Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit
Vincent, Alan, Dickson, and Rich talk about treating arthritis with a tanapox virus protein, Darwinian evolution of prions in cell culture, and the connection between cold weather fronts and outbreaks of avian H5N1 influenza in Europe.
This episode is sponsored by Data Robotics Inc.
Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #78 (53 MB .mp3, 73 minutes)
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Links for this episode:
- Treating arthritis with a tanapox virus protein that antagonizes TNF (press release and research article)
- Darwinian evolution of prions in cell culture (abstract)
- Simple diagram of prion propagation (Wikipedia)
- Thoughts on the pursuit of success in science by Charles Weissmann
- Cold fronts linked to European H5N1 outbreaks (PLoS Pathogens)
- Simon Singh’s website and letter of support (thanks, Mary!)
- The importance of stupidity in scientific research (thanks, Mary!)
- Sustainable energy – without the hot air (thanks, Bernhard!)
- World Community Grid (thanks Dave!)
- Pre-order The Vertical Farm by Dickson Despommier
- Letters read on TWiV 78
Weekly Science Picks
Dickson Medical News Today: Infectious Diseases and Eaarth by Bill McKibben
Rich U can with Beakman and Jax by Jok Church
Alan UnderwaterTimes
Vincent The Reef Tank
Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv.
I think TWiV should try getting Dr. Grant McFadden on an episode. He came to UConn to give a talk on oncolytic virotherapy, and I think that would be a fascinating topic for TWiV. A lot of people would really enjoy it.
And I liked the virus joke in the beginning. Here's another one (not mine, I saw it on youtube a while ago.)
“A virus walked into a bar. The bartender says, “We don't serve viruses in this bar.” The virus replaces the bartender and says, “Now we do.””
: )
Dr. McFadden is coming to TWiV in May. I'll be visiting UF
Gainesville, and we'll do a 'remote' TWiV.
That's great. I look forward to it.