Kelly and Zach discuss Zach's new book "Science - Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness"

As you have probably noticed, Weekly Weinersmith updates have been few and far between in the past few months. I really love doing this podcast, but this is the last year of my PhD and I have had to prioritize my dissertation experiments, manuscript writing, and applying for postdoc positions. I was hoping I would still have time to podcast, but my schedule simply isn’t allowing it. The experiment ends and all of my postdoc applications are due by early January, so our intention is to start back up again around that time. Zach and I look forward to bringing your more nerdiness ASAP!

This week Zach and Kelly talk to Dr. David Hughes about zombie ants.

This week Zach and I talk with Dr. Joan Strassman about Dictyostelium discoideum, a social amoeba.

This week Zach and Kelly talk naked mole rats.

This week Zach and Kelly talk about cheating in bacterial biofilms, and how the microbiome influences susceptibility to disease in bumble bees.

This week we let Ryan Haupt and Benjamin Tippett take over the show. Ryan and Ben are co-hosts on the Science...sort of podcast, and Ben is host of The Titanium Physicists podcast. Both of these podcasts are part of the Brachiolope Media Network, the podcast network to which the Weekly Weinersmith belongs. Ryan and Ben will talk about....well....you'll see.

This podcast is probably not appropriate for a younger audience (you know, as usual).

This week Zach and Kelly talk with Dr. Christopher Dana Lynn, an anthropologist at the University of Alabama who studies the relationship between glossolalia and stress in Apostolic Pentecostals.

This week Zach and Kelly talk about how the smell of coffee changes gene expression and protein production in rat brains, and discuss a study that hooked rat brains up to one another so the rats could share information and perform tasks together.

For Valentine’s Day, Zach and Kelly talk whether or not brazilian waxing is causing the extinction of pubic lice, and about how housework influences the frequency of sex.

This week Zach and Kelly discuss a study that used infusion of donor feces to treat a bacterial infection, and a second study that found that light is important for eye development in fetal mice. 

This week Zach and Kelly talk about how fear and/or awe of math differs between academic fields.

This week Zach and Kelly bring back Dr. Elizabeth Iorns to talk about the Reproducibility Initiative through Science Exchange. Elizabeth was recently named one of Nature’s 10 People Who Mattered This Year!

This week Zach and Kelly talk about National Institute of Health (NIH) funding practices, and the increasing administrative burdens placed on academic scientists.

This week Zach and Kelly talk to Jessica Richman, a PhD student at Oxford University, and Dr. William Ludington, the Bowes Fellow at the University of California Berkeley, about uBiome. uBiome is a project that connects citizens to scientists in an attempt to better understand the microbiome.

This week Zach and Kelly discuss how the way one responds to stressors can have long-lasting implications for health, and recent research on a link between a rare gene variant and Alzheimer's disease.

This week Zach and Kelly talk about how the blood of young mice makes old mice brains look young again, and whether or not genomics can help to predict the kinds of antidepressants to which a person will respond.

This week Zach and Kelly discuss research on how to eliminate certain types of anxiety, and chat about Bisphenol A (BPA).

This week Zach and Kelly talk about oxygen injections and exploding termites.

This week Zach and Kelly talk to Dr. Scott Commins of the University of Virginia about his research on tick-induced meat allergies.

This week Zach and Kelly bring back Dr. Michael Munger of Duke University to discuss how people parasitize economies and how parasites economize people.

Today Zach and Kelly talk to Dr. Jordan Miller, a postdoctoral student in Dr. Christopher Chen's Tissue Microfabrication Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, about his recent breakthrough using 3D printing to create blood vessels.

This week Zach and Kelly talk to Dillon McDowell, Josh Marion, and Melissa Loving about nanomagnets. All guests are past or current members of the Lewis Lab at Northeastern University.

This week Kelly and Zach talk to Dr. Christian Eggers about whether or not viruses should qualify as being "alive", and the importance of viruses in evolution.

This week Zach and Kelly are on an immune system kick, and discuss the potential downsides of new drug treatments and a new use for a previously existing drug.

This week Zach and Kelly talk to Elise Novitski, a PhD student studying CPT symmetry and the fine-structure constant in Dr. Gerald Gabrielse’s lab at Harvard.

On this week's episode Kelly and Zach talk to Dr. Ryan Earley about why so many species reproduce sexually rather than asexually. We then talk to Elizabeth Lee and Robert Denton, whose #SciFund projects focus on animals with uncommon reproductive systems.

This week Zach and Kelly talk to Dr. Jennifer Sheridan about her research on the impacts of oil palm farming on amphibian populations in Borneo.

This week Zach and Kelly interview Dr. Sanna Sokolow, a post-doc in UCSB's Ecological Parasitology Lab and Projet Crevette scientist. Sanna talks about her research on the use of freshwater prawns to control schistosomiasis in West Africa.

This week Zach and Kelly take a break due to ROFLCon and field work, respectively. Instead of a new Weekly Weinersmith episode, we present to you Zach's appearance on our sister's podcast, The Titanium Physicists!

This week Zach and Kelly talk about the surprising lack of scientific evidence supporting the lifestyle changes suggested by doctors to people with gastroesophageal reflux disease (AKA acid reflux disease). Elizabeth Iorn's blog post on Science Exchange starts a discussion on the importance of reproducibility in scientific research, and factors explaining the recent rise in retractions of scientific articles.

Kelly and Zach talk to MIT's Dr. Bruce Lipschultz and Daniel Brunner about fusion, Alcator C-Mod, and the future of fusion research in the United States.

This week Kelly and Zach talk to Dr. Michael Munger about Chilean politics, modeling in economics, and areas where economists and the general public tend to disagree.

This week Zach and Kelly talk about nodding disease and a simulation looking at the potential for transfer of life between planets.

This week Kelly and Zach speak with Dr. R. Douglas Fields about his book "The Other Brain".

Zach and Kelly discuss the recent boycott of the publishing groupElsevier.

Zach and Kelly have emerged triumphant from their move across the country, and are ready to get their geek on! This week's episode discusses a sea slug that can photosynthesize, and a slime mold that can find the shortest path through a maze. Woah.

This week Zach and Kelly talk about brain punching, stinky personalities, and gliomas.

This week Zach and Kelly talk about the awesome stuff they've been learning lately, and Henry Reich of Minute Physics drops in to talk about popular science media and science education! 

This week Kelly and Zach talk to Dr. Kristina Killgrove about what she has learned about ancient Roman culture by studying the bones of ancient Romans.

This week Kelly and Zach talk to Dr. Sean Carroll about the arrow of time, dark energy, and education.

This week Kelly and Zach talk to Dr. Charlie Barnhart about energy!