svalbardHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review an outbreak of rabies in arctic foxes and reindeer in Norway, and a prion that makes you go antiviral.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 153 (55 MB .mp3, 92 minutes).

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Alan – Amoebas microscope drive 2011
Vincent – WolframAlpha
Rich – Genesis by Ramos David (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

BillVirolution by Frank Ryan

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shinolaHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich cover the virome of raw sewage, and a baculovirus gene that causes caterpillars to climb to their doom.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 152 (50 MB .mp3, 83 minutes).

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Alan – xkcd tribute to Steve Jobs
Vincent –
Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address (YouTube)
Rich –
1984 Apple Macintosh commercial (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

David Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

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viral mailHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review questions and comments from TWiV listeners.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 151 (49 MB .mp3, 81 minutes).

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Alan – Aurora Australis from space
Vincent –
Science360 Radio
Rich – 
Ghost Productions (demo and website)

Listener Pick of the Week

SophieBacteria by Jonathan Coulton

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pXMRVHosts: Vincent RacanielloRich Condit, and Dickson Despommier

Vincent, Dickson, and Rich meant to do an all-email episode, but first they review results of the Blood XMRV Scientific Research Working Group, and partial retraction of the paper associating XMRV with chronic fatigue syndrome.

With this episode TWiV is three years old.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 150 (56 MB .mp3, 93 minutes).

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Dickson – The Tree of Life
Vincent –
When do you fact-check article content with sources? (take as directed)
Rich –
io9

Listener Pick of the Week

LuisNIH videocasting and podcasting

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twiv at icaacHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Mark Pallansch, and Trine Tsouderos

Vincent, Rich, Mark, and Trine discuss science and medicine in journalism and the eradication of poliovirus at the 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 149 (62 MB .mp3, 86 minutes).

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Rich – Parachute use to prevent death (Brit Med J)
Vincent –
Ian Lipkin’s Op-Ed on Contagion and a review of the movie (both NY Times)

Listener Pick of the Week

MichaelBacteria billboard for Contagion (YouTube)

This episdode of TWiV is sponsored by Wiley-Blackwell, the leading scientific publisher of books, scholarly journals, major reference works and databases.

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Philip Kranzusch, David Knipe, and Priscilla Yang

Vincent, Philip, David, and Priscilla recorded this episode before an audience at the Harvard Virology Program Annual Retreat, where they discussed negative strand RNA viruses, a vaccine against herpes simplex virus type 2, lipidomics of viral infection, and science communication.

The Keynote Speaker at the Harvard Virology retreat is usually an individual, but this year the honor went to TWiV as an example of science communication to the public. Many thanks to members of the Virology Program for a terrific retreat!



Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 148 (56 MB .mp3, 77 minutes).

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Philip – AntWeb
David –
Herpes-like viruses in corals (PNAS and LiveScience)
Priscilla –
Science museums (Boston, Durham)
Vincent –
Contagion

Listener Pick of the Week

JennyEmerman’s review of Planet of Viruses (PLoS Biology)

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Artwork by Silvia Piccinotti, G4

harvard virology retreat

aedes aegypti wolbachiaHosts: Vincent RacanielloRich Condit, Dickson Despommier, and Alan Dove

The complete TWiV gang discusses the use of Wolbachia to control mosquito-borne infections.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 147 (64 MB .mp3, 89 minutes).

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Alan – Sid the science kid
Dickson –
Through the alimentary canal with gun and camera by George S. Chappell
Vincent –
Rule of 6ix
Rich –
Reality check

Listener Pick of the Week

LiamScitable

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dracoHosts: Vincent RacanielloRich Condit, and Abbie Smith

Vincent, Rich, and Abbie review a broad spectrum antiviral protein, and selective pressure applied by a failed HIV-1 vaccine.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 146 (78 MB .mp3, 107 minutes).

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Vincent – Hypothetical Risk: Cambridge City Council’s Hearings on Recombinant DNA Research
Rich –
Z Corporation 3-D printer (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

JimDo-it-yourself DNA extraction (Citizen Scientist Quarterly)

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twortHosts: Alan Dove and Rich Condit

Alan and Rich tackle the discovery of bacteriophages, and treating influenza by calming the cytokine storm.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 145 (63 MB .mp3, 87 minutes).

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Alan – AT&T Tech Channel
Rich –
Smallpox and its eradication (pdf)

Listener Pick of the Week

AsifScience Photo Library

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zinc finger nucleaseHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Alan Dove

Vincent, Rich, and Alan discuss live blogging of scientific meetings, the current outbreak of Hendra virus is Australia, and using zinc finger nucleases to make HIV-resistant CD4 cells.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 144 (75 MB .mp3, 104 minutes).

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Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Bugscope
Rich –
Vaccine adverse events: Causal or coincidental? (Lancet)
Vincent – West Nile Story by Dickson Despommier (Kindle edition)

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