Podcasts about transcript scientists

A naturally occurring bacterium renders the mosquito a poor transmitter of the malaria parasite. Transcript Scientists often grow mosquitos in the laboratory and infect them with malaria parasites to test new drugs and explore vector control. Unexpectedly, in a lab run by GSK in Spain, mosquitoes gradually lost the ability to sustain parasite development. To unwind this mystery, GSK turned to Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University and sent him a bacterium they suspected was the blocking agent. The Hopkins team determined that these bacteria produce a substance called harmane – a strong poison to the malaria parasite without affecting the mosquito. Harmane kills the parasite in the mosquito either by ingestion or by contact--when the mosquito lands on a surface with harmane on it. Further experiments determined that this Delftia bacterium colonizes the mosquitoes for life where it suppresses survival of the parasite. Experiments conducted by researchers in Burkina Faso showed that this bacterium can efficiently colonize mosquitoes under conditions that simulate those of the field and that it inhibits locally circulating parasites. This bacterium promises to be developed into a new tool to combat malaria. Source Delftia tsuruhatensis TC1 symbiont suppresses malaria transmission by anopheline mosquitoes About The Podcast The Johns Hopkins Malaria Minute podcast is produced by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute to highlight impactful malaria research and to share it with the global community.  

Transcript -- Scientists talk about their favourite moons.

Transcript: Scientists tend to think in traditional and anthropocentric ways about the possibilities of life in the universe. The Drake equation is a deductive framework, the multiplication sequentially of several probabilities. It works in terms of the possibility of Sun-like stars and Earth-like planets around those stars, under a premise of carbon chemistry, and a strong assumption that intelligence and technology are related to communication through space, but we should think inductively about life in the universe. We may not have the answers to the questions raised in an inductive framework, but they are probably more revealing about the possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe. In terms of sites for life, we should consider the full range of sites, illuminated by extremophiles on Earth, the possibility of life around stars that are quite different from the Sun, or perhaps even in gaseous environments in the universe. In terms of the nature of life, we should consider the possibility of non-carbon based biochemical life and even of artificial life, of the fact that intelligence might exist without technology, and of the heavy role of contingency in evolution and natural selection. In terms of communication, we should consider the possibility of non-electromagnetic communication and the role that culture plays in the attempt at communication. And finally, we should consider what might happen with large advances in life and a long span in the possibility of interstellar networks and robots.

Transcript: Scientists are very uncertain what the probability is of life on or in Europa. The Galileo probe first mapped out the fissure network of surface ice that covers a liquid water layer. We only have rough estimates or models of what the thickness of the ice and water layers are. But it’s likely that the ice layer is ten kilometers thick, and the liquid layer could be as much as a hundred kilometers thick which would mean that Europa has as much liquid water on it as the sum of all the oceans of water on Earth. The surface of Europa is geologically young and is perhaps been kept active by geological activity within the small moon. The water is kept liquid, and the geological activity may be spurred by tidal heating by the large planet Jupiter which is nearby, the same mechanism that produces volcanoes on Io. The key requirement for life this distance from the Sun would be an energy source. Photosynthesis may be possible on the surface layers of the ice, but deep within the ice there’s very little energy. The best prospect is if geological activity activates deep sea vents which can foster life forms the way they do in the oceans of the Earth.

Transcript: Scientists define energy as the ability to do work. You can also think of energy as something that can cause a change. This sounds vague. But scientists have defined energy in many careful ways, and it is a clearly quantifiable concept in physics. Next time you drive your car, consider the source of its energy. Millions of years ago sunlight was intercepted as it traveled through space and was used to grow plants on the ancient Earth. Those plants died, decayed, and were deposited into rocks where they turned into petroleum. Many millions of years later humans dug up the petroleum, purified it, and turned it into the fuel for your car. Your car extracts the chemical energy from that petroleum and turns it into the kinetic energy of motion. As you put your foot on the brake and bring your car to a halt, the kinetic energy is turned into the heat in the brake lining and in your engine, and it rises up into the air to eventually seep out into space and continue its journey onward.

Transcript: Scientists use a system of units based on mass, length, and time. Almost every physical quantity in the world can be reduced to some combination of units of mass, units of length, and units of time. For example area is length times length. Volume is length times length times length. Velocity is a distance or a length divided by a time. Momentum is a mass times a velocity. So many of the things you see in astronomy will be simply reducible to combinations of mass, length, and time. This is the way in which astronomers make sense of a complicated world, and in astronomy as in all science we measure mass, length, and time in units of the metric system: kilograms for mass, seconds for time, and meters for length.

Transcript -- Scientists watch the probe’s historic journey to Titan with bated breath.

Transcript -- Scientists explain why Titan holds the key to life on earth.

Transcript -- Scientists explain the instruments on board the probe, including one that recorded sound on Titan.

Transcript -- Scientists watch the probe’s historic journey to Titan with bated breath.

Transcript -- Scientists explain why Titan holds the key to life on earth.

Transcript -- Scientists explain the instruments on board the probe, including one that recorded sound on Titan.

Transcript -- Scientists investigate sun spots, solar flares and arcs using x-ray telescopes, featuring the Big Bear Observatory in LA.

Transcript -- Scientists investigate sun spots, solar flares and arcs using x-ray telescopes, featuring the Big Bear Observatory in LA.

Transcript -- Differing reactions to the scientific evidence for climate change.

Transcript -- Differing reactions to the scientific evidence for climate change.