How to Build a Human: Part 3

In this episode we bring back Professor Terrence Deacon, a biological anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, to talk about language. He tells us one possible story of how language first evolved, and why he believes language is a uniquely human capability. Listen to find out how language is about a lot more than just speech.

Producer: Meryl Horn

How to Build a Human: Part 2

In Part 2 of “How to Build a Human”, we continue our investigation of our unique features that set us apart from other animals. We spoke to Dr. Nathan Young from the University of California San Francisco, who studies the development of the human skeleton and looks at how the variations in our skeletal structure have contributed to our evolution and the development of human civilization.

Stay tuned at the end of the episode for our newest installment of Headlines, the Carry the One Radio newscast. Each month (give or take), Headlines hosts Nick Weiler and Arezu Sarvestani bring you the latest research news from around UCSF. In this month's episode, guest host Liz Droge-Young fills in while Arezu attends a hacker conference in Las Vegas. Nick and Liz check out stories about why aspirin may help prevent certain forms of cancer, how cutting down on sugar yields remarkable benefits for kids' heart health, and whether pale skin might be the result of evolutionary laziness. Happy Listening!

Music:

• Loll—Podington Bear
• Danse Macabre, Opus 40—University of Chicago Orchestra
• Monkeys Spinning Monkeys—Kevin MacLeod
• Pink Gradient—Podington Bear
• Camp—Podington Bear
• Gathering—Podington Bear
• Firefly—Podington Bear
• Sidecar—Podington Bear
• Patched In—Blue Dot Sessions

Sound Effects:

• “Splash Rock in Lake Sound”—www. Soundbible.com; Public Domain
• “Bite into and Chew Apple”—http://freesfx.co.uk
• “Alien Siren”—www. Soundbible.com; Public Domain

How to Build a Human (Part 1)

We humans like to think of ourselves as pretty different from other animals. Language, philosophy, art, technology - we do things it seems like no other animal is capable of. But what makes us this way? In part one of our investigation, we focus on two features of the brain that seem to be particular to people. We start with Arnold Kriegstein of the University of California, San Francisco, who studies a type of stem cell that does something special during human brain development. We then turn to Kira Poskanzer and Anna Molofsky, also of UCSF, who believe the secret to human-ness might lie with a totally different, often neglected kind of brain cell.

CTOR Bites - Episode 1 - Sama Ahmed Three Minute Thesis

Carry The One Radio is now releasing shorter morsels of science in between our longer full length episodes! We call them, CTOR Bites. For our first Bite, our own Sama Ahmed summarizes 5 years of his research on evolutionary biology into exactly 3 minutes! It’s an adaptation of his award-winning entry into the University of California Three Minute Thesis competition. Stay curious!

  Produced by Ryan Jones and Sama Ahmed

Carry the One Radio takes on Goggles Optional: Goggles Optional

Our science podcast friends at Stanford’s Goggles Optional have invited us to make a guest appearance on their show. Carry the One Radio team members Sama, Karuna, Liz, and Samantha joined Lisl, Trisha, Diego, and David from Goggles Optional. We had a head-to-head science-podcast-battle in the game categories Weakest Link, Team Real or Fake, and Google’s Optional (not a typo!). We also discussed evolution and fruit fly research.

Goggles Optional is a weekly science podcast based out of Stanford University. They cover a myriad of interesting science topics you won’t hear about in your typical feed, and they are a lot of fun to listen to. We highly recommend you check them out on their website.

Hosted by Osama Ahmed, Karuna Meda, Liz Unger, and Samantha Ancona Esselmann

The Cat Who Broke his Sweet Tooth

Carry the One Radio


Feb. 15, 2014 (Hosted by Sam Esselmann)


This is our first "CTOR Short"! Our producer Samantha explores why her cat Maverick cannot taste sweet foods.

Speaking with the Lizard Man: Eric Pianka

This month, in collaboration with the Age of Discovery podcast, we talk to Eric Pianka, an American ecologist known for his work on the community ecology of desert lizards and his classic textbook, Evolutionary Ecology. Dr. Pianka discusses how his interests in biology and reptiles were sparked in elementary school, and the experiences and relationships that have propelled his scientific career.

This program was hosted by Adrian Smith, an ant biologist at the University of Illinois. Adrian runs his own biology podcast called the Age of Discovery.

More on the Pianka Lab's research

Evolution of the deer mouse: Hopi Hoekstra

The way an organism looks and behaves is influenced by the genes it inherits. Through a process known as natural selection, genetic traits that are helpful for survival are passed to future generations, while traits that are less useful are selected out. For example, a fish that swims faster than another is more likely to escape from predators, reproduce, and pass down various inherited traits than its slower counterparts.

Hopi Hoekstra, a professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, and our guest this month on CTOR, is studying a longstanding question in biology: how do genes contribute to evolutionary adaptations? Listen as Dr. Hoekstra talks about how her lab uses the deer mouse to study the genetic basis of coat color, and burrowing behaviors. In addition, her research has important connections to human genetics and behavior. The genes her lab studies that determine pigmentation in the deer mouse are the same genes that determine hair color and skin cancer susceptibility in humans. And while humans obviously don’t burrow, the genes that affect burrowing and exploratory behaviors in the deer mouse could affect motivation and anxiety in humans. At the end of our talk, Dr. Hoekstra’s discusses her interest in political science before switching to a career in science.

This interview is part of an ongoing collaboration between Carry the One Radio and the Women in Life Sciences (WILS) group at UCSF.

More on the Hoekstra Lab's research

Women in Life Sciences (WILS)

Hosted by Karuna Meda

Exploring the Evolution and Development of the Vertebrate Skeleton: Rich Schneider

If you were asked to imagine how scientists study the way bones develop and grow, the last thing you might picture would be a quail-duck chimera. That is, unless you're Richard Schneider, associate professor in the department of orthopedic surgery at UCSF and our guest this month on Carry the One Radio.

Dr. Schneider and his lab have developed a system where stem cells from quail embryos are transplanted into duck embryos, and vice versa. The precursor cells from different species differ in growth speed and the structure of the bone they eventually create. His lab is interested in how these species-specific, developing cells interact with each other when they first meet. His findings may eventually lead to potential therapies for bone repair and regeneration.

More on the Schneider Lab's research

Host: Alex Mendelssohn

How the brain responds to pheromones: Lisa Stowers

Our brains are responsible for helping us understand and move around in the world. What we perceive through our senses is transformed into electrical activity in our brains, and that activity determines how we act and respond to the environment. Yet, scientists are unclear about how brain cells carry out this transformation.

Our guest this month is Dr. Lisa Stowers from the Scripps Research Institute. Her lab uses mice to study how chemical signals known as pheromones activate particular groups of neurons, and how this activity produces instinctive behaviors of fear, attraction, and aggression. By studying this system, Dr. Stowers hopes to shed new light on how the brain processes senses and generates behavior.

More on the Stowers Lab's research

Producer: Sama Ahmed