Technically Speaking | a science and engineering discussion

Are we all mutants?

And can natural genetic changes lead us to develop superpowers? Laura, Emma and Jasmin talk about different natural processes can lead to mutations, how our bodies detect and repair some mutations, and how some changes can lie hidden.

The article that inspired this episode: We are all genetic mosaics, from Knowable Magazine.

Fact check:
How many cells are in the adult human body
How long it takes for most cells in the human body to divide
Some more background on cell division
The DNA molecular clock
Repair mechanisms during normal cell function
Different types of DNA damage
Evidence for repairs taking less than a second, simple repairs taking minutes, and more complex taking hours as well as research that mentions why more complex repairs take longer.
Mutations you might want

Are glass bottles really better for the environment than plastic?

The UK has plans to change how drinks containers are collected from consumers for recycling, but recent news stories indicate that glass could be excluded from this scheme. Laura, Antonia and Jasmin discuss what responsibilities packaging producers have, how glass and plastic are currently recycled, and consider what changes need to be made.

There were a lot of references in this fact-filled episode:

• Government target for recycling rates at gov.uk
• Amounts of litter, from Keep Britain Tidy (2020)
• Household recycling rates, from gov.uk
• Amount that a deposit return scheme can reduce littering by, from Actions to Protect Rural Scotland
• A report stating cost savings of a deposit return scheme, from DEFRA
• Statistics on local authority costs, from gov.uk
• Evidence from European Union countries on the deposit return scheme
• News article about charges that could be applied to glass bottle producers, in The Chronicle
• An overview of the Extended Producer Responsibility, from Ecoveritas
• Potential fees to be paid by companies under the extended producer responsibility scheme, suggested by UK government
• The main steps in plastic recycling using mechanical methods, from the British Plastics Federation
• The journal article Laura mentions where sorting facilities were analysed, in the journal Waste Management
• An overview of some chemical recycling method, from the British Plastics Federation
• Some more information on chemical recycling, from CAS – a division of the American Chemical Society
• Legislation on minimum recycled plastic content, from gov.uk
• The journal article Jasmin refers to when considering glass recycling rates, in the journal Sustainable Futures
• Articles explaining glass quality limitations from BBC Future and British Glass
• The energy saving by using recycled glass to make new glass bottles, from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Can you learn anything you want from the internet?

Is the internet really a useful tool for learning or is it a place where you shouldn’t believe what you see or read? Laura, Antonia and Ellie discuss what they have learned online, from detailed scientific information to practical skills like fixing a bicycle, and what they struggle to find. Laura and Ellie also share their insight as professional science communicators while Antonia explains how she finds information in her job as an energy analyst where she focusses on sustainability. There's a lot of information out there, but how useful is it and is everything that humanity knows easy to find online?

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How can we protect ourselves from cybercrimes?

What is cyber hacking and what can we do about it? Jasmin, Ellie and Antonia explore the different types of cyber hacking, compare it to the movies, and consider whether it can ever be ethical or "good"? They also discuss the best ways to combat cyber-attacks personally, and what companies are doing to protect us and their client information.

Are there any alternative uses for nuclear power?

You might know that nuclear reactors are used along with turbines to generate electricity but what else could nuclear technology power? While battling brain fog brought on by fatigue, Laura and Antonia discuss future uses of high temperature heat to feed industrial clusters and look at two novel uses of nuclear power production that don't require reactors, but could be used to power space missions.

Read about heat requirements of smelting metals, power requirements of the experimental rig known as ALSEP as well as  the fateful Apollo 13 mission to the moon and the fuel cells for the command module, and diamond batteries.

How can we tell if something is true?

How do we debunk myths and see through fake news? Ellie, Antonia and Emma come together to discuss common myths and how they resist change both in academia and in a general population. They also discuss the impact of social media, AI and how we can learn to look at things with a critical eye.

Watch the video from Münecat.

Read research about countering misinformation and how one research group has tackled misinformation in real time during a US presidential election.

Antonia mentioned research about mothers recognising the cry of a new born baby.

What is antibiotic resistance?

And how are researchers tackling it? Antonia, Emma and Ellie discuss how we got here and what might be done in the future to counteract these drug resistant bacterial strains. Plus we take a sneak peak into the life of PhD student Emma and explore how computational simulations could be helping develop the antibiotics of the future.

How does science shape a nation's policy?

We’ve seen how science can rapidly alter how nations respond to emergencies like a pandemic, but why is the response to the climate emergency so slow? Laura and Antonia discuss multiple ways that scientists can help shape national policy, how people’s beliefs and behaviours are accounted for, and how the general public can have a voice too.

A guide by the British Ecological society helps explain how policy relates to legislation. You can read more about how many civil servants we have in the UK, read a report from the House of Commons library about what led to the Climate Change Act 2008, and read about how research from universities influenced the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

How successful are human interventions for helping wildlife?

Everything humanity does has an impact on the natural world, but we’re also highly dependent on it. Laura, Ellie and Jasmin discuss how panda populations have declined and then improved, the work of zoos, instances of adapting nature to live with us, and how research is uncovering complex way that wildlife, farming, fishing and garden birds interact with us.

Here’s the study that Ellie mentions about artificial reefs dramatically improving marine species numbers.

Read news of some specific studies into how feeders affect garden birds and statics on UK bird populations, both mentioned by Laura

Read news about squirrel train travel and contraception mentioned by Laura.

Should we mine the Moon?

Could mining on the Moon become a future industry? Ellie and Jasmin hold a "Dragons Den" style discussion in which the pros and cons and of course the financial details of what it would take to set up a Moon mining operation are discussed. They take a look at private space as it looks today and consider the legal implications. They even explore whether the mining practices could be expanded to other planets and asteroids in Solar System.