Guest 1: Carolyn de Graff, PhD student at WEHI.
My thesis title is ‘Regulation of Gene Expression During Hematopoiesis’. (Or that’s the title I think it will have when I get around to finishing it.) Each day the body produces trillions of new blood cells and this massive turnover is tightly regulated. I’m interested in genes involved in regulating the number of blood cells in the body. Key genes called transcription factors control which other genes are turned on in each blood cell type. By discovering which genes these transcription factors control, we can understand how blood cells are produced, and design treatments which better regulate blood cell numbers.
Guest 2: Evan Kidd, communicating by hand to imaginary friends.
http://freshscience.org.au/?p=960
Imaginary friends, real benefits — Don’t be concerned about imaginary friends, they are teaching your child to communicate, a La Trobe University researcher has found. Children aged between four and six who have imaginary friends are better able to get their point across than their contemporaries who do not, psychologist Evan Kidd and colleague Anna Roby from the University of Manchester showed. The results are being presented at Fresh Science at Melbourne Museum this week.
Also, Chris KP took us on a trip into science history to unveil the links between canaries in coal mines, chemists and quantum mechanics.
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Direct podcast download: podcast coming soon…..
Tags: blood cell formation, child communication, transcription factors
