35 Burst results for "Safai"
KCBS All News
"safai" Discussed on KCBS All News
"Editorial contractors, supervisor, Asha safai says, it fired all current custodians on December 5th. Not one day of transition was given to the workers. Not one back pay, vacation pay, or any pay was given to these families. We heard from them on Tuesday, they came in, they talked about losing health insurance. They talked about not being able to pay rent. It does not know what to do. I wanted to be able to put a smile on my children's faces, but with the reality I'm facing right now, my children are on this journey with me of what's to come. And there's a lot of uncertainty. Mere London brief says the workers were owed at least 30 days notice. To just throw people out without a real plan and understanding of how they're going to make ends meet and not even give someone an appropriate notification or severance or anything is absolutely horrible. In San Francisco, by butler, kcbs. Health officials from across the Bay Area issued a warning about a rise in respiratory virus cases, as kcbs David Welch reports, those officials are urging the public to be especially vigilant during the holiday season. The rise in COVID RSV and flu cases across the Bay Area has officials on alert, and according to San Francisco county health officer doctor Susan Phillip. The Bay Area as a whole needs to take precautions. The Bay Area is very similar in terms of what we're experiencing. Public health officials from 12 counties issued a statement, asking the public to stay home if they're sick, get treatment when appropriate, and use many of the other tools we learned during the pandemic. We all know what to do. We had them as legal mandates before to vaccinate and mask in many settings. And now we are encouraging people to act on the knowledge that we've gained during the pandemic. Officials are still urging the public to continue testing for COVID, but as doctor Gabriel Ortiz points out, testing before you go out simply isn't enough. What makes the current time even more dangerous is that we have three strains circulating at the same time. Officials in San Francisco county say they have no plans to reinstate a mask mandate. However, they want the Bay Area as a whole to take COVID RSV in the flu much more seriously. In San Francisco, David Welch, gas costs less for the first time in a long time, gas can be found under $4 a gallon in the Bay Area. As Jim Taylor found it, you are in line
KCBS All News
"safai" Discussed on KCBS All News
"Breeze, highs in the mid 50s good afternoon, I'm marky schaeffer and here's what's happening. Four dozen janitors who worked cleaning Twitter headquarters were fired last week and kcbs reporter joins us live and says they held a rally today in San Francisco city hall, asking for their jobs back. Bob? Yeah, Mark, the work of a given no notice or severance, where supervisor Asha safai says violates the law. If there is new companies that come in, there needs to be a just 90 day transition and notification to existing employees. In the case of Twitter and in this instance, when the new company came in, not one day was given. Elias says this makes her future uncertain. With just two weeks before Christmas, less than two weeks before Christmas, we're trying to figure out what the outlook is going to look like for us as far as being able to put food on our tables. And what are Christmas is going to be looking like in comparison to his. London breathe. So she attended an event last week with these workers. It was a holiday event and so many of the people that you see here today were not very happy. In fact, some of them were actually in tears. And tears over the uncertainty of their future and how they would take care of their families. After the rally, they marched to Twitter headquarters a few blocks away where they left gifts of mops and toilet plungers. Live in San Francisco about butler, key CBS. Thank you, bob. Leaders, including contra Costa health and supervisors, are calling for an independent community involved investigation after an unreported hazardous materials release in November at the Martinez refining company. Alice wertz reports. It was about 9
Capes & Lunatics: Sidekicks
"safai" Discussed on Capes & Lunatics: Sidekicks
"So yes so find links to all of the various social media's for all of our shows find links to this youtube channel. Ceelo park giving the finger. Please subscribe to youtube. But most importantly please subscribe to our patriotic and help doing some good interviews there to wrap up the year and then like we said twenty twenty two. We're going to do our superhero movie brackets. We will the question that has plagued humanity for years. What is the worst superhero movie. We will find out by the end of next year. Maybe they make and again again. Sign up and join us on the journeyman. It's an so yes. Please subscribe to our patriae on ends. If you don't wanna do that you can buy merch brand new. We were a t public now. We're on t. spring so you can take dip and cover your nets but is that new place that's right and we might even be adding more merson. South safai can only i anyway. So yes fine links to all of that all in one big complete convenient place. That's linked tree l. i. n. k. t. r. e. e. slash keeps an lunatics. So yes please help us again. Patriotic on and the two most important things because again southgate media group. no more. This team has shown me they have confidence in me. And each other and their everyone is paying for this side of their own pockets. I guess what we should do like a pbs. Pledge drive tape. I'll make all charlie. Esser can sing dance. Aw old mukasey can put on a play back. Kundu do stand up yeah. I just need a tux. Now i will do the band dance the mic. Check my brain bro. Dangerous microphone in a your contribution is so important all right so little helpful hip it on together. America honestly seriously. Oh i didn't do it. Yeah alright so yes kids. Love hope fire. Where can people talk to you about the aquaman about a apple onto at hellfire on little puff is you know it. Of course onto making comments had only star trek related content at fire. Sixty nine the ocean. Wet talk your way downtown again kids. You're in now. He said no he said he wants. He said he wants to learn more about the and listen than these shows except for you know what the batman batman raise like batman. Joe solid care about any of those other drops. That's the only one that annoys of all right kids. Thank you for joining us again. Next time armageddon. Two thousand one begins in two weeks. Join us especially going to be watching that flash crossover. They missed their so missed opportunity. They shouldn't even the armageddon twenty twenty one come on.
The Takeaway
"safai" Discussed on The Takeaway
"Some big thoughts about our economy derek thompson staff writer at the atlantic. Pleasure thank you. This is jody pinon from charleston south carolina. I have definitely start my holiday shopping already. I do most of my shopping online and very concerned about getting everything. I want from my family on time. I'm even worried that some of the items be available at all this is janey calling from vashon island washington. Our family chose to stop doing christmas. Many years ago are to sundance justice that we no longer be part of the consumer around and that we begin to create our own celebration. And so we have. Now we gather to celebrate the changing of the seasons. The coming of light and to share our gratitude for one another. Hi my name is keith. I'm calling from san francisco california. I buy presents all year long to people. That when i see something that i think they'll like i get it and i said a decide and sometimes i forget so. Some people get off the president's reputation to maintain as a good president giver and the gay uncle goal that they have. Hi this is elizabeth pavlik cup from minneapolis. Minnesota i'm the worst holiday shopper and always wait for the last minute this year. I'm not taking any chances with empty. Shells supply chain issues. My holiday shopping almost done. I've been thinking a lot about our shopping during this upcoming holiday season and has decided to double down on our family focused on meaningful gift-giving purchasing from los leone businesses from artists and crafters on fc yet more experienced than thing and just buying what we hoped to safai team problems with a non comprise whilst the same time creating some holiday matt gaetz weaker from san jose california this is the takeaway call us at eight seven. Seven eight might take to comment on any story or give us your thoughts on any topic yemen. i'll associate siete. ocho sees away or chose cinco threes. also we're on facebook and twitter at the takeaway. Let us.
.NET Rocks!
"safai" Discussed on .NET Rocks!
"Yes not not very much standardized. Well i generally feel well. Let's face it microsoft turning the toddler using chromium so that's awfully standard ish mazzola and the chromium guys are kinda bad with each other. But they're both care about the same thing it's apple man. It's always a safari. Is the new i six. You can build a webpage that works on the internet. But then you also have to make version for i for for for safar safai. Does something weird to make it. Work with weapons Where you're sticking in if safari sticking if cohen in your web pages if safari what's your Id stack or text editor stack. Or what do you write code in these days ask yes code mostly okay but absolutely a visual studio as well which do you like better more lightweights. I tend to use. I just want to use something that make allows me to write checks in it. Because i love. I love like lebron whistles of editor. The first time i see them but days later disabling every single one of them. I just don't want there. And you click on a jason file and you see the visual studio prompt coming up. You're like i am standby those beds drag dropping a notepad. Thanks you like to see that as a class. Would you like to see that with a gigabyte of memory consumed yarmuth create. And i'll tell you what. I'll change it a class in it and then you can use intelligence nor paint and color it that way back. Yeah i can't. I can't handle all those options. The just come out of nowhere. Hey do you want to invert this if into like a different shade or rewrite this wia loop into a while why would i wanna do that. Just let me read the codes kinda like winning ask alexa with the forecast is and she says. Did you know that. I can give you blah blah blah blah blah. And you say alexis ya up. Yeah no i. Born more of these with where. I'm i swear. It's like the ghost clipping. I know right yeah. He's in there somewhere well. Somewhere code is very popular for that. Reason you know. It is the best of breed right. Yeah just an editor you install when accession at it becomes an id practically right but still like very very lightweight. You don't feel like. I have to grab a coffee. Wait wait for it to open up when i went on this thing but you would anyway because he loved coffee anyway coffee. Yeah so good. But the but i don't need is an existential dread. 'cause i clicked on a file that visual studio thinks zones now exactly. Yeah that's that's really. What whatever they gotta do sit down and go through all of those file types that occasionally click on to make sure they're mapped to code not map the student. If you're zayd you'd write a scripted. This is a project needs to be done before right yes called remove existential dread say anything else That you wanna talk about before we before we end this wonderful conversation and well one of the about Editor tooling for a sharp. Because i said like we use f sharp envy's vs code mostly and are in the reason for that is that there is a really good ide- support for that called ionized and it's basically. I think it's rivals that of of of visual studio in the sense that in what a dozen and kind of features but of course which will probably be able to handle more memory and mental more bigger bigger projects. Okay so that's a that's the other thing about it is that it also supports analyzers. Yeah which is another academic. I'd united analyzers Analyze wow yes that is. It is really cool. So while ago went support when support came in for analyzes managed to build the to build one of those really cool it was about It's basically using using real life esque l. Vada when you're right. Sql l. coating your in your editor so wednesday so once you're you're sql. It will validate the query against your database if nose which database like you just put another file with a connection string and then it starts checking. Well hey this stable doesn't exist in. The stable destabilised Days but it also knows because it also passes the f. sharp code it knows which parameters you should provide what types they should be should also takes parameters and their and their types and redundant parameters whether something can be used or not and stuff like that and finally also check how you read the columns so if you read column. That wasn't returned by the by. The results could also do that. So that's one of the cool things that were made possible. I buy i nine and then ask Also possible vigil studio but you could you. Should you need to create your own visual studio extension and basically build. Your own analyzer. Sankey right which is a lot more work you built in mpg sequel. Analyzer for sharp. I see that in your repos yet. This is one of the. This is like a combo project as the mpg. Sql dot f sharp is just a really really small thin layer of eshop goat on top of mvp sql which is the post crest. A provider. Yeah right so it makes breathe easy and simple to do that To to use that and then the analyzer will understand the code that is written by ambitious scholarship to to be able to analyze it so it knows things about what what it means to provide a parameters knows what it means when you want to read a column it knows about the ability of the columns knows everything so right. These combo project like kind of work together. You're lowering friction for folks right. I just wanna make it really easy when it comes to data axes. It's always such thing that always opens really weird doors with entity framework or like huge other types of data Thinking he could just do like to liners. you get. Get your stuff done in there. And you're done because not everyone has like a huge database or needs to model hundreds of tables. Maybe if you have like a couple of tables you just need to a couple of lines to write your query and get results from there..
The Breakfast Club
"safai" Discussed on The Breakfast Club
"All in here right now with me and my hand right now the whole. Get your address. The right now. Are you must. I'm literally gonna hold on so we can address. Hello who's this pity. I heard from you in a minute. You was locked up more. Yeah i've been laying low. David loose sanded I will be using the crackle. Newark cracker when it applies. But but it's a concept though. It's decree of america same way that they did not safai. Germany we got the d. Crackle fai america racing does american well every friday night at ten pm. Comedy central to god's man absolutely tune in hello. Who's this joel. Get it off your chest. i hope i'm brisk black. Yes sir. i'm really mad about what's going on with a the waters with the haitians. Haitian myself southbound say nominating. I'm mad about him. America's including you know the most latvia. They're they're not really covering like they should. And i'm mad about Black lives matter because all bloggers as well and again. I'm american citizen. So i'm not about congress as well when you do better. We need to treat. The better has been neglected for a long time. And we need to talk about that. Listen to stop haitian. Hey that's number one and number two I know. I know some activists that are going down you know to the border stand with the haitian people i know to me kamala and until freedom are definitely going down so don't think don't think people not not supporting our haitian brothers and sisters thank you. I appreciate you know. My people been through so much so they need right bravo. I go peace gang. Yeah and again to all haitians out there and and we stand with you guys..
Short Wave
"safai" Discussed on Short Wave
"Today. We're focusing on new brings a particularly charismatic group of sea slugs. They are remarkably diverse. They live in every ocean and most marine habitats. There are more than three thousand different species of them. Worldwide and emily people are like really into them. You remember ryan from earlier yeah. He was pretty hyped on them. Yeah yeah yeah so. He's a phd student at harvard studying evolutionary biology. But before harvard. He did his masters studying new brakes. And once you love new brings you. Don't just stop loving new to bronx. I live the passion every day. Even though like i've been working on other weird critters live in the passion. The new to bring passion. He says that some scientists who study new brings actually call themselves nerd or banks. And i love that win. The fandom has a name you know the passion real and i'll be honest emily. I was initially drawn to them because some of them are so cool looking but for me. The amazing thing about brink's is how they harnessed the powers of other organisms around them. And that's what i want to talk to you about today. Yeah this honestly fascinates me okay so earlier. You said some of these sea slugs have the ability to co-opt photosynthesis the process of using light to make food. I know that plants. Algae and some bacteria do this Like i've never heard of an animal doing that. How does that even work okay. So you're already on the right track the key for noodle brings is something you just mentioned. Algae that use photosynthesis to make food aka photosynthetic.
Short Wave
"safai" Discussed on Short Wave
"You're listening to shortwave from npr. Hey everyone i'm only here with mattie safai what's up dude or you know. Hey so if you all haven't heard it's matty's last week on shortwave. And we have been sharing some of her favourite episodes and the little memories. We had making them. Yes i have been crying and laughing all week. It's been a journey emily. But today i've got a brand nudie one for you. My last reported episode on some of the most magical invertebrates in the animal kingdom. Can you guess with you. It could be anything it just needs to be. Maximally slimy and gross my close. Wow yeah closer. That i want you to be honestly. You know that But yes we are. Talking about sea slugs specifically one big group of sea slugs called noodle breaks or newbies if you will if you haven't seen one before emily google nude ab- rank. These will actually blow your mind. Here's one of the scientists. I talked to. Ryan hewlett straight up. N- earning out about them. Like when i think of these colorations and these patterns like you have polka dots. You have stripes you. Have you know all shades of colors. That i just don't see that often in other animals like honestly when i think of like very beautiful animals breaks. Well what an endorsement. I'm looking these up offering. Oh no right. These are some gorgeous technicolor. Slugs and i'm looking. I mean i mean this this purple one looks like it's going to a rave. They might be they might be an. Here's the thing. They aren't just out here looking pretty either. i do think of them as having superpowers. I think of you know some of the classical x men characters who are able to still other people superpowers so emily. Some new brakes essentially have the ability to do that eating up organisms from their environment and using their abilities for themselves. You mean absorbing the power of your pray and using it for yourself i am. I.
Short Wave
"safai" Discussed on Short Wave
"A brand new episode on thursday at a special send-off for our beloved host mattie safai on friday. We're going to pull back the curtain to talk. About what makes shortwave shortwave. And prove to you that matt. He's not really going anywhere. Her spirit is in the very dna of this show. That's right even. In the shortwave afterlife. I will haunt you. Yeah like every time. A scientists uses a superlative like the fastest though greatest thing is it though Because my job here is done honestly and as a science journalist. I believe the greatest gift you can give. Someone is fact checking them. My gosh. I'm going to miss you so much okay. So in addition to being the queen of nuance mattie is also a science communication clown safe to say bringing people in using humor connection and surprise. Of course. I didn't know she was going to one day. Use all of those tactics against me. In the name of shortwave wave referring to one of my favorite memories this was when we were all together and the before times in the studio and we were making our episode on the science of thrill seeking emily. You were talking a big game about love and bean scared. So you know producers brett hansen. Rebecca and i hatched a little plan is such a betrayal hit in the studio for. I don't know hours before. I got there days. As it was days we had to deliver food and water. I think okay. I won't spoil exactly what happened. But i saw my life flash before my eyes enjoy everybody. You're listening to shortwave from npr. Hey everybody it's emily kuang here with shortwave host. Mattie safai heo real quick before we get started we just want to say thank you so much to everybody. Who's been listening to shortwave so far. Thank you if you're enjoying the show. Do us a favor by leaving us. A review on apple podcasts. It helps us get the show in front of all kinds of new people. Which is what we want absolute all right mattie. So it's our very first listener question was owed and we're keeping it halloween one more day because we do what we want. Yeah we asked for your halloween themed questions. Yes and we got a lot of awesome questions from you guys. Y'all are weird like good weird. A bunch of you wanted to know why people seek out scary situations. We're talking haunted houses scary movies. Puppets saas gary matting. Well kwong do you like to be scared. I really enjoyed you said you like so we did plant our producer brett hansen in the corner hiding to pop up. And now we on the ground honestly. That was the best thing we've ever done all right moving on so one person who like you also love scary stuff is our listener charlotte decker. Hey shortwave so. October is my favorite time of year. And i tend to get into the halloween spirit by doing things like watching lots of horror films and going to haunted houses However it does strike me as kind of counter intuitive to willingly put myself into scary situations for fun so i was wondering if you'd be able to shed some light on what exactly's behind this psychological drive that shared by myself and others this time of year to willfully scare ourselves as a form of entertainment charlotte gray question. Every time. i've gone to a haunted corn maize. I've asked myself why am i doing. Why am i doing this. So i went hunting for answers. Okay and i spoke to. Ken carter psychologist who teaches at oxford college of emory university. And he's written a book about people who love intense experiences in my favorite thing about him.
Artificial Intelligence (AI Podcast) with Lex Fridman
"safai" Discussed on Artificial Intelligence (AI Podcast) with Lex Fridman
"Some other objects and these are very natural objects that arise and similarity the reward sanctions that we are having in our brain. They are somewhat very natural that You know there is a reward function for for understanding comprehension and accuracy. And so on some sense. They are in the same way natural as their natural objects mathematics interesting. So you know there's the The old sort of debate is mathematics. Invented or discovered you're saying reward functions are discovered so nature safai enters provide the sam. You can still. Let's say expanded throughout their life. Some their reward functions. They might i. For instance there might be a reward function maximize amount of wealth and this is more like a learning the reward function and but we know also that some reward actions if optimize them. You won't be quite satisfied. Well i don't know which part of your award function resulting you coming today. But i am deeply appreciative. The did spend your valuable time with me. Wojciech is is really fun. Di you're you're brilliant. You're good human being and it's an honor to meet you an honor to talk to you. Thanks for talking to brother thank you. I appreciate that the questions your days. I'm being your thanks for listening to this conversation. Dwell checks around but to support this podcast. Please check out our sponsors in the description and now lamey leave you some words from arthur c. clarke who is the author of two thousand one a space odyssey. It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship god but to create him. Thank you for listening. I hope to see you. Next time.
Short Wave
"safai" Discussed on Short Wave
"Okay thomas lou. Summer hater. here's a scenario. I wake up in the morning. I'm preparing to go on an afternoon bike. Ride on my hog around the city. Check my weather app for the forecast. It's hot you know. Say about eighty-five but manageable and the humidity is like fifty seven percent. Let's say does that. Mean i'm still going to have like a nice bike ride or sort of. It's a little hard to hell with just humidity. Okay but humidity is telling us how much water is in the air. Right right right so yes. Here's where it gets a little bit tricky to understand this. We need to consider a couple of things watering the air temperature and how these to interact with one another okay so i caught up someone. I thought might have some answers. I am greg jenkins. i'm a professor. In department of meteorology and atmospheric sciences at penn state university in greg explained relative humidity like this relative humidity is ratio or percentage of water vapor over a term that is related to order vapor in a saturated state. Okay okay so. I'm going to oversimplify here. But relative humidity is the moisture content in the air compared to the maximum moisture content. That could be in the air totes. That's why it's called relative humidity. It's not an absolute measure of moisture. Greg says a key factor in relative humidity is air temperature. You know the number we usually look at when describing if it's going to be hot or cold out. Dre warmer air can contain more moisture while cooler air can contain less moisture. So over the course of a day if you just had the amount of water vague bernie atmosphere sixth and you let the temperature run. Its normal course. The relative humidity would go up and down just based on
Short Wave
"safai" Discussed on Short Wave
"The us healthcare system can be extremely difficult for trans folks. A lot of transpeople face medical discrimination. A lot of trans people can live in places where they don't have access to affirming providers or might not have insurance. Some trans people might have insurance. But it's might not be able to get procedures covered even if they have quote unquote good insurance. And that's an unfortunate reality. Even finding information about trans healthcare can be a challenge. You know just a lot of reporting on trans stuff. Tends to be by says people and this isn't always the case but a lot of the times that means like from the get go. It's kind of being portrayed in this light. That isn't actually geared towards transpeople. But is really more about centering. Says people that's james factoria a trance journalist who covers queer and trans news culture and health and they recently wrote a piece for vice called a beginner's guide to hormone replacement therapy gender affirming hormone therapy or hormone replacement therapy or each. Rt is basically just when you take hormones by any variety of delivery methods that can mean a shot or like a pill or a gel for example to align what you look like what you sound like to be more aligned with who you already know. You are and More colloquially a lot of trans people refer to it as a second.
The Pomp Podcast
"safai" Discussed on The Pomp Podcast
"Oldest is the cutoff for launch holders term. So seeing this moving up is showing. That coins are moving from. Four-term rollers long-term rollers. It's also showing match the previously entities. That were previously recognized short-term aging past that hundred sixty five days threshold so showing that these entities debt accumulated those coins under fifty days ago are now starting to cross into that long-term threshold in are holding strong that's reflected in like hot waves which is very similar extensive. Like what's what kind showing hallways showing like this. The percentage of supplied last moves in a certain timeframe so using really strong maturation of coins in that sense while yes. This is really exciting. In the purple line is the change out. Sweatshop ratio this is just basically looking at the amount of coins that are available to be bought on exchanges relative to the overall spy Visages kinda sideways suv sideways neutral Yet the liquefy in the long-term holders are are looking really bullish when we look at the long-term holder supply. We've got another chart here that shows through twenty eighteen and twenty nine thousand. There's these two big upward movements that led to pretty significant price increases afterwards shortly after. It appears that we're now looking at a third very large increase in the long-term holder supply. is your expectation that history repeats. Yes there's a couple of things back here on. This is basically just looking at the portion of supplies of literally. The percentage of supply held by these rollers. And so she sees that you know in the bottom of the bear markets that long-term holders Mr buying discounted coins in las vegas bull market a distribution as coins but in the bear market when long-term rollers This certain threshold of supplies been you get this supplies portion And so like it's there's not a certain threshold but we see. Is that when when you get this peak in terms of the movement from from the short-term to long-term older abet that's when you get those safai shock like there's not a certain ratio necessarily that crosses to say that it's going to initiate In general sense idea here just to illustrate the fact that long-term holders set the floor basically through just touched on on multiple Right now in so Floor here on one of the big things to define out is the rate of increase. So like when you look at like when people look at this one of the things they'll say like after two thousand seventeen you saw holders also accumulating so why is this bullish on but would you really look at fear. My pain is the rate of change through the rate of change. Years is way stronger than what it was in. Twenty seventeen also the the base that it was built off of his way higher. So if you look at the bottom of of long-term holdings in two thousand seventeen. You is almost at aside. From twelve years at the lowest it ever was so it was gonna take a while for the older to recalculate those coins in initiate another shark which came in the bottom of the bear market in twenty eighteen but yet so we have a higher base for To build off of men also like really high rate of change each upwards..
Science Salon
"safai" Discussed on Science Salon
"This is the most idiotic ever heard and yet some significant two digit number percentage of republicans. Say they think it's true all right if i like. It's like a almost a third a twenty nine percent of republicans last week republican voters last week told that he was either pierre barna no fewer gala that they think trump is coming back this year. Twenty twenty one. He'll be back in the white house. These people are delusional. Can they possibly believe this. Okay now but here's my theory on. Testing is that These are proxy trues. They stand for something else. A deeper kind of truth. Like i'm on the red team and i it safai talk you out of believing that that That the comet ping pong pizzeria has a pedophile ring. In it i mean. Did you really believe that one guy did you know he went there with his gun right and even surprised there was no out and then he shot up the ceiling. No one was hurt. He went to jail but most people don't like actually. It's a genuine belief there. Yes he really believed that. Most you got mercy. Most people just left a one star review and gave a negative review of the pizza. The was very do. Yeah that's what you do when you think there's a pedophile ring. Sure really believe it but but so for example. If i talk to you at a believing this hillary's not running she's not a satanic pedophile. Are you gonna vote for hillary. No you were never gonna vote for hillary right. These people are all in on the red team. They were never going to go for the blue team. So whether the cunard conspiracy theory or any of them are true or not is beside the point. It's a deeper proxy truth for something else. You know that we stand for conservative values or whatever you guys don't and you're the enemy therefore you know we. We don't believe in in a way like the climate sceptics you know it's or believers people that accept it you know. Some research shows that democrats said except climate size. They don't know much more about it than conservatives. Nobody knows much about the technical science people. Send me these papers. I try to read them on social scientists. What do i know. I accept that science works as an institution for approaching the truth about some natural phenomena. We can study and those who don't believe it. They're kind of singling out. I really trust science. Those scientists authorities in other biased their political or ideological. They have a left wing bias. I don't trust them. Nobody neither side much about co two gases or glaciers or whatever at the technical thing is beside the point. It's what does it stand for. Yeah yeah. I think. That's why i don't know about this but my guess would be that you'd find the most the most endorsement of very implausible things in public polls or or or situations where the person professing belief is is speaking to outsiders. So they're kind of wrapping their team in a way and an. It's especially important to kind of like endorse the thing that is associated with your team And we'd see a different pattern of belief if it were a private somehow. Private poll were some private test. That didn't involve making your team. Look good or outsiders. Yeah so. That's i'm skeptical of a lot of poll results on well. I'm skeptical pull votes for many reasons. But one of the reasons especially on politically a politically fraught questions is that i just hard to know how much like people reporting genuine belief versus people saying the thing.
Short Wave
"safai" Discussed on Short Wave
"All right. Mattie you are here to talk about lightning bugs or as you point out beatles with flashlight butts yes the family of beetles. We call firefly's lamb. Purity are extremely diverse. There are more than two thousand species in that family and they live on every continent except antarctica. So emily they can look and behave very differently. one type can grow to be the length of your palm. There are firefly's that live most of their lives in water. Emily some place don't even fly and some don't flash for that matter so you know not everything. We'll be talking about today. Holds true for every species. So what you're saying is you couldn't just stick to one species because you've got excited and distracted by all the facts about all the species is that right. Maybe i did. Maybe i didn't. You'll be happy for it. I'll say that so. Who did you talk to about. This constellation of creatures. I called up. Stephanie vice a phd student in rio de janeiro. She's an entomologist who studies firefly's and just like us her love of firefly's started in childhood. I have a great memory of my childhood summer trips with my family and also i love to say they shining the forest when i do my field words. She says that there's one thing that applies to all firefly's and that's that firefly's have different lay stages and the larval stage in my opinion is by far the coolest firefly's spend most of their lives in the a lot of ro stage in when she says most she means like almost all of their lives are spent as larvae. I mean some spend one to two years just being voracious low babies. So the adult. Firefly's that i see flying around on the east coast china flash and find a mate. That's like a short period of their lives. Yeah yeah i mean. Some only live as adults for like a few weeks total. They're just out here. Trying to find a mate fertilize some eggs and die.
Short Wave
"safai" Discussed on Short Wave
"From npr. Mattie safai here with lauryn freyre first time on the show lauren. Welcome hey thanks for having me absolutely okay. So you cover south asia for npr. What do you have for us sumati. Today i have for you a number the number itself. Twenty nine thousand twenty nine. It just becomes something that you. I guess fixate on it becomes just this special number in your mind you hear it and you just know immediately what it means matty before he tell you who this person is. I want to ask you your climber. I bet you know what this number means. Yeah climbers strong word. For what i do out there lauren. But yeah i totally know what the number is. But why don't you tell our audience who might not know what it is okay. So it is the height of mount everest. The world's highest peak is on the border of nepal and china height. That roxanne vogel who's voice. You just heard there. She knows every single foot of and that's because last year she set a speed record there. I became the first person to successfully climb everest from my home in san francisco all the way to the top and return home in fourteen days. We called it a lightning ascent. That's that's fast. That's too fast. Yeah total underachiever that roxanne there but how can a person even do that. Lauren will so to prepare for this. Lightning ascent roxanne trained like mad and she was constantly focused on that number. Twenty nine thousand twenty nine twenty nine having never been that high one eight nine thousand twenty nine. It was certainly something that focused my training. Nine thousand twenty nine and so she kept plugging in that number doing calculations. Twenty nine thousand twenty nine like okay. Here's how many thousand feet sleeping at and then to finally stand there. Twenty nine thousand twenty nine at that altitude. That's the closest to heaven or the closest outer space that i will ever get on this earth and it's kind of life changing when you're out there. But.
Short Wave
Here's what the CDC says fully vaccinated people can do
"Safai here with npr health correspondent. Alison aubrey hale. Said they agreed to be here mattie. So you're here because there was a press briefing by the white house. Covid nineteen response team on monday with some long awaited guidance. A morning. and thank you. I'm glad to be back with you today. Let's get started that. Cdc director rochelle walinsky and she said after weeks of steady decline new coronavirus cases. There's been a leveling of that decline the country's averaging about sixty thousand new cases a day. Yeah i mean it's not great caseload wise. We are pretty much where we were right. Before the winter surge and the most recent seven day average deaths is slightly lower than two thousand deaths per day. So that's pretty troubling but we'll landscape also said she was hopeful and she pointed to the approximately thirty one million people. That's about twelve percent of us adults who are fully vaccinated and is more americans vaccinated a growing body of evidence. Now tells us that there are some activities that fully vaccinated people can resume at low risk to themselves and mattie she went on to detail new cdc guidelines about what activities are considered safe for fully vaccinated people. Because everyone wants to get back to something. That looks kind of like normal or normal ish. I mean this is the news. People have been waiting for right. Vaccinated people can have a little more freedom to socialize but before we get ahead of ourselves. Alison let's make sure everyone knows what we mean. When we say believe excavated shirt so a person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after getting the second dose of either the pfizer or a modern of vaccines because those required two shots or two weeks. After the single dose of the johnson and johnson vaccine because for that one. You only need that. Single dose to be fully vaccinated. That's right now. These new guidelines are not the final word. There's sort of a baby step towards a return to normal doctor will linski made clear during the briefing. The science of covid nineteen is complex and our understanding of the virus continues to rapidly evolve. The recommendations is today are just a first step so as more people get vaccinated the understanding will grow about what activities are safe to do and this guidance will be updated so today on the show we talk about the cdc's first set of public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people and why it's still important for all of us to remain vigilant. This shortwave the daily science podcast from npr ellison. I am very glad to have you here today. And we are going to go into the caveats and the guidance and we're going the sectors you know. I have to say this does feel like kind of a moment to celebrate that we are getting you know a little bit of freedom back The cdc guidance is relaxing about what vaccinated people can do So i just wanna start off being like this is pretty awesome You know what i mean. Yeah i agree. There's a sense of optimism. we all feel it. We look at these vaccination numbers taking up and thank you know. The new normal is right around the corner. But i just have to say hang on folks like there are still sixty thousand cases. The date musto dolts haven't been vaccinated yet. So there's a lot of vulnerable people out there and the pandemic is not yet in the rear view mirror. Absolutely absolutely so. Let's get into it. What does the new guidance say that fully vaccinated people can do the agency says that fully vaccinated people can gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people without wearing masks and without social distancing they can also gather unmasked with people from another household who are not vaccinated if everybody. There is at low risk of serious illness. So it's really a green light for scenarios of like grandparents who want to gather with their children or their grandchildren right. I mean this guidance gives the example fully vaccinated grandparents can visit indoors with their unvaccinated healthy family members. And that's without wearing masks. Or physical distancing provided of course that none of the unvaccinated family members are at high risk of severe covid nineteen. So let's break that down for a second alison sure who is considered high risk for severe covid. And who's considered low risk people. At high risk include older adults remember the vast majority of data people seventy five and older another high risk group pregnant individuals and people certain medical conditions those at lower risk include kids and healthy adults people who've had minimal exposure to other people bottomline risk goes up with age and the guidance from this week also says that the should be confined to one household. Right yeah right. They're very specific about this. And they give some scenarios The dividing line in your mind sort of be private spaces where you control. Who's around your home and public spaces. So at home if you are fully vaccinated and your friend or member fully vaccinated green light here to gather do at unmasked with knows distancing required alleluia. another scenario. my parents are vaccinated. Now they can come to my house even though we are not fully vaccinated and my ten year. Old daughter is too young to be vaccinated. We are considered low so vaccinated people can go visit unvaccinated people as long as everyone. There is considered low risk. Okay so that's all the good stuff. Let's talk about areas to be kind of cautious around sure. This is where there are some caution flags vaccinated people visiting unvaccinated people from people households at the same time. This is where the risks starts to sort of add up or accumulate so in this kind of situation. Everyone should wear a mask and visit outdoors of possible. Or if you are indoors make sure it's a well ventilated space and maintain physical distance when it comes to medium or large gatherings say baseball game a wedding. It's recommended that everyone including fully vaccinated people continue to avoid them. Yeah i mean. Let's talk about why we still need some of these precautions. Sure i mean officials say there's a growing body of evidence to show that people who are fully vaccinated are less likely to become infected and also potentially less likely to spread the virus to others. They use that word potential because the risk appears to be quite low but this is not completely nailed down yet. So as science evolves there will likely be more updated guidance and the guidance even talked about how in rare cases vaccinated people could get sick could have symptoms. Yeah i mean the risk is low but it's not zero mean the clinical trial showed. The vaccines are very very effective. They're not a hundred percent effective. And so the cdc says if fully vaccinated person has symptoms they should isolate and talk to a doctor and possibly get a test but they also say if fully vaccinated person has a known exposure. Say go to work and they later find out that a close contact was infected. They do not need to quarantine or get tested because they're infection risk is low though they should sort of monitor themselves for symptoms right so if a person who's vaccinated feeling sick they should isolate and talk to a doctor but if they get exposed to somebody who said that doesn't necessarily mean they need to you know go into quarantine. They just need to kind of monitor themselves. That's right
Scene N Nerd
"safai" Discussed on Scene N Nerd
"And a half just like kay caroline's life. Let's wrap it. Oh where's your pace with some of these plot points Well i think the we as as you brought up the painting. And and we talked about earlier with allison ocean and how episode ended with you know given that the one that was at the collective party was a forgery and and and ocean and alice have the actual map and clearly. Safai has a grander scheme. Play at play here where They've had their memories repressed of a of a prior their prior relationship so So how that all ties into to the painting and a map and enter the joker Yet with case disappearance I think we'll get. We'll get this little morsel of information east episode as we as we move forward and and also what i did like this week was yes. The kate smith case disappearance was obviously hanging over. But i felt like it wasn't the email it was one of the clear driving points of the episode. It didn't feel like it was taking up all the oxygen and room this week. I mean there were other felt like force at the things we talked about with sophie and ryan and and the choices that you know that brian had to make to to work with the crows and and and of course lew and mary as far as like calling the shots and ryan's like after in episode. Look i what your did it your way and look. What a goddess. So now if i'm going to be wearing to see i'm calling the shots i i mean i like those. I like the evolution of brian And then of course her relationship with With her ex girlfriend angelique And and you know again how we you know how we talked about how her enter leagues in victor's al and and brian having a good understanding the gotham underworld is a as an asset for her As bad woman. So i think there's a lot of little threads that are out there. Hopefully a of see you know. I've enjoyed the series enough to season. And like you said to the to your point about the second half of last season. Where the writing definitely got stronger and i feel like overall the writing for the most bar has been pretty strong season so i am hopeful that we'll all those spirits threads will will come together. A cohesive.
Short Wave
How COVID-19 Has Changed Science
"Twenty twenty was a year like no other especially for science during twenty twenty alone have been more papers written about covid nineteen than the have been on many other diseases that we've known about for a much longer time. Things like polio and ebola. And that astonishing ed young is a staff writer for the atlantic and in recent peace he explores the massive shift. The pandemic has caused in scientific research in a. We have only known about this disease for a year or so and yet it has totally consumed the attention of the world. Scientists many many scientists have pivoted from whatever they were previously focused on to study covid. Nineteen he says. Take jennifer dowden for example. She's twenty twenty nobel prize winner and a pioneer of crisper gene editing technology. And she told me about how in february she was on a plane headed to a conference crammed into the middle seat and she realized like this is. This is crazy. This doesn't feel safe and this is probably the last time on going to travel for a while like she had the sense for her life was about to change and change. It did the next month. Her university shutdown her son's school closed jennifer and her colleagues realized the wanted to switch focus so they started testing in their own institution to serve the local community because they realized that testing wasn't sufficient they developed new ways of diagnosing the virus using crisper. And this is a clear example. I think of a scientist moved to studying covid nineteen because she saw this massive pressing. Societal need for science to rise to the occasion but in view goodwill pivots like the one that down to made. Don't tell the whole story about what changed in twenty twenty scientists not just a march towards the greater good to very human endeavor and as a human endeavor it has both good and bad sides at its best. Scientists are self-correcting march towards greater knowledge for the betterment of humanity but at its worst it is a self interested pursuit of greater prestige at the cost of truth and rigor and both sides of science were very much on display this year so today on the show we talk with ed young about some of the ways cope with nineteen could change science forever. I'm mattie safai in this is short way from npr this message comes from npr sponsor. Bank of america. You finally decided to learn how to ice skate. So you ordered the essentials. Every ice skater needs a pair of blades. And you helmet and a good set of kneepads and you used your bank of america. Cash rewards credit card choosing to earn three percent cash back online shopping rewards that you put towards the cost of an essential piece of plo skating recovery. A heating pad visit bank of america dot com slash more warding to apply now copyright twenty twenty bank of america corporation. This message comes from. Npr sponsor ibm a smarter. Hybrid cloud approach with ibm telcos. Rollout innovations with watson. Ai without losing speed. The world going hybrid with ibm visit ibm dot com slash breed cloud. Okay so today. We're talking about how the pandemic changed scientific research. Let's let's start with one of the core foundations of science publishing data. Something that in my experience doesn't traditionally happen very quickly. Yeah so traditionally The process of publishing is often very slow. It takes a lot of time for scientists to write up the results for that results to then pass through gone through. The peer review process can take many months. Is ill suited to a crisis. That is as fast moving as the covy pandemic has been but for many years now. Biomedical researchers have pushed for innovations that will speed up the process of science so they have started increasingly using pre-printed servers where they can upload early drafts of the papers so that their peers can discuss and build upon those results even before it goes through the peer review. Gauntlets and it really took off in the middle of the pandemic p- reprints were a major part of how science was disseminated over the course of this year and i think for both good and they meant that as intended. The pace of science was much quicker but in an environment where the entire world was hungry for more information about this new disease. A lot of very bad reprints were also circulated very quickly gained international attention and led to the spreading of misleading information. That hindered the controller cove. Nineteen rather
Short Wave
How A 100-Year-Old Treatment Could Help Save Us From Superbugs
"In twenty fifteen. Stephanie strategy and her husband tom paterson. Both scientists were travelling in egypt. They sell the pyramids the nile and then as she tells it in this text talk after dinner one night. Tom became violently ill. He vomited all night long. And i thought oh gee he's just got food poisoning and i pulled out a couple of antibiotic pills that we take with us on our trips and i gave it to them with some water. Nothing happened the next day. Tom kept vomiting. Stephanie called doctor he thought yes food poisoning and set up an iv drip for more antibiotics. But tom only got worse at a local clinic. He was diagnosed with pancreatitis. Inflammation of the pancreas and medevac to a hospital in frankfurt and there. He was diagnosed with something even worse. A superbug a bacteria by the name of oscillator b-actor bowman scary name scarier bacteria it tops. The world health organization's list of most dangerous superbugs bacteria that are very hard to treat often resistant to many antibiotics. Now we'll never really know for sure where time got his superbug infection. But we do know that. It was an egyptian stream. And we know that. By the time he was medevac. Thome to san diego that it was resistant to every antibiotic. Tom was in a coma. His organs were shutting down. He was on three different drugs to keep his heart. Beating and the doctors told me that tom was going to die. But seventy refused to give up. She turned to the scientific community for help. I'm maddie safai today. on shortwave. What stephanie found and how it saved her husband's life. It's a century-old treatment. That could be a new tool in our war against super bucks for months stephanie's husband. Tom would remain hospitalized fighting for his life and losing. Yeah i was just really scared out of my mind. But i knew that if i just sat back and waited then he was going to die and i needed to know that i'd done. Every last thing that i could do that i would leave no stone unturned so i hit the internet and i did with anybody else would do in my shoes. Google it well. Luckily you know there's google for scientists and that's called pubmed and it's this wonderful search engine where you can put in any words and a scientific paper will pop up and you know i punched in words like multi drug resistance and the name of his superbug which is assassinated b-actor mania and popular within an hour. I found a paper that mentioned something called page therapy. So tell me a little bit about fish there. Well fay jr are short for bacteria phages and that's derived from the greek word meaning bacteria eater and they are viruses that have naturally evolved to attack bacteria there's ten million trillion trillion pages on the planet. It's all a matter of finding the ones that will kill the bacteria that you want to get rid of. Okay real quick phase one. oh one i like. Stephanie said bacteria phases the viruses that infect bacteria are everywhere pretty much anywhere you find. Bacteria you'll find a phase we're talking and artika deep-sea ocean vents your. But i swear that'll make sense later. Second facials don't actually eat bacteria in this case the fees injects its own dna into the bacterial cell. Then the virus forces the bacteria to make more and more copies of itself feeling up the cell with viruses eventually the bacteria bus open releasing all those new viruses. Go off and kill other cells. It's ruthless
Mac Power Users
New Features of Safari 14
"I thought it'd be worth while to kind of dig in because safari got a lot of changes this year. It did work to now version fourteen of safari which is something that when we wrote it out like. Oh i feel really old. I remember once the fire was brand new version fourteen. It has a lot of changes in it and what it's cool like. We said earlier apples good about supporting older. Oh in terms of software update safari is is one of those examples it will run On mohave and catalina in fact came out mid september. So you probably already been using safai fourteen for a little while. But i thought we could talk through some of the features under the hood. There's some changes of flashes. Gone of course get better performance and things like javascript. Page loading apple always talents. That know safari. Superfast senate is. When's the last time you ran flash and safari though. It's been a long long time. I'm guessing me like six years. I mean flashes. Basically gone everywhere. Yeah yeah the The thing i'm most excited about really is this idea of them. Bringing in plug ins. You know an more robust plug in architecture. Yes so the the new extensions. Api we talked about this where a company or developer has an extension available to them. They've already written for chrome or firefox or something else they can bring that in through ex code. Gotta go in the mac app store. There's a new section in the maps or now for these things but they can pour these faraway easier than they used to be able to before this developing is a far extension was like a one off the way apple did it was an unusual than it used the the tool. So that's a ra- standardized or on chrome and firefox cts From a user perspective though because the far east of Based on privacy is that you can really control. The access is extensions. Have to your data so you can allow it on specific sites or all sites. You can say you only have access to this for one day. A lots of of really nice settings to limit what these things can do because a lot of these extensions work by seeing what you're doing in your browser and of course that does have privacy implications yet it gives you that great Ecosystem plug ins without the wild west mentality of like. What did this just due to my computer. 'cause and some other browsers you really don't know The so good on that. I haven't really seen the payoff on that yet. Though i mean there are several apps that i'm or plug ins and following. That aren't there yet. But i feel like that's only a question of time. Now yeah i think so. I think it will take a while. I think those will be more successful than apple's past extension programs. But i don't think we're ever going to see the wide range of things that see in something like chrome i think a lot developers won't bother with safari but for those who do. It'll be a lot less work for them.
Short Wave
Happy (Harm Reduction) Thanksgiving!
"Matty safai here and emily so over the past week the. Us has hit a record number of corona virus cases multiple times. The us enters the worst stage of the coronavirus pandemic date with an unthinkable. One million new cases each week and no sign of letting up. We'll any california is the second state to record more than one million girl virus cases in the past month. A number of people hospitalized with the virus in the us has nearly doubled. We now have what experts call unchecked community spread in more than forty states. Some hospitals in parts of the midwest are completely at capacity or almost there and many of our healthcare workers are exhausted. And this is happening as we're headed into the holidays right and the reality is when people get together for holidays like thanksgiving. It's impossible to be risk free. All gatherings carry risk and that risk is considerably greater when you include people from outside your immediate household. Yeah the safest way to do. Thanksgiving is actually to stay where you
Cyber Work
Why we need to rethink the human factor
"Let's kick things off. I think maybe a good way would be to talk a little bit about the security journey. That brought you to where you are today and a little bit about. What prompted you to kick off the the research you did about rethinking. The human factor. Okay so Very briefly on in by joining the industry are quite a different group to majority. So i think you originally trained in lieu on marketing and offer about ten years. I a chemical some judy. Let me joining the industry. I not been here for over twenty years now. So i'd like to think of getting something bright or maybe baby just people too big skins anyway. So i think the next tonight keeping me really helped me Working with meyer would have direct set find. Also all kinds is a because my legal training because my mom confronting because my finance training i was able to have conversations with honest straight through the marketing director and the the company lawyer actor Unrelated why information security or something they should be and this was a really powerful tool tool the i team designers today speaking because he was a language that they to be trained in so i want them to be would understand what it meant monarchy in perspective i would help translate the into a meaningful benefits to jewel. Been some business. That health of his majority might were will looking years with ran. Jonas plants are held. The risk is too that Was into this. And the one with dixon catalan possibility. And and we would then look a little bit different psycho that they would say that one hockey and then gave the people. I was at no great love. Who responsible controls. Give them something. So they like controls and design in policies procedures. And he's not interested in. That was the first point. Why side you realize the importance of the human aspect really here because we would ryan green policies will say. This is our expectation that we'd have employees use a alessi or safai policy. Whatever some weaknesses. Technically i a fair amount that we we really relying on people who do as we also and regularly week would see that people wouldn't necessarily do we also very restrained because then the geneva thinking on We invested all this in having around chiens bringing so maybe also elements of security various vendors. And yet we're still having this reoccurring problem we sorted. The problem still exists at as a finance Try and says no thinking the return on investment on that stop shop and okay so i thought realize when you start the question devalue what it is and and really focus my mind on ruled work. I doing devon's risking. It really comes down. Whether or not people choose to behave policy and seven years kicked on a research paw which i told the reason he became a lethal pretty much every aspect of what i do information security including that we cool at the convention less
Short Wave
Gender Discrimination and Harassment at Sea
"Now if the mosaic expedition sounds familiar to you, it might be because back in December we aired two episodes on the research being done. But today we're turning away from the research and focusing on Chelsea's reporting. The Mosaic Expedition Gender Discrimination and harassment and how they're an all too common reality for many field scientists. I'm Maddie Safai and this a shortwave from NPR. So on October eighth a few weeks. Into the mission a meeting was called and it was led by this communications manager, with Awa, the German institute kind of spearheading the mission like who was there and what was that meeting about. Right. So that meeting was held by Katharina Vice Tweeter who was a Manager and she held that meeting with all of the journalists who were on board the ship at that time, and so at that point, there were four of us all women, and so we all sat down and she kind of told us. I want to just clarify. The rules of the new dress code that was announced yesterday at the General Meeting, and then she went on to tell us you know this is a safety issue and there are a lot of men on board this ship and some of them are going to be on this ship for months at a time, and this is a safety issue something that needs to be taken seriously and so. I should say she did not come out and say we are concerned that. Men On this shipper going to harass you or assault you if you dress a certain way so but it was heavily implied by this. Multiple Times telling us there are many men on board the ship and you need to not wear tight fitting clothing or revealing clothing. Yeah. Yeah I mean, what did you take from that? Like when you walked away from that meeting what did you take from them? Well what we took from. It was that there was a risk of harassment or something worse. You know if we didn't dress more modestly on board the ship. And, we really were alarmed by this because we started wondering. If. There had been some incidents that had prompted the change in the rules and what was this bit about a safety issue was there some threat to the safety of the women on board and what? Exactly? was that threat and so we were you know, of course irritated. By by implication that we should have to change the way we dress because there are a lot of men on board the ship, but we were also alarmed. Yeah I, mean when you wrote about the dress code meeting, you noted that it came after some problems with harassment that had already sort of percolated on the ship. That's correct. Although at the time we actually were not aware of that. So as I reported the story that that came out in my reporting later, there had been a an incident in which some women on board the ship reported to the cruise leader that that they had been harassed by men on board the ship, and then you know there was a meeting, it was brought to the captain and the men were prohibited from further contact with those participants and and it was never made widely known. Anybody else on board that ship that there had been an incident like this And so nobody knew about this at the time, the dress code was announced. So you know we all Kinda had this suspicion about a safety. What exactly does that mean? was there some incident but I did not find out that any incident had occurred until much later. And this wasn't the only incident of gender-based discrimination while you were aboard. Right you wrote that the dress code kind of became a symbol of these inequities, but there was other stuff going on to. That's correct. So there was the harassment incident that occurred shortly before the dress code was enacted, and then later on, there was an incident in which. A group of Were kind of called together. Asked to volunteer basically to participate in a work assignment and the work incitement involved a helicopter ride over to. The Polar Stern, which was the main research vessel participating the expedition and. Helping to unload a bunch of boxes and supplies and that sort of thing and so. The group volunteered for this work assignment, originally consisted of both men and women and then later on the cruise leader removed the to women participants from that assignment and replace them with men and I'm told that this event also sparked a lot of resentment among the women who were familiar with the incident, and so you know I asked crews leader later about this incident and he said that he did this to comply with a German law that dictates How much men are allowed to lift on work assignments versus women are allowed to lift on work assignments but it was a little odd because he sent me the law and I looked at over and the way he described the work assignment and the amount of weight that was going to be distributed among the people participating those weights should have actually exceeded the weight limits for both men and women. So I could not get really a clear justification on why only women were removed from that work assignment and again people who are involved with that situation or who were familiar with that situation we're upset by that as well. Yeah. I mean, Chelsea, this isn't just the mosaic right in your reporting. You discussed a twenty eighteen study by the National Science Foundation about the prevalence of sexual harassment and you noted according to the study the. Two biggest predictors are settings where they're more men than women and I'm quoting environments that suggest a tolerance for bad behaviour I mean is this the situation that you saw when you were reporting on the Mosaic Mission? Right? So I spoke with various experts on a gender and policy in field science and in polar science and they all kind of pointed to leadership on these expeditions. That's really a primary factor in kind of environment. Is it going to be you know for the women participating in these expeditions and so it's really important from what I've been told by these experts to have a leadership that is prepared to deal with issues of sexual harassment or discrimination. If they should come up leadership that's trained to deal with these kinds of issues that's train to prevent these kinds of issues from coming up in the first place. Leadership, that sets very clear rules and boundaries at the start of an expedition for what will be tolerated and what will not be tolerated and I think that really does speak to what went wrong on academic fed off. You know there was a dress code that was enacted midway through the cruise. It was a surprise to everybody it was communicated in a really kind of vague and distressing an alarming way. Harassment incident that arose that was kind of it'd be swept under the rug a little bit at the time may or may not have influenced the dress code. So. Yes. I think this really all speaks to kind of a lack of preparation to prevent these kinds of issues arising in the first place and from dealing with them in the proper ways when they do arise. Yeah. Yeah and you know Chelsea I'm wondering what is the response to your piece? Ben So far since you wrote. The response to the peace has been mainly very positive so far. So I've heard from a lot of scientists researchers both in polar science and in other fields. Who have been very supportive and who have said you know this is an issue that happens all the time that's very common but that needs to be talked about more and so you know it's very important to kind of bring these issues into the light and. It has been. It's it's not been great to hear that there are so many other people who have had similar experiences. You know that's that's disappointing and distressing to hear but you know. But a lot of people have said you know this, this is very common and it's good that we're starting to talk about this more do. Yeah. I mean you mentioned Chelsea some moments of solidarity from the participants aboard the most recent being this unified statement responding to your article signed by the large majority of Grad, students on board. Did this. You know inspire any hope for you about the future of the this type of field research. It did absolutely, it did that statement basically said that it was disappointing to see rules and policies on board. The ship that might imply that women should have to change the way they dress to manage the behavior of men or policies that might limit women's involvement in fieldwork, and so you know the students know in their statement that they were. You know grateful for. The opportunity to go on the expedition into work with leading polar scientists in the field. But this was something that that was not acceptable to them and you know it wasn't courage to read that statement and to just kind of see the interest in the concern about these kinds of issues from you know what's going to be the next generation of polar scientists and I do think that this is something that will hopefully Garner a little bit more attention inspire some change in the future.
Short Wave
The CDC Doesn't Know Enough About Coronavirus In Tribal Nations
"In August more than five months into the pandemic Jordan. Bennett. was about to see some data she'd waiting for for a long time. Yeah. No a truly I was really excited because there hasn't been any data on American Indians or Alaska natives since the start of the pandemic from the CDC that's right. Until last month while universities had released a good bit of data about Covid and its effect on some. Native, American and Alaskan natives. The CDC really hadn't Jordan would know she's a reporter and editor with the Public Media News organization Indian country today she's also a citizen of the Navajo nation and she's been covering the pandemic since the beginning as well as a twenty twenty census and all of Indian, country no big deal just all of Indian country Yeah. The whole. That data that she'd been waiting to? was released by the government as part of a weekly CDC report in mid August the title of the top red. COVID nineteen among American Indian and Alaska Native Persons in twenty three states and when i read it, it was Kinda already something that I knew and a lot of native public health experts already knew and what I was really looking for is you know what is new that they gave to us the report said because of existing inequities, native Americans and Alaskan natives are three point five times more likely to get the corona virus than white people but anyone who'd been looking at tribal nations as closely as Jordan had could have told you that they were. Being hit especially hard for example, at one point earlier this year, the Navajo nation, which spans parts of Arizona New Mexico and Utah The nation's now reporting nearly four thousand in nineteen cases in a population of one hundred, seventy, five thousand had an infection rate greater the New York State. Eight PM curfews on weekdays and on weekends a fifty seven hour lockdown, not even the gas stations are open. That was just one tribal nation that got a lot of attention. Many others had infection rates that were also higher than the hard hit states in the northeast like the Colorado River Indian tribes in Arizona and California the Yakima in Washington state or the White Mountain Apache tribe in Arizona. And data from the states where many of those reservations are located weren't included in the CDC report, which gets it a larger problem. If there's data had you know where the impact is, how do you know where you could send testing to where there's a lack testing? You have to have that data in order to create policies into also figured out how to distribute vaccines. This episode was the CDC does and doesn't know about Covid in native American and Alaskan. Native tribal nations and how Jordan is working to get more data to the people who need it most I mattie Safai and you're listening to shortwave from NPR. This report from the CDC which linked to in our episode notes does say two important things. The fact that native Americans and Alaskan natives are more likely to get the virus. That's one. The second thing is that compared to white people young folks in those communities people under eighteen tested positive at higher rates. When it comes to these findings, the CDC did make one thing clear. Here's one of the researchers on the study, Sarah Hatcher it really important that the. This disproportionate impact. Likely driven by versus stinks social and economic inequity not because of some biological or genetic. Persisting social and economic inequities we're talking about access to healthy food housing income levels, stuff like that. Here's Jordan again the and other just like public health infrastructure or in like the lack of investment in the public health infrastructures in native communities and you have over credit households, anders a number of inequities that this pandemic is bringing out. More on that in a bit. But first Jordan says that the CDC report is notable for what it does not include this report did leave out tons of cases right now it only looked at twenty three states and it didn't include Arizona. Is One of the hot spots in Indian country. And they account for at least a third of all the cove nineteen cases according to the report. They also left out states like Oklahoma Washington. California Colorado thousands and thousands of cases. And researchers from the CDC were up front about leaving all that data out. Here's Sara Hatcher. Again, our announcement is really not generalize beyond those twenty three state overall. And we're not really able to speculate whether we expect the overall rate to be higher or lower we. The reason some states got left out was because the they recorded about race and ethnicity including that for native, American, and Alaskan Native Cova Cases was incomplete and that was really at least surprising to me because. I like how can you not capture this data right here you have Arizona where you know again, the Salt River Pima, Maricopa Indian community Healer River, ending community, White Mountain Apache their cases are thousands You had the tone, nation and Navajo Nation and the possibly Yawkey tribe. There's just thousands of cases in this one St. So many gaps like in this data as well. I think just points to how the CDC doesn't really know tribal communities and know that Indian health system and how it's built instead up. So, let's talk about that. Now. It's much more complicated than this. But basically, when tribal nation signed treaties giving up their land, the federal government promised to provide them with healthcare and set up the Indian Health Service, a government funded network of hospitals and clinics. To deliver adequate healthcare to tribal nations but that's not what's happening right now and what the pandemic is very much highlighting. For years the IHS has been way underfunded per person the federal government spends about half the amount of money on the IHS. Medicaid. And that's part of the reason a lot of tribes over time have step to establish their own privately run tribal health clinics. So throw history. They all IHS. But then tribes wanted to you know take hold and own and operate their own healthcare. So that's how these tribal health clinics came about. At this point, the large majority of healthcare facilities are operated by tribes about eighty percent in those facilities are encouraged but not required to share data that they collect on the virus but Jordan says, that's something a lot of them do not want to do not with the federal government or even with reporters like her even now as a Navajo WOM-. In as a Navajo reporter, it's also difficult for me to try to get the data. Because then I understand that like I grew up around my background is in health and so I I know you know it's because of settler colonialism but also research to a lot of times and medical research you have researchers going in parachuting in parachuting out and they don't give back that data it at least from everything that I've seen the past several months trust is like the main factor in this That's one thing trust. There's also the reality that doctors can get race or ethnicity wrong in California where it's pretty prevalent from what sources tell me some doctors will just check a box on native people because of their surname, their surnames, more likely to be coming from like a Hispanic or line next or origin like Dominguez or Garcia or you know today's assumed there Um Latin x but they're not, and if those people wind up dying that seem incorrect data can wind up on their death certificate right? You don't know what's going on or the pact of the pandemic if you don't have that data if you don't know what the person died from. How are you going to prevent it and prevent more from dying from it? These factors lack of trust underfunded public health infrastructure, racial classification all add up to a picture of the pandemic that isn't complete. For example, there's an alarming lack of covid hospitalizations data for native American or Alaskan native folks stuff like if somebody was admitted to the hospital, the ICU or even died compared to white people, CDC only has about a third of that information for Alaskan natives and native Americans and I think that's just again it just goes back to how well you know the state health department or even like the CDC or the public health experts they're not these tribal communities
Short Wave
What 'Arrival' Gets Right — and Wrong — About Linguistics
"Jessica con was a teenager when she first learned that linguistics is a thing. She stumbled upon story of Your Life, a science fiction novella by Ted Chiang. It's all about linguist- trying to figure out how to communicate with well aliens I. Think it was actually probably the first time I heard about the field of linguistics. And then I started college the year I saw an introduction to linguistics curson signed up for it. These days Jessica's field linguist at McGill University in particular I work on. Syntax. Basically the way words combine to make sentences in a few years ago. She got an email to be a consultant on a movie, a movie that was coincidentally based on the exact novella she read as a teenager. I'm not trying to draw any connections that aren't there, but you read about linguistics for the first time in a book that became a movie that you became the the person they consulted with. It's amazing right? It's pretty wild I mean when I first got the email that asks me to work on this film I was really ready to push spam because it sounded very strange and then at some point I saw the story of your life and I wait a minute I haven't thought about that in years and then I responded That Film Twenty Sixteen Sifi hit a rival. So real quick. In case you haven't seen it. Here's the gist. This is Davy arrived. All of a sudden twelve spaceships land all over earth trouble saying. And we don't know why they're not doing anything after landing there. Still no signs of first contact or just the sitting there are at least and so governments around the world are panicking trying to figure out why are these alien spaceship sitting here and different teams are going into try to understand why they're here what they want. And we are following one of these spaceships that I think is somewhere in Wyoming and the. Amy Adams who is a linguist? Production. And her job is to decipher the alien language and figuring out what they want. So today in the show another installment of the Shortwave Science Movie Club what the movie arrival got wrong about linguistics what it got. and. Whether or not Field Linguists Jessica coon has actually communicated with aliens. Honestly it's a tossup. I mattie Safai you're listening to shortwave NPR's Daily Science podcast. So Jessica you were the linguist who consulted on the movie arrival. So give me a big picture sense of what that means like. What did they actually have you do? Yeah. So the first thing I did was I got to read drafts of the screenplay which was really fun because it's a very common thing to do and academia we read things and we give feedback on them but usually not this fund of a scale committee meeting ever exactly yeah. It was very funds so I got to read the screenplay and they especially wanted. Feedback on how linguistics and linguists were represented in the film. So there were lots of places where I gave feedback and they incorporated it into the film. There were other places where they would say, okay just, Kinda yes. Yes. Thanks for your help but really in the end linguists are not Hollywood's primary audience and we're not going to get everything right here and now linguists just get to join like all the other fields of people who get really annoyed when science misrepresented onscreen. So welcome to the club. Sorry, we're not GONNA change that. The movie makers also put Jessica through some exercises, basically giving her a whiteboard and asking her would you do if aliens showed up and those exercises actually informed one of the most famous scenes in the movie when the main character we spanks played by Amy Adams. Schools the guy in charge of the mission about the fundamentals of linguistics. He asks her for a list of vocab words. Essentially, the keywords she was planning on teaching the aliens, that day. Cavaliers responding. Lock. help you understand. So Amy. Adams walks over to the whiteboard and scribbles what is your purpose on earth? This is where you want to get to. The question. Okay. So first, we need to make sure that they understand what a questions. The nature of A. Request for information along with the response then. We need to clarify the difference between a specific you. And a collective you because we don't want to know why Joe Alien is here we want to know why they all landed. In purpose requires an understanding of intent we need to find out. Do they make conscious choices or is their motivation? So instinctive that they don't understand a why question at all and and biggest of all, we need to have enough vocabulary with them that we understand their answer. I love that scene Yes that is one of the great triumphs of of linguistics in the film. I mean this was. So this was one of the most interesting parts of the movie for me because I'm you know this idea of building a base for understanding of a new language is like really interesting and and like the first steps in trying to communicate, which is you know like your thing right? So but it's something that I think we. Just, don't think about into see it in kind of in practice was so fascinating and I'm glad to hear it was like pretty well done your eyes question Mark Yeah I. Think I. Think it was really well done. I. Mean I think one thing that is really neat about this movie and what makes it such? You know interesting and intellectual Sifi is. They're not just typical humanoid creatures. We don't already have some kind of magical universal translator in place, and so we have to figure out how how do they even communicate and will we be able to communicate with them given how advanced they are that they've made these spaceships have arrived on earth I, think it's safe to assume that they have some advanced form of. Communication and that that form of communication should have patterns in it that we could eventually decipher. But thinking about you know, is it audible or is it written or could creatures communicate with smells or we just have no idea what could be out there if it's audible is in a sound frequency that human
Short Wave
How Gene Therapy Helped Conner Run
"Mattie. SAFAI NPR science correspondent. John Hamilton Hi John Hi Mary so John, where would you like to begin I? Think we should start with the scientist. Okay. Let's do it. Okay. So obviously many many scientists have worked to understand this disorder. But today we're gonNA focus on Jude Samal ski back in Nineteen eighty-four and I'll ski was still a graduate student at the University of Florida and he was part of this team that cloned a virus called A V. and those are group of viruses that can infect people but they don't cause diseases. Yeah. I remember I learning about this in Grad School John that discovery was a big deal because basically we can turn these viruses in tools and and that's because viruses on their own are pros at getting into ourselves and getting up close and personal with our DNA, which is exactly where you need to get to treat a lot of genetic disorders at. Their source exactly, and he was one of the scientists who figure that out. So as you these viruses have just revolutionized gene therapy right and after some Oh ski and his team Clone Davie, they wanted to try to use the virus to treat descend muscular dystrophy. That's the genetic disorder you were talking about earlier. Got It. So a lot of these therapies work by kind of targeting gene or genes that are the root of a disorder. So what's The deal with to Sheng muscular dystrophy John Kids who have Sharon. Lack a functional version of gene called D. M. D., and this gene makes a protein called destroyed often that helps muscles stay healthy. Got It. Okay. The idea is if the problem is that someone lack a working gene, you could just give them a working copy of that gene and what's the most wanted to do was packed some of the genetic code from a disrobing gene inside. Right and then once the virus got into the body, it would infect muscle cells, and then that faulty code is replaced with a functional version. Right? smokey says a Aviv, this harmless virus would work. Station service it's a molecular Fedex truck. Carries a genetic payload and it's delivering to its target right but it turns out bring a gene is a little bit harder. Then delivering a package and destroyed gene is especially challenging. One reason is it's is the a the virus are Fedex truck is incredibly tiny even among viruses. It's so small. You need an electron microscope just to see it, and then you have the destroyed gene, which is huge. It's the largest known human gene it contains about five. Hundred Times more genetic code than a so fitting that specific gene into that specific virus would be like trying to get a football stadium into a fedex truck something like that. Yeah, and most he has some other challenges to One is that do sheng affects billions of muscle cells all over the body. So this a delivery truck would have to be programmed to find all of these cells recognize them, and then infect them with this new genetic code. Yeah and some spent fifteen years tackling these challenges he was going along you is making progress he said, but it was coming one small step at a time. This is very challenging. It was mount ever said the gene therapy community in each one of these steps was setting up base camp, but then in nineteen, ninety, nine so mulcahy's work for that matter all gene therapy research pretty much came to a stop. The reason was that a teenager named Jesse. Gelsinger had died in the gene therapy experiment, right? I. Mean I. Remember Learning about that in graduate school in genetics. It was horrible. It was really sad the experiment he was part of had nothing to do with muscular dystrophy or the virus nothing to do with some all skis work, but it didn't matter right gene therapy trials were postponed or abandoned investors disappeared and so did research funding it stopped everything everyone got supercautious everyone except the muscular dystrophy association. The Jerry Lewis Telethon people they continue to push for the advancement of gene
Short Wave
Fat Phobia and It's Racist Past and Present
"As a teen Sabrina strings loved getting to hang out with her grandma even when her grandma was obsessing over one of her soap operas I remember one time. She called me into the living room and she's like Sabrina look at Victoria. McCoy's kept on young and the restless. Victoria is killing herself to him. Why are white women dying to be thin? Fast forward to one three adult Sabrina was working at an HIV medication adherence clinic in San, Francisco, where she witnessed real life, examples of women sacrificing their health to be thin nights, spoken to a couple of women both HIV positive who refused to take their HIV medications for fear of gaining weight, and that blew my mind, and immediately took me back to conversations I've been having with my grandma like gosh onto something so important you know when she was talking about it, she saw it as largely a white phenomenon, but the women I interviewed that day. We're both color. Why were these women dying to be thin and did race have anything to do with? Him. Sabrina went on to become a sociologist at the University of California Irvine and wrote a whole book investigating these questions. If you're like me, you might have assumed that. There was some moment in between Marilyn Monroe. TWIGGY EH in which. Suddenly we'll. We suddenly became fat-phobic in those three years, but Sabrina started digging looking at nineteenth century magazines like Harper's bazaar in what she found was troubling articles warning American women well middle class and upper class white women. They needed to watch what they eat, and they were unapologetic, and stating that this was the proper form for. Jackson Protestant women, and so it was important that women eight as little as necessary in order to show their Christian nature and also their racial superiority. Today on the show we go all the way back to the transatlantic slave trade to understand the racial origins of fat phobia, and how black people are still dealing with the consequences today? I mattie Safai and this is shortwave the daily science podcast from NPR. So Sabrina. Let's let's get into what you discovered about the history of fat phobia a little bit you. You did a ton of research and you started the story several centuries back in Europe definitely in the ethos that like Renaissance Women. you know we're full figured. And that was absolutely a thing that was valued, and then there was a big shift explain what was going on back then so it turns out that the growth of the slave trade, especially by the eighteenth century led to new articulations of what types of appearance we could expect of people by different races, and also what types of behaviors. Such that by the middle of Eighteenth Century, a lot of French philosophers in particular were arguing that you know what when we're in the colonies, we're noticing that Africans are sensuous. They love sex and they love food, and for this reason they tend to be too fat. Europeans have rational self control. This is what makes us the premier race of the world, so in terms of body. Body size, we should be slender, and we should watch what we eat so okay Sabrina. Are you telling me that? When the slave trade started and European saw that African women were essentially curvy much like European women at the time at that point, they decided that being fat being thicker wasn't ideal anymore, and they built a system of oppression around this idea of needing to be. Thinned to prove racial superiority is at eight am I close. It's not quite as intentional as that. Effectively what they determined was that. You know we want it to be able to have a mechanism for ensuring that we could recognize who was slave, and it was free right, and it was easy in the beginning of the was simply skin color. What did you might imagine? After two hundred years of living in close proximity skin color really no longer works has a mechanism right, because now we have all of these people who are We would consider them today to be by racial, and so what they did was they decided to articulate new aspects of racial identity and so eating and body size became of the characteristics that were being used to suggest that these are people who do not deserve freedom. The trans, Atlantic slave trade eventually ended, but argues that we are still absolutely living with these racist attitudes about body size today. And in her book, she also traces how these anti-fat attitudes worked their way into modern medicine for somewhat arbitrarily, reasons for example take BMI or body mass index. That equation actually wasn't intended to be used to measure individual fatness. Though of course doctors did and still do today, can you? Can you explain the problem with using am I as a measure for obesity especially when it comes to black women, who I know have been told that they have the highest rates of obesity according to that measurement to be am I. Yes, so am. I is a measure of the ratio of a person's weight to their height. And what this does not account for is bone density. Muscular already any other type of genetic influences in your way or cultural environmental influences in your weight, and so, what ended up happening? As many people pointed out is that you might have to people with the same BMI, but vastly different life experiences embody compositions outside of the simple reality of their weight to height ratio, right, and the problem of applying this to them in particular, is that African American populations as studies have shown for literal decades since at least the eighties tends to be healthier at heavier weights than white populations. And so that already is an indication that cross racially. This is not a very useful tool, not to mention the fact that even within race there are going to be vastly different experiences, of an individual body between like their weight and their health profile so surreal this message from the medical establishment that excess weight is the biggest you know reason for black women's health problems or a very central of it. Why do you see it as so damaging? For Black Women, ultimately, the main advice that people are given when they so called obese is to lose weight, and there are so many problems with this. We have been telling people to lose weight for decades. What ends up happening is that they either don't lose the weight or they sometimes do lose the weight, and then frequently gain it back so first off. It could be more harmful to tell people to lose weight in the long run, and then in addition to that there are the psychological effects of telling people that their bodies are wrong. Right at their bodies are inherently unhealthy This type of fat stigma also leads to health outcomes right right right, so let's talk about this. In the context of covid nineteen I'm thinking about the recent New York Times op Ed you wrote about how cove nineteen is disproportionately impacting. Impacting people of Color specifically black people, and how you took issue with obesity, gaining traction as a leading explanation for that disparity, so talked me a little bit about that. This piece was actually motivated by something that I felt was very troubling, which was I had been seeing so many report, suggesting that the disparities in Colbert outcomes between white populations and black populations. They would say things like well. You know there's already the pre existing factor of obesity, and somehow that was one of the first things that come up and I thought there is very little evidence that disparities in quote unquote obesity are what's contributing to these negative outcomes, but there's plenty of evidence to suggest that Kobe. Fatalities or maybe even serious complications with Kobe nineteen are being influenced by people's environments. Are they essential workers? Do they have access to enough soap and water hand sanitizer, and so of course might imagine that the ability to socially distance to shelter in place to have access to healthy foods under Corinthian, all of this is very much being structured by a person's social location and black people tend to live in communities without access. Access to a lot of different healthy and life giving resources. Yeah, in in Sabrina, I'll tell you that as a person that reads a lot of the literature on Kovin prisoner biologists I am seeing a lot of papers coming out that are associating with the obesity without with health outcomes of COVID, but those links tend to be correlated right, but even if we were to find out that there's absolutely a causal link. Link between covert and obesity which I think you're arguing. There isn't one especially right now. At least the rates of obesity and white and black populations aren't actually that different right like it wouldn't necessarily be the thing that made it. So can you tell me a little bit about those rates versus the actual percentage of disparities? We're seeing so according to the CDC, the Obesity Twain. African, American and white populations are. Are Forty two point, two percent for white populations and forty nine point, seven percents for black populations are about that and so we're looking at effectively a seven percentage point disparity between white and black populations in terms of rates of obesity, however, when we're looking at serious complications with covert nineteen. What we're seeing is that black people are dying at rates of two point four to seven times that of white populations. How that's seven percentage point differential is leading to two point four to seven times the disparity in serious complications. Death. No one's really being able to explain that. This is the problem with the kind of cords of studies, which is that they lead people to believe that somehow. Is One of the drivers when in fact it could simply be a confounding in these studies, but we're so used to studying obesity and treating these correlations as if they are evidence of causal link that people are frequently not being very critical when they're seeing studies that show these relationships. Sabrina, you've obviously spent years by now working to understand this issue and to educate folks about it I'm wondering you know like why why this. Why have you specifically taken this on one of the reasons? Why continue to do it? Is I've seen what a difference? It's made to people's lives. I mean I've had so many people reach out and tell me that they felt for the longest time like something was wrong, but no one was talking about it or that I have spoken to their personal experience. I couldn't have imagined when I started doing this work. That could have possibly had the impact that it's had you know I'm standing on the shoulders of giants people who have been feminist scholars medical scholars journalists who've been doing this work at least since the nineteen seventies, but we're at a moment right now where there's a critical mass of people who are aware that the discourse surrounding fatness that we've long accepted really is baseless, and we think about a new way of allowing people to have a positive relationship to their bodies, and to cultivate health within themselves and their communities that does not rely on that stigma. Okay Sabrina I appreciate you. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your life and your work with us. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Sabrina strings. Her book is called fearing the black body the racial origins
Short Wave
Why Do Flying Snakes Wiggle In The Air?
"Madison Safai with NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce. Hey, now. Hey, Mattie, so now you have. Both weird and amazing for us today which I feel like is Kinda right in your wheelhouse. Aright well I hope my repertoire is a little more expansive than either but I'll take weird and amazing Yeah, so you know how snakes kind of undulate or slither when there are moving around serpentine baby, let's go I like it, so this undulating is how they get around like on the ground or in trees. And in fact it turns out snakes that fly even do it when they're sailing in the air snakes on a plane. No, please sorry I just had to get one of it out. And now we can focus so okay. Okay? All right I'll give you I'll give you one. Yes, but we're not. We're not talking that kind of thing we're talking about. You. Know flying snakes like that live in south and Southeast Asia. You're aware of these snakes right? Yes, I am very aware, but I don't know necessarily that our listeners are so. Yes, there are real snakes that hand fly which I feel like for some people is the stuff of nightmares, but to me. It's just amazing now. I definitely have heard people say like. Do we really need to talk about flying snakes range. Twenty. Seven things gotten bad enough like can't. This is just like yeah, if you're not a snake person, this is a problem, but in the real world these snakes exists not to torment us, but to just live their lives. They cruise along the tree branches. You know up hunting things up in the trees, and sometimes to get down to the ground or another tree, these snakes actually launched themselves into the air, and they kind of glide down at an angle. The snake looks like swimming in the air. And when it's swimming. It's undulating. So that's Jake so high and he's a researcher at Virginia Tech and he's been studying these snakes for nearly twenty five years and one of the things he's been wondering about is like why snakes do these movements in the air. Why do they undulate and you know he thought? Maybe they're just doing it out of having. You know because like snakes when they propel themselves on the ground up a tree or in water. They do wiggle like this right, so it's not to think that when the snake jumps into. into the air, the snake goes. Hey, snake I under late. That's what I should be doing I'm just GonNa undulate snakes got undulate. Now. You know that's what they do. Yeah, they're in the air and they're out. What do I do? What do I do you know snake I snake. It seems plausible on the other hand. It's possible that these motions actually might have purpose like. Maybe they're doing something to help the snake. Why through the air
Squawk Pod
Pete Buttigieg and Joe Bidens's Economic Policy
"Presumptive, Democratic presidential nominee Joe. Biden rolling out his economic policy today. He's going to travel the Pennsylvania near his hometown. Scranton the agenda slogan is build back better. His campaign team says that Biden will prioritize small business workers and plans to focus on inequalities that prevent minorities from reaching a fair economic plainfield. We're going to hear a lot more about the plan from Biden campaign surrogate. Buddha judge is going to the squad team and just. To remember that the broadcast news. What is it? Bring back better, a lot of alliteration for remember that quote from broadcast I can't remember what it was, but Yeah, BRING BACK! A lot of bs there. Build back better is the name of the former vice president's economic recovery plan. That is the work of task force between Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders the key idea. Bring critical manufacturing back to the United States with incentives for companies and seven hundred billion dollars in earmarked funding for government contracts for American firms and Research and development. The campaign says this will create eight million new jobs if that sounds similar to president trump's platform, it is. Thank you very much. Thank you all for being here. A. Last year trump signed an executive order that would prioritize American manufacturers. In certain federal contracts, the Biden campaign says trump's efforts are working and contracts to foreign companies are up thirty percent. Vice President Biden has said he'd raised three point eight trillion dollars by increasing taxes on individuals, making more than four hundred thousand dollars a year and reverse in corporate tax cuts. Now this roll today will include a speech outside Biden's hometown Scranton Pennsylvania and. And his one time rivals from the Democratic primary race remember that it was just a few months ago are out in force today to support the former vice president and his plan one of them join us on Squawk box, Mayor Pete, the former mayor of South Bend Indiana Peop- Buddha Jr here's Joe I'm just going to call you. Mayor Pete I guess we all just feel comfortable feel comfortable. Everybody does around here countering next radio. I'm going to so we understand the primary process, and you understand it as well as anyone and we've seen it on both sides. Sometimes, there is a tendency to move towards the. Basis with some of the programs, and then when when it comes to governing, maybe you become more centrist and I'm just gonNa tell you. Here's the headline for this mirror. A Biden to map and economic path delaying progressives, biggest plans and I think Kayla alluded to it that he's going to call for a moderate approach towards reviving the US economy. Is that how you see it? And is that the right prescription to win, but I think there's a lot of boldness and the level vice president. Biden wants to invest in America I. think that's not only progressive already, but it's something that people across the out. We're going to I. Think it's in keeping with Joe Biden's instance to bring people together, but I think it's also in practical terms. What makes sense early on? We need to invest in our own competitiveness. In order to grow your own, and in order to compete with increasingly powerful economic competitors like China, we need to make less dependence on Safai chains for critical goods and infrastructure light. We're seeing right now with armed soon which she's on countries like truck and we need to make sure that American workers come I to me that nets bedrock through what democratic are spout, but I do agree with you that you don't have to Iraq Democrats to see why this is a good at. was so in the plans were pretty expensive as you know. And it was pre pandemic, and it was pre-, twenty, five trillion wherever we are right now, so this is cost a lot and inflicted a lot of economic damage and. Hopefully we're GONNA. Come out of this, but it might take years so. I mean. Is there something to that that it's not the we're not in the same position to be able to maybe be as as as free-spending with some of the democratic programs. Do you think do you agree with that and? We're GONNA need to to try to pay down some of this that with our taxes. No Democrats go is one of the first to talk about deficits and the debt, but the reality is. We can't afford not to make these vestments score. We will see economy stagnate, and since we're in a moment of distort low interest rates, and since these kinds of investments every time America's none have paid off investing our competitiveness in our infrastructure in our manufacturing base. Frankly they have much irate return than tax cuts, so as economic stimulus goes. I think this is the right way forward. Of course we got to be smart about the investments remain, and of course you can't get something for nothing. But, if you look at the overall picture, where are headed? We don't have a choice and we can handle these kinds of investments if we make before it's too late to a the I think that lowering corporate taxes helped. Corporations, become more competitive. Bring money back I think it. It was somewhat responsible for what we're pretty good. Economic Times before the pandemic and terms of historically low unemployment rates across the board. And some of the deregulation. The vice president is going to reverse the at least a portion of the corporate tax cuts. Do you not think that that that that plan helped the economy, do you? Do you disagree that lower corporate rates were were a boom for the US economy, and it won't matter to reverse them. John, I'm very skeptical that those rate cuts should get hosted at credit. And by the way those rate cuts rent led directly to exploding deficits, and as part of the reason, why oddly enough not to be too partisan about this, but across my lifetime one hundred percent of democratic precedents seem. Deficits go down one hundred percent. Presences seem deficits. Go Up, but you can't get something for nothing. And will we gotta decide is what's a responsible at tat hats not deliver the kind of investments that make an economy. and. This isn't something we have to just use our imagination for we look at the evidence and the evidence across Merton. History is the one we're making robust vassals with responsible, but not excessive taxation, the gross but I. We've talked about it earlier that right now with where American businesses and how important it is to get the unemployment rate back down. It seems like not the most ideal time to raise corporate taxes now. We're going to need to pay down a lot of what we've spent. A and maybe. Rick Razor on wealthy individuals, but that may not raise enough either. Are you for a blanket raised in the marginal rate into what level? or What. What would you advise? Vice President Biden to propose for a marginal rate across the board. Well. I would advise him to look at the evidence and find levels of taxation. They're consistent with growth as they have been historically now, of course, in American history, the economy's growing much quicker under much higher marginal tax rates but I don't think we have to go back to what it was like in the in the sixties or seventies. Again. Period of in many of those faces product to depress looked online. Is You've got to pay for what you and we should be able to strike a balance in the United States, but what we can't do is continue with these deficit. Exploding tax cuts that we were told would pay for themselves. You can check. They did and now. That was before we got the situation. We are now the debts. It's why we need to make sure. We're looking at the investment side as well as the cost side what I really appreciate about the plan. That's vice-presidents laying out. Is it does? Mayor Pete just wanted to. We wrestle with this issue of taxes. All the time said it's one of the press. Two questions related to one is just simply the timing of a tax increase, and it's the question. We asked the vice president when he joined us now more than a couple of weeks back, and he said he would do it immediately. Even amidst this and the question I say is to the to the extent. There are small business owners out there right now. That are clearly struggling and trying to get up on their feet. Seeing a tax increase right in front of them. Just make the case if if that's the case you WANNA, make in terms of the timing. Of course there's going to be a look at conditions on the ground and a glass. Four months has shown us in really blunt terms. How quickly things can change and I know that a new administration will make sure that every step that takes this is consistent with what the right thing is to do based on what we see around us, but we also know is that small business will benefit from the kinds of investments that president housing. And that this country will be more competitive one and were not successful. When we're investing the foundations, no country can't get away with disinvesting in education in infrastructure and research the way we have, and for a very long and the longer you go disinvesting and all that. The the sooner it's GonNa catch to you for small and big business away, and you know we already reached a point. Where even when there were low unemployment rates, the American standard of living was not secure life expectancy down. It raises questions about how our economy has been lined up. This is a historic opportunity to make sure that it's working for more Americans and made just GonNa fall with with the other big debate around this table a lot. is about wealth, the the wealthy and philanthropy yesterday? Warren Buffett gave away two point nine billion dollars and. which is a great thing and philanthropy, and by the way has helped even during this pandemic in a meaningful way, but oftentimes those shares are never taxed as we all know, and so the government will never be a beneficiary and other taxpayers won't be a beneficiary of those successes. Do you think philanthropy should be taxed in any way well, it would make more sense for that to happen on the front end. Look, it's it's wonderful one. There are these major commitments such generousness by. Individuals, but we've also got to ask how things got so unequal in the first place, because if a little bit more that was making its way into a democratically guided process in other words, the kinds of Research and development that invent trillion dollar ideas like the Internet itself and Space Travel. Are we know our country is better off, and we gotta ask where the balances I would argue. Look thing about this. In the United States right now there is not one county, not one. Where a fulltime minimum wage were can't afford a two bedroom apartment time. There's somebody works for a living in a job fulltime. Can't afford to bed in the part. I would argue that if that were the case. If we had higher wages and more public investment, we wouldn't need to knots landing quite as much as we did. Mayor Pete the one thing that President Biden's plan has in common with President Trump says that it it really leans intimate in America and not just from a position rhetoric there looks like there are going to be real incentives real penalties to companies if they're not making things in America. Do you think globalization is dead? I don't think we have to choose between closing ourselves off investing in our own country on the contrary I think global. Market, we are more competitive when we are starting right here at home made in America is really news and the vice president's fine America initiatives. Really good news for us here. The so called belt where we know that we are Cape. Producing some the finest goods in the world, but there are so many loopholes or waivers in the system and. I think you all report it. You know. Australia's actually gone up an awful lot under this administration so I don't do this since. The president. Fighting. I view it as an opportunity for us to make sure that taxpayer dollars benefit American firms and workers first,
Short Wave
The Congolese Doctor Who Discovered Ebola
"At the beginning of an epidemic, it's essential to discover the source of the disease. For scientists who do that work, it's extremely challenging and without risk to their own health. But the scientists who played an essential role in discovering bulla way back in nineteen, seventy six doesn't always get the credit he deserves in today's episode. We explore the history of a bowl and the consequences of scientific exploitation. It's part of our week of episodes here on the show celebrating and recognizing the contributions of black scientists enjoy. You're listening to shortwave. From NPR. Safai here with none other than NPR East Africa correspondent Ater, Peralta Hey there ater. Hey, Mattie, thank you so much for talking to us all the way from Kenya. I know there's like an eight hour time difference. I am thrilled. But I want to open with a quick question. Who discovered Ebola and do not Google it. First of all. How dare you asked me a question? I should definitely know the answer to, and don't and yeah I already, Google Bet. Came up was. A Belgian microbiologist, but I think you're about to tell me. There's more to this there. Absolutely, there always is right so. Cheated. What you probably saw is a bunch of white westerners like. Dr John Jack. Yembeh does not yeah. He was not one of the people that came up. Yes, so, he's Congolese doctor and today he's doing really important work heading up the response to the current Ebola outbreak in Congo, but back in nineteen, seventy six, we embed. First doctor to. COLLECT ANY BOLA sample. His crucial role in discovering Bolla is often just a footnote, a lot of the history of people. Has Been Written? Without your name. Yes but. You know this Yes it. Did Not quite. Today on the show correcting the record on a Bola, the story of Dr, John Jack Mugabe and what he's doing now to ensure African scientists are part of writing it's. To some in the medical community, it's a controversial move. Okay Ater, so we're talking about a Congolese Dr John, Shaq. And his role in discovering a bola. When do we begin? So when I sat down with him at his office in Kinshasa. He said we should start in. Hundred seventy three. We had just gotten his PhD microbiology at the Riga Institute in Belgium, and he could have stayed in Europe, but he decided to come back to Congo, but when I arrive via. The condition of work were not I had no lab have no. Mice for experimentation, so it was very difficult to work here. Yeah, it's tough to do lab work without a lab, you know. Without a library to instead he took a job as a field epidemiologist and just a couple of years later in Nineteen seventy-six. was sent from Kinshasa the capital of Congo to the village of Yambuku to investigate a mysterious outbreak. it's the first recorded outbreak of Ebola, but no one knew that at the time they thought maybe it was typhoid or yellow fever, and he goes to this local hospital, and he says he finds it completely empty. Why was nobody there? Local residents thought the hospital was the source of the infection and people had died there. But in the morning when they heard Giambi was sent from the capital, the thought he had medicine till they started to come back to the hospital, and we started seeing patients. So so, what's he seeing? When the patients come in, he was seeing. People who were very weak fever? They had headaches I started to to make the physical time. But at that time will have no gloves. And, of course he had to draw blood, but when I removed. They're the sit inch. Both continue to spread out. What I am to see these phenomenal. And also my fingers or with a bow. Wow. Yeah, so he says he he would wash his hands a lot, but really he says it was just luck that he didn't catchable. Yeah, definitely I mean. That's amazing that he's in there and there's no gloves and there's patients and they don't really know what's going on, and he was able to not get it in at this point. We MP he was startled. But then three nurses died that night and a Belgian nun who was working in the village, also got sick with fever. All the nuns had been vaccinated against typhoid and yellow fever. So at this point me MBA was like. Oh, it's probably not those things. Yeah! I mean in the severity to the deaths with this outbreak. He started to realize that this was something different, so he. He convinced one none took back to Kinshasa with him. So what happens next? She died at a hospital a couple of days later, but he took blood samples, and he sent them to Belgium for testing and the guy on the other end that was Peter Piot. Who at the time was with the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Belgium, the guy who turned up from Google search. Yeah. That's right, and so he and other scientists start working to identify the culprit. The CDC in the US gets involved and the realize. This is a new virus that caused hemorragic. Call it Ebola. They name it after a river by the village where it was discovered. So, what you saw out in the field, the blood samples guide all of this plays a crucial role in the history of right. It was huge, but it's PR who gets the bulk of the credit for discovering all up and you can tell this bothers John Jock membe. If you don't recognize the work done in the field, I, it is not correct. it is a team. You know it is a team. Pr Actually wrote a memoir no time to lose and he does mention. But just in passing as a bright scientist, whose constantly pestering him for more resources. Has talked about this well. Peter Pyatt, facetime video, so I got on the phone. He's now the director of the prestigious London, School of Hygiene and tropical medicine and I asked him if he felt at all responsible for writing. Out of his history of Ebola I think that's a comment, but my book less not an attempt to write than that's history of Boll and sold more. My personal experience is more biographies that sense. Was this kind of like an awkward conversation to have ater. Yeah I mean especially because he's Belgian and Belgium was the colonial power in Congo. Ultimately, he looks at it with a little bit of distant. That at the time African scientists they were simply excluded and white scientists parachuted in they took samples, wrote papers that were published in the West and they took all the credit he so he actually said he did. In that actually surprised me and I think. Part of the reason. I feel that he so comfortable. Talking about this is because he's in an academic setting. I think in universities across the world. Students are talking about privilege, so he seems like he is very comfortable having this conversation right now. I mean there's there's something very weird kind of about that coming from him right as a person who has admitted to taking part in exploitative science, absolutely and one of the good things is that he says that things are changing. We mbappe for example has received several international awards just recently for pioneering. The first effective treatment for Ebola reflects our stinky you. Say the politicians in global health in science, General. So okay. I want to ask you about the treatment in a minute, but to put it very bluntly. Have there actually been any concrete steps to try to change this power dynamic in the global health field? Because this is certainly not one of you know two stories. This is one of many many stories. There is I mean look. NBA has made a decision that many thought unthinkable leaving just a few years ago, he decided that all of the blood samples collected during this most recent Ebola. Epidemic will stay in Congo, so if anyone wants to study this outbreak, they will have to come to his institute. I bet that has ruffled some feathers though. I have I've heard from some American scientists. Who have privately expressed frustrations in the are really the ones who have led the way in studying Ebola, but peanut understands that decision when you think about how African scientists have been historically treated, and he says that Western scientists should just get over it. We have to wake up key things one. The world is changing too much endless Nah it's so weird to hear him say a matter of fairness, ater matter of fairness. Okay, so before we move on, tell me about the treatment that Mugabe worked on. So this is the thing that makes him smile right. We embiid calls it the most important achievement of his life, and it goes back to one thousand, nine, hundred, five during another equal outbreak in Congo. Eighty one percent of people infected with Ebola in this village were dying, and he wondered if antibodies developed bipolar survivors could be siphoned from their blood and used to treat new cases, so he gave sick patients transfusions of blood from a bowl of survivors. Too He injected Ebola patients with the blood of survivors. It vision. And seven survive, he says the medical establishment brought him off because he didn't have a control group. That's what they told him. But if this idea was accepted by scientists. We see a lot of life. Okay I mean to be fair. That is a really small group with no control among some other stuff. But on the other hand, it doesn't mean that he was wrong. You know that it should be totally dismissed, and maybe if more scientists looked into, it collaborated with him, maybe tried to replicate that data in some way, they could have learned something with him right because we now know that he was in fact correct about the antibodies. Yeah, I mean that's right in the context is important because I think what really eat set him. Is that maybe lots and lots of people could have been saved during the West. West Africa outbreak, which happened from two thousand, thirteen to two, thousand sixteen, and look just this year that science became the foundation of what is now proven to be the first effective treatment against the Bulla that is saving seventy percent of the people who are treated with amazing. Is He getting credit for that? At this point, he is yeah, absolutely okay, so how does look back on all of this week? What's what's his view on this is so he's he seventy seven, so he's obviously thinking about his legacy. One of the things that he told me is that he's always dreamed that big science could come out of Congo, and partly because of him, that's more likely happen. He got a commitment from Japan to build a state of the art research facility in Kinshasa and in the lab, just a few feet from his office where we talked US scientists were using advanced machines to sequence DNA of the Bulla samples that have to stay here in Congo Okay so moon bay, doctor and scientists who started in the Congo with no lab has a lab and is soon getting an even better one to do his work. Yeah, exactly, yeah, now I have my share. In. So I have my I have. A good subculture will bring joy. But he also has vice rate with micro biologist without Nice, I, asked myself that every day. And, so you know what he says, his biggest legacy won't be that. He helped to discovery or cure for it. It'll be if another young Congolese. Scientist finds himself with an interesting blood sample. He'll be able to investigate it
Short Wave
How to Correct Misinformation, According to Science.
"Maddie Safai here today with your way. Shah a reporter from invisibility. Npr's sister pod about human behavior Heo way. Hey mattie what do you got okay so you know how wanted the big problems right now? Seems to be like all the misinformation flying around some public health officials are calling an info dimmer journalists find themselves debunking wild claim of false tweets. Right and it's like especially tricky right now because there's so much we don't know yet yet. Which makes it easier for misinformation to flourish. Unfortunately and I've been thinking about one particular drama and all this like what do you do when it's somebody you love. Who's spreading the misinformation? Right Right which is why I was so excited to come across this guy. In London named Kush not cut and his misinformation problem. It starts back in March in the form of a WHATSAPP message from his dad. Who Lives back in Kenya? Natural Remedy for coronavirus like boiling lemons and orange and black pepper. For some reason. It was just really odd and cush. He just ignores the message. Brushes it off but a few days later. His Dad sends another message about a false coronavirus remedy. In this time Kush decides to say something on the phone when they're catching up like this is nonsense at nyu saying this crap. Okay fine. I'll stop. That was easy. Well not so fast because a few days later the very same cycle happens again. Can you just stop forty me this crap? You'd be like Yep I just thought you'd find it interesting over and over. Rinse and repeat dot. There's no source. I us any three. This know he's come on Dodd. Seriously okay cool.
Short Wave
Science Movie Club: 'Contact'
"Summer. I just re watched contact last night and I feel like it held up. You know I feel like I was still really happy. With what is your. What are your thoughts? I was very pleased. Yeah and I feel like I need to watch it more. Regularly summer ash knows a thing or two about making contact if you will with space. She's a real life radio astronomer. Who Works at the. Va a telescope facility. In New Mexico. Be L. A. Stands for very large array basically a group of radio antennas working together to Observe Space. And it just happens to be where lots of the movie takes place so it is very large. That does not align the telescope itself is made up of twenty seven separate dishes there each roughly one hundred feet tall and eighty feet in diameter weigh two hundred thirty tonnes and they all act as one. So they're all pointing at the same thing and they are just a super powerful instrument could call it the most scientifically productive ground based telescope in the world. So it's pretty awesome as where your it's pretty frequent. Contact isn't just about the search for extraterrestrial life. It also touches on stuff like academic culture and scientific funding all stuff worth digging into so stick around. I'm Mattie Safai. And this is shortwave. The daily science podcast from NPR.
Short Wave
Exploring The Canopy With 'TreeTop Barbie'
"Hey everybody matty Safai. Here was shortwave reporter. Emily Kwong today. We thought you might appreciate a little joy in your life especially now that's right here on short wave we want to bring you up. Does it explain what's happening with the corona virus but also episodes that feature other interesting science like this one from the very first week of shortwave. It's probably one of my favorites. Oh yeah mine too. It's got rain. Forests SLINGSHOTS A DECADE-LONG CONFLICT WITH BIG Barbie bad gets rope burn. Let's not love the rope? Burn Kwong it's clearly the roburt. These are the sacrifices you make manny right onto the show enjoy. You're listening to shortwave from. Npr One day this past summer I got to visit a rainforest. Okay that's licorice fern. That is the scientific name. Is Paula podium vulgarity? Ecologist NENAD CARNEY. This is called sledge. This is called Club Moss. It's actually very primitive Plant leaning has been studying in exploring ecosystems like this for thirty five years. Okay so that is called Bikram. That's another species of Moss. I like to call it pledging moss. Just because it's so soft and so please so much like a little pillow. Here's Flynn's this is recommend trim. There's like three four different species of MOSS RIGHT THERE. Couple other things about this rainforest. You're probably thinking rainforests so tropics now. We were in the Pacific Northwest Olympic National Forest in Washington state and it's called a temperate rainforest A. Rainforest because we get it's characterized by having a lot of rainfall there about one hundred twenty inches a brain a year. The other thing about this trip to the forest. Is that all these plants so see how soft these mosses are yes. Don't you just WanNa sleep on them? Yeah all of new weenies. Decades-long work. Okay I'M GONNA come up side by side with you. All of it is about wow sixty feet off the ground for many. This is awesome awesome. This is called the canopy pretty much everything above the forest floor all the way up to the tops of the trees. Come up with me now. Little Rope canopy. Here is a dizzying thicket of bright green leaves and Mosses and ferns all bathed in sunlight. And we knew very little about it because the canopy is literally called the last biotic frontier. It's been so poorly studied. It really aren't very many people who studied the canopy. Feel like when you say. The last biotic frontier should look off into the distance. Ready to the last biotic frontier so today on the show pioneering scientists Malini non Carney on the canopy plus a little later on in the episode weenies decades. Long fight to get more women into science. And how she found unlikely ally in Barbie. Yeah I thought it was weird too. It's not that we're the sticker up and you're listening to shortwave from NPR. Alright so let's back up down back on the ground in Olympic national forest. Malini told me that in the grand scheme of things canopy sciences. Actually PRETTY NEW. People have been studying forest for centuries but it's only been in the last twenty twenty five thirty years that people have actually climbed up into the forest canopy to understand the environment up in the tree tops. One of the hurdles for scientists was literally just figuring out how to get up to the tops of the trees so noelene a few friends figured out a way to adapt some mountain climbing techniques to get up into the canopy and that means shooting ropes into the trees. So I invented this thing called the master caster which is metal rod and we welded it so it has this little hole here for the line. Basically this master caster thing is part fishing. Rod Part slingshot. This looks like a garage sale. A fourteen year old boy's dream could both and and so with a fishing weight loaded into the slingshot. So I'm thinking right up there. Malini cast masterfully. You we set the ropes now on your weight on this got harnessed in step down and then started the long hard process of inching up the road. You're going to go into a crouch and lift your legs up. That's kind of like a caterpillar and then San exactly you. Well you know. I've got to kind of over. The course of her career researching canopies in the Pacific northwest as well as in the forest of Costa Rica. Malini has documented all kinds of things about the canopy sixty feet up this giant maple tree. She shows me one of the cooler ones. Just looking at the underside of these mosses like. There's this canopy soil Allowing Dig Samat over here. Malini peels back a thick fistful of Moss from the branch on the tree. Instead of bark we're looking at tightly packed bed of Brown dirt. I mean that has actual soil that is basically composed of the dead and decomposing. Moss's that live up here and there are like earthworms that live up. Here are a big round up exactly. It's called into canopy soil. Wow look at that. And it's a weird you know you hear smelling the soil smell. But you're you know you're up sixty feet above the forest floor. So it's it's this sort of whole world that the canopy creates they're living plants or mosses there ferns their soil and it's all kind of invertebrates that live here birds that forage for these invertebrates that live in the canopy soil. So it's like this microcosm this mini co system. That's going on kind of independent of the forest floor. But at the same time interacting the forest as a whole of course today canopies all over the world face threats from climate change from logging fire deforestation and a lot of work. Now is about trying to figure out what would happen. If we lost such a complex interconnected ecosystem. I think it's important for canopies to be as intact as possible. Because they do foster so much diversity that you can get seventy species of mosses on a single tree and each of those mosses sort of living life with its insects and invertebrates and supporting birds. And so it's just part of this sort of whole cycle of what makes a primary important. Here's another thing leany discovered when she was first getting started in canopy research. There were very few women. Scientists doing this kind of work and so she set out to change that this was. This was just a fabulous day. That happened in my lab forest. Canopy lab undergraduates worked there. My graduate students would work me and we were just kicking around by these. Look how could we make the forest canopy more meaningful to mattress other scientists but to regular people like how about young girls? They need encouragement. And somebody said. Well what about Barbie aright pause Barbie time because she was busy enough helping to basically create an entirely new field of scientific study in the early two? Thousands deleted decided. You know in her free time she would try to create market and get into the hands of little girls and boys everywhere treetop Barbie. What took iconic doll which is so symbolic of what young girls aspired to. What if we just put this shell around her? Which is a canopy biologist? So called Mattel the company that owns Barbie and then when I propose this idea they said no no no. We're not interested that has no meaning to us We make our own barbies. You know you can't do this. Forget it forget it. So that's when we said well. Why don't we just do it ourselves? And if Mattel's not going to take a couple of trips to goodwill later to get some recycled barbies with the Angela's making our top barbies. And I started bringing campy Barbie along with me and you know talking to my fellow scientists and saying look guys we not only have to do our good science we need to start encouraging people from outside science and and this is one way that we might do it trees are wonderful arenas for discovery this is Malini is two thousand nine tedtalk which by the way is a hugely nerve wracking thing for scientists. And you're hooked up to this hands-free Britney Spears Mike to give a talk. That will basically be your top. Google hit for life to stand on stage. Showing off a little plastic treetop Barbie. Should I really be spending time with this? Are PEOPLE GOING TO THINK? It's weird that me as a scientist and me as a woman scientist is a brown woman. Scientist is spending her time doing this. they're sort of risk. That goes along with that but I felt that the potential good that could come out of it of providing a real role model for a little girl. Who doesn't even know that that the canopy exists to study. You know like when I was a kid and so if that can happen then I think it's worth the risk what we do my students in my lab and is we buy barbies from goodwill and value village. We dress her enclosed that have been made by seamstresses and we send her out with a canopy handbook. And my feeling is thank you that we've taken this pop icon and we have just tweaked her a little bit to become ambassador who can carry the message that being a woman scientist studying treetops is actually a really great
Short Wave
Service Animals In The Lab: Who Decides?
"If you're a scientist say a biologist or a chemist and you have to work in a lab. You're super familiar with the term p. p. e. personal protective equipment which is P P is outer garments goggles brutes and gloves. That's Joey Ramp. She works at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science Technology at the University of Illinois at her Bana on a champagne. And Yeah basically anybody who sets foot in a lab needs some form of even if you have four feet beat see. Joey has a service dog. Can you hear how little like Greg Sampson okay. He was getting up all right. Here we go Samson. A golden retriever is trained not to bark and he's a very good boy when he's in the lab With Joey he wears goggles worn military. Canine and buy police canine and law enforcement. He wears rubber boots on each paw and he also wears a lab coat underneath his harness and that keeps them safe. Samson intern keeps joey safe in the lab and out hoped years ago. Joey suffered traumatic brain injury. She also has. PTSD Samson senses when she's in a stressful situation that could trigger her PTSD. He picks things up. Because you can't over that well and he helps her balance embrace when she's moving around. It's it's a cliche to say that the dog saved my life but A service does that every single day but there was a time when Joey was told that she couldn't have her dog with her at least not if she also wanted to be in the warm they immediately said. Oh my gosh. You can't possibly bring a service dog into this environment. It's too dangerous so sadly there are a lot of science science faculty that are reluctant to allow anyone with a disability into stem or science and When you have a service dog UGH That that makes it an even bigger problem from the moment you walk in. You have a service dog. It's very visible. It's very different. And they have the power to say. No this episode. Why Joey is trying to change that? And why it's not just an uphill battle for her before a stem workforce force striving to be more inclusive I mattie Safai and this is shortwave the daily science podcast from NPR