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Chapter 1: What is the impact of the microchip shortage on technology?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Minulla oli tärkeää pohtia kehittymistämme tulevaisuudessa. Kaikki myyntiin tarvittavat työkalut, kuten varaston suunnittelu, ovat kätevästi dashboardissa. Aloita ilmainen kokeilu shopify.com-sivustolla.
Tosi hyvän operaattorin, tosi hyvät kesätarjoukset.
Chapter 2: How could a cervix-on-a-chip help understand premature birth?
Hanki kesätarjouksista uusi puhelin, tabletti tai kuulokkeet. Suuntaa teljakauppaan tai osoitteeseen telia.fi.
Hei, mä lähden nyt oikeesti. Mä oon lomalla.
When I was little, my mum had a not-quite-nanny. The system, called au pairs, meant that a university-aged girl would stay with your family with free accommodation in return for helping with childcare. There were five of us.
Chapter 3: What are the health risks associated with cooking chips?
We had Marie Claire from Switzerland. And in Switzerland, what the Brits called chips are known as pommes frites. And what the Swiss called chips are in most countries called chips and are what we call potato crisps. You can see where the misunderstanding could have happened.
Mum left Marie-Claire to make our supper, fish fingers and chips, which should have been a simple case of taking some food and sticking it in the oven. What Marie-Claire attempted to make were chips, a.k.a. crisps, wafer-thin deep-fried potato snacks. That's advanced level cookery skills, hours of work.
Chapter 4: Why do seagulls love stealing chips from people?
Apparently, they were delicious. I'm Marnie Chesterton from the BBC World Service. This is Unexpected Elements. And this show is something of a science party. So as well as the chips and dips, I've also brought an enviable group of science broadcasters prepped and ready for fact-based chat. Lisa, I hope we are in Berlin, Germany, contributing correspondent for Science Magazine Kai Kupperschmidt.
Welcome. Hello Marnie, nice to be back. And from Sydney, Australia, science and health journalist Katie Silva. Welcome, welcome.
Chapter 5: What surprising discoveries have been made about whale graveyards?
Thanks, Marnie. G'day. Quick fire question to you both. Favourite flavour of crisp? Salt and vinegar for me. Oh, yeah, definitely top three. I will admit, though, my husband just came back from the US and the one thing he had to bring me was ghost pepper chips. OK, I'm going to find them next time I'm stateside. So this is a science show inspired by the news.
And what we do is we scour the headlines until we find a story that appeals to our scientific sensibilities.
Chapter 6: How do different potato varieties contribute to health?
And we see that as an appetiser. Then we throw in some tangentially related science stories for starters, chuck in a meaty expert or two, add a generous helping of surprising facts, sprinkle in some listener input. I think my stomach's just gurgled. It's making me hungry. We finish up with some audio from the archives and hopefully by the end we all feel satiated and maybe a little smarter.
On that note, here is the story we've picked for this week.
Today we're talking about computer chips.
The world's largest chip maker has said inflation is pushing up the cost of doing business, which could mean price rises.
TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, makes the most advanced microchips at the heart of almost every modern device we use. None of this artificial intelligence would be possible without the highly specialized chips.
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Chapter 7: What factors influence why some people can nap better than others?
It could mean that a lot of everyday tech items cost a little bit more.
Yes, the world's largest microchip manufacturer, TSMC, which makes chips for tech giants like Apple and Nvidia, has said that inflation is pushing up their costs and they haven't ruled out price rises. Now, tech journalists are calling this Ramageddon, which I love. You know, chips are what the RAM or memory is based on. Your electronic devices basically are about to get more expensive.
So we are talking about the price of chips and adding whatever science source we fancy to that. Lateral thinking encouraged. Katie, what science story would you like to share? So basically, we've heard that scientists have been able to coax human cells on a chip to simulate a mini cervix during pregnancy.
Okay, so I've heard of organs on chips, and that's where scientists create these small devices about the size of a USB stick that have little thin channels, and it's actually adapted from how computer microchips are made, and then they fill these little channels with living human cells, and then they use that to test drugs on.
Chapter 8: What unexpected connections exist between chips and various scientific topics?
I've heard that for lungs, and I've heard of brains on chips, but I've not heard of a cervix before. Good. Well, I'm glad I can still find things that you haven't heard of before, Marnie. So this research was led by Donald Ingber at Harvard University. And I should mention that this is a pre-print paper. OK, so it's been written up.
It's not yet gone through peer review, which is the last step before publication. So it means proceed with caution. Right, Katie? Yes, that's right. So they collected cervical cells from two women who'd had their uteruses removed, and they ranged the cells on a 3D chip in a way that basically mimicked the cervix lining and its structural layers.
They then used hormones and nutrients to encourage the cells to grow, and then they soaked them in human hormones at a level that would normally come about when a woman is about seven months pregnant, so towards the end, and that's the time when preterm birth is most common. And did it actually work like a cervix? Well, yes, for all intents and purposes.
So one thing that was even replicated was the formation of the mucus plug that develops in the cervical canal. And now that typically prevents infection as it's a barrier between the uterus and the vaginal canal. And then it dissolves as the cervix shortens and when labor is approaching. Why did they create this? What's the real world impact?
Well, every year around the world, about 13 million babies are born prematurely. So that's defined as being before 37 weeks. That's around one in 10 live births. It's staggering. And of course, that's a huge cause of child mortality, disability. And so far, we have very few ways of slowing or preventing it. So one of the interesting challenges in all of this is that animals don't labor like us.
So it's been very hard to study and hence the need for the chip. Right, because there's no way that anyone wants to submit a pregnant woman to any kind of intervention that might jeopardise the birth. Definitely, 100%. So this chip is a way round that. Have scientists had any insights from it yet?
Yes, a previous research had suggested that the vaginal microbiome might play a part in preterm birth. So that's a dynamic ecosystem of microorganisms, primarily bacteria, but also fungi and viruses that live inside the vagina. And it plays an essential role in maintaining one's reproductive health and also protecting against infections.
Now, what the researchers did was apply either a healthy or an unhealthy vaginal microbiome to the chips and they left it for four days. Okay. And what happened? So the chips that were exposed to a healthy microbiome had a 20% increase in a protein that helps this mucus form. while the cervix chip that had the unhealthy microbiome had a 60% increase in an enzyme that makes the mucus break down.
So really quite remarkable research. They also found that the unhealthy microbiome could cause the immune cells to release molecules that basically cause structural changes in the cervix that might then contribute to to premature labor.
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