Host Sarah Crespi talks with undergraduate student Micheal Munson from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, about a smartphone app that scans photos in the phone’s library for eye disease in kids.  And Sarah talks with Todd Roberts of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, about incepting memories into zebra finches to study how they learn their songs. Using a technique called optogenetics—in which specific neurons can be controlled by pulses of light—the researchers introduced false song memories by turning on neurons in different patterns, with longer or shorter note durations than typical zebra finch songs. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Ads on this week’s show: MOVA Globes; KiwiCo.com Download a transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast  

Earthworms are easy … to find. But despite their prevalence and importance to ecosystems around the world, there hasn’t been a comprehensive survey of earthworm diversity or population size. This week in Science, Helen Philips, a postdoctoral fellow at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and the Institute of Biology at Leipzig University, and colleagues published the results of their worldwide earthworm study, composed of data sets from many worm researchers around the globe. Host Sarah Crespi gets the lowdown from Philips on earthworm myths, collaborating with worm researchers, and links between worm populations and climate. Read a related commentary here.  Sarah also talks with Ziad Obermeyer, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, about dissecting out bias in an algorithm used by health care systems in the United States to recommend patients for additional health services. With unusual access to a proprietary algorithm, inputs, and outputs, Obermeyer and his colleagues found that the low amount of health care dollars spent on black patients in the past caused the algorithm to underestimate their risk for poor health in the future. Obermeyer and Sarah discuss how this happened and remedies that are already in progress. Read a related commentary here.  Finally, in the monthly books segment, books host Kiki Sanford interviews author Alice Gorman about her book Dr. Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the Future. Listen to more book segments on the Science books blog: Books, et al. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Ads on this week’s show: The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quanmen; MEL Science Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Public domain; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

As part of a special issue on chemicals for tomorrow’s Earth, we’ve got two green chemistry stories. First, host Sarah Crespi talks with contributing correspondent Warren Cornwell about how a company came up with a replacement for the popular can lining material bisphenol A and then recruited knowledgeable critics to test its safety. Sarah is also joined by Beate Escher of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the University of Tübingen to discuss ways to trace complex mixtures of humanmade chemicals in the environment. They talk about how new technologies can help detect these mixtures, understand their toxicity, and eventually connect their effects on the environment, wildlife, and people. Read more in the special issue on chemicals for tomorrow’s Earth. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF)

This week on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a turning point for one ancient Mesoamerican city: Tikal. On 16 January 378 C.E., the Maya city lost its leader and the replacement may have been a stranger. We know from writings that the new leader wore the garb of another culture—the Teotihuacan—who lived in a giant city 1000 kilometers away. But was this new ruler of a Maya city really from a separate culture? New techniques being used at the Tikal and Teotihuacan sites have revealed conflicting evidence as to whether Teotihuacan really held sway over a much larger region than previously estimated. Sarah also talks with Rashid Sumaila, professor and Canada research chair in interdisciplinary ocean and fisheries economics at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. You may have heard of illegal fishing being bad for the environment or bad for maintaining fisheries—but as Sumaila and colleagues report this week in Science Advances, the illegal fishing trade is also incredibly costly—with gross revenues of between $8.9 billion and $17.2 billion each year. In the books segment this month, Kiki Sanford interviews Gaia Vince about her new book Transcendence How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF).

On this week’s show, freelance writer Christa Lesté-Lasserre talks with host Sarah Crespi about the scientists working on the restoration of Notre Dame, from testing the changing weight of wet limestone, to how to remove lead contamination from four-story stained glass windows. As the emergency phase of work winds down, scientists are also starting to use the lull in tourist activity to investigate the mysteries of the cathedral’s construction. Also this week, Felipe Quiroz, an assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, talks with Sarah about his paper on the cellular mechanism of liquid-liquid phase separation in the formation of the tough outer layer of the skin. Liquid-liquid phase separation is when two liquids “demix,” or separate, like oil and water. In cells, this process created membraneless organelles that are just now starting to be understood. In this work, Quiroz and colleagues create a sensor for phase separation in the cell that works in living tissue, and show how phase separation is tied to the formation of the outer layers of skin in mice. Read the related Insight. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF). [Image: r. nial bradshaw/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

On this week’s show, Staff Writer Robert Service talks with host Sarah Crespi about a new National Academy of Sciences report that suggests the novel coronavirus can go airborne, the evidence for this idea, and what this means for the mask-wearing debate. See all of our News coverage of the pandemic here. See all of our Research and Editorials here. Also this week, Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins Sarah to talk about a burgeoning understanding of the biological roots of anorexia nervosa—an eating disorder that affects about 1% of people in the United States. From genetic links to brain scans, scientists are finding a lot more biology behind what was once thought of as a culturally driven disorder. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF).

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is currently spending time with his family at home due to lockdown imposed to curb the spread of Coronavirus. He has been updating his fans about how he is spending his quarantine period.

South superstar Vijay Deverakonda, who set the screens on fire with his performance in ‘Arjun Reddy’, is celebrating his 31st birthday today. Post the success of his film, he became a known name all over. After a lot of speculations of him making Bollywood debut, he has finally signed a film opposite Ananya Panday which is directed by Puri Jagannadh.

Book review of PHARMA: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America

Most acquisitions fail because of a cultural clash. But Conzerv Systems and Schneider Electric managed this thorny issue successfully.

Ranbir Kapoor and his father -- the late Rishi Kapoor -- shared a turbulent relationship.

Official figures say 1.8 lakh workers have returned home to Bihar. Unofficially, however, that figure is said to have crossed 3 lakhs.

Please join us for our April topical webinar:

Caught in the Web? Online Tools for Business Research

With so many options available, identifying the best ways to meet your research needs online can be a challenge. Please join our business librarians for an overview of freely available tools for business research, for beginning and intermediate-level users. Topics discussed will include: types of business information, effective use of online search engines, the importance of the deep web, identifying reliable sources of business information, and more. By the end of this program participants will be able to successfully search a research topic online, navigate selected Internet sources, and discover resources and services offered through the Library of Congress Business Reference Section.

Date: Wednesday, April 3
Time: 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm EDT
Registration: Please register via Eventbrite

How to Attend:

Web discussions are held in real time via webinar software, which allows participants from around the country and the world to join us. Registration is required. Confirmation and log on instructions will be sent via email. Please read the Library of Congress Comment and Posting Policy.

Technical requirements: Participants must have access to an Internet-connected computer or device with speakers or headphones. There is also a telephone option for listening to audio.

ADA: Request ADA accommodations five days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ada@loc.gov. Registration for the program is also required.

Questions? Ask A Librarian.

Reminder!!

Please join us for our May topical webinar:

Happy Birthday Walt!: Digitized Walt Whitman Collections from the Manuscript Division

May 2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of poet Walt Whitman, who revolutionized the style and content of American poetry with his 1855 publication of Leaves of Grass. Whitman was also a journalist, printer, publisher, orator, and prose writer.

The Library of Congress holds the largest group of Whitman-related special collection materials in the world, including printed materials, rare books, photographs, and manuscripts. In this webinar program, Manuscript Division historian Barbara Bair highlights the content and research use of three digitized Whitman manuscript collections as well as programs celebrating Whitman’s birthday at the Library of Congress.

Date: Thursday, May 30
Time: 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Registration (required): Please register via Eventbrite.

This program will be held in real time via webinar software, which allows participants from around the country and the world to join us. Confirmation and log-on instructions will be sent via email. Please read the Library of Congress Comment and Posting Policy.

ADA: Request ADA accommodations five days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ada@loc.gov. Registration for the program is also required.

Questions? Ask A Librarian!

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008

Separately GST Network, the company handling the technology backbone for Goods and Services Tax, cautioned against a fraud website onlinefilingindia.in asking taxpayers not to reveal personal and bank details.

KV Subramanian said India’s GDP is likely to grow 2 per cent for the full financial year.

New York, NY : Springer New York : Imprint: Birkhäuser, 2014

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2014

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2014

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2014

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Birkhäuser, 2014

Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg : Imprint: Springer, 2014

Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg : Imprint: Springer, 2014

Seattle : University of Washington, 1996-

[Seattle, Wash.] : Electronic Journal of Probability and Electronic Communications in Probability, 1995-

Some of the biggest names in Indian philanthropy have teamed up with researchers and more to craft an India-specific response to the climate crisis. Nikita Puri reports on the development