Free Radicals - Fungus Radio

Corpse finder. Destroying angel. Black Trumpet. It’s the Halloween episode of Free Radicals!

Turn out the lights and lock the doors as you take a listen to Fungus Radio.

In today's show gastronomer Catherine Macpherson and science journalist Hannah Hoag take you on a tour through the fabulous world of the mushroom, from the mushroom laboratory of mycologist Suha Jabaji-Hare to delectable forest cuisine at La Table des Jardins Sauvages.

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Free Radicals - Breast Cancer Awareness

On our October 22 show, we honoured Breast Cancer Awareness month by raising a somewhat skeptical eyebrow at it. What is missing from the current discussions on breast cancer and our awareness of its causes and treatments? In an interview with Madeline Bird of Breast Cancer Action Montreal, we address the gaps in research and education and offer an alternative view on a health issue with major social and cultural relevance.

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Popular science

so many funny things:
Scientists Ask Congress To Fund $50 Billion Science Thing

Free Radicals - Your Brain on Music

On this week's show, science journalist Hannah Hoag provides insight into how music affects us on a neurological level. We hear some clips from a recent talk given by McGill psychology and neuroscience professor Dan Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. I play some examples of music that would light up certain parts of my brain if my brain were in an MRI machine or CT scanner and then I play name that tune with Hannah. Which I possibly rule at or possibly fail. To find out you'll have to:

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Free Radicals - Thanksgiving Day Science

It's Thanksgiving Day here and Free Radicals is thankful for a lot of things - from friends to music to the wonders of universe. By which I mean, on today's show I play some 90s rocknroll and talk about why leaves change colour in the fall. But because today's show is a full hour long, much more goes on, of course.

As a follow-up to last's week show about science and education, I rebroadcast an interview I did during the summer with mathematician and educator John Mighton, who is certain that anyone can learn math, and that, yes, it's fun.

In the second half hour of the show, we hear a talk from ted.com given by Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. The talk focuses on "the way humans mimic nature in the products we build and the systems we implement. And because the champion adapters in the natural world are, by definition, those that can survive without destroying the environment that sustains them, biomimicry can contribute to the long-term health of our planet." Then I play some more rocknroll.

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Free Radicals - Science, Education and Everyday Life

Today we talk about how people bring science into their everyday lives and how certain facets of science become part of common knowledge. Kamal Fox, who holds an MA in Media Studies and teaches communications to engineers, and I quizzed several students on the McGill campus and asked them what they think about the sciences - what they had to say mirrors the complexity of our general relationship to science - we play those clips throughout the show. And Hannah Hoag, science journalist and former science graduate student, addresses where we get our science information, as well as the commonly understood divide between hating and loving science and between science and arts.

This divide in education obviously stems from a wider social divide though. For instance, I was listening to an episode of Tapestry where Ursula Franklin, Ph.D. in experimental physics, mentor to a generation of engineers and women in science, Companion of the Order of Canada, author, peace activist, and Quaker, generally brilliant person (and Canadian). She was responding to a question about how science affects our lives and our personal beliefs, Ursula Franklin on a recent episode of CBC’s Tapestry: “As I see it, all that science brings us, the inherently increased knowledge of the world around us, brings me to just knowing how little I know and how much more there is. But also, when you look at what science has brought from the cosmic to the molecular to the atomic – we’ve learned that nature works, and it’s amazing that nature works, we’ve learned that nature works frugally with a minimum of waste, and the products of nature are beautiful. Why would anyone think that any being of any form would be threatened or contradicted by the accumulating results of scientific inquiry? Then you can argue with scientists, what do you do with your knowledge? And that’s where I argue that my belief doesn’t allow me to make an atomic bomb but that’s not science, to me that’s the use, that’s society of which scientists are an integral part.”


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Free Radicals - Targetting a Gene to Enhance Memory

On today's show, Emma Duerden, PhD candidate in neuroscience at the University of Montreal, and David Crane, Master's candidate in neuroscience at McGill, discuss new research into how our long-term memory works. They explain how we make memories at a cellular level and how new research into genetics may be able to enhance memory function.

Emma and David spoke with three Montreal researchers who are the authors of a breakthrough paper published in April in Cell, a highly regarded journal of experimental biology. Their paper details the discovery of a gene that can be targetted to enhance memory in people with memory deterioration due to Alzheimer's disease or other neurological factors, including the natural process of aging.

Listen to today's show on CKUT 90.3 fm!

Free Radicals - "Why Can't We Grow New Body Parts?"

On our September 17, 2007 show, I broadcast a talk originally on ted.com by Alan Russell entitled "Why Can't We Grow New Body Parts?" (from the spring of 2006). Alan Russell is a professor of surgery and of chemical engineering and researches regenerative medicine at the University of Pittsburg, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Listen to the show on CKUT 90.3 fm

Free Radicals - Sex Differences in Pain

On our September 10, 2007 show, Free Radicals correspondent and PhD candidate in Neuroscience, Mona Lisa Chanda, talks with Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, of McGill University's Pain Genetics Lab, about research into the differences between men and women in sensitivity to pain. These differences are being attributed not only to "core" biological factors but to psycho-social factors as well, and overall point to the importance of recognizing human diversity in scientific and health care research and treatment.

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Free Radicals - Redpath Museum Science Outreach Program

It's kind of amazing that when you really start to look, science is everywhere. Well, that's what Free Radicals is about, and science being not so hard to find, especially in a town like Montreal, makes my job a bit easier. Within a stone's throw of the CKUT studios is the Redpath Musuem, one of Canada's oldest museums, located right smack in the middle of the McGill campus. This week I talk to the coordinator of the Redpath Museum's Science Outreach Program and two recent McGill science graduates who were a part of it over the past few years.

Ingrid Birker organizes activities, events and talks for anyone who's interested, whether or not you have a science background. The purpose of the program is to connect with the public and share what's going on in the sciences at McGill. Helen Bovy and Dana Murchison share some of their experiences working at the program's summer camp and being a part of the Redpath Museum Club.

A couple of upcoming Outreach events include:
- Stones and Beer Bike tours - September 13 and October 11, 2007
- Climate Change and What We Can Do About It presentation - October 14, 2007
- A series of Friday afternoon talks that run throughout the year

Another Redpath event happening September 10-14 is the Soup and Science series of lunchtime mini-lectures.

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