Adam Fortais

Arthur Michaud has a Ph.D from the University of Strasbourg in France, in developmental Biology. He is now working at Institut Pasteur France. He is also an extremely active science communicator. Arthur and Adam talk about what seems to be a societal difference between science communication in the French-speaking world compared to Canada. PS: Pardon the audio. I was/am experimenting with webcast audio. We are all doing our best in these Trying Times (tm).

Dr. Karen Kwon is a recent chemistry graduate from Columbia University, and freelance science writer. I talk to Karen about being named a AAAS Mass Media Science&Engineering Fellow which includes a 10-week placement at Scientific American, gaining writing experience, being a "journalist" rather than "communicator", and freelance writing from her temporary home in Vermont. 

Shawn talks to Dr. Allison Kennedy about taking on COVID-19 during an Instagram LIVE interview.

LIGO, writing for Scientific American, a bit of Ed Yong fanboying, and maybe.. just maybe... the birth of a new project? SciAm article: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/mind-the-mass-gap/ Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/Sumeet_kul Books mentioned:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43261015-the-best-american-science-and-nature-writing-2019 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27213168-i-contain-multitudes?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=VZD34c6oXP&rank=1

I had the chance to talk to Dr. Karmela Padavic-Callaghan about the brave new world of virtual conferencing and how it's making science more accessible. The conference she attended was SCIENCE TALK '20.

Pretty much everything has shut down, and a lot of people are trying to work from home. Adam and Shawn hosted an Instagram Live show where they talked about the difficulties they are having with staying motivated, and how importance of face-to-face time with other people.  Keep it up everyone, we'll get through this.

On episode 161 Adam talks to Hilary Caldwell, a kinesiology PhD candidate at McMaster University. One of the things Hilary is involved with is developing the concept of "Physical Literacy".  From wiki:  Physical literacy is a fundamental and valuable human capability that can be described as a disposition acquired by human individuals encompassing the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding that establishes purposeful physical pursuits as an integral part of their lifestyle.  For more info, Hilary recently had a paper published (open access!). Or check out wiki:   https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0230447   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_literacy

Shawn talks with Celeste Suart from the Truant lab about ataxia! Find out more about ataxia research at SCAsource and Huntington's Disease at HDBuzz which her lab also works on. Read more about how SCAsource was started here. If you want to reach out to Celeste on Twitter, you can find her here @suartce and she's open to collaborations! Feel free to email her at suartce@mcmaster.ca to get involved!

It's a big "Communicating Science" week at the AlmaMAC! Shawn asks Adam about an article he got published called Researchers play with elastic bands to understand DNA and protein structures.  It was written for non-experts, but is laying the groundwork for a presentation Adam is giving next week in Denver.  Shawn and Adam also talk about the lecture they gave on Monday about how hard it can be to know your audience and package up your research just for them. Shawn briefly talks about the SciCommTO conference held last weekend.

Matt is in the Hoare Lab studying drug delivery with nanoscaled particles for cancer treatment. He's also the winner of McMaster's 3MT in 2019! Watch his winning talk here. That really long word he used is poly(oligoethylene glycol methacrylate) and you can read more about its applications in the Hoare lab here. Tweet him @CampeaMatt and his supervisor @HoareLab!

On Monday, Adam co-moderated the 2020 McMaster Researchers' Night.  The topic was FOOD, and included four panelists from diverse research backgrounds. Adam had a chance to sneak a question or two in during the evening and got some audio from the event. Have a listen! The panelists included: - biophysicist and expert in molecular gastronomy: Dr. Christophe Lavelle from the National Research Centre in Paris, France - Dr. Geneviève Sicotte from Concordia University, Montréal, professor in literature and expert on the representation of food,  - Dr. Parmjit Singh, PhD Psychology and expert in mindfulness at McMaster University, - Dr. Tina Moffat, professor of anthropology and lead of community-based research projects in Hamilton. The event has passed, but some of Adam's posts about the researchers are still available on Facebook. If any of the panelists piqued your interest, read more about them there. See you next week!

Dr. John Bandler is back this week to talk about the Three Minute Thesis Competition. He is hosting a workshop to help get you started on THURSDAY FEBRUARY 13th, and in anticipation of that, is here with Adam to dissect some award-winning examples, like Canxiu Zhang’s (Brainwave Analysis for Stroke Detection) and Daniel Tajik’s Microwave Holography for Medical Imaging. For the full experience, make sure to follow us on YouTube where we will be posting the full interview including video of the presentations. Check out the School of Graduate Studies’ YouTube channel for more videos, too. Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is a university-wide competition for graduate students in which participants present their research and its wider impact in 3 minutes or less to a panel of non-specialist judges. The challenge is to present complex research in an engaging, accessible, and compelling way, using only one static slide. For more examples, and some other workshops Dr. Bandler has hosted, find him on YouTube. Never miss an

Here's the deal. You can get a 45 minute workout done in 10 minutes... but it's going to be tough. Billy Bostad is working towards a PhD in McMaster's Human Performance Lab. His work focuses on the physical responses everyday people have to extremely short, intense bouts of exercise, and how to encorporate this type of exercise into a healthy lifestyle that anyone can benefit from. We also learn about how Billy found physiology at Guelph, earned a MSc in it at Queen's, got a job, then left to pursue his PhD at McMaster. You can follow Billy on social media (Twitter + Instagram). If you are interested in his work, you can email him directly (bostadw  at  mcmaster  dot  ca). If you are reaaaaally interested in his work, check out the Human Performance Lab! I betcha they are recruiting students and volunteers.

Shawn had a chapter from his thesis accepted, to be published in Cancer! Hear about going from side project to accepted, with all the iteration and uncertainty in between. But first, we talk about commercial gene sequencing company 23andMe developing and selling drugs based on their customers' data. Also - the coronavirus has been found in the US. No confirmed cases in Canada though several travelers are being held for observation.

Matthew Jordan graduated from McMaster's Arts & Science Department, earned two Masters' degrees at Oxford, and came back to teach McMaster undergrads about the history of science, and history, policy, philosophy, and ethics of Artificial Intelligence. Adam and Matthew talk about those things, plus music, and performing improv! Follow Matthew Jordan on Twitter. Follow The AlmaMAC on Twitter and Instagram. Follow Adam on Twitter. Watch the interview on YouTube this Friday.

"Scientist He Jiankui showed the world how human embryo editing is relatively easy to do but incredibly difficult to do well." (read more here). Adam and Shawn discussed this case, what CRISPR can be used for, the use of CRISPR in somatic vs germline mutations and overall the ethics of this case.

What happens when a cyclone tears through a spider's habitat? It gets mad. Like, generational anger. A grudge that gets passed down through their DNA? This year I am transitioning from graduate student to science writer, and I have successfully pitched my first paid article! It's based on an interview I've been sitting on for a few months. The full thing will be released closer to the article, but here is a taste of what to expect! Be sure to follow scientificanada on your favorite podcasting app, and leave a rating if applicable! We are now on YouTube for those who would prefer captions to read along with! I am also hoping to start putting up some video content in 2020. Like-Comment-Subscribe! Finally, you can follow me on Twitter @adamfortais  Thanks!

The whole team is here today! Hear what Matt, Shawn, and Adam have been up to this semester (getting awards, giving away thigh muscles. "Matt-leave", etc.), an interesting fact about Rhianna, and what your hosts are planning for next semester (a field trip to SciCommTO?) Did you know we have a podcast channel with nearly 30 episodes from 3 different shows, including old episodes of The AlmaMAC? Listen here!

Emily Sirotich has got to have the hardest job. She is trying to create evidence-based protocols for when patients with a rare bleeding disorder come into the emergency ward. These are usually life-or-death situations, but because of the rarity of the disease, there is very little evidence in the literature for which to base a protocol off of. Emily tells us the techniques she uses, including retroactive studies, that let her make strong, science-based recommendations for treating these patients.

Tara is a 2nd year MSc. student in Dr. Heisz' Neurofit Lab in the Department of Kinesiology. She studies how physical activity and sleep interact as a protective measure for cognitive function Find out more about her lab's previous work on exercise intensity for improving memory here as well as the paper she mentioned throughout the interview about how physical activity impacts sleep and cognition here. If you are interested in helping her recruit participants, please contact her with her contact information below: Email: kuhnt1@mcmaster.ca or sustainthebrain@gmail.com