A podcast highlighting the latest research and news from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as we work to achieve the laboratory's vision of a clean energy future for the world.
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It’s almost impossible to overstate how many aspects of daily life are impacted by science. From technologies that help ensure the quality of the water we drink, to medicines that deliver lifesaving treatments – it’s all thanks to science. Each month, members of Thermo Fisher Scientific's team talk to experts who are on the cutting-edge of redefining how we exist. This is Science with a Twist.
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A weekly podcast bringing you interviews with leaders and innovators in the fields of housing and design.
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Possible Pathways to 100% Renewable Energy in Puerto Rico, the Wind Workforce Gap, and an NREL Leader Honored—Plus, How Research Gets Published
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This episode discusses three recent stories from NREL: In 2017, Puerto Rico faced a devastating double blow as consecutive hurricanes decimated 80% of its electrical grid, resulting in the longest blackout in U.S. history. Determined to rebuild resiliently, Puerto Rico passed Act 17 in 2019, aiming for a 100% renewable energy system by 2050, which …
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NREL's Mission, Vision, and DEIA—Creating a Clean Energy Future That Works for Everyone
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In this episode of Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast, Kerrin and Taylor delve into the core motivations driving the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as they discuss NREL’s mission, vision, and commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA). From tackling climate change and pollution to fostering an inclusive work envir…
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Lab Notes: How NREL Is Tackling the Plastics Problem—an Earth Day Special
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In the latest episode of Transforming Energy’s Lab Notes series, hosts Taylor Mankle and Kerrin Jeromin delve into an Earth Day special focusing on NREL’s pioneering efforts in addressing the plastics problem. Through insightful conversations with NREL researchers Nic Rorrer and Julia Curley, listeners will gain a deeper understanding of the enviro…
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From Waste to Worth: Rethinking Plastics with NREL's Insights
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The Critical Role of Plastics in Modern Society Despite the challenges associated with plastic in the environment, Kat Knauer, Ph.D., emphasizes the indispensable role of plastics in healthcare, research, and daily life. She points out that while plastics have significantly improved quality of life and medical care, their improper disposal poses a …
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San Diego’s Clean Energy Communities, Sand’s Energy Storage Solution, Ukraine and Tanzania’s New Solar Possibilities
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This episode discusses three recent stories from NREL: The Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program facilitates peer learning cohorts where local and regional stakeholders gather to enhance clean energy initiatives. Recently, the San Diego Association of Governments participated in a cohort, leveraging insights to refine community engagement for t…
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Renewable Energy Discovery Island App Encourages Young Scientists, and Electric Aviation Takes Flight
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This episode discusses two recent stories from NREL: The Renewable Energy Discovery (REDi) Island app, an innovative educational tool developed by researchers, immerses users in a virtual world powered entirely by renewable energy, showcasing technologies like hydropower and other marine energy. With interactive features allowing exploration …
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Lab Notes: NREL Researchers in Alaska Create Efficient Housing at the World’s Extremes
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In the second episode in Transforming Energy’s Lab Notes series, guest host Molly Rettig takes listeners on a journey to Mountain Village, a Yup’ik community working with NREL researchers to design and build super energy-efficient homes amid the challenges of extreme weather and permafrost. Through local collaboration and innovative research and te…
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Energy Transitions in Alaska and Hawaii, Tackling Microplastics With The North Face, and Renewable Tech Life-Cycle Assessments
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In this episode: Sitka, Alaska, and Molokai, Hawaii, both selected for the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP), are leveraging shared challenges of remote living and energy constraints to pioneer community-driven renewable energy solutions. With Molokai's successful community engagement model inspiring Sitka's approach, both r…
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It’s In Our Genes: The Potential of Gene Therapy with Dr. Peter Marks
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Gene Therapy's Potential to Transform Rare Disease Treatment Dr. Peter Marks highlights the groundbreaking advancements in gene therapy, especially for rare diseases with high unmet medical needs. He discusses the FDA's role in fostering these innovations, underscoring the importance of understanding gene therapy's application and ensuring its safe…
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A Better Battery Manufacturing Process, a Map for Improved Public Health, a Pathway to Clean Energy
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This episode discusses three recent stories from NREL: Gotham City's Dark Knight is known for his impressive gadgets, but now, NREL unveils its own cutting-edge project, known as "BatMan." This initiative harnesses laser technology to revolutionize battery manufacturing, potentially doubling electric vehicle charging rates and advancing energy sust…
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The Future of Sustainable Aviation Fuel and Geothermal Heat Pump Adoption—Plus, Honoring Black Researchers
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This episode discusses two recent stories from NREL: The transformative shift toward sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), highlighting the crucial role of advanced simulations powered by supercomputers. Despite the long-standing reliance on petroleum jet fuel since the 1950s, growing concerns about carbon emissions are driving the urgent need for chang…
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Biomass Puzzle Unlocked, Startups Getting a Head Start, New Lab Space Coming Soon
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Researchers at NREL have utilized a multidisciplinary approach to quantitatively define the arrangement of polymers in Populus wood, offering insights crucial for biomass conversion to fuels, chemicals, and materials. The study presents a novel computer model detailing the intricate structural configuration of the wood's secondary cell wall, advanc…
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America’s Cardboard and Paper Waste Problem, the Link Between Electric Vehicles and Solar, and the Future of the US Electricity Sector
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A new analysis by NREL that reveals that the $4 billion economic value represented by cardboard and paper is lost due to landfilling. The study, focused on 2019 data, emphasizes the potential for substantial energy, environmental, and economic benefits through improved waste management strategies for paper and cardboard waste, which constitutes a q…
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Lab Notes: Meet NREL Laboratory Director Martin Keller
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In the introductory episode of the Lab Notes series, Laboratory Director Martin Keller sits down with NREL writer Ernie Tucker, author of Clean Energy Innovators: NREL People Working To Change the World. The pair discuss Keller’s childhood in Germany, foray into a science-focused career, vision for the laboratory, and dream job (hint: he’s doing it…
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10 Ways NREL Contributed to a Clean Energy Future in 2023
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Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss the top 10 most-impactful stories highlighting how NREL contributed to a clean energy future in 2023. Highlights include NREL's visionary 2030 National Charging Network study, groundbreaking research on geothermal energy with the "Heat Beneath Our Feet" initiative, and the creation of a one-of-a-kind "…
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Decoding Cellular Secrets: Advances in Mass Spectrometry Technology
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Revolutionizing Biomedical Research with Mass Spectrometry Joshua J. Coon discusses the transformative role of mass spectrometry in biomedical research. This technology, as he explains, allows for the precise weighing of molecules, providing critical insights into their identity and quantity. Coon's lab utilizes mass spectrometry to analyze complex…
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An Equitable Clean Energy Transition in Los Angeles, a Plastics Problem in US Rivers
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Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss recent stories from NREL: The LA100 Equity Strategies project, developed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in collaboration with NREL and the University of California, Los Angeles , envisions a future where Los Angeles achieves 100% clean electricity by 2035 through community-driven…
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Tackling HIV Drug Resistance: Brazil's Approach and Global Implications
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Brazil's Proactive Measures Against HIV Brazil has been at the forefront of combating HIV, implementing proactive measures that have made a significant difference. The country began providing no-cost access to CD4 and viral load testing and antiretroviral drugs as early as 1996. This early intervention and consistent approach led to a remarkable ou…
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From SERI to NREL: A National Laboratory Origin Story
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In this episode, hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle take us on a journey through time exploring the origins of NREL. Beginning with the establishment in 1973 of the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) after the oil embargo, SERI soon expanded into wind and other renewable technologies. The hosts discuss a dynamic journey marked by political …
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Zero-Emission Vehicles Aid in Decarbonization, Solar Cells Efficiency Improvements, AI Innovations in Wind Energy
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Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss recent stories from NREL: The rapid adoption of zero-emission electric vehicles, alongside a transition to a clean electric grid and measures to manage travel demand growth, could lead to an 80% or more drop in transportation greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by 2050, according to researche…
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Unleashing the Grid Edge, Cost-Effective Mooring Systems, Revolutionizing Battery Recycling, and Moving Beyond 4-Hour Energy Storage
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Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss recent stories from NREL: NREL’s Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) Test Bed is a cutting-edge facility that can enable utilities to model and evaluate distribution systems, from simulating electric vehicle impacts to integrating renewable energy sources, emphasizing its role as a cruci…
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Building Healthy Homes in Alaska, Addressing Our Plastics Emergency, and Using Science To Optimize Wedding Guest Seating
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Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss recent stories from NREL: Alaska Native communities face enormous challenges when it comes to energy, housing, and health, in part due to government-provided prefabricated housing from the late 20th century that was not designed for Alaska’s extreme weather. Seven homeowners in the Native Village o…
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Spark Squad Comics’ Hydropower Heroes, Wind Energy’s Increased Potential, and a Tale of Two Cities Powered by Clean Energy—Plus, Clean Cities Coalitions
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Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss new stories from NREL: Beneath the Surface: The 'Spark Squad' Behind the Spark Squad: Inspired by the 1990s television show “Captain Planet,” three NREL researchers developed a super squad for a new generation. The Spark Squad Comic Book series features three heroes super-powered by clean energy innova…
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Powering Everyday Life: The significance and impacts of the semiconductor industry
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⚡Semiconductor chips go through a long manufacturing process. It all depends on the type of chip, but the standard timeframe is between 120 days and nine months. It is a three-phase process that includes design and frontend and backend manufacturing, all dependent on various factors. ''These are global supply chains supporting the completed product…
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The NREL Community, Partner Forum, Walmart Partnership, and Building International Connections
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Special Correspondent Nataleah Small joins the podcast to discuss Hispanic Heritage Month at NREL. Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss three recent stories from NREL: NREL’s Annual Partner Forum Eyes Pathways to Future Energy Systems: The laboratory hosted its 7th annual Partner Forum last month, bringing together industry partners, res…
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A Decade of ESIF Innovation, the R&D 100 Awards, and the Benefits of Closed-Loop Pumped Storage Hydropower
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Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss three recent stories from NREL: 10 Years of Leading Energy Systems Integration: As more renewables add to our energy mix, the grid is changing—and sectors that once were siloed are now interconnecting with one another. The Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) is a research facility designed to…
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Shaping the Future through STEM Education: The importance of access and equity
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The Power of Passion in STEM Eleanor emphasizes the importance of pursuing what you love in STEM. She advises students to focus on their interests rather than trying to impress judges or make a big impact. Eleanor encourages students to be scrappy and innovative and to believe in their ability to navigate through challenges. She underscores that ST…
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A Clean Locomotive Revolution, Renewable Deployment Setback Ordinances, and Using Water to Cool Supercomputers
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Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle discuss three recent stories from NREL: All Aboard! NREL Releases First Comprehensive, Open-Source Software for Freight Rail Decarbonization: The rail industry has an opportunity to revolutionize transportation. In the coming years, railroads could lay the tracks for industry-wide net-zero-emissions operations…
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Energy Resilience in Ukraine, Agrivoltaics in Florida, and Barriers to Solar on Tribal Land
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Hosts Taylor Mankle and Kerrin Jeromin discuss four recent stories from NREL: Ukraine Fights To Build More Resilient, Renewable Energy System in Midst of War: In partnership with USAID, NREL is supporting deployment of renewable-generation-based microgrids that will enable Ukraine to increase its energy independence and resilience by integrating mo…
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Pharmacogenomics: A New Era of Patient-Centric Care
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The Power of Pharmacogenomics Jeff explains how pharmacogenomics, the study of how genes affect a person's response to medications, can revolutionize healthcare. By understanding a patient's genetic makeup, healthcare providers can prescribe the right medication and dosage, reducing trial and error, improving treatment effectiveness, and minimizing…
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Floating Solar, Electricity ATB, the Next Generation of Building Scientists, and Electrochemical Fellows
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Hosts Taylor Mankle and Kerrin Jeromin explore four recent stories from NREL: Floating Photovoltaics in Southeast Asia: In a first-of-its-kind assessment, NREL researchers completed an analysis of FPV potential for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Enabling Floating Solar Photovoltaic (FPV) Deployment: FPV Technical Potential Asse…
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Electric-Powered Cars, Hydrogen-Powered Trucks, and Hydro-Powered Cities—Plus Geothermal!
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Hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle cover four recent new stories from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) – 2030 National Charging Network Study: NREL, in collaboration with the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation and the Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office, developed the 2030 National Charging Network study, wh…
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Welcome to Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast
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The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) brings you a brand-new biweekly podcast highlighting the clean energy research happening at our Colorado-based laboratory. Tune in Wednesday, July 12, for the first episode. This episode was hosted by Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle, written and produced by Allison Montroy…
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Forever Chemicals: The effects of PFAS and how to protect against it
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⚡PFAS stands for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances. Simply put, PFAS are man-made compounds synthesized in a laboratory. ''They were first made in the 1940s. Teflon was one of the very first developments of PFAS. PFAS is a universe of chemicals useful for lots of different consumer and industrial applications over the last 60 to 70 years. These i…
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Green Chemistry: Designing for a Sustainable Future
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⚡ Green chemistry aims to anticipate toxicity and global climate change. Green chemistry is an area of chemistry that focuses on reducing pollution and building a more sustainable world. John explains, "What you may be surprised to learn is that if you look at the curriculum, if you look at the classes that a chemist takes from the very beginning t…
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Delivering on the promise of cell therapies: Programmed immune cells attack cancer and other diseases
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⚡ Cell therapy is a promising field. Cell therapies can potentially transform medicine and treat some of the most severe diseases, like cancer. Wendell says, "That's one of the innate challenges here — how do you make something that's very controlled and specific and yet also very potent enough to really overcome the disease. And that's where we re…
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Disrupting the Status Quo: The Importance of Diversity in Clinical Trials
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⚡ What are the ramifications from a clinical research perspective if diversity is not appropriately represented in a clinical study populations? Even as diversity becomes increasingly important across different sectors, minorities continue to be left out of clinical trials and medical research studies. So, why is diversity so critical in clinical t…
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Putting Patients First: The Benefits of Decentralized Clinical Trials
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⚡ Decentralized clinical trials aim to reduce patient burden. Decentralized clinical trials can help make research more patient-centric. Tim explains the role of decentralization, "It's fair to say that that change management component is absolutely critical in terms of the decentralized adoption, and I think, when I look ahead in terms of decentra…
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No One Missed: Empowering Lung Cancer Patients with Biomarker Insights
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⚡ There's a diversity mismatch in the oncology workforce. One of the biggest challenges in the oncology space is a lack of diversity in the workforce. The population of the United States is very diverse, while the oncology field is not. Dr. Upal Basu Roy says, "We know that the United States is very diverse. As we speak, the population is very dive…
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Saved Time Saves Lives: The Impact of Rapid Turnaround Time for Cancer Patients
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⚡The most critical part is to shorten the time between doing the test and getting the results. From there, doctors will be better positioned to provide the best care to the patient. ''There's always pressure from the patient, the family, and the physician to start therapy as soon as possible. [...] So getting that test earlier allows us to do the r…
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Freezing Cancer: How Cryo-EM is advancing oncology research
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⚡ Cryo-EM is a powerful tool that helps look at cancer molecules differently. Penn State University uses the cryo-EM technique to understand and outsmart cancer. Professor Kelly explains, "Our lab uses a very high-tech imaging approach. It's called cryo-electron microscopy or cryo-EM, which pioneers in our field actually won the Nobel Prize for jus…
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One Health: How human, environmental, and animal health intersect
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⚡ We can't limit ourselves to only humans and animals to fight diseases and cure illnesses. To cure diseases and illnesses, we need to understand how the environment, humans, and animals intersect. Professor Akebe explains, "We get that whole cycle that starts again. It [waste] leaves from our homes. It leaves from our hospitals. It gets into the t…
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Behind the MoonArk: How a Team of Artists Embraced Science to Send a Time Capsule to the Moon
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⚡ The MoonArk is both conceptual art and a time capsule. Almost 15 years ago, the idea was to create a time capsule carrying fragments of the world as we know it today and send it to the moon to be discovered in the distant future. Today, the project has 60 members from 18 institutions and over 250 contributing designers, scientists, poets, musicia…
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Uncovering the Past: How Jewish Holocaust victims were discovered at a death camp in Sobibór
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💡 DNA analysis enables the identification of missing persons. Asked about the impact of DNA analysis, Dr. Diepenbroek explains that such a method helps identify the victims regardless of time passed. Forensics uses the DNA from unknown remains and matches them with the DNA of missing persons’ relatives. Alongside her colleagues — including experts …
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Virus Variants Explained: Why COVID-19 Variants Arise
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🎙 What are virus mutations, and what do they mean? Just like other viruses, COVID mutates all the time. Andy explains what mutation is, how it happens, and the importance of monitoring it. "What we need to capture in these surveillance efforts is how these viruses are changing and how quickly they are changing. So you've heard of mutations, and the…
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COVID In the Air? How a new in-air pathogen surveillance solution was used in some Wisconsin schools to detect airborne coronavirus particles
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🎙️ The AerosolSense Sampler is an in-air pathogen monitoring solution. Miguel introduced the AerosolSense Sampler, a new technology that can be used in conjunction with other risk mitigation tools (masks, vaccines, testing) in the fight against COVID-19. It is designed to detect the presence of coronavirus and other airborne pathogens in the air in…
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On this episode of Science With a Twist, Ron O’Brien interviews Matthew Moon, a CAR-T cell therapy recipient who was able to beat leukemia thanks to the advances in the field. Matthew and Ron discuss the timeline of health-related events that led to Matthew’s diagnosis and his unique journey to find a life-saving cell therapy clinical trial. After …
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Sustainability: What is it and why should we care?
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On this special Earth-Day episode of Science With a Twist, Ron O’Brien speaks with Emelia DeForce, Field Applications Scientist for Laboratory Plastics & Essentials at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Emelia and Ron chat about sustainability, what it means, and why we should all care about it.By Thermo Fisher
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COVID-19: Why We Need to Continue Testing
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Manoj Gandhi, Sr. Medical Director at Thermo Fisher Scientific, interviews Dr. Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. Manoj and Stephen address the doubts expressed by the general public regarding testing for COVID-19 and the need for continued testing even as vaccination rates continue to increase.…
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Breath Biopsy: Non-invasive analysis of biomarkers in early detection and precision medicine
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Billy Boyle, CEO of Owlstone Medical, sits down with Ron O'Brien to talk about breath biopsy. This technology provides an entirely new way to access this information by collecting and analyzing breath samples.By Thermo Fisher
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