TWiV 407: Tar Heels go viral, part one


Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Dirk Dittmer, Cary Moody, Nat Moorman, Nancy Raab-Traub, Lishan Su, and Jennifer Webster-Cyriaque

In the first of two shows recorded at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Vincent meets up with faculty members to talk about how they got into science, their research on DNA viruses, and what they would be doing if they were not scientists.

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This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

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TWiV 406: Pow, right in the enteroids!

norovirusHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

The TWiV team discusses eye infections caused by Zika virus, failure of Culex mosquitoes to transmit the virus, and replication of norovirus in stem cell derived enteroids.

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This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 28:50

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100. 0:50, 1:02:15

Weekly Science Picks 1:24:05

Alan – Infective Perspective
Dickson – The Living River
Rich – Freddy Mercury around the Sun
Kathy –  A Day in Pompeii
Vincent – Spraying Pesticides

Listener Picks

Ricardo – Why the metric system matters
Eric – The Giving Plague by David Brin

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 405: All the world’s a phage

global water volumeHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

The TWiXers discuss a study on vertical transmission of Zika virus by Aedes mosquitoes, and uncovering Earth’s virome by mining existing metagenomic sequence data.

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This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completel free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 26:55

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100. 0:50, 1:02:00

Weekly Science Picks 1:42:40

Alan – The Vizzies
Dickson – NASA Spinoff
Kathy –  Maps.me
Vincent – Zika: The Emerging Epidemic by Donald McNeil

Listener Picks

Tarwin – Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear (paper or Kindle)
Bodham – The start of scientific publishing, 1665

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TWiV 404: Not found

Dose response plaque assayHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

From the twiVivants, follow up on FluMist and Zoster vaccines, Zika virus update, and isolation of a multicomponent animal virus from mosquitoes.

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This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completel free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 58:55

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100. 0:55, 1:24:00

Weekly Science Picks 1:48:30

Alan – Sally Le Page
Dickson – Comfortably Numb by Jamie Dupuis
Rich –  Learned Helplessness
Vincent – Virus by Marilyn Roossinck

Listener Picks

OneTime – The Stranglers – Old Codger
Steve – A Poem About Pronunciation

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV Special: DA Henderson, smallpox eradicator

Racaniello and DA HendersonDonald “D.A.” Henderson, a physician, educator, and epidemiologist who led the World Health Organization’s campaign to eradicate smallpox, died at 87 years of age on Aug. 19, 2016. Vincent was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with DA Henderson in 2014 about his career, the smallpox eradication effort, and what it means for the eradication of polio. 

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TWiV 403: It’s not easy being vaccine

CorndoglikevirusHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

The TWiV team takes on an experimental plant-based poliovirus vaccine, contradictory findings on the efficacy of Flumist, waning protection conferred by Zostavax, and a new adjuvanted subunit zoster vaccine.

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This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completel free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 2910

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100. 0:50, 1:16:45

Weekly Science Picks 1:26:10

Alan – To Scale: The Solar System
Rich –  Route 66 Goes Solar
Vincent – Race for a Zika Vaccine by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Listener Picks

Bohdan – Penn and Teller on Vaccinations
Bill – Connections, Episode 1

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 402: The plight of the bumblebee

bumblebeeHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Polio returns to Nigeria, Zika virus spreads in Miami, and virus infection of plants attracts bumblebees for pollination, from the virus gentlepeople at TWiV.

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This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completel free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 41:50

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100. 0:50, 1:41:10

Weekly Science Picks 1:37:20

Alan – Solar storm that launched US space weather science
Rich –  Data storage on DNA
Dickson – Perseid meteor show live
Vincent – In the Company of Microbes by Elio Schaechter

Listener Picks

Neva – I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
Amanda – American Gut

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 401: Vector victorious

mouse bitesHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Zika virus spreads in the USA, a Zika virus DNA vaccine goes into phase I trials, and how mosquito bites enhance virus replication and disease, from the friendly TWiFolk Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Kathy.

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Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completel free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 25:30

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100. 0:50, 59:20

Weekly Science Picks 1:43:30

Alan – The Doubleclicks
Kathy – WHO ZIKV app and ZIKV Giant Microbe
Dickson – Photographer Rosamond Purcell
Vincent – Spillover: Zika, Ebola, and Beyond

Listener Picks

Ricardo – Portugal Four Days on Renewable Energy
Fatma – DeNovo: Predicting virus-host protein interactions
Stephen – How mosquitoes use six needles to suck your blood

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 400: Harold ‘400’ Varmus, a scientist for all seasons


Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Guest: Harold Varmus

The TWiV team is together in New York City for a conversation with Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus about his remarkable career in science.

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Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 2:06:20

This episode was made possible by PLoS Pathogens – the leading Open Access journal to publish breakthroughs in understanding pathogens and their interactions with host organisms and each other. PLOS Pathogens fosters the open exchange of ideas across fields, publishing original research on viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and prions. For more information, check out www.plospathogens.org 0:50, 1:20:05

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – A year on Earth
Rich – TWiV #1: West Nile Virus
Dickson – Chasing storms, chasing beauty
Kathy – Bioartography and FASEB image and video competition
Vincent – The Art and Politics of Science by Harold Varmus (free download)

Listener Picks

Trudy – Scientific Studies on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 399: Zika la femme

IMG_3202.jpg Zika virus stocksHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

The latest Zika virus news from the ConTWiVstadors, including a case of female to male transmission, risk of infection at the 2016 summer Olympics, a DNA vaccine, antibody-dependent enhancement by dengue antibodies, and sites of replication in the placenta.

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Links for this episode

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE 1:02:25

Weekly Science Picks 1:31:35

Alan – CDC postmortem on Ebolavirus outbreak
Rich – Refutations to anti-vaccine memes (Twitter, Facebook)
Dickson – History of urbanization
Vincent – How to cut subject from background in Photoshop

Listener Picks

Marion – Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast
Jennie – Leatherback turtles in Costa Rica

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

The Hosts of TWiV

Vincent Racaniello, Ph.D.


Dickson D.
Despommier, Ph.D.


Alan Dove, Ph.D.


Daniel Griffin, M.D.,
Ph.D., CTropMed CTH


Jolene Ramsey, Ph.D.


CLICK FOR MORE INFO

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