Despite the multitude of languages that exist in India, communication of science is often limited to only a few and often centred around major cities. This obviously leads to the problem of scientific knowledge and ideas not reaching those who would benefit from it the most. But all is not doom and gloom. Armed with the reach of social media, open source softwares and local networks, several individuals are attempting to fill these gaps by innovative yet low cost alternatives. This podcast series is aimed at sharing such efforts and to inspire many more to communicate science in the many languages that call India their home. Our first episode features Dr. Kollegala Sharma Links: Jaanasuddi on SoundcloudPriya Prakash Warrier: WinkingEjana: Science and Tech blog in Kannada

IndSciComm podcasts

Vigyaan-Vichaar – Janasuddi with Dr. Kollegala Sharma

Listen to our first ever yearly round-up of what we do for work, in our free time, our favourite shows and our scientific, nerdy and geeky pet peeves.

Shoot the shit – A yearly round-up

Featured in Newslaundry on July 25th 2017 While Toxoplasma causes long-lasting infections that resist treatment, research on this neglected parasite promises to unveil new ways to treat malaria. But there is more to this microbe than meets the eye. Listen to our podcast to find out. References: 1. General introduction 2. TORCH member 3. CDC assigned category NPI 4. Early research and establishment as parasite: Ferguson, David JP. “Toxoplasma gondii: 1908-2008, homage to Nicolle, Manceaux and Splendore.” Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 104.2 (2009): 133-148. 5. Use of the Sabin-Feldman test to find Toxoplasma infections worldwide 6. The life cycle of Toxoplasma 7. Toxoplasmosis as zoonosis 8. Studies in India to measure Toxoplasma infection 9. Concerns about sexual transmission of Toxoplasma (here and here) 10. Malaria in India (Searo, NCBI, NCBI, WHO) 11. Resistance of malaria to standard medication 12. Whitehead Institute’s use of CRISPR on Toxoplasma 13. Apicomplexans 14. Crippling host invasion protein CLAMP (here and here) 15. Aid to research on inflammation 16. No obvious symptoms of Toxoplasma infection in otherwise healthy people 17. Eye infections by Toxoplasma 18. Toxoplasma and neurological disorders (here and here) 19. Immunosuppression by HIV or by medical treatments, leading to reactivation of Toxoplasma (here and here ) 20. Toxoplasmosis in organ transplant recipients 21. Organ transplantation related diseases (here and here) 22. Anti-parasitic drugs to destroy active parasites 23. Infection in women passing to foetus 24. Spiramycin therapy 25. CDC recommendations (here and here) 26. Autophagy (here and here) 27. Interfering with autophagy damages and destroys parasites (here and here)

Lifting the veil off a strange parasite

Published in Newslaundry on April 18th 2017 References: The Regulatory Status of Genome-edited Crops: Wolt, Wang and Yang (2015) Plant Biotechnology JournalGreen European Journal: New Breeding Techniques, New GMOs in a legal LimboGenetic Literacy Project FAQs     Legal Briefing Paper: Regulatory Status of Plants resulting from NBTs : NBT PlatformRegulatory Status of NBTs outside the EU: NBT PlatformCommittee formed in USA to redefine genetic modificationHow some GMOs have escaped US regulation; non-browning white mushroomsResearch paper on crop domesticationSafety testing of GMOs 

GMOs: What you need to know

அறிவியல் கடல் – தோலின் குருத்தணுக்கள் – கிஃப் லியாகத்-அலி / Ariviyal Kadal – Skin Stem Cells – Kif Liakath Ali

அறிவியல் கடல் – தோலின் குருத்தணுக்கள் – கிஃப் லியாகத்-அலி

This is the second episode of a two-part series on Neuroscience and Hindustani Music. It explores a research program on understanding the emotions that Hindustani music can evoke in people. This research is guided by Dr. Nandini Singh Chatterjee, a scientist at the National Brain Research Centre at Manesar, India, where she heads the Language, Literacy and Music Laboratory. This episode specifically focusses on the second study that was published in 2019, based on the responses of Indian participants to a set of Hindustani music samples. The music used in this podcast is a part of the samples used in the research study, played by sarod artist Pandit. Mukesh Sharma. Hymavathy Balasubramanian kindly provided access to the music files. Here is the website where you can listen to the music samples and contribute your responses to the ongoing research program. Dr. Nandini Singh Chatterjee is on our database of Indian women neuroscientists, NeuroFem India. Apart from her, the other people who were interviewed for this episode are: Dr. Suhas Vijayakumar, who created the website where the listener survey for the research on Hindustani music is conducted. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University. 2. Pandit. Mukesh Sharma is the sarod artist who created the music used in this study. He belongs to the Senia gharana. 3. Vishal Midya, the lead author on the 2019 study, is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Penn State College of Medicine. 4. Dr. Thomas Bak is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Edinburgh Dr. Nandini’s group based their calculation of tonality on the method shown in this earlier research on Carnatic music by another group of researchers. Here is the previous research from scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Pennsylvania on emotion expressions in Indian Classical Dance. The NIH Director’s blogpost about NIH funded research on universality of human song Update on Feb 12th, 2020: After rebalancing for better overall audio quality between voices and background music, the audio file has been re-uploaded. 

Emotions & Hindustani Music – Part 2

This is the first episode of a two-part series on Neuroscience and Hindustani Music. It explores a research program on understanding the emotions that Hindustani music can evoke in people. This research is guided by Dr. Nandini Singh Chatterjee, a scientist at the National Brain Research Centre at Manesar, India, where she heads the Language, Literacy and Music Laboratory. This episode explores the first study that was published in 2015, based on the responses of Indian participants to a set of Hindustani music samples. The music used in this podcast is a part of the samples used in the research study, played by sarod artist Pandit. Mukesh Sharma. Hymavathy Balasubramanian kindly provided access to the music files. Here is the website where you can listen to the music samples and contribute your responses to the ongoing research program. Dr. Nandini Singh Chatterjee is on our database of Indian women neuroscientists, NeuroFem India. Apart from her, the other scientists who were interviewed for this episode are: Dr. Avantika Mathur, the lead author of the 2015 study, and currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Centre for Brain, Biology and Behavior at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA. Dr. Megha Sharda most recently completed a postdoctoral research stint at the University of Montreal, Canada. Dr. Bhismadev Chakrabarti is Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Reading, United Kingdom. 

Emotions & Hindustani Music – Part 1

This is the first episode of a two-part series on Neuroscience and Hindustani Music. It explores a research program onContinue reading

 This is our first podcast in Telugu – the sixth in an ongoing series titled ‘Sea of Science’, or ‘ విజ్ఞాన సాగరం ’. This podcast is a joint venture with Deepthi Tadepalli and Sumana Chavali. Deepthi works as a freelance writer with a background in biotechnology and communication. Sumana is an engineer working at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics. This episode is part of our ongoing effort to make science podcasts in many Indian languages. Click and listen to this podcast in Tamizh, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and Assamese. Here is an English transcript for this Telugu podcast: Deepthi: Hello! My name is Deepthi and I am a freelance writer with a background in biotechnology and communication.  Sumana: Hi! My name is Sumana and I am an engineer working at Indian Institute of Astrophysics. Deepthi: This podcast is a collaboration between us and IndScicomm, a science communication collective. In its ongoing efforts, IndSciComm has published podcasts as well as written articles that discuss interesting aspects of scientific research, the researchers involved in this effort, their discoveries and the effects of scientific progress on the past, present and future of human society. IndSciComm also collaborates with Indian scientists, researchers and writers at all levels of the scientific enterprise in creating its science communication materials. Sumana: We are very happy to present this podcast in Telugu, which is one of the national languages of India. With the help of other collaborators, IndSciComm is publishing this podcast in other Indian languages as part of its ongoing project. Deepthi: In this podcast, we will be talking about model organisms that are used in biological research. Now, let’s discuss model organisms. Here are some examples of model organisms that are used to study aspects of the human body’s growth, development, functioning and disorders: different species of microbes, flies, zebrafish, birds, mice, rats, guinea pigs and monkeys. In the context of biomedical research that is done to understand human biology,  the foremost reason for the use of model organisms is that it is not possible to conduct some forms of biological experiments on humans. So, scientists have chosen organisms that are a close enough match to humans in terms of their genes and other biological features, and use these as model organisms for their research. Sumana: Apart from how similar model organisms are to humans in terms of their genes and genomes, there are other important reasons for some organisms being chosen as model organisms rather than others. The ease with which certain organisms can be reared and maintained in the laboratory and the kind of experiments that they can be used for… These are the factors that scientists use to choose the appropriate organism to use as a model, to answer questions about specific biological phenomena. Deepthi: Sumana, could you give us some examples of model organisms that are used in specific areas of biological research? Sumana: Specific model organisms are used in different areas of research. For example, regeneration is studied using certain species of worms. The relationship between genes and the environment is researched using certain species of flies. Zebrafish are preferred model organisms for researching embryonic development. Zebrafish larvae have transparent bodies which makes observing their internal organs really easy. Another example is the use of mammals like mice in biomedical research. Deepthi: Is there an advantage to using model organisms like mice in biomedical research? Sumana: Some diseases take years to show symptoms in human beings. But, in certain lineages of model organisms, diseases can show symptoms in relatively reduced timeframes, like weeks. Due to this, it is easier to conduct research about certain diseases in such model organisms. This is why scientists use model organisms like mice to conduct research about medicines or treatment methods for some diseases. Deepthi: But, there are some disadvantages in using model organisms for biomedical research. Despite the similarities between humans and model organisms in terms of their genes, there are some unavoidable differences between them. Due to these differences, some cause and effect relationships seen while using a species of model organism are not apparent or reproducible in other organisms and humans. In addition, it is often difficult to directly apply or modify the experimental protocols used for one species or type of model organism to another. Sumana: The take home message from all this is that the use of human volunteers is essential, for the validation of therapeutic methods or drugs that are developed in model organisms, before such therapies are used to treat human patients. Deepthi: We humans have a strange relationship with model organisms. Despite the differences that exist between us, we share some fundamental similarities. It is due to these similarities that research on model organisms yields results that can be applied to humans. But, why do our similarities make it necessary to use model organisms in an ethical manner? And how do scientists put ethical considerations into practice? Sumana: Scientific research is always a struggle between what is necessary and what is possible. This struggle attains an ethical aspect in biological research. This is because most living organisms can feel pain and bodily suffering just like humans do. So, it is unethical to cause unnecessary suffering to model organisms. Bound by this principle, scientists enforce the ethical treatment of model organisms in different ways. These include reducing pain in model organisms using medication, providing comfortable living conditions and making efficient use of the available animal resources. Deepthi: Scientific research methodology is very difficult, whether it is to figure out how to ethically treat model organisms or solve complex biological problems…scientists have very difficult jobs. But without the contribution of model organisms, their efforts would not have yielded any results. The use of model organisms has led to many societal and medical benefits. The use of antibiotics like penicillin to combat microbes, blood transfusions and organ transplants, vaccines for diseases like polio, the management of diseases like diabetes… we could keep adding to this list and this podcast will never end! The sheer number of invaluable human lives that have been saved using these discoveries is uncountable. Sumana: Model organisms are an important tool in biological research in order to understand the mysteries of the human body in disease and in health. Scientists have discovered how many drugs and treatments work based on their experiments on model organisms. Supported by these advances, doctors have been able to cure many human diseases. Scientists are working hard in order to understand many more diseases and processes such as growth and metabolism in humans. Deepthi: In our next episode of this podcast, we will be talking about the use of mice as model organisms. Until then, dear listeners, you can enjoy much of our scicomm work on our website indscicomm.blog, http://www.wayfarerstories.com and our twitter handle @indscicomm. Until we meet again, on behalf of Indscicomm this is Deepthi and Sumana. Namaste. Intro, Interlude and Outro music – adapted from travelLight by airtone (c) copyright 2017 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/56883 

విజ్ఞాన సాగరం – నమూనా జీవులు

Listen to us gum-bashing about science, scicomm and everything else!

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IndSciComm podcasts

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