less-conventional options while vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are being developed. One option might be the oral polio vaccine. We chatted with one of the researchers proposing the idea—Dr. Robert Gallo—to understand why a vaccine that hasn’t been used in the US for two decades might provide short-term protection against this coronavirus.

We’re each a big mush of chemicals surrounded by chemicals, and figuring out which of these chemicals are helpful, versus harmful, is complicated. Our executive producer, George Zaidan, takes on that challenge in his new book Ingredients: The strange chemistry of what we put in us and on us. I chat with him about some of what he found, and how he found it. Ingredients is on bookstore shelves now: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/599202/ingredients-by-george-zaidan/  

Forensic toxicologists are frequently portrayed in shows like CSI and Bones, but what do they actually do? In this episode our writer and host, Samantha Jones, PhD, chats with seasoned forensic toxicologist Robert Middleberg, PhD, as he recounts a case that has stayed with him for decades.

A potential vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 went into Phase I clinical trials in Seattle mid-March. So what exactly is being tested? How much longer will these tests take? And when can we expect a vaccine? To answer those questions I chatted with Dr. Benjamin Neuman, one of the world’s experts on coronaviruses, and Daniel Wrapp, one of the scientists who mapped the structure of the protein this virus uses to infect your cells.

Right now our team’s focus has shifted to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our ACS and PBS Digital Studios series, Reactions, has become the priority and will be our way of getting coronavirus and COVID-19-related content out to the public. You can find our latest videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2pMVimI2bw&t= And follow us on social media: Twitter https://twitter.com/ACSReactions Instagram https://www.instagram.com/acsreactions/?hl=en Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ACSReactions/

Early-1900s New York City was a place of utter chaos—a place where poisoners reigned supreme. That is, until a unique duo stepped in and started to win the long-fought battle between scientists and poisoners, creating the field of forensic toxicology in the process.  This episode, we'll dive into the history of poisoning, and stories that defined the Roaring Twenties.  

This week we chat with DC-based author Sam Kean about his most recent work: The Bastard Brigade, a book about a group of scientists and military commanders during World War II who were trying to stop the Nazis from creating an atomic bomb. In this episode, get ready to hear about some eccentric characters, sabotage, and--of course--chemistry. 

The parasitic roundworm Strongyloides stercoralis crawls through contaminated soil in search of one thing – human flesh. Often no more than a millimeter in size, it’s currently estimated to be hanging out in the intestines of over 300 million people worldwide. How it finds us has a lot to do with the chemicals we’re giving off. 

On a body farm, scientists collect information from donated corpses to understand how things like weather and the positioning of a body will affect human decomposition. Why should we care? This knowledge is used to help law enforcement not only find the bodies of victims--who are often murdered--but figure out how they died. 

In the 1960s the drug thalidomide caused over 10,000 babies across the globe to be born with deformed limbs. Scientist Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey blocked its production in the US, saving countless lives. But since then thalidomide has been approved by the FDA. Why? Today we tackle how thalidomide's chemistry caused a pharmaceutical disaster and why it's still around. You’ll hear from two researchers: one in the US and one in Brazil, a place where there are still cases of thalidomide embryopathy.

Amphetamines have a troubled past that has carried into the present, but they can also greatly improve some people’s lives. This week on Orbitals, we’re asking: What do amphetamines do to our bodies? How are they used in medicine? And when did they become so prevalent in society? Written and hosted by Samantha Jones, PhD 

We need antibiotics, we rely on them. Much of humanity has survived because of them. But they could also lead to our demise if we’re not careful. Antibiotic resistance isn’t some far-off threat, it’s already a part of our guts and our society, and it’s not going away.  This week on Orbitals join host Samantha Jones, antimicrobial drug discovery researcher Dr. Peg Riley, and Chemical and Engineering News reporter Kerri Jansen to learn about how scientists are trying to tackle antibiotic resistance, and the power that we hold as consumers.  Written and hosted by Samantha Jones, PhD

Today the Periodic Table is nicely filled out with 118 elements, but don’t be fooled--the search is on for element 119. The question is, do we have the tools to discover it? And, if we do, what might it be like? In this episode of Orbitals, we celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table by chatting about the exciting possibilities with IUPAC executive director Dr. Lynne Soby and researcher Dr. Dawn Shaughnessy, who has five elemental discoveries on her CV. Written and hosted by Samantha Jones, PhD 

We sat down for a conversation with Dr. Frances Arnold, 2018 Nobel laureate in chemistry for the directed evolution of enzymes. We asked how one rises to such eminent heights, and got answers spanning topics from the price of gas during the Carter administration to whether to pursue a career in diplomacy. Don't miss this one -- Dr. Arnold is the most fascinating person we've ever met.

Many great minds have contemplated the question of how to get to Mars. In this episode of Orbitals, we learn how to get back home. With guest Jerry Sanders, we talk about how NASA plans to turn resources it finds in space into rocket fuel to power its exploration of the solar system.

In this episode, we try to track down the chemical underpinnings of pine mouth syndrome: a persistent bitter taste some people experience after eating pine nuts. But despite searching everywhere from the species of pine tree to our own genes, the cause remains elusive.

That expiration date on your pill bottle or nasal spray or autoinjector doesn’t mean exactly what you think it means. Join Alexa Billow in her quest to discover what those numbers actually tell you. Music in this episode: Shines Through Trees, Blammo, Blanks, Chimera, Curious, Floating 1045, Lola, SilverSilver, Smack 1069 (all from Podington Bear)