Ancient Earth with Amanda Calhoun, PhD Candidate
04/28/25 • 25 min
In this episode, I host Amanda Calhoun, PhD candidate in the Earth and Planetary Sciences program at Harvard! In one project, Amanda uses carbon isotopes to uncover signs of ancient life. In another project, Amanda uses pyrite (fool’s gold!) to understand Earth’s oxygen history.
Listen to hear about the history of both our atmosphere and life itself!
00:00 Intro and Overview
02:46 Research Projects Explained
05:41 Fieldwork and Sample Collection
12:35 Goals & Implications of projects
15:27 Origins of Life, Applications, and Environmental Impact
21:04 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Music: 368 by Dyalla
In this episode, I host Amanda Calhoun, PhD candidate in the Earth and Planetary Sciences program at Harvard! In one project, Amanda uses carbon isotopes to uncover signs of ancient life. In another project, Amanda uses pyrite (fool’s gold!) to understand Earth’s oxygen history.
Listen to hear about the history of both our atmosphere and life itself!
00:00 Intro and Overview
02:46 Research Projects Explained
05:41 Fieldwork and Sample Collection
12:35 Goals & Implications of projects
15:27 Origins of Life, Applications, and Environmental Impact
21:04 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Music: 368 by Dyalla
Previous Episode
Why Science Funding Matters
Today is a solo episode with your host, Alex Chansky! I talk about why I do this show — in addition to some personal reasons, this channel is a great opportunity to make scientific research more accessible and understandable to the public!
This is especially important in recent months as research funding cuts are proposed and our country’s top research institutions are cutting people & projects. So why is science funding important? Listen to find out more!
00:00 Why I do this show
01:20 Why Public Understanding of Science matters
05:36 Current Funding Threats
08:51 Long-term Funding cut impacts
15:30 Ask Some Questions
Music: 368 by Dyalla
Next Episode
Teaching Comp Sci with David Zabner, PhD Candidate
I host David Zabner, 4th year PhD Candidate at Tufts University to tell me all about his research — improving Computer Science education! I start with an intro about why this subject specifically can be so challenging to teach and learn, then David tells me about his background and different research projects he’s done to improve education at different levels. He emphasizes the importance of interactive and practical learning, comparing it to learning a second language.
Enjoy, thanks for listening, and send this episode to a friend!
00:00 Intro & Background
06:15 Learning Theories and Teaching Methods
11:49 Challenges in Computer Science Education
36:31 Impact of Large Language Models
41:08 Future Projects
Music: 368 by Dyalla
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