Author: Sheba AJ
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Engineering a Trojan Horse
A strategy to rid crops of locusts. Massive locust swarms have threatened the food security of communities and cities in East Africa, Asia and the Middle East [1 – 3]. In 2020, eleven ambitious students, representing TU Delft, are competing in iGEM, the largest synthetic biological competition in the world. are working hard to tackle…
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Buying time in drug resistance
Running against the clock in AMR The problem of pathogens acquiring resistance to the antimicrobial drugs that we have is a known issue. While we scramble to find new, improved drugs against these superbugs, researchers like Pamela Yeh are looking into how to use combination of the drugs we already have. Here she talks about…
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LGBTQI in the time of Corona
Recognizing vulnerable communities in pandemics These times of lockdown due to COVID19 are tough for us all. There are some communities however, where there are specific fears and issues that affect them specifically. To look at the science of SARS-CoV2 and how it affects the LGBTQI community, specifically those who are HIV positive, I hosted…
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Modelling the universe
“We’re made of star stuff.” (Carl Sagan) We have had questions about the stars ever since we looked upwards at the sky. How was the universe born? How do stars live and die? How will the universe itself end? And when? I interviewed Dr. Jan Eldridge, who studies stars in our galaxy and those on…
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Social Microbes
Microbes like living together, as it turns out. We learn in school that bacteria are single celled organisms, self sufficient in their genetic and protein machinery. However, in nature bacteria and other microbes like fungi actually prefer to live in communities, with heterogeneous populations that confer important properties to the survival of the community. This…
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Oh My Corona
A resource of sane, up-to-date websites on COVID19 It is hard to escape the Corona phenomenon in the media these days, as a deluge of news, blog posts (like this one), memes and jokes hit us left right and center. Along with this of course is the barrage of supposed miracle cures and dooms-day scenarios,…
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The Burden of Generations
The sins of the father revisited? I had the privilege recently of taking part in a family constellation exercise. The supposed objective of this is to uncover trauma or events experienced by previous generations, that have caused discordance in the family dynamic, which are then inherited by the present individual resulting in problems or difficulties.…
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Of Dinosaurs and Birds
What is more exciting than looking for dinosaurs? Dinosaurs have captured human imagination across the globe through popular culture. The thrill of finding remnants of these almost mythical creatures that lived thousands of years ago, and putting together the puzzle of their nature has been the driving force of the field of paleontology for years.…
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Investigative reporting in Science
An interview with an investigative science journalist Doing unbiased science is somewhat of a given in the world of research, but how do you ensure that reporting of this science is unbiased, free of sensationalism and yet interesting and understandable to the general public? In this podcast, I spoke to Jop de Vrieze (1), a…
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The Science of LGBT Inclusion
What does science say about work place inclusion? We all know in theory that people feel happier and work better together if they are accepted by their immediate community for being who they are, but is there actual science that proves this point? What is needed to actually bring about social change? What role do…