Libsyn Directory

#17 Journalism from STS Science Communication Students 2022 | WeAreSTS

Release Date: 12/26/2022

#203 Baby-Botox: Anti-Aging Is Out Of Control | WeAreSTS

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Children as young as eight are targeted by influencers and advertisers towards anti-aging products, from skin creams and anti-wrinkle devices to “baby botox”. Maddy Ross (Human Sciences ’25) investigates how influencers and social media algorithms drive anti-aging anxiety to ever increasing levels while industry advertising markets solutions to ever younger people, especially girls. She identifies increasing concerns over risks that are physical, psychological, and social. Are young people being exploited without even knowing it? Influencers play a key role in these processes, especially...

#202 Outlaw Ocean – Ian Urbina’s Book is STS1Book for 2024-25 | WeAreSTS

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Ian Urbina’s 2019 book, Outlaw Ocean, brilliantly investigates hidden worlds of human activity on the high seas. From modern day pirates and traffickers to gargantuan fishing fleets to “freedom-loving” recluses and entrepreneurs, his stories build on the idea of oceans as lawless spaces well beyond the awareness of most people. He documents extremes of human behaviour. He also describes the extraordinary scale of extraction and exploitation that takes place off shore. In this world, who’s “free” and what are the consequences of “lawless” spaces? Outlaw Ocean is this year’s...

#201 Dark Matter and the Search for Elusive Evidence | WeAreSTS

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What is dark matter? Mary Westover investigates, featuring insights from Dr. Joe McLaughlin and Dr. Marcello Messina. She visits the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy to understand how a research lab sunk deep into a mountain and holding a giant tank of liquid Xenon holds the promise of evidence for this most elusive substance. From the lab's mountain setting to the complex physics involved, this episode provides a deep dive into one of physics’ most perplexing questions. This episode is a practical project submitted by Mary Westover as part of her UCL degree, MSc Science Communication. She...

Season 2 Trailer

WeAreSTS

Well, the wait is over. The time has come. Season 2 of WeAreSTS is on its way. This season we’ll feature some cracking projects from STS students. And we’ll have conversations with all sorts of folks here in the department. I’m gonna sneak in a few bonuses too, just to add that tiny bit of sparkle. WeAreSTS is your window into science and technology studies. You know that science and technology don’t live inside isolated bubbles. You know they’re shaped by all sorts of forces and constraints. STS explores that interplay between science and context. For some, it’s money and...

#30 Don’t Look Up! How Hollywood Imports Science Policy into Films | WeAreSTS

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Hollywood chooses to portray experts in particular – sometimes peculiar – ways. Those choices have profound impacts on how audiences think about subjects as diverse as dinosaurs, robots, and climate catastrophes. But do those portrayals also change the way we think about the experts themselves and the process of expertise? Does Hollywood play some kind of under-the-table role in teaching us which experts to trust? That’s the theme for today’s podcast. Today, we listen in on a conversation between three experts here in STS who study science policy making as a process. They talk about a...

#29 Can Comedy Help Us Tackle Conversations About Climate Change? | WeAreSTS

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Ever heard of climate change comedy? Here’s the idea. The climate crisis dominates our news. But more and more, messages about action are ignored. Fatalism is growing. People seem frozen with the scale of the problem. It’s clear we need new ways to tackle these tough conversations. In this episode, STS’s very own Grace Tyrrell explores the growing niche of climate change comedy. With her guest Dr Matt Winning, an environmental researcher and comedian, Grace shows us how climate change comedy works and she explores the question of how these two ideas can fit together. Grace is finishing...

#28 Promising Potential for Generative AI at University: Is it a Personal Tutor for Every Pocket | WeAreSTS

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Mandy dives optimistically into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on education as we know it. Think ChatGPT and all those related tools called generative AI. Along the way, we touch on some fundamental and relevant concepts from science and technology studies - including the Turing Test and technological determinism - that can help us gain a more nuanced understanding of emerging technology and big tech. With insights from UCL experts and others in Silicon Valley, we explore the incredible potential of AI to enhance university education, plus we dip into some of the...

WeAreSTS

The assignments students do in STS modules today are nothing like what they used to be. These days, they build portfolios with all sorts of things: short writing, long writing, posters, blogs, in-class presentations. Add to these, projects like podcasts, film clips, campaign strategies, briefing papers, debates, and full-on project proposals. Research of different kinds. They all require hard work, creativity, and rising to the challenge. We diversify our curriculum because we know the future holds work as varied as we do ourselves each day. We want our students skilled up, practiced, and...

#26 Women in History of Science Through 53 Original Sources | WeAreSTS

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Women in the History of Science brings together primary sources that highlight women’s involvement in scientific knowledge production around the world. Drawing on texts, images and objects, each primary source is accompanied by an explanatory text, questions to prompt discussion, and a bibliography to aid further research. Arranged by time period, covering 1200 BCE to the twenty-first century, and across 12 inclusive and far-reaching themes, this book is an invaluable companion to students and lecturers alike in exploring women’s history in the fields of science, technology, mathematics,...

#25 Are We Over-Hyping Mindfulness for University Students? | WeAreSTS

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Chances are you’ve had something to do with “mindfulness” recently. Maybe you’ve been sent to “mindfulness” training. Or, perhaps you’ve been listening to a mindfulness podcast. Or, perhaps you’re using a “mindfulness” app, such as HeadSpace. In this episode, Franziska Link investigates the growing use of mindfulness therapies at universities, such as UCL, in their provision for student support and welfare. What good are they? What do they involve? What are the pros – and the cons – of this approach. Franziska interviews four people with quite different relationships to...

More Episodes

We diversify our curriculum because we know the future for our students holds work as varied as we can imagine.

Today’s episode offers a sampler of student-made podcasts. These were created by year 3 undergraduates in our science journalism module, run by Dr Jean-Baptiste Gouyon. The assignment is straightforward: create a three-minute news feature about a recent piece of research at UCL. The piece must be suitable for use on as a news segment for radio or podcast. Students start with a recent press release from the UCL Press Office, and they go from there. The piece must include a short interview segment with a researcher. They have a tight deadline, and they have to work pretty much with the tools they have through a laptop and phone. This is real world work as a freelance journalist.

For today, I’ve brought together eight of the ones I like a lot. They’re varied, and they deliver the assignment is different ways. Think of it as a sampler.

The whole syllabus for HPSC0107 Science Journalism:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/sites/sts/files/hpsc0107-science_journalism-syllabus_2022-23.pdf

Tracks

TRACK 1. New X-ray Tech Promises Better Diagnostics for Heart Disease, Gracie Enticknap

This newscast introduces a new-to-research x-ray technology called HiP-CT which images organs at multiple scales with better clarity than previously achievable. I discuss HiP-CT with a researcher who is using it to study the evolution of congenital heart disease in blue baby syndrome and children with one heart ventricle. We discuss the aims of his research, and eventual clinical application and hospital usage of this technology, which could have revolutionary benefit to the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases.

Interviewee: Professor Andrew Cook, Institute of Cardiovascular Science, Zayed Centre for Research

Credits: Stock Media provided by baldwinphilly / Pond5

TRACK 2. Covid-19 Impact on Gut Microbiome, Marcus Chow

It is well established that the digestive system, its microbiota, and the immune system are linked and influence each other. With COVID-19 coming to an endemic, much of the research interest now lies in how it can shape the microbiota and how the microbiota can influence the patients’ symptoms and long term effects. Wong et has investigated how COVID-19 interact with and in the gastrointestinal tract to better understand the implications of disease management, transmission, and infection control. In this article, we review the important gastrointestinal aspects of the disease.

Interviewee: Sunny H Wong, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

Credits: None

TRACK 3. Marketing Infant Formula against Breast Feeding, Nadya Rauch

Let’s take a critical look at infant formula marketing, which the WHO recently condemned for misleading parents and undermining breastfeeding. Breastmilk has key benefits for infants that can’t be replicated in formula milk, such as stems cells and antibodies that help protect infants from infection. We talk to infant formula expert Dr. Fewtrell from UCL’s Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health to debunk some myths on whether infant formula can improve cognitive outcomes for children.

Interviewee: Dr. Mary Fewtrell, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

Credits: Intro/outro music produced by Leo Daiji Waltmann

“The Wonder of Baby SMA PRO Follow on Milk," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RDGFnermSc&ab_channel=LacaraChildModelandTalentAgency

TRACK 4. New guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis, Sofia Sancho

The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology have recently released 200 pages of new, comprehensive guidelines for the diagnosis of endometriosis. A major change in the new version is that laparoscopy is no longer deemed the gold standard for diagnosis, which will lead to more patients being accommodated for, and hopefully the long wait for diagnosis being decreased. I speak to Dr Ertan Saridogan, who co-authored the new guidelines, about their significance and how they can lead to improvements in endometriosis research.

Interviewee: Dr Ertan Saridogan, UCL Hospital and UCL Institute for Women’s Health

Credits: Cool Jazzy Brass & Vibraphone by M33 Project, licensed under CC BY 4.0

TRACK 5. Minimally invasive image-guided ablation (MINIMA), Yingnan Chen

Proof-of-concept for MINIMA is recently published. Compare to traditional ways of removing tumours, MINIMA is not as invasive and has fewer side effects, hence, the patients can recover quicker. Moreover, MINIMA can preserve the function of infected organ as much as possible. I have invited the lead author, Rebecca Baker, to talk about how MINIMA works and its potential as a cancer treatment. She also discussed the limitations and what needs to be done before moving on to clinical trials.

Interviewee: Rebecca Baker (PhD Student at UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging)

Credits: Inspiring Electronic https://elements.envato.com/inspiring-electronic-BHYUADP. License Code: 9WXPUERVK7

TRACK 6. Covid’s impact on student experience at UCL, Juwairiyah Aftab

The podcast explores a research study conducted by Dr Waugh, alongside other individuals, titled ‘Impacts of the Covid‐19 pandemic on the health of university students’. The study, based at University College London (UCL), explores the physical and mental health consequences of the pandemic on students, with mention of the importance of this study and its relevance. Furthermore, the study mentions cases of racism and discrimination, followed by an evaluation of how trustworthy the research is and brief future recommendations.

Interviewee: Dr Mark Waugh, UCL Department of Education, Division of Medicine, UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences

Credits: Statistics from the National Student Survey (NSS)

https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/1480/insight-brief-10-nss-finalforweb.pdf

Background music (no copyright)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ6gUSJARIA

TRACK 7. How Do We Slow Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Eloise Jarvis

Dr Toryn Poolman talks about non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), leading cause of liver transplants that effecting up to one-third of the British population. It’s a medical condition that’s on the rise owing to changes in diet: more sugar, more alcohol, and more processed foods. He explains what NAFLD is, what it can progress to, what the causes are, and how it can be avoided or reversed.

Interviewee: Dr Toryn Poolman, Department: Structural and Molecular Biology, UCL Division of Biosciences

Credits: Bensound.com

TRACK 8. Applied Linguistics studying pain descriptions associated with endometriosis, Dan Sharpe

Listening more carefully to the words patients choose to describe their symptoms can help doctors identify more complex medical conditions, says Zsófia Demjén. She reports on new research into specific patterns of words patients use to describe their symptoms. This might lead to earlier diagnosis of endometriosis and other serious chronic conditions. Just listening more carefully can make all the difference.

Interviewee: Zsófia Demjén, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, UCL Centre for Applied Linguistics

Credits: Details to come

Host

Professor Joe Cain

Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

https://ucl.ac.uk/sts/cain

Music credits

Intro and Exit music

“Rollin At 5,” by Kevin MacLeod
https://filmmusic.io/song/5000-rollin-at-5
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
“Silly Intro,” by Alexander Nakarada
https://filmmusic.io/song/4786-silly-intro
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Both are available on the website: filmmusic.IO

Podcast information

WeAreSTS is a production of the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at University College London (UCL). To find out more, or to leave feedback about the show:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/podcast

This site also includes information for how STS students and staff can get involved with our programme.

Editing and post-production by Professor Joe Cain, unless otherwise noted.

WeAreSTS producer is Professor Joe Cain.

Twitter: @stsucl #WeAreSTS

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