Speaking of Science
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
The Puzzle of Precocious Puberty
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The average age for the start of puberty has been dropping for decades. It's a global trend that could be signaling a public health threat to the phys...
Defying Dengue
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This year has seen a record number of dengue cases all over the world. It might not be a fluke, as climate change expands the areas where the mosquito...
Devon Valera and Dr. Jacqueline Vo — Dismantling the Myth of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander Populations as a Monolith
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Historical failings, like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that restricted immigration from China for 61 years, have cast a shadow of prejudice and d...
Dr. Michael Ombrello — The Rare Case of Beverly Gage
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Beverly Gage came to the NIH with a condition that had never been observed before. A mysterious genetic mutation that caused her chronic joint pain an...
Dr. Sadhana Jackson — Breaking Through the Blood-Brain Barrier
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The blood-brain barrier keeps bad actors like toxins, viruses, and bacteria from entering the brain. But in the case of brain cancer when the danger i...
Dr. Meredith Shiels — Health in Numbers
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Epidemiologists are the watchful guardians of public health. They collect and analyze data to track the status quo. When there are deviations, they cr...
Dr. Veronica Alvarez and Dr. Bruno Averbeck — On the Pulse of Compulsive Behaviors
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Despite negative consequences and the desire to stop, millions of people with compulsive behaviors can't break the self-destructive cycles that disrup...
Dr. John Hanover — The Bittersweet Study of Glycobiology
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sugars, also referred to as carbohydrates, aren't just substances we add to make coffee taste less bitter or food sweeter; they are an entire class of...
Dr. Sharon Milgram — Making the Most of the Trainee Experience
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
None of the groundbreaking research taking place in the IRP would be possible with the hard work and dedication of trainees. While they work to suppor...
Dr. Steve Holland — Sussing Out Susceptibility to Sickness
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For Dr. Steve Holland, the mystery of why some people are more prone to disease is as much a curiosity as it is a calling. Dr. Holland is the scientif...
Dr. Hari Shroff — The Science and Play of Super Resolution Imaging
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
NASA recently unveiled the first images taken by the James Webb Telescope. But the distant cosmos aren't the only ones coming into focus. While astr...
Dr. Joyce Chung — Gathering Helping Hands to Grasp Mental Health
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Finding treatments for mental health conditions doesn't just deal with people who live with them. Healthy volunteers play a critical part in the scien...
Dr. Lauren Porter — Molecular "Transformers:" Switching Form and Function
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Science is receptive to new information that can refine the theories we use to make sense of the world. Such is the case with Dr. Lauren Porter, a Sta...
Drs. Elaine Ostrander and Heidi Parker — Unleashing the Dog Genome
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Centuries of selective breeding have given rise to a staggering variety of dog breeds, each with its own traits and behaviors. But shallow gene pools ...
Dr. Matthew Memoli — A Better Shot Against the Flu
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The annual flu vaccine is the best way to prevent yourself and others from getting sick. But sometimes the antigens the vaccine trains your body to fi...
Dr. Bevil Conway — Coloring Inside the Minds
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There is more to color than meets the eye. According to Dr. Bevil Conway, how we perceive color can inform how our brains receive, interpret, and gene...
Drs. Natasha Caplen and Richard Maraia — What's Next in the RNAge?
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The success of mRNA vaccines against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, has brought RNA biology into the limelight. Now, with the world's attention...
Dr. Anna Nápoles — A New Dawn for Minority Health
07 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, racial and ethnic minority groups were disproportionately hit. The health inequities pulled at the seams of a syste...
Dr. Diana Bianchi — Caring for Two: The Mom-Baby Unit
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pregnancy is by no means necessary for motherhood, but it is necessary for life. And it's no picnic. A pregnant person can experience complications li...
Dr. Louis Staudt — The ABCs of B Cell Lymphomas
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Small errors can quickly escalate to have large repercussions. When it comes to cancer, molecular changes to DNA can trigger chain reactions that caus...
Dr. Kevin Hall — Dueling Diets
02 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nutrition is a contentious topic. It's hard to tell fact from fiction. One day eggs are good for you, the next they have too much fat. But what about ...
Dr. Carlos Zarate — Ketamine to Combat Depression
08 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ketamine is often thought of as an illicit party drug—something people take for a momentary high. But it wasn't designed to be a mind-altering drug....
Drs. Heidi Kong and Ian Myles — Derm Germs: The Human Skin Microbiome
07 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In nature, strategic alliances can mean the difference between life and death. For humans, such vital partnerships exist between us and the trillions ...
Dr. Peter Bandettini — Mr. MRI
01 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Peter Bandettini spends a lot of time peering into people's heads. Not because he is clairvoyant, but because he is a biophysicist. Using function...
Dr. Hannah Valantine — At the Heart of Diversity
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Time and again, diversity and inclusion initiatives have proven to boost productivity and overall well-being in the workplace. But despite countless s...
Drs. Richard Childs and Matthew Hall — Remdesivir Therapy for COVID-19
22 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Dr. Richard Childs, a senior investigator and Clinical Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), recounts hi...
Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett — The Novel Coronavirus Vaccine
21 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Perhaps now more than ever, it is undeniable how integral vaccines have become to public health. Vaccines protect us from a whole host of infectious d...
Dr. Nicole Farmer — The Mental Health Benefits of Cooking
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Social distancing is the best way to curtail the spread of COVID-19, but if innumerable days of isolation start to feel like they're taking a toll on ...
Dr. Frank Lin — Radioactive Drugs for Rare Cancers
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Radioactive drugs carry radioactive substances that can be engineered to specifically target and kill tumor cells inside the body. In 2018, the FDA ap...
Dr. Jerry Yakel — Acetylcholine Receptors and Neurological Disease
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The neurons in our brains use both electrical and chemical signals to communicate. When those signals are not generated or interpreted correctly, seri...
Dr. Armin Raznahan — Genes, Brain Structure, and Neuropsychiatric Disorders
06 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Anybody who observes a person with a neurological illness like Tourette syndrome or schizophrenia can clearly see how these conditions affect behavior...
Dr. Catharine Bosio — The Weird and Deadly Francisella Tularensis Bacterium
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our houses, workplaces, and even the air we breathe are teeming with microbes, some of which can cause severe illness. Dr. Catharine Bosio is an immun...
Dr. Cynthia Dunbar — Stem Cell Therapies for Blood and Immune System Diseases
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our blood is made up of a diverse array of different cells, all of which originate from the same source: the 'hematopoietic' stem cells in our bone ma...
Drs. Ira Pastan and Michael Gottesman — Cancer Immunotoxins and Multidrug Resistance
10 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This episode features two legends of biomedical research. In the realm of human health and longevity, cancer's ability to mutate, grow, and thwart the...
Dr. Dori Germolec — Environmental Chemicals Versus the Immune System
28 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Dori Germolec is a biologist studying how the chemicals in our environment affect the immune system, including toxic or carcinogenic effects of mo...
Dr. Dennis Drayna — Part 2: Genetic Insights from Stuttering to the Taste for Menthol in Cigarettes
01 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This is Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Dennis Drayna, a human geneticist who has identified mutations in several genes that cause communications...
Dr. Dennis Drayna — Part 1: Genetics of Stuttering and Communication Disorders
09 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dennis Drayna, Ph.D., is a human geneticist who has identified mutations in several genes that cause communications disorders, particularly stuttering...
Dr. Bill Gahl — Medical Genetics and Hope for Rare Diseases
05 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When people refer to the NIH as the "National Institutes of Hope," Dr. Bill Gahl is one of the many people who come to mind. Dr. Gahl is a medical gen...
Dr. Christine Alewine — Treating Pancreatic Cancer with New Immunotoxin Strategies
29 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Pancreatic cancer kills more than 40,000 Americans each year, and just 6% of patients survive five years or more after diagnosis, because the disease ...
Dr. Nehal Mehta — Linking Psoriasis Inflammation with Cardiovascular Risk
22 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin disease associated with increased cardiovascular risk. Dr. Nehal Mehta currently directs the largest ongoing cohort ...