In Plain English: Science Made Simple

What do the blood in your blood vessels, the waves on a beach, and bubbles from a bubble bath have in common? They're all fluids, interacting with other fluids in complex ways that can be modeled by computers! Join expert Alex Barrett and guests Cole Barker and Christina Niavi to learn more about the important role surface tension plays in interactions between fluids, and the many important applications of modeling these complicated processes.

In Plain English now has a Discord server! Join here to chat with other listeners, past experts, and guests about science, suggest new episode topics, and more!

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Photo Credit: Bavand Keshavarz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In this set of interviews from the Society for Neuroscience 2023 conference, we cover how sex differences and pain affect opioid use disorder, and the brain regions involved in social interactions.

This is the sixth in a multi-part series called "SfN Shorts" that features these brief (5-10 minute) discussions. Check out Parts ⁠⁠1⁠⁠, ⁠⁠2⁠⁠, ⁠⁠3⁠⁠, ⁠4⁠, 5, and 6 as well as "⁠⁠Rigor Jeopardy⁠⁠!" with Community for Rigor.

In Plain English has a Discord server! Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to chat with other listeners, past experts, and guests about science, suggest new episode topics, and more!

Remember to follow In Plain English on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to keep up with the latest announcements! If you are able, please consider ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠becoming a Patron⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to help support In Plain English!

And check out our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Where to Listen⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ page to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform!

Intro/Outro music credit: Sam Brunwasser (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://soundcloud.com/visualsnowbeats⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠)

In the fourth episode of In Plain English, we discuss the potential cosmic origins of Earth's oceans. Expert Will Saunders and guests India Bland and Nick Wolslegel delve into the paper "How much water was delivered from the asteroid belt to the Earth after its formation?" by Rebecca Martin and Mario Livio, exploring whether asteroids could have brought all this water to Earth.

If you like this episode, check out Will Saunders's podcast Astro[sound]bytes: https://astrosoundbites.com

Follow astrosoundbites on Twitter @astrosoundbites

You can catch up on our previous episodes, download the papers, and send us questions at our website: inplainenglishpod.org

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In Plain English airs the first Tuesday of every month on Anchor, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Currently, scientists need to pay to publish research and readers need to pay to access most research articles. This outdated approach to sharing science slows advancement by locking research behind paywalls, and prevents the public from being able to read the research that their tax dollars funded. In this round table, Sci-Hub founder Alexandra Elbakyan, eLife Editor-in-Chief Michael Eisen, and WashU neuroscientist Bryan Copits discuss the current state of open access science, efforts to make science more accessible, and what the future of scientific publishing could look like.

This conversation is an abridged version of the YouTube live stream that took place on Monday, February 27th. You can find the full live stream here. Additionally, I recorded a one-on-one follow-up conversation on this subject with Bryan Copits; I will upload that conversation next week.

In Plain English now has a Discord server! Join here to chat with other listeners, past experts, and guests about science, suggest new episode topics, and more!

Remember to follow In Plain English on Facebook , Twitter, and Instagram to keep up with the latest announcements! If you are able, please consider becoming a Patron to help support In Plain English!

And check out our Where to Listen page to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform!

Image credit: NASA

Join expert Vera Thornton and guests Doris Meinerding and Hannah Waterhouse for Part 1 of a thought-provoking look "behind the scenes" of scientific research, to answer the question "Why are research findings sometimes wrong?" Part 2 will air on the first Tuesday of September.

Remember to follow In Plain English on Facebook , Twitter, and Instagram to keep up with the latest announcements! If you are able, please consider becoming a Patron to help support In Plain English!

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Disclaimers: Though this episode talks about medical tests, none of the guests are doctors, nor are they your doctor. If you have a question about your own health or medical care, please ask your doctor.

This article and the ensuing discussion should not be misconstrued to support any form of science denialism. As we discuss in the episode, science is a process, not a set of definite facts. Sometimes in this process, new evidence emerges that casts doubt on previous findings. We believe that it is important for scientists to be transparent about this part of the process..

The author of this article, Dr. John Ioannadis, has recently become (in)famous for using his platform as a prominent researcher to downplay the COVID-19 pandemic (https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/what-the-heck-happened-to-john-ioannidis/). His actions are unfortunately a perfect example of one possible pitfall of studies like this that call out issues with research rigor and reproducibility: misconstruing them to mean that no science should be trusted. My goal in making this podcast is to make science better and more accessible to the public, and to give you all the tools to be more educated consumers of scientific news and literature. The big takeaway is this: apply rigorous skepticism to both science that fits your world view and science that challenges it, and be open to changing your mind if the evidence leads you in a different direction from what you originally thought.

Photo Credit: Chokniti Khongchum