Hydrogen sulfide, the stinky stuff, works inside us to fight infection. How it does this and what future value it may have is a major part of a 76 minute podcast among three senior researchers with collective experience approaching a hundred years in This Week in Microbiology #23. One researcher is a microbiologist, one a virologist and the third a medical specialist.
Brushing your teeth releases a burst of bacteria into your bloodstream causing a condition caused bacteremia. That’s one small part of This Week in Microbiology #24 The 79 minute episode recounts summaries of the ten key stories for microbiology in 2011 and links to related podcasts. The summaries allow you to judge the value of each and determine if you want to hear more details from original podcasts. Interesting tidbits are thrown in such as radiation to process food kills good as well as bad microflora and heliobactor pylori that’s linked to asthma is good for you when little and bad when middle aged. Then there is a link between ticks, acorn availability, mouse population and human infection. The new Human Microbiome Project that’s funded by the Government is highlighted because it is a large project devoted to characterizing the microbes of the nose, mouth, skin, GI tract and urogenital tract and their interrelationship.
One comment is made about epidemiology illustrated by a story on a recent Jon Stewart show in an interview of Dr David B. Agus, recent author of The End of Illness in which ticket takers were found to have half the heart disease of a same number of bus drivers. (An excellent twenty minute YouTube video of the author is here) Lastly, mention is made of ginsenosides(a class of steroid-like compounds) from ginseng as a probiotic of possible use to treat inflammatory diseases.
A third TWIM, #25 , describes a common magnetic bacteria that swim to or away from magnets and how they may help researchers. A very clear explanation of how tuberculosis grows and spreads is attached to the note that totally drug resistant tuberculosis is growing in India which already has the highest incidence of TB in countries where it is monitored. One-third of people on planet are infected by TB and about one in develop the active form. Others have small radio opaque nodules in the lungs where the bacillus is walled off. About 50% of active cases die from it (so that is half of one percent). The program runs 77 minutes.
A good primer on 3D Printing or additive manufacturing was presented as a fifteen minute TED Talk It can be seen and the sound recorded, but not downloaded. Great many comments are also at the site with many links to related material and competing products of interest to anyone following this technology. Then another podcast from Business Week, thirteen minutes this time, also summarizes the field, but considers the commercial applications, such as Boeing using it to make complex parts for military jets. While it still seems that little practical is being done with the home printers, this YouTube video shows use of a device made on such a printer to allow use of an electric drill as a centrifuge. And now there’s a “3D Printing for Science” Design Challenge at UC Berkeley, so progress is being made.
People represented by the Hackademia site are the type of non-experts that can use a home 3D printer and how they contribute to innovation and disruptive technologies is discussed in this hour-long presentation. That link contains other links to a video version as well. One interesting example is how to remove a bottle cork with a plastic bag, shown in this video. P.S. Here is a related item where a cork is removed by bashing the bottle base against a wall.
Gold hoarders should consider the comment in this seventeen minute podcast from Sound Investing that sea shells, like gold, were once considered to be a valuable commodity.
Ten science journalists from five countries offer their views about the theme “Raising the Bar on Science” in an annual Purdue University conference in this 48 minute podcast. They address such issues as why do we often only hear about a breakthrough and no followup.
Biotech trends and possibilities are discussed in a 51 minute discussion first with a British Cabinet Minister, and then an investor in biotech.
Commons, such as networks, open source software, internet, Wikipedia and to some degree Google and Twitter are ways people solve problems. This 23 minute talk on the subject stumbles along some, but the concepts are insightful if you wish to extract the maximum benefit from these concepts. Iran is held up as a recent example of a networked commons among people who used technology overlooked by their conservative government to channel their frustration with authoritarian policies.
Skype, which Michael Jackson helped create, is now used for business by four million people. This 23 minute talk talk from 2009 is still relevant. He discusses obstacles confronted during the development of that disruptive innovation. He points out that disruptive technologies tend to be scoffed at by leading enterprises because they don’t fit into the successful paradigm from which the leaders currently benefit.
FIFO in Australia from this fifteen minute BBC podcast concerns a lucrative mining boom is proving lucrative thru use of Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) workers. Fifty thousand workers use this commuting route. It comes at a cost.
Computers can be applied to the issues and problems of consumers and businesses. Robert Stephens, Best Buy Chief Technology Officer, created the Geek Squad as a way to help people correct computer problems quickly and easily. When Best Buy bought his company, he became CTO of the retail giant. His discussion about how he identifies and deals with problems in this 51 minute talk can be used by any technically capable person.
The Kindle Chronicles is a four-year-old weekly videocast, usually 45 minutes long, that discusses the operation, sources of material, tips, and trends. Notes with each episode are detailed with many links to speed your browsing. The latest 45 minute episode, #182 comes up on the main site, or go here. This episode and many other have a sailing theme and about ten minutes is devoted in this one to sailing problems, but the remainder is Kindle-relevant.
The Creative Penn is a site devoted to helping you write, publish and sell your book. Almost three years of podcasts, one hundred seventeen in all, each about twenty-five minutes long, are case studies about authors. A convenient list of titles are all on one page.
Yellowknife in The Northwest Territories of Canada is one topic in a new multimedia publication highlighted in “The North This Week” for Jan 14 at 5:18 minutes into the seventeen minute podcast, and lasts 12 minutes. Download the podcast here, right clicking “north_20120119_28018.mp3” and using “Save file as…”. Online listening can be done here. The publication discussed is called Edgey. The editor explains this type multimedia publication can be created by making a PDF and sent to a service provided by Issuu that is discussed here.
Apple computer is leaping into the multimedia arena with several new releases. One deals with e-texbooks and another is an application for authors, called Author that is designed for Apple products. A two hour discussion of these developments by several experienced experts and businessmen can be seen here. Talk about the key topics doesn’t start until the thirty minute mark. An audio version is also available here, but the video version is better because it lets you look at examples of the products. A wiki for the discussion with links to sites, products, and people is useful, here. The discussion is passionate about the need for access, especially in developing nations and possibility of text book monopolization.
Media Mining Digest 