This Week in Virology

TWiV 447: Un-impacting an elephant

June 25, 2017

The glorious TWiVerati un-impact their email backlog, anwering questions about viruses, viruses, viruses, viruses, viruses, and more. You should listen – our fans ask great questions!

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

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Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:32:35

Kathy – Oskar Fischinger Google Doodle
Dickson – Ten Tiny But Terrifying Micro Monsters
Alan – Hunting mammoth ivory in Siberia
Rich – Occam’s razor
Vincent – Blame vax for illness without proof, says EU

Listener Pick

Ed – Lysenkoism

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 446: Old sins die hard

June 18, 2017

The TWiV hosts review an analysis of gender parity trends at virology conferences, and the origin and unusual pathogenesis of the 1918 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus.

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

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Links for this episode

ASM grant writing online course 4:00
Gender parity trends at virology meetings (J Virol) 13:35
Professor gender perpetuates gender gap (NBER) 21:20
Next generation researchers initiative (NIH) 27:20
NIH abandons grant cap (Science) 27:20
Genesis and pathogenesis of 1918 H1N1 influenza virus (PNAS) 35:30
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 446 6:00, 1:08:20

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:29:35

Kathy – BioKids Critter Catalog
Dickson – Shanghai Vertical Farm
Alan – Colossal Cave Adventure open source
Rich – Life on Mars (HI-SEAS)
Vincent – TWiM 154 with Arturo Casadevall

Listener Pick

Grant – Antibody validation challenges

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 445: A nido virology meeting

June 11, 2017

From Nido2017 in Kansas City, Vincent meets up with three virologists to talk about their careers and their work on nidoviruses.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Margo Brinton, Luis Enjuanes, and Linda Saif

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Download TWiV 445 (39 MB .mp3, 64 min)
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Links for this episode

Murine flavivirus resistance gene (PNAS)
TIA-1/TIAR binding sites in West Nile virus RNA (J Virol)
Infectious coronavirus DNA in BAC (PNAS)
Norovirus binding to lettuce (Appl Env Micro)

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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 444: Astro Kate, The Right Stuff

June 4, 2017

From ASM Microbe 2017 at New Orleans, Vincent and Rich meet up with Kate Rubins to talk about becoming an astronaut, space travel, and doing science in space.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guest: Kate Rubins

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Links for this episode

Live from the Space Station, NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins
Kate Rubins (NASA, Wikipedia)
Expedition 48-49 launches to the ISS
Expedition 48-49 Crew Docks to the Space Station
Expedition 48-49 Crew Welcomed to the Space Station
Expedition 48 Crew Hands Over the Space Station to Expedition 49
Photo by Chris Condayan

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV Special: Trial by Error, Continued

May 31, 2017

David Tuller returns to discuss the continuing saga of the UK’s PACE trial for chronic fatigue syndrome, including the accusation that he is engaging in libelous blogging.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: David Tuller

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Links for this episode

TWiV 397: Trial by Error
All articles by David Tuller at virology blog
Getting it wrong on chronic fatigue syndrome (NY Times)
Esther Crawley slide (Twitter)
David’s fundraising page

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 443: On a leaf, no one can hear you scream

May 28, 2017

The TWiVsters reveal the puppet master: an RNA virus injected with wasp eggs that paralyzes the ladybug so that she protects the cocoon until the adult emerges.

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

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Download TWiV 443 (66 MB .mp3, 108 min)
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Links for this episode

ASM grant writing online course 2:10
Who is the puppet master? (Proc Roy Soc B) 20:40
Why ladybird? 23:15
Ladybird ladybird 23:35
Dinocampus coccinellae 24:15
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 443 4:20, 1:02:05

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:28:25

Kathy – Science Showcase Video Contest
Alan – Biochemical pathways on one chart
Rich – 35th America’s Cup
Vincent – Viruses (pdf) and A whole new Jupiter

Listener Pick

Peter – Fake typhoid epidemic saves Polish city and Life gets complicated when disease
overruns your town
Ralph – Dilbert on climate change

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 442: The New York Tim

May 21, 2017

Freelance science journalist Tim Requarth joins the TWiVers to explain why scientists should stop thinking that explaining science will fix information illiteracy.

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

Guest: Tim Requarth

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Download TWiV 442 (70 MB .mp3, 116 min)
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Links for this episode

Neuwrite 2:50, 27:25
JMBE science communication issue 3:40
Smallpox vaccination day 4:35
The problem with facts (Fin Times)
Countering antivaccination attitudes (PNAS)
Effective messages in vaccine promotion (Pediatrics)
Science curiosity and political information processing (Political Psychol) 52:30
Teaching science using pseudoscience (D. Duncan)
Letters read on TWiV 442 1:19:00

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:34:25

Kathy – Life Saver Lightning
Alan – Model rocket engine burning in slow-mo
Rich – scistarter
Vincent – The quest to wipe out a virus and FCC Votes to Begin Dismantling Net Neutrality

Listener Pick

Robert – Zika presentation

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 441: Don’t ChrY for me influenza

May 14, 2017

The Beacons of Viral Education (aka the TWiVoners) reveal a cost of being a male mouse – the Y chromosome regulates their susceptibility to influenza virus infection.

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

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Download TWiV 441 (72 MB .mp3, 119 min)
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Links for this episode

ASM Grant Writing Online Course 2:15
Giant viruses not from fourth domain of life (Virology) 12:30
Nuclear envelope disruption during parvovirus infection (J Virol) 15:10
Nuclear deformation during SV40 infection (Nucleus) 15:10
Y chromosome regulates mouse susceptibility to influenza virus (PNAS) 28:55
Consomic strains (Mamm Genome) 31:40
Giants among viruses (TWiV 261)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 441 8:00, 1:11:15

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:39:30

Kathy – Social science research on “luck” in motherhood
Alan – Foiling dinghy built by engineering students (video)
Rich – Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA)
Vincent – Make measles great again in Michigan and Which tech giant would you drop?

Listener Pick

Steven – Difficult truths about a post-truth world

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 440: I hardly noumeavirus

May 7, 2017

Floating circumvolution by Nenad Cerovic

No problem not being nice to Dickson in this episode, because he’s absent for a discussion of a new giant virus that replicates in the cytoplasm yet transiently accesses the nucleus to bootstrap infection.

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

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Download TWiV 440 (72 MB .mp3, 119 min)
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Links for this episode

ASM Microbe 4:45
Noumeavirus cytoplasmic replication depends on transient nuclear access (Nat Commun) 30:30
Giants among viruses (TWiV 261) 31:30
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 440 6:55, 1:18:45

Weekly Science Picks 1:45:30

Kathy – U-M Rubik’s Cube story #1 video #2 video #3 video
Alan – You’re not going to believe this
Rich – High School student builds robot to solve Rubrik’s cube
Vincent – NIH limits grant money and The abomination of a bill

Listener Pick

Ken – The Fab Lab with Crazy Aunt Lindsey
Laurel – Sally Hoskin’s CREATE program
Maureen – Simple Science Experiments You Can Do With Eggs Before Breakfast

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 439: The purloined envelope

April 30, 2017

Paul Bieniasz joins the TWiV team to talk about the co-option, millions of years ago, of an endogenous retrovirus envelope protein by hominid ancestors for host defense against viral infection.