Podcasts about Pleistocene Park

In Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood, Charlotte Wrigley considers how permafrost—and its disappearance—redefines extinction to be a lack of continuity that affects both life and nonlife on earth. With a look at the coldest regions in the world, Wrigley examines the wild new economies and mitigation strategies responding to thawing permafrost, including such projects as Pleistocene Park, Colossal, and Sooam Biotech, and offers a new angle on extinction through the concept of discontinuity. Here, Wrigley is joined in conversation with Pey-Yi Chu.Charlotte Wrigley is a postdoctoral researcher at The Greenhouse – Center for Environmental Humanities at the University of Stavanger, Norway. She is author of Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood: Permafrost and Extinction in the Russian Arctic.Pey-Yi Chu is associate professor of history at Pomona College in Claremont, California. She is author of The Life of Permafrost: A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science. PUBLICATION REFERENCES:The Life of Permafrost / Pey-Yi ChuOnce Upon the Permafrost / Susan CrateThe Breath of the Permafrost / Nikolai Sleptsov-SylykCryopolitics / Joanna Radin and Emma Kowal, editorsPLACES REFERENCED:-Yakutsk, the capital of the Russian region of the Sakha Republic-Chersky, Arctic port in the Sakha District on the Kolyma River-Permafrost bank on the Kolyma called Duvanny Yar-Pleistocene Park in CherskyPEOPLE MENTIONED:-Sergey and Nikita Zimov, geophysicist and son behind Pleistocene Park project-George Church of Harvard University, behind the business Colossal-Hwang Woo-Suk (Sooam Biotech), biotechnology expert and veterinarian who claimed to clone human embryonic cells and does work in Yakutsk with mammoths.-Stewart Brand, environmentalist and founder of the Long Now Foundation, known for quote: “We are as gods, so we have to get good at it.”More about the book: z.umn.edu/EarthIceBoneBlood

Ben Lamm and George Church are co-founders of Colossal, a bioscience and genetics company that will rapidly advance the field of species de-extinction. Ben is CEO, and is a serial technology entrepreneur driven to solve the most complex challenges facing our planet. Dr. Church is Colossal's lead genetic advisor and the recognized leader in genomics, pioneering a number of advances and breakthroughs that have progressed the entire field.Colossal BiosciencesA Case for De-Extinction | Ben Lamm & Eriona Hysolli at SXSW 2022 - YouTubeSiberia's Pleistocene Park: Bringing Back Pieces of the Ice Age to Combat Climate Change - 60 MinutesSaving Baby Elephants from a Deadly Herpes Virus - DiscoveryForm Bio Spins Out of Colossal Bioscience to Offer Scientists the ‘Missing Piece' - Dallas InnovatesFresh Effort to Clone Extinct Animal - BBC NewsElephants Could Be Key to Saving the Planet — Here's Why - InversePleistocene ParkHow CRISPR Lets You Edit DNA - TED-Ed54: Growing Healthier and Tastier Seafood in a Lab, with Justin Kolbeck - Where We Go NextFollow Colossal on Instagram: @ItsColossal----------Are you a fan of Where We Go Next? I'd love to hear from you. Listen to the very end of this episode for details.Email: wherewegopod@gmail.comInstagram: @wwgnpodcast

On this episode of Expanded Perspectives, the guys start off talking about the beautiful weather they have been experiencing for the month of January. Then, they discuss getting ready for the upcoming 3D archery tournaments they will be shooting in. Next, a group of friends observes what they think were two large extra-terrestrials in upstate New York. Then, someone in northeast Pennsylvania sees an 8ft to 10ft pale crawler in 2021. Then, Kyle brings up the incredible endeavor that is being constructed in Russia known as Pleistocene Park! Pleistocene Park is a nature reserve on the Kolyma River south of Chersky in the Sakha Republic, Russia, in northeastern Siberia, where an attempt is being made to re-create the northern subarctic steppe grassland ecosystem that flourished in the area during the last glacial period. After the break, Kyle brings up some tales of dinosaurs observed in the old west! All of this and more on this installment of Expanded Perspectives! Sponsors: Lumi Labs: Microdose is available nationwide. To get 30% off your first order just go to Microdose.com and use the code EXPANDED Want to Share Your Story? Email: expandedperspectives@yahoo.com Hotline: 888-393-2783

In academia, most scientists publish their ideas and stop there. But if we want our breakthroughs to benefit society, we have to take it a step further.  So, what does it look like to commercialize scientific research? What mindset do academics need to work at the intersection of science and industry? Ben Lamm has a career of building successful deep tech businesses, and George Church has a career of commercializing academic science.  Together, they are the cofounders of Colossal, a breakthrough bioscience and genetic engineering company that is pioneering animal de-extinction technology to restore lost ecosystems for a healthier planet.  On this episode of Boost VC, Ben and George join us to explain how bringing back the woolly mammoth addresses climate change and explore their approach to the ethical concerns around de-extinction. They discuss the benefits of Colossal technology beyond Arctic rewilding, describing how their work helps endangered animals and promotes conservation. Listen in for Ben and George's insight on commercializing science and learn how to get comfortable enough with risk to turn academic ideas into industry. Topics Covered How George defines sciencePredict and create new options for humanityGoal to build better world Why Ben & George are bringing back the woolly mammothRestore previous ratio of grass to treesSequester carbon at rate only possible in Arctic How Ben & George approach the ethical concerns re: de-extinctionBelieve in radical transparencyLearn from negative feedback, people who question Why George works at the intersection of academia and industryLikes to work with curious young peopleExposure to diversity of ideas Why Colossal needs government collaboration and supportSeveral governments, Indigenous groups in ArcticClimate change, biodiversity and species preservation How woolly mammoths promote carbon removalKnock down trees so more grass can growCold, Arctic grasslands sequester carbon particularly well The benefits of Colossal technology beyond Arctic rewildingEradicate EHV virus in elephantsPromote species conservation How Ben & George think about commercializing scienceGo beyond publication to help societyFeedback from investors and academia What makes Ben & George's partnership workGeorge's lab provides idea from academic studyBen figures out product-market fit and funding George's advice to academics on commercializing productsCan't be afraid of failureCan come back from bankruptcy How Ben & George think about taking big risksBen believed grandmother saying he could do anythingAcademic failures taught George he would survive The impact Ben & George hope to make with ColossalEx utero development, species preservationThousands of Arctic elephants to sequester carbonAdvancements in reading and writing of genomes How Ben & George define successBenefit society, facilitate survival of speciesCreate things that are additive Connect with George Church & Ben Lamm Colossal https://colossal.comColossal on Twitter https://twitter.com/ItIsColossalColossal on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/itiscolossal/Colossal on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/itiscolossal/George on Twitter https://twitter.com/geochurchBen on Twitter https://twitter.com/federallamm Resources Citizen Science https://www.citizenscience.gov/#Personal Genome Project https://www.personalgenomes.org/How to Grow (Almost) Anything https://www.media.mit.edu/courses/htgaa/DIYbio https://diybio.org/Church Lab https://arep.med.harvard.edu/Hypergiant https://www.hypergiant.com/Pleistocene Park https://pleistocenepark.ru/Chris Mason Author Talk https://mitpress.mit.edu/blog/author-talk-the-next-500-years-by-christopher-e-mason/Prehistoric Planet https://tv.apple.com/us/show/prehistoric-planet/umc.cmc.4lh4bmztauvkooqz400akxav Connect with Boost VCBoost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVCBoost VC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/boost_vc/

Jurassic Park. The Lazrus Effect. Frankenstein. All of these stories emulate our fascination with turning back the clock, to revive those which we have lost. In a time where technological advances have matched our curiosity with the past. No longer is the question if we can bring back species from the dead – but rather, should we? We love our National Parks and we know you do too but when you're out there, remember to enjoy the view but watch your back. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe from wherever you're listening to NPAD! Become part of our Outsider family on Patreon to gain access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more. Follow our socials Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. To share a Trail Tale, suggest a story, access merch, and browse our book recommendations - head over to our website. Thank you so much to our partners, check them out! Factor: Use our link and code NPAD60 to get 60% off your first box. BetterHelp: Get 10% off your first month of online therapy by using our link. Apostrophe: Get your first visit for only five dollars at our link and when you use code NPAD. Aspiration - Make your dollars make a difference. Use our link and open an Aspiration account today. Sources: National Geographic, The Atlantic, Scientific American, CNN, TechnologyWorks, Pleistocene Park, BBVA, Quanta Magazine , Mongabay News, Tasmania Parks & Wildlife, Smithsonian, Natural History, National Geographic, Griffith University, Colossal, Pleistocene Park, YouTube, Wikipedia, Mammoth, Science

What are the origins of the mega franchise? How did the book come to be? And did anybody listen to the warnings about messing with the natural order, or will we have wooly mammoths in 5 years?! Come listen and learn! a correction: Pleistocene should be pronounced “PLY-stow-seen”. Apologies to all the ice age aficionados! Evan and Taylor's projects: videos, go watch Evan's film work sign up, Taylor's weekly newsletter Contact: illiteratepod@gmail.com, email us @illiteratepod, reach out on instagram Extras: trailer, Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) article, original 1982 study on a fly in amber video, news segment with scared kid on '93 release day video, Crichton's TED talk from 1992 article, speculative viable dino DNA uncovered in fossil site, Colossal Biosciences (the wooly mammoth company) article, on Pleistocene Park in Siberia book, Jack Horner's “How to Build a Dinosaur” (2009) instagram, Evan's Jurassic Park Jeep (TJJP18) Other similar episodes to check out…Westworld, Steven Spielberg (pt 2), Batman (pt 2), Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Scream, Dune, Space Jam, Godzilla vs Kong, Justice League

The world is having enough problems with imminent natural disasters like floods, fires, hurricanes, droughts, wars - but it seems that there are much lesser known ecological processes going on that are unfolding much more slowly and seem less significant than others. What Paul from the Pleistocene & Permafrost NGO is telling us today is definitely not insignificant but very important and YOU listening in and educating yourself on this is an excellent step and will help raise awareness. Permafrost is soil that has been frozen for at least two years. A lot of it has been frozen for thousands and more years and guess what - global warming is melting a lot of this natural "ice box". Paul is helping us understand what Permafrost is, how the Pleistocene Park is helping to reverse and prevent some of the damages, what some of those important projects in Siberia and Russia etc. are doing and how animals are restoring ecological traits to permafrost areas. By the end you will understand why this topic is so important, how the thawing of permafrost affects earth and what YOU can do to support this cause❄❄ Here are a few resources to find out more: Oxford Paper on Permafrost for some light reading;) Impacts of Grazing on Permafrost soil Preserving Permafrost Video If you want to ask Paul some questions find his LinkedIN Profile here Thank you for listening

original episode notes and transcript here: https://future.a16z.com/podcasts/pleistocenepark-geoengineering-iceagebiome/Longtime podcast showrunner (2014-2022), primary host, and editor Sonal Chokshi shares three best-of episodes as she shifts gears and the show goes on hiatus until relaunched with a new host. The first of these three special rerun episodes is a conversation that originally took place in summer 2017, but both the work discussed in here – on making a really wild (quite literally wild;) geo-engineering idea at massive scale real – is still actively, relevant, and frequently discussed today (it's on bringing back lab-grown woolly mammoths, which was also discussed in the 2020 documentary with Stewart Brand, We Are As Gods). But it's also all about how we humans can and do use the power of narrative to drive great feats of change, including engineering. This has been a signature theme in forming the identity of the a16z Podcast, and the conversation that follows is one that takes place among three tech & science editors, including one of our former colleagues (who also was a host on this podcast for 4 years).links: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/pleistocene-park/517779/https://www.weareasgods.film/  

AMARAS LAG ÄR TILLBAKA. Nu blir det crispr och mammutar!Trots att de inte vandrat på jorden på tusentals år är forskare inne på att av-utrota mammutar med hjälp av Crispr, och göra dem till ett vapen mot den globala uppvärmningen. Är det en så god idé? Ania Obminska, Viktor Krylmark och Simon Campanello undersöker saken. Till sin hjälp har de vetenskapsjournalisten Torill Kornfeldt och forskaren Nikita Zimov som driver Pleistocene Park tillsammans med sin pappa.Trevlig lyssning!Vill du säga oss något?ania.obminska@nyteknik.sesimon.campanello@nyteknik.seviktor.krylmark@nyteknik.se See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Vasily Yablokov is a staff member of Greenpeace in St. Petersburg. He notes that there has been a significant change in Russian public opinion about climate change during the past two years -- but that nevertheless the majority of the population remains rather oblivious to the issue, though Russia is the country that already is suffering most from it. There are only 30 monitoring stations along the long Siberian coast. Greenpeace may be doing research with Sergey and Nikita Zimov, the Siberians who maintain Pleistocene Park and who are concerned about the emissions of methane from thawing permafrost. For the video, audio podcast, transcript, or comments: https://tosavetheworld.ca/episode-402-russian-greenpeace/.

In this episode I talk with Ralph about the research I did on cloning. We talk about cloning in fiction, current real life uses and where it might take us in the future. For more information about Pleistocene Park please watch the following YouTube video: https://youtu.be/RXAirenteRA If you think this is cool, please support the Pleistocene and Permafrost non-profit Foundation, which is helping make Pleistocene Park a reality: https://pleistocenepark.de/en/donate/ or Support Pleistocene Park on patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PleistocenePark --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/john-robertson39/support

In this episode I talk with Ralph about the research I did on cloning. We talk about cloning in fiction, current real life uses and where it might take us in the future. For more information about Pleistocene Park please watch the following YouTube video: https://youtu.be/RXAirenteRA If you think this is cool, please support the Pleistocene and Permafrost non-profit Foundation, which is helping make Pleistocene Park a reality: https://pleistocenepark.de/en/donate/ or Support Pleistocene Park on patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PleistocenePark --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/john-robertson39/support

We must cultivate our garden. Chris gets to talk to a scientist of mammoth significance, clarifying and context-ifying a topic from 4 episodes ago.   Special thanks to Nikita Zimov, Director of Pleistocene Park, for his time & insights for this episode! Twitter: https://twitter.com/PleistocenePark --- *Search Categories* Science; Anthropological --- *Topic Spoiler* Interview with Nikita Zimov, Director of Pleistocene Park --- *Further Reading* https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/519000/the-russian-scientists-bringing-back-the-ice-age/ https://pleistocenepark.ru/ https://www.patreon.com/PleistocenePark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_rewilding --- *Patreon Credits* Michaela Evans, Heather Aunspach, Annika Ramen, Zero Serres, Alyssa Ottum Jenny Lamb, Matthew Walden, Rebecca Kirsch, Pam Westergard, Ryan Quinn, Paul Sweeney, Erin Bratu, Liz T, Lianne Cole, Samantha Bayliff, Katie Larimer, Fio H, Jessica Senk, Proper Gander, Kelly Smith Upton, Nancy Carlson, Carly Westergard-Dobson, Benjamin Herman, banana

Today Mary is talking to Nikita Zimov, director of Pleistocene park. Nikita is a Russian scientist at the cutting edge of the fight against climate change. Nikita and his father Sergey have been resurrecting an Ice Age biome since 1998. Pleistocene Park is a major initiative that includes an attempt to restore the mammoth steppe ecosystem, which was dominant in the Arctic in the late Pleistocene era. The initiative requires replacement of the current unproductive northern ecosystems by highly productive pastures which have both a high animal density and a high rate of biocycling. (Biocycling is the cycle through which energy and essential substances are transferred among species)Grazing ecosystems in the Arctic promote climate cooling through series of ecological effects.Experiments with animal reintroductions were begun in 1988 including 8 major herbivore species: reindeer, Yakutian horse, moose, bison, musk ox, yak, Kalmykian cow and sheep. It will soon hopefully welcome the genetically cloned Woolly Mammoth that is predicted to be born in the next six years.This project has the capacity to spread across the Arctic region and reduce worldwide carbon emissions by up to 20%. We have much to thank these tough resilient scientists who started and have been running Pleistocene Park with no recognition until very recently. Suddenly everyones heads are turned in their direction and the world is looking at their important work and their life's quest to save this planet.Nikita Zimov is the Director of Pleistocene Park, a nature reserve on the Kolyma River south of Chersky in the Sakha Republic, Russia, in northeastern Siberia. In the early 2000s, Nikita attended one of Russia's top science high schools, in Novosibirsk, and then stayed there at the state university for undergraduate and master's degrees in math and computer modeling.Nikita grew up on the research station and returned to the Arctic after graduation to contribute to the scientific discoveries and development of the Pleistocene Park. The park is a scientific experiment on reconstruction of grazing ecosystems in the Arctic and mitigating climate change. It was originally found by Sergey Zimov, Nikita's father, in 1988. The aim of the project and Zimov's work is to research the climatic effects of the expected changes in the ecosystem as it relates to permafrost melting.Contact Nikita and check out the project at https://pleistocenepark.ruRecommended book39 Ways to save the planetBy:Tom HeapContact Mary Bermingham atmary@burrennaturesanctuary.ieCheck out Burren Nature Sanctuary at www.burrennaturesanctuary.ieSupport the Nature Magic Podcast athttps://www.patreon.com/naturemagicShow websitewww.naturemagic.ieWe would like to thank Professor Martin Bunzl for sponsoring this episodeFind his new book Thinking While Walkinghttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-while-Walking-Reflections-Pacific/dp/0578882221www.mbunzl.com

Small steppes can have Mammoth effects. Chris takes us on a journey to the far reaches of the Earth to find some unintuitive science and some unlikely helpers in the fight to save civilization from our changing climate. Special thanks to guest Caelen from Atlas Pro (https://www.youtube.com/c/AtlasPro1/community) for his time and insights for this episode! --- *Search Categories* Science/Pseudoscience; Anthropological --- *Topic Spoiler* Pleistocene Park --- *Further Reading* https://pleistocenepark.ru/ https://www.patreon.com/PleistocenePark Atlas Pro's Pleistocene Park video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXAirenteRA The documentary "Mammoth": https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/519000/the-russian-scientists-bringing-back-the-ice-age/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping_points_in_the_climate_system https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-nine-tipping-points-that-could-be-triggered-by-climate-change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_feedback https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-melting-permafrost-is-beginning-to-transform-the-arctic https://www.nwtgeoscience.ca/services/permafrost-thaw-slumps https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/pleistocene-park/517779/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewilding_(conservation_biology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_rewilding https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-04-30/bold-plan-slow-melt-arctic-permafrost-could-help-reverse-global-warming https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/news-arctic-permafrost-may-thaw-faster-than-expected https://www.cbsnews.com/news/siberia-pleistocene-park-bringing-back-pieces-of-the-ice-age-to-combat-climate-change-60-minutes/ https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2020/12/19/one-russian-scientist-hopes-to-slow-the-thawing-of-the-arctic https://www.newsweek.com/permafrost-preserved-until-2100-horses-reindeer-bison-climate-change-1492939?fbclid=IwAR0dYoAm5F24skXLem8SC6FbaiVwyPos_Ve81MVao-nbHA2rk5INcRRosrA https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-wooly-mammoth-lumbers-back-into-view https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/welcome-pleistocene-park-russian-scientists-say-high-chance-cloning-woolly-mammoth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Zimov https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-answer-to-climate-change-is-organizing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holistic_management_(agriculture) https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_fight_desertification_and_reverse_climate_change?language=en https://savory.global/ https://blog.ted.com/allan-savorys-how-to-fight-desertification-and-reverse-climate-change-criticisms-updates/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holistic_management_(agriculture)   --- *Patreon Credits* Michaela Evans, Heather Aunspach, Annika Ramen, Zero Serres Rebecca Kirsch, Pam Westergard, Alyssa Ottum, Ryan Quinn, Paul Sweeney, Erin Bratu, Liz T, Lianne Cole, Samantha Bayliff, Katie Larimer, Fio H, Jessica Senk, Proper Gander, Kelly Smith Upton, Nancy Carlson, Carly Westergard-Dobson, Benjamin Herman, Anna Krasner

The concept behind Pleistocene Park is deceptively simple: rewild the Pleistocene Siberian arctic, slow the effects of climate change in the arctic. All it takes to revive the 10,000-year-old Mammoth Steppe, restore permafrost, and seriously reduce carbon and methane emissions--according to scientists--is releasing long-gone megafauna and watching the ecosystem shift under their influence. The park is an incredible experiment, but more incredible is the paleoscience, climate science, grassland ecosystem development, and the incredible work of Sergey and Nikita Zimov to show that the science can work in practice. Primary Sources: Be sure to check out photos and more at our site! Nikita Zimov: Pleistocene Park & Rewilding Siberia to Save the Climate. Webinar hosted by Sustainable Design Masterclass. Beer, C., Zimov, N., Olofsson, J. et al. Protection of Permafrost Soils from Thawing by Increasing Herbivore Density. Sci Rep 10, 4170 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60938-y Zimov, S. A., Zimov, N. S., Tikhonov, A. N., & Chapin, F. S. (2012). Mammoth steppe: a high-productivity phenomenon. Quaternary Science Reviews, 57, 26–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.10.005 Zimov, N. Pleistocene Park. https://pleistocenepark.ru/ Our Contact Website Facebook Twitteinfo@grasslandgroupies.org Pleistocene Park Website Instagram Twitter

End of year slog…Menu divingSecretly 87IconographyCurse of Oak IslandSilver in a holeScience fiction stories and nuclear disasterDrivingRocky Falls HeadcutsThoughts on elk in MissouriTo when are we restoring?A leading megafauna question….Pleistocene Park to save the permafrostCold adapted elephantMiming the May PoleCouch cornerFoster shelter for couchesBack to the office

End of year slog…Menu divingSecretly 87IconographyCurse of Oak IslandSilver in a holeScience fiction stories and nuclear disasterDrivingRocky Falls HeadcutsThoughts on elk in MissouriTo when are we restoring?A leading megafauna question….Pleistocene Park to save the permafrostCold adapted elephantMiming the May PoleCouch cornerFoster shelter for couchesBack to the office

Heather Alexander is an assistant professor in forest ecology in Auburn University, United States. She is an expert in the areas of forest, fire and disturbance ecology. She studies the impacts of changing fire regimes of forest succession, dynamics influence of tree traits on forest flammability and the consequences of changing forest composition on forest ecosystem function. With Heather, we talked about the impacts of increasing wildfire severity on forests, how the melting permafrost affect them, the Sergei Zimov experiment and the Pleistocene Park project in Siberia, the benefits and cons of reforestation and offsetting programs, "playing God" with the environment and ecosystems, and scientists and the activism dilemma. Transcript and references of this episode are available on Go Simone's website: http://gosimone.org/episode-20-heather-alexander-forest-ecology/

Rising temperatures are melting the permafrost that covers 65% of Russia and a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, with disastrous effects for the people who live on it.

What does this film tell us about the benefits and risks associated with reviving long extinct life forms? What is the interplay between scientific inquiry and entrepreneurial efforts in the film? What are the competing motivations in such cases? Do such projects as the real-world enterprise "Pleistocene Park" run similar risks while offering their possible benefits? If so, how might they be mitigated? Is it, in principle, impossible to predict consequences of playing with complex systems, such as eco-systems? If so, should we abstain from doing so?

In this episode, our co-hosts sit down with three amazing guests doing great work with rural schools, teachers, and policy. We talk with Gary Funk of the Rural Schools Collaborative, Allen Pratt of the National Rural Education Association, and Hailey Winkelman of the I Am A Rural Teacher Campaign. Listen in as we uncover some of the work the groups are taking on to address the issues rural teachers face, while also bringing to light countless success stories. Plugs include American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, Bandlab, Common Sense Media, National Novel Writing Month, Pleistocene Park, Audible, and Defunctland. Music by Ketsa.

Cosa c'entra Jurassic Park e la genetica con la crisi climatica?In che modo riportare i mammuth in siberia può rallentare lo scioglimento del permafrost?Ecco a voi la soluzione più assurda della storia per rallentare la crisi climatica: ricreare Pleistocene Park e riportare in vita la steppa dei mammuth scomparsa 12'000 anni fa.sito ufficiale:https://pleistocenepark.ru/reportage ANSAhttps://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/magazine/numeri/2019/08/30/soluzione-siberiana_62346e2e-fc50-46d8-bbec-ad50036aa15c.html

Hos Spækbrættet betyder uddød ikke slutningen på en art. Og det gør det heller ikke for alle de forskere der arbejder med de-extinction biologi! Disse forskere bruger deres hårdt tjente fondsmidler til at finde ud af hvordan vi får en Jurassic Park i virkeligheden! Men fornuftigt. Følg med os når vi undersøger hvad de-extinction egentlig er og hvilken uddød høne vi helst vil have tilbage!Støt Spækbrættet på https://spaekbraettet.10er.app/.Du kan også tjekke vores webshop: bit.ly/spækshop! Vi har T-shirts, kaffekopper og tasker! Og meget mere! Der er også en hønsetrøje!Fortæl om Spækbrættet! Vi er både på iTunes og Spotify og alle andre steder! Bit.ly/spækitunes - bit.ly/spækspotSend os water hilarious science eller stil et spørgsmål på facebook, Instagram eller spaekbraettet@gmail.comTak til Christian Eiming for disclaimer.Husk at være dumme

Deep in Siberia, Nikita Zimov is restoring the Pleistocene ecosystem to combat climate change and undo the damage done by ancient over-hunting. Wolf Tivy interviews him to find out how and why. To get involved or donate, visit the Pleistocene Park's official site and check out the Patreon.

Join Stevie Foxette and Becca Audrey as they discuss mountain lions, what the word “nimrod” actually means, our fake Game of Thrones house, our plans for Pleistocene Park, coexisting with nature, and how “fallow deer” sound like they hold dire prophecy. Cosmopolitan recipe, shoutouts and sources can be found here.

A significant amount of carbon has been stored in Arctic permafrost for tens of thousands of years. And unless we take radical steps to restore the ecosystem that we destroyed there, the permafrost will melt and release 1400 GT of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. This dwarfs the amount humans generate annually and would accelerate climate change on an exponential scale. So, what can we do to reestablish the grasslands and reintroduce the animals that used to dominate the region? And what do we do if the wildlife that supported the ecosystem have since gone extinct? Can we use ancient DNA to create hybrid elephant-mammoths with the potential to thrive there?  Nikita Zimov is the Director of Pleistocene Park, a project in northern Siberia using wild grazing animals to reestablish climate-stabilizing grasslands in the region. The initiative began in 1988, and to date, the 20 km^2 is home to 8 major herbivore species. George Church is a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and pioneer in the realm of genome sequencing. Through his work with Revive & Restore, George and his team are working to de-extinct the genes of the woolly mammoth to save the Asian elephant from extinction and populate Pleistocene Park. Today, George and Nikita join Ross and Christophe to share the vision for Pleistocene Park and the ground-breaking work in genome editing that supports the reintroduction of megafauna to the region. Nikita explains why restoring grasslands to the Arctic is crucial in mitigating climate change, and George discusses his work to make elephants compatible with warm and cold temperatures. They also cover the ethical questions regarding genome editing and the worst-case scenarios around restoring the grassland ecosystem in Siberia. Listen in to understand the potential to scale and perhaps replicate Pleistocene Park around the globe and learn how to support George and Nikita’s work to prevent the degradation of permafrost and reverse climate change!   Connect with Ross & Christophe  Nori Nori on Facebook Nori on Twitter Nori on Medium Nori on YouTube Nori on GitHub Email hello@nori.com Nori White Paper Subscribe on iTunes   Resources Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warmingedited by Paul Hawken Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creaturesby Ben Mezrich Pleistocene Park Pleistocene Park on Facebook Pleistocene Park Foundation Revive & Restore Woolly Mammoth Revival on Revive & Restore Carbon Removal Newsroom Review RCC on iTunes   Key Takeaways [1:31] George’s path to reversing climate change Fascinated with mammoths as kid (1964 World’s Fair) Apply next generation sequencing to ancient DNA Multiple edits to elephant genome, cope w/ new needs  [3:40] The definition of genome sequencing Ability to read and write DNA Synthesize or edit to hybrid of ancient + modern species [4:59] Nikita’s path to reversing climate change Father’s idea to restore grassland in Arctic Took over family business [5:43] The vision for Pleistocene Park Grasses need animals to compete with shrubs, trees Bring animals back and mitigate climate change [8:35] Why grassland is valuable to the Arctic Current sparse vegetation can’t store much CO2 Restored soil could store 100kg of carbon/m2 Prevent degradation of permafrost [14:29] Why Pleistocene Park needs megafauna Trample snow in winter to protect permafrost Support grass in competing w/ other vegetation [16:50] George’s work to edit the elephant genome Done necessary # of edits in pigs, human cells Nuclear transfer to African elephant eggs or grow embryo in lab Resistant to herpes, compatible w/ warm + cold temperatures [19:40] The ethical questions associated with genome editing Impact on modern species Ability to reverse changes [21:30] The groundbreaking nature of George’s work First time organism depends on functioning of de-extinct genes Develop cold-resistant elephants (‘elemmoths’) [22:27] George’s take on what could go wrong Permafrost melts, release 1400 GT on CO2+ methane Cold-resistant elephants fail to breed well [24:35] The opportunities around genome editing with other animals George’s focus to support endangered species (vs. extinct) High-quality DNA available from passenger pigeons, aurochs [26:50] Nikita’s plans to scale Pleistocene Park Relatively easy to extend 10X (no competing financial interest) Need to replicate in Alaska, Canada for meaningful impact [29:25] The Russian government’s position on climate change Land for Pleistocene Park given tax-free Shift to accept idea that climate change real [31:38] The potential for unforeseen consequences at Pleistocene Park Worst-case scenario to do nothing Greatest concern = working quickly enough Trees doomed anyway if permafrost thaws Ecosystem big enough for migration [37:47] What’s next for George Communicate possibility of reversal through film of Woolly Experiments on ground + in lab [38:53] What’s next for Nikita Introduce new animals, extend territory of park Increase # of herbivores + introduce predators

Thanks for tuning in and we really appreciate everyone who takes the time to listen to this podcast. You rock!   - Intros and shout outs - Fantasy Football - Story Time - Jurassic Park - Games - Outros   We appreciate everyone who listened to the show and hope you enjoyed yourself :)

Are you seeing double? Explore the wild world of cloning: gene-editing, facilitated adaptation, de-extinction, Pleistocene Park, and more with host Natalia Reagan, comic co-host Chuck Nice, biological anthropologist Ryan Raaum, and Ross MacPhee, Curator of Mammalogy at the AMNH.NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/all-access/cloning-genetics-and-ethics-with-natalia-reagan/Credit: Image by Mauricio Antón [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia CommonsDon't miss an episode of StarTalk All-Stars. Subscribe on:Apple Podcasts: https://itun.es/us/P9kphb.cTuneIn: tunein.com/startalkallstarsSoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/startalk_all-starsStitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/startalk-allstarsGoogle Play Music: https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/I2nz5bguurd5se7zu4fhnd25lk4

Are you seeing double? Explore the wild world of cloning: gene-editing, facilitated adaptation, de-extinction, Pleistocene Park, and more with host Natalia Reagan, comic co-host Chuck Nice, biological anthropologist Ryan Raaum, and Ross MacPhee, Curator of Mammalogy at the AMNH. NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/all-access/cloning-genetics-and-ethics-with-natalia-reagan/ Credit: Image by Mauricio Antón [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons Don’t miss an episode of StarTalk All-Stars. Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts: https://itun.es/us/P9kphb.c TuneIn: tunein.com/startalkallstars SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/startalk_all-stars Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/startalk-allstars Google Play Music: https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/I2nz5bguurd5se7zu4fhnd25lk4

Here's what we know: There's a pair (father and son) of Russian scientists trying to resurrect (or rather, "rewild") an Ice Age (aka Pleistocene era) biome (grassland) complete with (gene edited, lab-grown) woolly mammoths (derived from elephants). In Arctic Siberia (though, not at the one station there that Amazon Prime delivers to!). Here's what we don't know: How many genes will it take? (with science doing the "sculpting" and nature doing the "polishing")? How many doctors will it take to make? (that is, grow these 200-pound babies in an artificial womb)? What happens if these animals break? (given how social elephants are)? And so on... In this episode of the a16z Podcast -- recorded as part of our podcast on the road in Washington, D.C. -- we (Sonal Chokshi and Hanne Tidnam) discuss all this and more with Ross Andersen, senior editor at The Atlantic who wrote "Welcome to Pleistocene Park", a story that seems so improbably wild yet is so improbably true. And while we focus on the particulars of what it takes to make this seemingly Jurassic Park-like story true, this episode is more generally about what motivates seemingly crazy ideas -- moving them from the lab to the field (quite literally in this case!) -- often with the help of a little marketing, a big vision, and some narrative. And: time. Sometimes, a really, really, really long time... image: National Park Service

Cymene and Dominic talk drone dreams, disappearing glaciers and boring sagas and then (13:07) the wonderful Sophia Roosth (Harvard, History of Science) joins the pod to talk about, among other things, her excellent new book, Synthetic: How Life Got Made (U Chicago Press, 2017). We begin with synthetic biology, where it came from and what counts as “life” and what counts as “making” in the field. We then discuss how synthetic biologists think their way between creation, construction, and design, the noise and signal of life, exegesis as an evolutionary force, whether genetically modified organisms are queer lifeforms, and how synthetic biology and maker culture intersected in the amateur DIY bio community. We talk about intellectual property, venture capital and how bioengineering came to be captured by the logic of industrial capitalism. We turn from there to bioterror and why synthetic biology doesn't make Sophia's top ten list of things to be scared about. We cover biological salvage and deextinction experiments like Pleistocene Park and Sophia explains how synthetic biology has unsettled scientific understandings of “species.” Finally we hear a bit about her fascinating new work with geobiologists on the origins of life. Listen on!

Ian and Jesse discuss the idea of bringing extinct species back into existence. Should we forget about extinct species and focus exclusively on preserving what's alive today, or could we see the return of dodos, mammoths, and even dinosaurs?   Links to topics discussed: The 6th Extinction Long Now's Revive and Restore project Candidates for de-extinction The Passenger Pigeon Project George Church defends de-extinction The Harvard Mammoth project The Chicken-Saurus Pleistocene Park article Pleistocene Park documentary   Unsponsored Ad: AVA Byte - Foolproof indoor gardening.   Theme music, used with permission, by Jonathan Coulton.

One of the most fascinating climate change stories of the year comes from Ross Anderson at The Atlantic. In "Welcome to Pleistocene Park", Ross writes about Pleistocene Park, a reserve in Siberia that aims to stave off climate change by attempting to recreate the conditions of the Pleistocene, turning the reserve into a grassland steppe ecosystem by importing large herbivores. The article also explores the possibilities of bringing back the woolly mammoth, specifically for a place like Pleistocene park. Read the full article at The Atlantic - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/pleistocene-park/517779/ Ross Anderson joins hosts Jacquelyn Gill and Andy Revkin for a discussion on this compelling project and related issues like long timescales, our understanding of the anthropocene, the ethics of rewilding, and the culture of elephants. Check out the recommended reading list below: Pop-up forests: https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/warming-arctic-tundra-producing-pop-up-forests/ Elephant memories: https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/on-elephants-memories-human-forgetfulness-and-disaster/ Links to IIASA’s 2300 projections are here (with context on long time scales): https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/three-long-views-of-life-with-rising-seas/ We've staved off next ice age (Jim Hansen in 03 and many others since): http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/science/when-will-the-next-ice-age-begin.html Jacquelyn's blog on mammoth cloning: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/cloning-woolly-mammoths-its-the-ecology-stupid/ Stephen Jay Gould's Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: https://www.amazon.com/Times-Arrow-Cycle-Geological-Jerusalem-Harvard/dp/0674891996 -- Thumbnail image courtesy of Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith https://www.flickr.com/photos/slobirdr/ Do you want to support this podcast – while also earning money and helping the U.S. solar industry? Check out our sponsor, WunderCapital, which has developed an online platform to help individuals invest directly in solar projects and earn up to 8.5%. Set up an account: WunderCapital.com/warm.

สินค้าทายอินประจำตอน / พูดคัยกับอาจารย์ป้อง ดร.สุรเวช สุธีธร ต่อ / ข่าวฟอสซิลใหม่ ไดโนเสาร์ปีกค้างคาว / ไดโนเสาร์ไทย / สไปโนซอร์ / เจาะลึกซอโรพ็อด / เซ็กส์และการวางไข่เลี้ยงลูกของไดโนเสาร์ / แผนที่โลกยุคโบราณ / เอกลักษณ์ไดโนเสาร์แถบเอเซีย / โคลนนิ่งแบบจูแรสสิกปาร์ค เป็นไปได้หรือไม่ / โคลนนิ่งแมมม็อธ ทำ Pleistocene Park/ ตอบคำถามทางบ้าน / ฟอสซิลขี้ฉลาม ดักแด้หิน ------------------------------------------------------------- SHOW NOTE แขกรับเชิญ อาจารย์ป้อง ดร.สุรเวช สุธีธร นักบรรพชีวินวิทยาจากม.มหาสารคาม รูปตอนเรียน ป. เอก คู่กับกระดูกสันหลังซอโรพอด ในห้องคลังตัวอย่างที่เบอลิน สินค้า Tie-in 1. สติกเกอร์ Line ไดโนเสาร์ ออกแบบโดยน้องนะโม เพื่อนจารย์ป้องครับ   2. หนังสือ ไดโนเสาร์ของไทย โดยลุงหมู อ.วราวุธ สุธีธร เล่มนี้กรมทรัพฯ จัดทำไว้แจก ไม่มีขายที่ไหนนะครับ แถมเหลือจำนวนจำกัดมาก ไว้ให้สำหรับคนที่สนใจบริจาคสมทบทุนสร้างอาคารครอบหลุมขุดค้นที่ภูน้อยครับ ติดต่อเข้ามาได้ครับ 3. บอร์ดเกมThe  Xvolution โดยทีมงานเพื่อนจารย์ป้องเช่นกันครับ ราคาน่าจะอยู่ที่ประมาณ 1500 เดี๋ยวประกาศชัวร์ๆ อีกทีครับ ทั้งหมดนี้ สนใจติดต่อได้ทาง https://www.facebook.com/witcastthailand ขอบคุณมากครับ WiT news ค้นพบไดโนเสาร์ปีกค้างคาว / convergent evolution / ชื่อเล่น Yi Qi -1,2,3,4   ไดโนเสาร์ไทย ภูเวียงโกซอรัส สิรินธรเน สยามโมไทรันนัส อิสานเอนซิส สยามโมซอรัส สุธีธรนี่ ซิตตะโกซอรัส สัตยารักษ์กี (ปากนกแก้ว)   พวกหัวเหม่ง (Pachycephalosaurus) ฟอสซิลแมลงสาบ ฟันพวกสไปโนซอร์ (หน้าตัดกลมๆ เหมือนฟันจระเข้ แต่ชี้เข้าคอเหมือนฟันไดโนเสาร์) เทียบกับฟันจระเข้ เทียบกับฟัน T-Rex จะชี้เข้าคอเหมือนกันแต่ทรงแบนๆ กว่า วิถีชีวิตสไปโนซอร์ หลักฐานบ่งชี้ว่าอยู่กับน้ำ -1,2,3,4 เทียบไซส์กับ T-Rex   ฟอสซิล Trilobite   กรามไดโนเสาร์กินเนื้อที่คณะจารย์ป้องเพิ่งขุดเจอและเฉลิมฉลองกันไป   ความใหญ่ของซอโรพ็อด Dreadnoughtus Argentinosaurus Brachiosaurus มีฟันสำรองข้างในหลายชุด งอกใหม่ได้เรื่อยๆ   ขนาดสมอง   เซ็กส์ไดโนเสาร์   วางไข่เลี้ยงลูก ฟอสซิล Oviraptor   แผนที่โลกสมัยโบราณ Memenchisaurus คอยาวกว่าซอโรพ็อดอื่นๆ เป็นเอกลักษณ์ที่พบเยอะแถบเอเซียในยุคจูแรสสิก Pleistocene Park -1 เทคนิก CRISPR cas9   เก็บตกคำถามจากทางบ้าน แผนที่อายุหิน ฆ้อนธรณี พิพิธภัณฑ์ไดโนเสาร์และธรณีวิทยา ปทุมธานี ข่าวที่อาบันพูดถึงว่าไดโนเสาร์อาจจะไม่ใช่ทั้งเลือดอุ่นหรือเลือดเย็น - 1 บรอนโตซอรัส ได้ชื่อกลับมาแล้ว -1 ฟอสซิลขี้ฉลามน้ำจืด (ดักแด้หิน) เส้นทางไดโนเสาร์สะออน   บรรยากาศที่ทำงานจารย์ป้อง สนใจไปค่ายปิดเทอม หรืออาสาช่วยขุดได้นะครับ ติดต่อผ่าน WiTcast มาก็ได้ครับ   ภาพจากคอลัมน์ คุยวิทย์สะกิดใจ ตอน "ไดโนป้อง"

In the 20 years since the release of the film Jurassic Park, DNA cloning technologies have advanced dramatically. Professor Adam Hart asks whether we could and should start bringing extinct animals back from the dead. The fossilised remains of dinosaurs are too degraded to hold any viable DNA, so Jurassic Park is unlikely to be a reality. But what about Pleistocene Park? Deep frozen remains of Arctic animals like the woolly mammoth or the Irish elk, have been shown to contain DNA - but is it in a good enough condition to rebuild the genome and attempt cloning these animals which became extinct nearly 4000 years ago? Some people think it could work. But should we even be considering it? With so many plants and animals threatened with extinction now, should we be wasting time and resources on bringing back animals that didn't make the cut? Adam Hart asks experts in ancient DNA whether the code for life could be resurrected in animals such as the mammoth, the passenger pigeon, the dodo, the marsupial tiger, or the thylacine. And he asks conservationists whether we should be doing it.

Death is still forever, but extinction may not be---at least for creatures that humans drove extinct in the last 10,000 years. Woolly mammoths might once again nurture their young in northern snows. Passenger pigeon flocks could return to America’s eastern forest. The great auk may resume fishing the coasts of the northern Atlantic. New genomic technology can reassemble the genomes of extinct species whose DNA is still recoverable from museum specimens and some fossils (no dinosaurs), and then, it is hoped, the genes unique to the extinct animal can be brought back to life in the framework of the genome of the closest living relative of the extinct species. For woolly mammoths, it’s the Asian elephant; for passenger pigeons, the band-tailed pigeon; for great auks, the razorbill. Other plausible candidates are the ivory-billed woodpecker, Carolina parakeet, Eskimo curlew, thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), dodo, Xerces blue butterfly, saber-toothed cat, Steller’s sea cow, cave bear, giant ground sloth, etc. The Long Now Foundation has taken “de-extinction” on as a project called “Revive & Restore,” led by Ryan Phelan and Stewart Brand. They organized a series of conferences of the relevant molecular biologists and conservation biologists culminating in TEDxDeExtinction, held at National Geographic in March. They hired a young scientist, Ben Novak, to work full time on reviving the passenger pigeon. He is now at UC Santa Cruz working in the lab of ancient-DNA expert Beth Shapiro. This talk summarizes the progress of current de-extinction projects (Europe’s aurochs, Spain’s bucardo, Australia’s gastric brooding frog, America’s passenger pigeon) and some “ancient ecosystem revival” projects---Pleistocene Park in Siberia, the Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands, and Makauwahi Cave in Kaua’i. De-extinction has been described as a “game changer” for conservation. How might that play out for the best, and how might it go astray? In an era of “anthropocene ecology,” is it now possible to repair some of the deepest damage we have caused in the past?

Janet Jansson is the Senior Staff Scientist in the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Her expertise is in molecular microbial ecology and “omics” approaches with a focus on soil, marine sediment and human gut environments.TranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: Welcome to spectrum the science and technology show on k a l x Berkeley, [00:00:30] a biweekly 30 minute program, bringing you interviews featuring bay area scientists and technologists as well as a calendar of local events and news. Speaker 3: Good afternoon. I'm your host, Brad Swift. Today's interview is with Janet Jansen, UC Berkeley, adjunct professor of molecular microbial ecology. She is a senior staff scientist in the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and president elect of the International Society of microbial [00:01:00] ecology. Her expertise is in the area of molecular microbial ecology and Omix approaches with a focus on soil, marine sediment and human gut environments. Today she talks about the human microbiome project, the Earth microbiome project and American Gut, a crowdsourced research project. Onto that interview. Janet Jansen, welcome to spectrum. Hi, what'd you give us a short description [00:01:30] of microbial ecology and give some examples of complex microbial communities. Speaker 4: Sure. So microbial ecology is the study of micro organisms in the environment and their interactions with other microorganisms, plants, animals, that particular habitat that they happen to be living in. So it's really not just studying a single microorganism, but a community of microorganisms. Uh, so some examples [00:02:00] of complex communities. Well, the most complex ecosystem is soil and that's because it has such a diversity of microorganisms and it's really packed full of microbes. So there's so many microorganisms living in soil. So that combined with the diversity makes it a very complex system. The human ecosystem is very complex. Our own intestines have a very complex microbial community. [00:02:30] The oceans or other examples, sediments. So I think this is my community college that you had to think differently than one would when you study organisms in pure culture and their physiology is much more complex Speaker 3: and microbial research seems to have jumped in stature in the past few years. You have a broader view of it than I do. What's your take on the trajectory of microbial research? I think Speaker 4: [00:03:00] particularly the microbial ecology part has increased in stature recently. Microbiology as a field has been around for a long time. But the thing that I think has really boosted the field of microbial ecology is the advent of these new technologies, the new tools to be able to really look at these complex communities and understand them. Until I guess it was about the 1980s there wasn't [00:03:30] any way to really look at these micro organisms in soil. Again, I'll use that as an example, unless you cultivated them onto augur media or looked at them in a microscope. So when the field was limited to looking at what was possible to cultivate, that was only a fraction of the microorganisms that live in soil habitat. So probably fewer than 10% could be cultivated. So the majority of the organisms that were there, [00:04:00] nobody knew anything about them. Their identities or their functions were really unknown. Speaker 4: So it was considered like a black box eco system. But after the late, I guess the 80s and into the 90s there were the developments in DNA extraction techniques. So it was possible to extract DNA from soil and then came PCR amplification methods and methods to be able to amplify specific [00:04:30] pieces of DNA that you had extracted that made it possible to actually study soil microorganisms without cultivating them. And now we have these deep sequencing technologies, so it's really made it much easier to do very deep analysis of these communities and not have to rely on cultivation. Speaker 3: The human microbiome project is in its last year. What were the goals of it and can you speak to that about what the goals were and what you think [00:05:00] you've found out? Speaker 4: The first stage of the h and p was to sequence different bodies sites and understand which micro organisms are residing in different sites in the human body. And so this was looking at a large cohort of humans, healthy humans, and just basically understanding who are the microbial inhabitants of the human body. So that part is winding down. We have that knowledge now. We know that there are different micro organisms that live on your skin, [00:05:30] then in in your gut for examples and also in the oral cavity. So these organisms are specialized to live in different parts of the human body and there are differences between different individuals though. So that means that each human has their own individual microbiome and it can almost be used as a fingerprint. So that was a successfully completed project. The next stage there has been a recent call too, I think it's even called h and p two [00:06:00] to go the next step. So to use other kinds of methods to look at not only which microorganisms are there, but what are they doing. So this would be looking at the functional capabilities of the human microbiome. Another thing that is still ongoing with the h and p is looking at how does disease influence the human microbiome and vice versa. What is the correlation with the microorganisms living with us and disease? And it seems like there are many different links between many [00:06:30] human disease that send the human microbiome Speaker 3: [inaudible] [inaudible]. Speaker 5: Our guest today is microbiologists, Janet Jansen. In the next segment she talks about the microbiome and disease correlation. This is k a l x, Berkeley. Speaker 3: Well, and often in science there's a lot of correlation [00:07:00] that goes on and sometimes you get fooled by the correlation. Sometimes you don't. Are there strategies you use in terms of validating what you think correlates? Speaker 4: Oh, correlations are can be quite challenging. Definitely. So, um, that's an interesting question because then one of the things that is very tricky is if you find a difference in an environmental sample, for example, with the civic treatment or in a human with disease often all we have, [00:07:30] we can then say, well it's correlated to this organism that is higher in abundance or it's correlated to this protein that is higher or lower in abundance. That's a little frustrating. So that the next step, and we're not quite there yet in this field, would be then to say, okay, go beyond correlations and then actually do the proof, you know, to take that organism like Cox postulates, you then prove that this correlation that you see is actually [00:08:00] occurring. But it's difficult with these complex samples, like I was saying before, because you have to move away from the complex environment where you have all these different factors. Speaker 3: So the complexity defeats you in a way because you can't isolate the specific from the general. Exactly. Exactly. And so within this correlation of disease, are there particular diseases that seem to be top priorities in a sense or are most likely to be effected by [00:08:30] the microbiome? An example of Crohn's diseases, Speaker 4: Crohn's disease is the example. I would give us a very clear example and also other inflammatory bowel diseases where there has already been established a link between the gut microbiome and the disease. The details are still under investigation, but there is a difference in the micro organisms that inhabit the intestine in individuals that have Crohn's disease compared to healthy. [00:09:00] So that's known. Speaker 3: And is that the case with ulcers as well? Or they were sort of one of the first, it seems that had this association with the microbiome in the gut, Speaker 4: right. So systemic ulcers, there was a Nobel prize awarded for the discovery of [inaudible] go back to Pylori as the cause of ulcers in the stomach. And so that's a good example, this specific microorganism that can contribute to a disease. And then of course a lot of medications were subsequently [00:09:30] developed to dampen hillcoat back to pylori through new research. We know that there is a considerable diversity of microorganisms in the stomach that people weren't aware of before using these techniques and also in your teeth and then in the oral cavity. There's a very large diversity. I should mention that one of the things that is a really hot topic right now is the link between the brain and the human microbiome, including [00:10:00] the gut microbiome because it's known that some of the metabolites that are produced by these intestinal microbes can pass the blood barrier and then migrated essentially in impact the brain, so some current research is looking at the link between autism and schizophrenia, these kinds of things. Then I think that's really interesting. That's one future direction of the field. Speaker 3: The new initiative in brain mapping exactly [00:10:30] now ties that together. That would be great. At least the findings here was just a new funding. Speaker 4: Yeah, I know. I don't know if they've really decided to make that link for funding, but it probably will come. Speaker 3: Can you talk a bit about American gut and how it's set up to help people figure out their own microbiome? Speaker 4: Sure. So the American get is, it's a relatively new way of doing research [00:11:00] is crowdsourcing. And the idea is that if a person such as myself is interested in knowing quip, my gut microbiome is I can pay a small amount, it's like $100 to get my sample sequence. So that is the way that the project is funded. And so this project, it had a funding goal, I think it was $300,000 to be able to launch the sequencing. And so there was the campaign [00:11:30] and it was sent out to the community and through connections such as Facebook and another with this nice little carrot that if you pay $100 you can get your microbiome. And in addition to gut, it could be your skin sample, oral cavity, your pet. And so this idea really caught on and is a good example of crowdsourcing for funding. Speaker 3: And how are people able to leverage that information? [00:12:00] Is there some characterization that you do as well? Speaker 4: The data that they get back is, it's different kinds of information. So first which micro organisms do I have? That's kind of fun to know. It's sort of like 23 and me where you get information back about which genes you have in, which kind of markers for different things. So depending on your microbial community composition, you may have markers that are more indicative of health, certain kinds of diets like [00:12:30] vegetarian or a protein rich diet, even obesity, there's certain microbial indicators of obesity. So that's just interesting. Another thing that is valuable for the consumer, the person who does this is that you can compare your microbiome to everybody else's. It's all anonymous of course. And nobody knows who's this, who's, but you have your own data and can see how your microbiome fits into a pattern. So do you cluster [00:13:00] with obese people or with a disease type microbiome or a certain kind of eating pattern Speaker 3: and are these online tools that you have available through American gut for people to do this kind of characterization? Speaker 4: So the analysis has to be done by the actual scientists that are doing the samples because it's still quite elaborate and involves a lot of bioinformatics. So currently it's not possible [00:13:30] to do a lot of that on your own, but still to get an output, the actual data, the results of the analysis is what the individual can get through this project. Speaker 2: [inaudible] you were listening to spectrum on a k a l x Berkeley. Our guest today is Janet Jensen. In the next segment she talks about the earth microbiome project. Speaker 3: [00:14:00] Can you talk a bit about the earth microbiome project and maybe differentiate it from the human project? Speaker 4: Yeah, sure. So the Earth microbiome project, which I'll call the emp, is, um, instead of just looking at humans, it's including basically all of earth. So it has a very lofty goal of understanding earth microbial diversity. That project also relies [00:14:30] on collaborators, so it's sort of a crowdsourcing project as well, but limited to the scientific community. So the way that Earth microbiome project works is if a collaborator has an interesting set of samples, for example, from the deep sea or from Yellowstone hot springs that have the required kinds of environmental data, so Ph, nutrients, things like that. Then they can [00:15:00] send an email to the steering committee and say, well, would this study be of interest to the earth microbiome project to the ENP? And then the steering committee looks through the data and decides whether the environmental data is sufficient and if the samples are filling a hole and providing novel information and if so the samples are accepted and the sequencing is done without any costs to the investigator. That's the win win scenario for the emp [00:15:30] because the investigator does of course provide the funding for the study and collection of the samples and the emp provides the funding for the sequencing. Now the funding for emp is also kind of fuzzy because it's through different kinds of companies that have supported by providing regions or equipment and then in turn they get advertisement through the emp that they're sponsors of the project. And so that [00:16:00] also seems to be quite successful. Speaker 3: And the intent again to build a catalog Speaker 4: basically, yes, to build a catalog to find out who's there and are there patterns. The nice thing about heading samples from so many different disparate environments is that you can see, well does this particular microorganism occur across different kinds of environments or is it really endemic only to one kind of habitat? And if you tweak the environment, [00:16:30] for example, with climate change to have increases or losses of certain members of the community that are predictive, one of the aims is to have something like a Google map and then you can highlight all of this sort of organism type in pink. If you click on a button and see where they are localized around the globe. But then if the climate increases by five degrees, then you can click another button and see what happens. Does that organism increase or decrease there? Does another microbial typing [00:17:00] green become more abundant? Speaker 3: The methods you use that you apply to your research. So often we're results oriented with science or at least to the public, you know, what did you find out? It becomes more important than how did you find it out? Can you give us some sense of your methods to doing the research that you do? Speaker 4: I think that the methods, as I mentioned earlier, that's been a limitation to my particular field, but that [00:17:30] also makes it kind of fun because we're always trying to develop better methods and new methods to be able to investigate these systems. And so it's quite challenging, which is something I like. So the method in my own lab that we're developing are different kinds of what I call omix quoting. Oh, mixed methods. So that's everything from sequencing everything, which would be metogenomic x to extracting RNA and [00:18:00] sequencing that. That would be looking at express genes. That's Meta transcriptomics or extracting all the proteins and looking at that. That would be metaproteomics. You can even do the metabolites metabolomics. So these are the current methods that are stated. The art right now for looking at these kinds of complex communities. Speaker 6: [inaudible] [inaudible] Speaker 5: this is k [00:18:30] a l x Berkeley. The show is spectrum. I'm Brad swift. Our guest is professor Janet Jansen, microbial ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley lab and UC Berkeley. Speaker 3: In your experience working on these large projects and also then working in small projects, I'm curious about the, the idea of big science versus small science. You know, the individual scientists toiling [00:19:00] away versus the big group that gets together and decides what they'll do and [inaudible]. Speaker 4: So personally I, I'm a big science kind of person. I definitely appreciate the value of a small science than I do have some smaller targeted projects. I moved to Berkeley lab about five years ago. I was a professor in Sweden before that and my funding was more individual, smaller projects in Sweden. But uh, one of the reasons I came to Berkeley lab was because of the big team science. I really [00:19:30] like that I'm a super collaborator and I can see the value of having people with different skills working together to tackle some really big problems. [inaudible] Speaker 3: and I suppose the culture then becomes really important to the group, the dynamics, the sharing, the openness. And how does that happen, do you think? Have you seen it work well and work badly? Speaker 4: Oh, it's very important. So you had to choose your collaborations as well and sometimes if they, the dynamics [00:20:00] aren't working, then it might be time to rethink the collaborations and revise it in a certain way. But ideally you have people that are so motivated that they are, I know that start delisting, but in the best case situation you have people that are so motivated towards a specific goal that it works quite well. There is an example of one project that is ongoing right now at the lab. It's called the next generation ecosystem [00:20:30] experiment in the Arctic, which is looking at the impact of climate change on permafrost communities. And that's the big doe funded project that involves probably hundreds of researchers at different laboratories, different doe laboratories and universities that are all focusing on one location in Barrow, Alaska, using all of the different tools available at the national labs and expertise at universities as well. Speaker 3: [00:21:00] And how long has that been going on? Speaker 4: It's been about a year and a half. It's a new project, but I'd like it because it has the necessary funding. Of course, when you spread it out, you know, everybody gets a little chunk of it, but it enables incredible things to be done at that site. It's just so much fun to go to these meetings and hear about the lidar sensing team and the modeling team and the hydrology team with their sleds and the geochemists go [00:21:30] in and my part is the microbial ecology. We get deep cores and we extract DNA and sequence them. It's just really a lot of fun Speaker 3: and there's a lot of emphasis on trying to encourage young people to get into science, technology, math. Is there really an opportunity in this field for, for people? Speaker 4: I have to say that right now it's a huge opportunity and there aren't enough persons educated in this field [00:22:00] to be able to fill these growing companies that are starting up. I'm getting several calls from companies that are asking for postdocs from my lab if they're interested in joining and if I were starting right now as a biologist, I would definitely look into bioinformatics and also the metagenome mix fields because these are the sorts of persons that there aren't that many yet. It's not that widespread yet [00:22:30] and there are companies that really need that expertise. Speaker 3: Would you characterize both of those briefly? Speaker 4: The bioinformatics would be more of generation of software algorithms, ways to look at these big data that are generated from different kinds of biological samplesSpeaker 3: and that might include visualization as well as other normal text output kind of a thing. Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. Everything from the database [00:23:00] management to the visualization of the data and things in between. The statistical analysis, that's a huge growth area and I predict this is going to continue because the data is just getting bigger. It's not going away from that a genomics and these other kinds of omix areas. I think that that would also involve some computing skills, but in addition to differentiate it from bioinformatics, more of the combination with lab skill. Speaker 3: [00:23:30] Janet Johnson. Thanks very much for coming on spectrum. Speaker 4: Thank you. I really enjoyed it. Speaker 3: Well, we'd like to mention a few of the science and technology events locally over the Speaker 7: next two weeks. Rick Karnofsky joins me for the calendar. The Saturday the science of cow lecture will be given by Dr Nadir Mirabal Fathi. The lecture is entitled, connecting infant decimal to infinity, the search for dark matter. [00:24:00] He will speak about a new class of elementary particles known as weakly interacting massive particles or Wimps to resolve inconsistencies in our understanding of the nature at both extreme, large and small scales and how they are connected together. He will also explore the experimental efforts to detect these particles. Interest real laboratories. Nadir r Mirabal Fathi earned Phd in elementary particle physics and cosmology at the University of Paris. He did his postdoctoral [00:24:30] studies at UC Berkeley and has been an associate research physicist at UC Berkeley since 2008 the lecture is Saturday, May 18th at 11:00 AM in room 100 of the genetics and plant biology building. Makerfair. The self-proclaimed greatest show and tell on earth is this weekend, May 18th and 19th at San Mateo fairgrounds. Speaker 7: We talked last year with Tony to rose and Michelle, who? Bianca. Two of the founders of young makers about [00:25:00] the maker fair. Find our interview with them@itunesuortinyurl.com slash calix spectrum one day prices range from $15 to $30. Highlights of this year's maker fair include KQ [inaudible] kitchen sisters with their new radio series, the making of what people make in the bay area and why NASA makers with astronauts, John Grunsfeld, Dennis Bartell's discussing building the new exploratorium, [00:25:30] how to tie a perfect neck tie with Nobel prize physicist Arno Penzias, DIY research with Tekla labs and amazing science. Tornadoes, smoke rings and more. For more information, visit makerfair.com that's maker F A I r e.com the long nose Stuart brand. It's presenting on reviving extinct species on Tuesday, May 21st [00:26:00] at the San Francisco Jazz Center, two Oh one Franklin Street at 7:30 PM tickets are $15 he'll summarize the progress of current de extinction projects including the Europe's Oryx Australia is gastric brooding frog and America's passenger pigeon. Speaker 7: He'll also discuss some of the ancient ecosystem revival projects such as Pleistocene Park in Siberia. New Genomic technology can reassemble the genomes of extinct species [00:26:30] whose DNA is still recoverable from museum specimens and some fossils. Sorry. Jurassic Park fans. No dinosaurs. It is hoped that the jeans unique to the extinct animals can brought back to life in the framework of the genome of the closest living relative. For more information, visit long now.org now Rick Karnofsky and I present to news stories. Alberto Saul from Brown University and colleagues [00:27:00] published an article in science on May 9th that suggests the water that is on the moon came from Earth. The team measured the relative abundance of deuterium that is heavy hydrogen that contains an extra neutron to hydrogen in the water, found in small bubbles of volcanic glass and Melt inclusions in moon rocks. They found the ratio was very similar to the ratio found on earth and from carbonaceous chondrites meteorites that are thought to have supplied [00:27:30] the earth with water. Speaker 7: Higher. Deuterium levels were expected by some who had hypothesized the comments from the Kuyper belt in Oort cloud could have been the source of the Moon's water. If the moon's water did come from Earth, it is likely the earth already had this water when the moon was formed. Some four and a half billion years ago when the earth and another Mars sized planet collided. However, such a collusion may have been hot enough to vaporize the lunar water. There is sir now [00:28:00] debating whether it may have been retained because of the earth's gravity or because the moon shared some of the earth's high temperature atmosphere when it formed pregnant mothers exposure to the flu was associated with a nearly four fold increased risk that their child would develop bipolar disorder in adulthood. In a study funded by the National Institutes of health. The findings add to mounting evidence of possible shared underlying causes and illness processes [00:28:30] with schizophrenia, which some studies have also linked to prenatal exposure to influenza, principal investigator Allen Brown and MD mph of Columbia University says prospective mothers should take common sense preventative measures such as getting flu shots prior to and in early stages of pregnancy and avoiding contact with people who are symptomatic in spite of public health recommendations, only a relatively small fraction of such women [00:29:00] get immunized. Speaker 7: The weight of evidence now suggests that benefits of the vaccine likely outweigh any possible risk to the mother or the newborn. Brown and colleagues reported their findings online. May 8th, 2013 in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry Speaker 2: [inaudible]. The music heard during the show is written and produced by Alex Simon. [00:29:30] Thank you for listening to spectrum. Had comments about the show, please send them to us via email or email address is spectrum dot k a l s@yahoo.com join us in two weeks at this same time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Janet Jansson is the Senior Staff Scientist in the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Her expertise is in molecular microbial ecology and “omics” approaches with a focus on soil, marine sediment and human gut environments.TranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: Welcome to spectrum the science and technology show on k a l x Berkeley, [00:00:30] a biweekly 30 minute program, bringing you interviews featuring bay area scientists and technologists as well as a calendar of local events and news. Speaker 3: Good afternoon. I'm your host, Brad Swift. Today's interview is with Janet Jansen, UC Berkeley, adjunct professor of molecular microbial ecology. She is a senior staff scientist in the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and president elect of the International Society of microbial [00:01:00] ecology. Her expertise is in the area of molecular microbial ecology and Omix approaches with a focus on soil, marine sediment and human gut environments. Today she talks about the human microbiome project, the Earth microbiome project and American Gut, a crowdsourced research project. Onto that interview. Janet Jansen, welcome to spectrum. Hi, what'd you give us a short description [00:01:30] of microbial ecology and give some examples of complex microbial communities. Speaker 4: Sure. So microbial ecology is the study of micro organisms in the environment and their interactions with other microorganisms, plants, animals, that particular habitat that they happen to be living in. So it's really not just studying a single microorganism, but a community of microorganisms. Uh, so some examples [00:02:00] of complex communities. Well, the most complex ecosystem is soil and that's because it has such a diversity of microorganisms and it's really packed full of microbes. So there's so many microorganisms living in soil. So that combined with the diversity makes it a very complex system. The human ecosystem is very complex. Our own intestines have a very complex microbial community. [00:02:30] The oceans or other examples, sediments. So I think this is my community college that you had to think differently than one would when you study organisms in pure culture and their physiology is much more complex Speaker 3: and microbial research seems to have jumped in stature in the past few years. You have a broader view of it than I do. What's your take on the trajectory of microbial research? I think Speaker 4: [00:03:00] particularly the microbial ecology part has increased in stature recently. Microbiology as a field has been around for a long time. But the thing that I think has really boosted the field of microbial ecology is the advent of these new technologies, the new tools to be able to really look at these complex communities and understand them. Until I guess it was about the 1980s there wasn't [00:03:30] any way to really look at these micro organisms in soil. Again, I'll use that as an example, unless you cultivated them onto augur media or looked at them in a microscope. So when the field was limited to looking at what was possible to cultivate, that was only a fraction of the microorganisms that live in soil habitat. So probably fewer than 10% could be cultivated. So the majority of the organisms that were there, [00:04:00] nobody knew anything about them. Their identities or their functions were really unknown. Speaker 4: So it was considered like a black box eco system. But after the late, I guess the 80s and into the 90s there were the developments in DNA extraction techniques. So it was possible to extract DNA from soil and then came PCR amplification methods and methods to be able to amplify specific [00:04:30] pieces of DNA that you had extracted that made it possible to actually study soil microorganisms without cultivating them. And now we have these deep sequencing technologies, so it's really made it much easier to do very deep analysis of these communities and not have to rely on cultivation. Speaker 3: The human microbiome project is in its last year. What were the goals of it and can you speak to that about what the goals were and what you think [00:05:00] you've found out? Speaker 4: The first stage of the h and p was to sequence different bodies sites and understand which micro organisms are residing in different sites in the human body. And so this was looking at a large cohort of humans, healthy humans, and just basically understanding who are the microbial inhabitants of the human body. So that part is winding down. We have that knowledge now. We know that there are different micro organisms that live on your skin, [00:05:30] then in in your gut for examples and also in the oral cavity. So these organisms are specialized to live in different parts of the human body and there are differences between different individuals though. So that means that each human has their own individual microbiome and it can almost be used as a fingerprint. So that was a successfully completed project. The next stage there has been a recent call too, I think it's even called h and p two [00:06:00] to go the next step. So to use other kinds of methods to look at not only which microorganisms are there, but what are they doing. So this would be looking at the functional capabilities of the human microbiome. Another thing that is still ongoing with the h and p is looking at how does disease influence the human microbiome and vice versa. What is the correlation with the microorganisms living with us and disease? And it seems like there are many different links between many [00:06:30] human disease that send the human microbiome Speaker 3: [inaudible] [inaudible]. Speaker 5: Our guest today is microbiologists, Janet Jansen. In the next segment she talks about the microbiome and disease correlation. This is k a l x, Berkeley. Speaker 3: Well, and often in science there's a lot of correlation [00:07:00] that goes on and sometimes you get fooled by the correlation. Sometimes you don't. Are there strategies you use in terms of validating what you think correlates? Speaker 4: Oh, correlations are can be quite challenging. Definitely. So, um, that's an interesting question because then one of the things that is very tricky is if you find a difference in an environmental sample, for example, with the civic treatment or in a human with disease often all we have, [00:07:30] we can then say, well it's correlated to this organism that is higher in abundance or it's correlated to this protein that is higher or lower in abundance. That's a little frustrating. So that the next step, and we're not quite there yet in this field, would be then to say, okay, go beyond correlations and then actually do the proof, you know, to take that organism like Cox postulates, you then prove that this correlation that you see is actually [00:08:00] occurring. But it's difficult with these complex samples, like I was saying before, because you have to move away from the complex environment where you have all these different factors. Speaker 3: So the complexity defeats you in a way because you can't isolate the specific from the general. Exactly. Exactly. And so within this correlation of disease, are there particular diseases that seem to be top priorities in a sense or are most likely to be effected by [00:08:30] the microbiome? An example of Crohn's diseases, Speaker 4: Crohn's disease is the example. I would give us a very clear example and also other inflammatory bowel diseases where there has already been established a link between the gut microbiome and the disease. The details are still under investigation, but there is a difference in the micro organisms that inhabit the intestine in individuals that have Crohn's disease compared to healthy. [00:09:00] So that's known. Speaker 3: And is that the case with ulcers as well? Or they were sort of one of the first, it seems that had this association with the microbiome in the gut, Speaker 4: right. So systemic ulcers, there was a Nobel prize awarded for the discovery of [inaudible] go back to Pylori as the cause of ulcers in the stomach. And so that's a good example, this specific microorganism that can contribute to a disease. And then of course a lot of medications were subsequently [00:09:30] developed to dampen hillcoat back to pylori through new research. We know that there is a considerable diversity of microorganisms in the stomach that people weren't aware of before using these techniques and also in your teeth and then in the oral cavity. There's a very large diversity. I should mention that one of the things that is a really hot topic right now is the link between the brain and the human microbiome, including [00:10:00] the gut microbiome because it's known that some of the metabolites that are produced by these intestinal microbes can pass the blood barrier and then migrated essentially in impact the brain, so some current research is looking at the link between autism and schizophrenia, these kinds of things. Then I think that's really interesting. That's one future direction of the field. Speaker 3: The new initiative in brain mapping exactly [00:10:30] now ties that together. That would be great. At least the findings here was just a new funding. Speaker 4: Yeah, I know. I don't know if they've really decided to make that link for funding, but it probably will come. Speaker 3: Can you talk a bit about American gut and how it's set up to help people figure out their own microbiome? Speaker 4: Sure. So the American get is, it's a relatively new way of doing research [00:11:00] is crowdsourcing. And the idea is that if a person such as myself is interested in knowing quip, my gut microbiome is I can pay a small amount, it's like $100 to get my sample sequence. So that is the way that the project is funded. And so this project, it had a funding goal, I think it was $300,000 to be able to launch the sequencing. And so there was the campaign [00:11:30] and it was sent out to the community and through connections such as Facebook and another with this nice little carrot that if you pay $100 you can get your microbiome. And in addition to gut, it could be your skin sample, oral cavity, your pet. And so this idea really caught on and is a good example of crowdsourcing for funding. Speaker 3: And how are people able to leverage that information? [00:12:00] Is there some characterization that you do as well? Speaker 4: The data that they get back is, it's different kinds of information. So first which micro organisms do I have? That's kind of fun to know. It's sort of like 23 and me where you get information back about which genes you have in, which kind of markers for different things. So depending on your microbial community composition, you may have markers that are more indicative of health, certain kinds of diets like [00:12:30] vegetarian or a protein rich diet, even obesity, there's certain microbial indicators of obesity. So that's just interesting. Another thing that is valuable for the consumer, the person who does this is that you can compare your microbiome to everybody else's. It's all anonymous of course. And nobody knows who's this, who's, but you have your own data and can see how your microbiome fits into a pattern. So do you cluster [00:13:00] with obese people or with a disease type microbiome or a certain kind of eating pattern Speaker 3: and are these online tools that you have available through American gut for people to do this kind of characterization? Speaker 4: So the analysis has to be done by the actual scientists that are doing the samples because it's still quite elaborate and involves a lot of bioinformatics. So currently it's not possible [00:13:30] to do a lot of that on your own, but still to get an output, the actual data, the results of the analysis is what the individual can get through this project. Speaker 2: [inaudible] you were listening to spectrum on a k a l x Berkeley. Our guest today is Janet Jensen. In the next segment she talks about the earth microbiome project. Speaker 3: [00:14:00] Can you talk a bit about the earth microbiome project and maybe differentiate it from the human project? Speaker 4: Yeah, sure. So the Earth microbiome project, which I'll call the emp, is, um, instead of just looking at humans, it's including basically all of earth. So it has a very lofty goal of understanding earth microbial diversity. That project also relies [00:14:30] on collaborators, so it's sort of a crowdsourcing project as well, but limited to the scientific community. So the way that Earth microbiome project works is if a collaborator has an interesting set of samples, for example, from the deep sea or from Yellowstone hot springs that have the required kinds of environmental data, so Ph, nutrients, things like that. Then they can [00:15:00] send an email to the steering committee and say, well, would this study be of interest to the earth microbiome project to the ENP? And then the steering committee looks through the data and decides whether the environmental data is sufficient and if the samples are filling a hole and providing novel information and if so the samples are accepted and the sequencing is done without any costs to the investigator. That's the win win scenario for the emp [00:15:30] because the investigator does of course provide the funding for the study and collection of the samples and the emp provides the funding for the sequencing. Now the funding for emp is also kind of fuzzy because it's through different kinds of companies that have supported by providing regions or equipment and then in turn they get advertisement through the emp that they're sponsors of the project. And so that [00:16:00] also seems to be quite successful. Speaker 3: And the intent again to build a catalog Speaker 4: basically, yes, to build a catalog to find out who's there and are there patterns. The nice thing about heading samples from so many different disparate environments is that you can see, well does this particular microorganism occur across different kinds of environments or is it really endemic only to one kind of habitat? And if you tweak the environment, [00:16:30] for example, with climate change to have increases or losses of certain members of the community that are predictive, one of the aims is to have something like a Google map and then you can highlight all of this sort of organism type in pink. If you click on a button and see where they are localized around the globe. But then if the climate increases by five degrees, then you can click another button and see what happens. Does that organism increase or decrease there? Does another microbial typing [00:17:00] green become more abundant? Speaker 3: The methods you use that you apply to your research. So often we're results oriented with science or at least to the public, you know, what did you find out? It becomes more important than how did you find it out? Can you give us some sense of your methods to doing the research that you do? Speaker 4: I think that the methods, as I mentioned earlier, that's been a limitation to my particular field, but that [00:17:30] also makes it kind of fun because we're always trying to develop better methods and new methods to be able to investigate these systems. And so it's quite challenging, which is something I like. So the method in my own lab that we're developing are different kinds of what I call omix quoting. Oh, mixed methods. So that's everything from sequencing everything, which would be metogenomic x to extracting RNA and [00:18:00] sequencing that. That would be looking at express genes. That's Meta transcriptomics or extracting all the proteins and looking at that. That would be metaproteomics. You can even do the metabolites metabolomics. So these are the current methods that are stated. The art right now for looking at these kinds of complex communities. Speaker 6: [inaudible] [inaudible] Speaker 5: this is k [00:18:30] a l x Berkeley. The show is spectrum. I'm Brad swift. Our guest is professor Janet Jansen, microbial ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley lab and UC Berkeley. Speaker 3: In your experience working on these large projects and also then working in small projects, I'm curious about the, the idea of big science versus small science. You know, the individual scientists toiling [00:19:00] away versus the big group that gets together and decides what they'll do and [inaudible]. Speaker 4: So personally I, I'm a big science kind of person. I definitely appreciate the value of a small science than I do have some smaller targeted projects. I moved to Berkeley lab about five years ago. I was a professor in Sweden before that and my funding was more individual, smaller projects in Sweden. But uh, one of the reasons I came to Berkeley lab was because of the big team science. I really [00:19:30] like that I'm a super collaborator and I can see the value of having people with different skills working together to tackle some really big problems. [inaudible] Speaker 3: and I suppose the culture then becomes really important to the group, the dynamics, the sharing, the openness. And how does that happen, do you think? Have you seen it work well and work badly? Speaker 4: Oh, it's very important. So you had to choose your collaborations as well and sometimes if they, the dynamics [00:20:00] aren't working, then it might be time to rethink the collaborations and revise it in a certain way. But ideally you have people that are so motivated that they are, I know that start delisting, but in the best case situation you have people that are so motivated towards a specific goal that it works quite well. There is an example of one project that is ongoing right now at the lab. It's called the next generation ecosystem [00:20:30] experiment in the Arctic, which is looking at the impact of climate change on permafrost communities. And that's the big doe funded project that involves probably hundreds of researchers at different laboratories, different doe laboratories and universities that are all focusing on one location in Barrow, Alaska, using all of the different tools available at the national labs and expertise at universities as well. Speaker 3: [00:21:00] And how long has that been going on? Speaker 4: It's been about a year and a half. It's a new project, but I'd like it because it has the necessary funding. Of course, when you spread it out, you know, everybody gets a little chunk of it, but it enables incredible things to be done at that site. It's just so much fun to go to these meetings and hear about the lidar sensing team and the modeling team and the hydrology team with their sleds and the geochemists go [00:21:30] in and my part is the microbial ecology. We get deep cores and we extract DNA and sequence them. It's just really a lot of fun Speaker 3: and there's a lot of emphasis on trying to encourage young people to get into science, technology, math. Is there really an opportunity in this field for, for people? Speaker 4: I have to say that right now it's a huge opportunity and there aren't enough persons educated in this field [00:22:00] to be able to fill these growing companies that are starting up. I'm getting several calls from companies that are asking for postdocs from my lab if they're interested in joining and if I were starting right now as a biologist, I would definitely look into bioinformatics and also the metagenome mix fields because these are the sorts of persons that there aren't that many yet. It's not that widespread yet [00:22:30] and there are companies that really need that expertise. Speaker 3: Would you characterize both of those briefly? Speaker 4: The bioinformatics would be more of generation of software algorithms, ways to look at these big data that are generated from different kinds of biological samplesSpeaker 3: and that might include visualization as well as other normal text output kind of a thing. Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. Everything from the database [00:23:00] management to the visualization of the data and things in between. The statistical analysis, that's a huge growth area and I predict this is going to continue because the data is just getting bigger. It's not going away from that a genomics and these other kinds of omix areas. I think that that would also involve some computing skills, but in addition to differentiate it from bioinformatics, more of the combination with lab skill. Speaker 3: [00:23:30] Janet Johnson. Thanks very much for coming on spectrum. Speaker 4: Thank you. I really enjoyed it. Speaker 3: Well, we'd like to mention a few of the science and technology events locally over the Speaker 7: next two weeks. Rick Karnofsky joins me for the calendar. The Saturday the science of cow lecture will be given by Dr Nadir Mirabal Fathi. The lecture is entitled, connecting infant decimal to infinity, the search for dark matter. [00:24:00] He will speak about a new class of elementary particles known as weakly interacting massive particles or Wimps to resolve inconsistencies in our understanding of the nature at both extreme, large and small scales and how they are connected together. He will also explore the experimental efforts to detect these particles. Interest real laboratories. Nadir r Mirabal Fathi earned Phd in elementary particle physics and cosmology at the University of Paris. He did his postdoctoral [00:24:30] studies at UC Berkeley and has been an associate research physicist at UC Berkeley since 2008 the lecture is Saturday, May 18th at 11:00 AM in room 100 of the genetics and plant biology building. Makerfair. The self-proclaimed greatest show and tell on earth is this weekend, May 18th and 19th at San Mateo fairgrounds. Speaker 7: We talked last year with Tony to rose and Michelle, who? Bianca. Two of the founders of young makers about [00:25:00] the maker fair. Find our interview with them@itunesuortinyurl.com slash calix spectrum one day prices range from $15 to $30. Highlights of this year's maker fair include KQ [inaudible] kitchen sisters with their new radio series, the making of what people make in the bay area and why NASA makers with astronauts, John Grunsfeld, Dennis Bartell's discussing building the new exploratorium, [00:25:30] how to tie a perfect neck tie with Nobel prize physicist Arno Penzias, DIY research with Tekla labs and amazing science. Tornadoes, smoke rings and more. For more information, visit makerfair.com that's maker F A I r e.com the long nose Stuart brand. It's presenting on reviving extinct species on Tuesday, May 21st [00:26:00] at the San Francisco Jazz Center, two Oh one Franklin Street at 7:30 PM tickets are $15 he'll summarize the progress of current de extinction projects including the Europe's Oryx Australia is gastric brooding frog and America's passenger pigeon. Speaker 7: He'll also discuss some of the ancient ecosystem revival projects such as Pleistocene Park in Siberia. New Genomic technology can reassemble the genomes of extinct species [00:26:30] whose DNA is still recoverable from museum specimens and some fossils. Sorry. Jurassic Park fans. No dinosaurs. It is hoped that the jeans unique to the extinct animals can brought back to life in the framework of the genome of the closest living relative. For more information, visit long now.org now Rick Karnofsky and I present to news stories. Alberto Saul from Brown University and colleagues [00:27:00] published an article in science on May 9th that suggests the water that is on the moon came from Earth. The team measured the relative abundance of deuterium that is heavy hydrogen that contains an extra neutron to hydrogen in the water, found in small bubbles of volcanic glass and Melt inclusions in moon rocks. They found the ratio was very similar to the ratio found on earth and from carbonaceous chondrites meteorites that are thought to have supplied [00:27:30] the earth with water. Speaker 7: Higher. Deuterium levels were expected by some who had hypothesized the comments from the Kuyper belt in Oort cloud could have been the source of the Moon's water. If the moon's water did come from Earth, it is likely the earth already had this water when the moon was formed. Some four and a half billion years ago when the earth and another Mars sized planet collided. However, such a collusion may have been hot enough to vaporize the lunar water. There is sir now [00:28:00] debating whether it may have been retained because of the earth's gravity or because the moon shared some of the earth's high temperature atmosphere when it formed pregnant mothers exposure to the flu was associated with a nearly four fold increased risk that their child would develop bipolar disorder in adulthood. In a study funded by the National Institutes of health. The findings add to mounting evidence of possible shared underlying causes and illness processes [00:28:30] with schizophrenia, which some studies have also linked to prenatal exposure to influenza, principal investigator Allen Brown and MD mph of Columbia University says prospective mothers should take common sense preventative measures such as getting flu shots prior to and in early stages of pregnancy and avoiding contact with people who are symptomatic in spite of public health recommendations, only a relatively small fraction of such women [00:29:00] get immunized. Speaker 7: The weight of evidence now suggests that benefits of the vaccine likely outweigh any possible risk to the mother or the newborn. Brown and colleagues reported their findings online. May 8th, 2013 in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry Speaker 2: [inaudible]. The music heard during the show is written and produced by Alex Simon. [00:29:30] Thank you for listening to spectrum. Had comments about the show, please send them to us via email or email address is spectrum dot k a l s@yahoo.com join us in two weeks at this same time. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.