Clinical Trials and Tribulations: Steve Hauser's quest to cure MS

Photo Credit: NIAID

In this episode, a team of researchers disprove a decades-old dogma. The result? The first ever FDA-approved drug for primary-progressive multiple sclerosis. In this inspiring story spanning decades of research, you’ll hear all the science, and all the dramatic twists, behind this radical new treatment.

If you want to learn more about the science, visit this link to find a list of Dr. Steve Hauser's publications.

Music Used:

El Fuego and The Itis by Polyrhythmics; Juliette, Submerging Blue-Black, Three Colors, Whiplash String Swell, Theme in G, and Sincerely Yours by Podington Bear; Palestrina - Sicut lilium inter spinas by the Tudor Consort; The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan and Cylinder Nine by Chris Zabriskie; I Knew a Guy by Kevin MacLeod; Morning Four, Take Care and Snow by David Szesztay; Tarantella Lucana by Italian Village Music and Dance; Sunday Lovers by Monday Night Fever; As Colorful As Ever by Broke For Free; Puddle of Infinity by Young And Old Know Love; A String (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond; Samba Whistle by Reinsamba ; PSA audio was from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society

Science against the clock: short talks to ignite your curiosity

In this episode we bring you short talks from ten young, passionate scientists eager to tell you about their cutting-edge discoveries. Each scientist is given just three minutes to launch their audience to new horizons and bring them back to earth, ready for the next exciting journey. Come with us as we explore new horizons in disease prevention, ways that our bodies could one day produce their own treatments, how scary spiders can actually help us reduce pain, and much, much more. Intrigued? Let's begin our countdown to science!

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.

My Little Thesis

Ready to get blasted with science? We recorded five different PhD students as they summarized their entire thesis in 3 minutes or less. The challenge was to describe their research with as little jargon as possible, for a general audience. You’ll hear about everything from cancer, to the developing embryo, to how dieting might make you smarter.

The music you heard in this episode includes the following:
Easy Jam by Kevin MacLeod (source, artist)
Ecossaise in E-flat by Kevin MacLeod (source, artist)
Bumper Tag by John Deley
The Creek by Topher Mohr and Alex Elena
About that Oldie by Vibe Tracks
60's Quiz Show (Podington Bear) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Origins

Humankind is fascinated by origin stories. We find them everywhere and they come in many forms... every religion has one, science has lots, they're in biographies, and they're even in superhero movies.

In this episode, Dr. Terry Deacon, a biological anthropologist at UC Berkeley, guides us through a novel perspective on how life itself might have started.

Music:

Attribution:
Constellation - Podington Bear
Dreamlike - Kevin Macleod

Other Public Domain:
USAF Band: Saturn and Neptune

Creative Commons:
Eureka by huma-huma
Elephants by huma-huma
In the Hall of the Mountain King - Edvard Grieg
Rag Time Time - Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions
Let's Do It - Topher Mohr and Alex Elena

For more information on life's origins:

Deacon reference:
anthropology.berkeley.edu/sites/defaul…6_Deacon.pdf ("Reciprocal Linkage between Self-organizing Processes is Sufficient for Self-reproduction and Evolvability")

Prebiotic evolution:
what-when-how.com/molecular-biolog…lecular-biology/

Cliff Matthews:
DARK MATTER IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM: HYDROGEN CYANIDE POLYMERS

RNA world:
www.scientificamerican.com/article/ori…e-on-earth/ The origin of life on earth, scientific american.

Erratum: Soccer balls have both hexagons and pentagons!

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

Brain Meets Word: The Neuroscience Behind Communication

Tongues, songbirds and perfect fifths, oh my! Seemingly disparate subjects yes, but remarkably similar nonetheless. In this episode, we investigate some of the far corners of the neuroscience behind communication! We start with a simple question: how does the human brain coordinate all of the muscles that allow us to speak? In part 2, we learn how male songbirds perfect their mating calls and how all the single birds respond. And finally, a neuroscientist/professional opera-singer tells us about the mystery of musicality, and the science behind becoming a great musician.

Part One: “On the Tip of My Tongue”
The human brain precisely controls numerous muscles when we speak, but scientists know very little about how exactly this happens... Our producers Ryan Jones and Kate Woronowicz talk with David Conant, a doctoral student in Dr. Edward Chang’s lab at the University of California - San Francisco, about how patients with epilepsy are helping us unravel this great mystery.

Part Two: “A Bird Song to Remember”
Spring is in the air and with it, a cacophony of bird songs. But these birds aren’t born knowing how to sing. It’s only after the brain goes through complex chemical dances that these males can attract their perfect mates. Listen to Peter Chisnell talk with Dr. Gregory Ball, neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, about how hormones refine male bird songs and in turn, how these songs change birds’ brains.

Part Three: “The Sound of Music(ality)”
Practice makes perfect, but is that all it takes to become a great musician? Lynn Wang talks to Dr. Indre Viskontas, neuroscientist and professional musician, about her research studying how musicality works. At the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Indre teaches “Training the Musical Brain,” a class where students learn how to practice basic music perceptual skills. In addition, she’s interested in understanding how elements such as emotion and expression make us better musicians.