Tools for Testing

11/01/21 • 30 min

Inside the Breakthrough - How Science Comes to Life

Sometimes great discoveries have to wait for the creation of the perfect tool.

What is the best screw ever invented? If you said the Phillips, you are wrong. The Phillips is the most popular screw type, but not the best. The standard slot screw is also very popular, but it isn’t the best either. The best screw type ever invented is the Robertson, and the story behind why it never became the biggest selling screw in the world is one you have to hear.

What is the difference between Latitude and Longitude? Why is one of them so easy to determine and the other virtually impossible? Well, it was impossible until they had the right tool. We will explain how a clock with a grasshopper inside made sailing the seven seas much safer.

These science stories from history help shed light on the modern research being done on Type 2 Diabetes. Specifically, we highlight the work of SciMar as they examine the hormone hepatalin and the effect it has on glucose levels in people who are living with type 2 diabetes. www.SciMar.ca

Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/

Sometimes great discoveries have to wait for the creation of the perfect tool.

Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/

Previous Episode

The Trouble With Trials

Ten years ago, in a hospital in London England a drug company conducted a clinical trial. That trial went horribly wrong. The lessons learned from that event have informed every pharmaceutical trial since then. We will hear from one of the men who took that experimental drug.

We will also look to history -- and uncover the origin of the first ever clinical trial. It was conducted on a sailing ship in the middle of the ocean. The lessons learned from that experiment saved thousands of lives over the next century.

And lastly we will look at what SciMar is currently testing and consider the long ranging impact those trials might have.

Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/

Next Episode

Double Blind

Join us for a wild ride through Vienna and Paris. We will hang out with Mozart, Marie Antoinette, and the incredible Dr Mesmer. We will drink cocktails and stay up way too late. All in an effort to answer the question: Is it possible that being blinded could help you see new things?

I’m not talking about literal blindness here, I mean when you intentionally deny yourself some key piece of information.

If you are hiring someone and are conducting interviews, would you make better decisions if the candidates were sitting behind a screen? Is a psychological study less valid if the participants already know what aspect of their behaviour you are measuring? And are there situations when the subjects and the experimenters have to be blinded?

Learn more about SciMar at https://scimar.ca/