Technically Speaking | a science and engineering discussion

What does it take to find a new species of animal?

You might be surprised to know that new species are discovered pretty much every day. Laura and Ellie talk about how these discoveries are made and debate whether it's easier to find an exctinct, fossilised species or one that's still alive.

You can send your spare pennies to our ko-fi fund to support the podcast here.

Read about the discoveries that Ellie and the team at IFL Science have reported on including the Carlsberg beetle, a dinosaur in Utah, a dinosaur hand, the golden mole, a fossilised baby turtle that was mistaken for a plant, and Attenborough's rediscovered echidna.

The Natural History Museum publishes annual stats on discoveries.

The article from Scientific American that Laura mentions is What Makes Us Different.

How are vaccines developed?

The COVID pandemic led to rapid development of vaccines. Laura, Emma and Antonia look at the history of vaccine development, the rapid development of the mRNA vaccine, and speculate on whether future vaccines could be so quickly developed.

Read about how viruses are weakened to be used as vaccines, some mechanisms of vaccination, how smallpox vaccines were developed in the 18th century, whether mRNA vaccines could be used to fight HIV, and the recent Nobel prize for the mRNA vaccine used against SARS-COV-2.

How well is radiation portrayed in the movies?

We may not know it, but pop culture is pretty good at influencing our views. Antonia and Laura discuss several action films that rely on radiation for plot points and discuss whether these plot points could be backed-up by science. They talk about using radiation to trace chemical leaks, environmental changes and to find things in the human body. Is there any way of using radiation to trace money the way thta Batman does? Can injecting yourself with a substance protect you from radiation like they do in Star Trek? Is there any way you could use a spray to neutralise radiation like they do in Die Hard 5?

Read about some uses of radiation to trace aspects of engineering projects in this report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Read about uses in medicine and more.

Read about the use of radioiodine in medicine.

How important is methane?

It's contributing to the climate emergency but you don't usually hear about it. Laura, Jasmin and Antonia discuss where it comes from, why it's important, and what can be done to reduce emission of this gas into the atmosphere.

Jasmin's research involves methane. Check out her research profile at Imperial College London.

Antonia mentions the gates of hell firepit in Turkmenistan.

What will advances in artificial intelligence mean for life in the future?

AI is rapidly evolving and we want to know what will happen next. Antonia, Ellie and Jasmin discuss their experience of AI, what intelligence actually means, how AI works, and how it could affect their individual careers as zoologists, science communicators and analysts.

Jasmin talks about her experience with chatbots and references a study on whether people trust them.

Antonia references some opinions of experts shared by Pew Research Centre, The World Economic Forum and AI Experts as well as a video from Answers in Progress.

Ellie mentions a bot that was trained to discover new supernovae.

Are bioplastics better than fossil-fuel based ones?

Like it or not, plastic is a big part of our lives. Laura, Jasmin and Antonia discuss how different plastics are made, how bioplastics are different to ones made from fossil fuels, what is really meant by biodegradable plastics, and whether plastic can be sustainable. The discussion is also peppered with more weird offshoots than normal as real-life examples add to the conversation. Did you know that lots of clothes include plastic fibres? Ever wondered how easy it is to recycle them? Are you better off just burning them for energy? And what does the great British tradition of bonfire night have to do with it?

To find out a little bit more about the market for different types of plastic, check out this article on European-bioplastics.org.

What was the Cambrian explosion and why is it so exciting for palaeontologists?

The dinosaurs might take all the glory but well before they existed there was a very important period. Laura and Ellie discuss the 'explosion' in animal biodiversity that started around 541 million years ago and how we know it happened. They also speculate on what sort of animal might be missing from the fossil record and somehow come to the strange conclusion that balloon animals might have been real.

Sources of information for the factual stuff:

• Rocks (iron) absorbed free oxygen from britannica.com
• The study suggesting that animals left the seas as their eyes evolved and got bigger was reported on quantamagazine.com
• The study on the oldest animal (the floppy sea-dwelling bath mat) was reported on inverse.com

What can we use data science for?

Whether you're a scientist or engineer you'll probably handle a lot of data. Laura, Emma and Antonia discuss how they use various data analysis techniques in their different disciplines of energy analysis and physics. They highly recommend towards data science as a resource to learn more and discus a specific example of principal component analysis (the rotating graph) from builtin.com.

What can we learn from nesting habits of birds?

A lot of effort goes in to studying birds and their habits. Laura, Ellie and Antonia talk about nesting habits, what we can learn from them and why it’s important for scientists to know about them. They also talk about what you can do at home to help birds survive as climate and their environment changes.

How did university shape our careers in the energy industry?

An audience from the Engineering Development Trust's Insights to University course quizzes Antonia, Jasmin, Alasdair and Sophie about how they chose their degree course, what sort of research they worked on, if they got to choose modules about climate change, and whether it’s better to do undergraduate masters or a bachelor’s degree. They also discuss how their individual choices led each of them to work in different aspects of the energy industry and whether they would change anything about how they got there.