Tiny Matters

On April 20, 2010, a drilling rig called Deepwater Horizon exploded, capsizing 36 hours later. Eleven workers were killed and, over the next 87 days, more than 100 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico in what the EPA has called the largest marine oil spill in history. With public distrust of the companies responsible mounting, scientists had to find a way to study the spill and communicate what they found. So when faced with a crisis of this magnitude, when the stakes are so high, how do you dispel misinformation and effectively communicate what you know? Find links to buy Chris Reddy's book Science Communication in a Crisis: An Insider's Guide here. The Tiny Show & Tell stories are here and here. Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sam and Deboki will be raffling off Tiny Matters coffee mugs in an upcoming Q&A episode. Entering the raffle is easy! Just send your question(s) to tinymatters@acs.org.Questions can be about pretty much anything — a previous episode, some science thing you're dying to know the answer to, a question about podcasting, or about Deboki's and Sam's past lives as researchers or what helped them get into science communication as a career... the sky’s the limit! Just sending in a question enters you into the raffle, and if Sam and Deboki answer your question during the Q&A episode your name will be entered into the raffle twice. At the end of the episode, Sam and Deboki will draw 5 names out of a hat and send each of those people their very own snazzy Tiny Matters mug.Submit questions to tinymatters@acs.org through the end of the day on Friday, August 11th, 2023.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of Tiny Matters, Sam and Deboki unravel two very different environmental disasters: Hurricane Katrina and this year’s Ohio train derailment. They’ll cover the science underlying those events, the confusion and misinformation that followed them, and how human influence infiltrates all of these disasters, even ones deemed “natural." The Tiny Show & Tell stories are here and here. And to support Tiny Matters, pick up a mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A few months ago, we did a bonus Q&A about the HBO series The Last of Us, a show about a pandemic caused by a fungus that turned people into terrifying zombies. After that bonus episode aired, we received emails from people who wanted to learn more about fungi and the fungal infections on the rise, like white nose syndrome in bats and Candida auris in humans. This episode is all about fungal pandemics in a huge range of organisms — how they take hold and the fight to stop them. You can find Emily Monosson's book Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic here. Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the mid-20th century, psychedelic research to treat conditions like depression began to take off, yet by 1970 almost all of that work came to a screeching halt. But guess what? It’s back, and access to guided therapy to treat various mental health conditions is becoming a reality. The link to The New York Times article about Roland Griffiths is here. The Tiny Show & Tell stories are here and here. Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There's a whole lot of information (and misinformation) out there about depression, as well as debate surrounding how it's treated. In this episode, Sam and Deboki unpack this complex mood disorder that impacts over 300 million people across the globe as well as the effectiveness of SSRIs and the work being done to find better drugs. A link to David Hellerstein's new book The Couch, The Clinic and the Scanner: Stories from Three Revolutionary Eras of the Mindis here. The Tiny Show & Tell stories are here and here. Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The first computer was created in 1945 and came in at double the size of a one-bedroom apartment. Just 50 years later, the architecture of the computer on a chip that measured just 7.44 by 5.29 millimeters in size. And now, computers have gotten smaller and smaller [looks down at Apple Watch]. So how did we go from apartment-sized calculators to the tiny devices we use to look up cat pictures when we’re bored? And just how much smaller can we go? Links to the Tiny Show & Tell stories here and here. Want to drink your coffee (or beverage of choice) in style? Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The question of whether or not life exists on other planets is an important and interesting one. But maybe the more intriguing question is, “what if it does?” In this episode of Tiny Matters, Sam and Deboki chat with science writer Jaime Green about what it would mean for life to exist beyond Earth. Her book, “The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos,” is a mix of history, astronomy, biology, philosophy, and sci-fi, and just hit store shelves. To order a copy, check out local bookstores and other options here. Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Since the very beginning of the space age, people have been wondering if algae could provide a life support system beyond our planet. From dozens of studies over the last 60 years, we’ve figured out that algae probably can thrive for up to a year in space. But what if we wanted to live permanently on another planet, like Mars? This episode is all about algae: how it shaped early Earth, how we might use it to terraform planets in the future, and how it’s being used in biomanufacturing to hopefully get us away from relying on fossil fuels. Links to the Tiny Show & Tell stories here and here. Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For millennia, humans have looked to the sea to find medicine. Today, medical treatments that come from the ocean have been clinically approved for pain, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease, and over a dozen more are in clinical trials. In this episode of Tiny Matters, Sam and Deboki are tackling marine natural products—things like proteins, fats, and other molecules that aquatic organisms produce—that humans are hoping to use to treat the diseases that plague us. Links to the Tiny Show & Tell stories are here and here. Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.