Tag: Medicine

Episode 184: Revenge of the Quiz Show!

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, Lauren, Laura, and Marissa test each other’s knowledge of creation myths, fall foods, historical clocks, anthropology, and medicine.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Creation Myths: Enuma Elish: The Oldest Written Creation Myth | Accounts of creation (BBC Bitesize) | Chaos (cosmogony) (Wikipedia) | Creation myth (Wikipedia) | Emergence (Wikipedia) | Zuni mythology (Wikipedia) | List of mythological pairs (Wikipedia) | Kintu (Wikipedia) | Völuspá (Wikipedia)

Timekeeping: A Chronicle Of Timekeeping (Scientific American) | The Very Long and Fascinating History of Clocks | A Brief History of Time-Keeping (The Washington Post) | Decimal time: the revolution that never was (Watches and Culture) | Decimal time (Wikipedia) | The Evolution of Timekeeping: Water Clocks in China and Mechanical Clocks in Europe (Encyclopedia.com) | Wrist Watches: From Battlefield to Fashion Accessory (The New York Times) | A Brief History of the Wristwatch (The Atlantic) | History of timekeeping devices (Wikipedia) | Water clock (Wikipedia)

Diagnosis: UpToDate | Centor Score for Strep Pharyngitis (MDCalc) | Classification criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (UpToDate) | Overview of the management and prognosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (UpToDate) | Polymorphic light eruption (NHS) | Osteosarcoma: epidemiology, pathology, clinical presentation, and diagnosis (UpToDate) | Diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state in adults (UpToDate) | Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: clinical manifestations and diagnosis (UpToDate) | Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: treatment and prognosis (UpToDate)


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Episode 181: The Extraordinary Science of Everyday Things

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn is joined by Lauren, Gem, and Laura to discuss the amazing hidden science behind common objects and phenomena, including coloured glass, toilets, foam, and placebos.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Coloured Glass: Chemistry of Colored Glass (Science Notes) | The Chemistry of Coloured Glass (Compound Interest) | Bottle Colors (Society for Historical Archaeology) | What Causes Color in Stained and Colored Glass (Geology.com) | Glass (New World Encyclopedia) | Glass: Composition, types and uses (Jagran Josh)

The Placebo Effect: Semantics of the placebo (Psychiatric Quarterly) | A systematic review and meta-analysis of placebo versus no treatment for insomnia symptoms (ScienceDirect) | Is the Placebo Powerless? — An Analysis of Clinical Trials Comparing Placebo with No Treatment (NEJM) | The Powerful Placebo and the Wizard of Oz (NEJM) | The Powerful Placebo (JAMA) | The Powerful Placebo Effect: Fact or Fiction? (ScienceDirect) | Placebo interventions for all clinical conditions (Cochrane Library) | Are Treatments More Effective than Placebos? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PMC) | Correction: Are Treatments More Effective than Placebos? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PMC) | Statins for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (Cochrane Library) | Greater Response to Placebo in Children Than in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis in Drug-Resistant Partial Epilepsy (PMC)

Toilets: Gravity and Your Toilet: A Beautiful Science Relationship (Homeschool.com) | How toilets work (Explain That Stuff) | Learn Who Invented the Toilet (Brubaker) | A Brief History of The Flush Toilet (The British Association of Urological Surgeons) | Who Invented the Flush Toilet? (HISTORY) | 8 Inventions By African Americans That Helped Shape Civilization (Black Then) | Gravity Fed Toilets (Toiletology) | 2.972 How A Toilet Works (MIT) | Bernoulli’s principle (Wikipedia) | Indus Valley civilisation (Wikipedia) | The Physics of Toilets (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

Foam: Nitrogen in Guinness Beer (Inertion) | Wildfire Retardants (Government of the Northwest Territories) | Researchers discover the physics of foams (ScienceDaily) | Practical Foam Science (Cosmetics & Toiletries) | The science behind the foam in your cappuccino (The Splendid Table) | Two new papers explore the complicated physics behind bubbles and foams (Ars Technica) | The Basics of Engineering with Foam (MachineDesign) | Foam (Wikipedia) | The Strange Physics of Foam (NASA Science Mission Directorate) | Science of Sloshing: Why Foam is Important (Science Connected Magazine) | Unraveling the science of coffee foam (Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition) | The science of foaming (ScienceDirect) | Shuffling bubbles reveal how liquid foams evolve (EurekAlert!) | Spray Polyurethane Foam Basics (American Chemistry Council)

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Episode 171: Dubious Diagnoses

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Laura is joined by Gem, Ashlyn, and Lauren to discuss Morgellons syndrome, adrenal fatigue, Wilson’s temperature syndrome, and candida overgrowth, four medical diagnoses with dubious supporting evidence.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Morgellons Syndrome: Delusional infestation: Epidemiology, clinical presentation, assessment and diagnosis (UpToDate) | The Morgellons Mystery (Psychology Today) | Sir Thomas Browne’s A Letter to a Friend (University of Chigago) | Morgellons (Wikipedia) | Delusional parasitosis (Wikipedia)

Adrenal Fatigue: Treating the Symptoms that are believed to be Adrenal Fatigue (Endocrine Society) | Adrenal fatigue: What causes it? (Mayo Clinic) | Adrenal fatigue (Wikipedia)

Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome: Wilson’s temperature syndrome (Wikipedia) | Wilson’s Disease: Risk Factors, Causes, & Symptoms (Healthline)

Candida Overgrowth: The Candida Overgrowth Problem: Too Much Yeast? No, Too Little Science (SELF) | The Candida Diet: Separating Fact from Fiction (Nutrition Diva) | The Candida Diet: Separating Fact from Fiction (Scientific American) | Invasive Candidiasis (CDC) | Systemic candidiasis (NIH) | The Anti-Candida Diet: 11 Simple Rules to Follow (TheCandidaDiet.com)

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Episode 167: Medical History

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, Lauren, and Laura swap tales from medical history, including the story of Ben Carson’s separation of the Binder twins, the legacy of Henrietta Lacks, and the “tainted blood scandal” that led to the formation of Canadian Blood Services.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Ben Carson: The story of the surgery that made Ben Carson famous and its complicated aftermath (The Washington Post) | Separation of craniopagus Siamese twins using cardiopulmonary bypass and hypothermic circulatory arrest (The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery) | Patrick and Benjamin Binder (Wikipedia) | From Vaccines to Creationism, Ben Carson’s Views Perplex Some (The New York Times) | Ben Carson on Creationism, Evolution, and Intelligent Design (Evolution News) | Ben Carson’s Scientific Ignorance (The New Yorker)

Henrietta Lacks: Henrietta Lacks (Wikipedia) | Significant Research Advances Enabled by HeLa Cells (Office of Science Policy) | Cell Lines – an overview (ScienceDirect Topics) | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Goodreads)

The Tainted Blood Scandal: Canadian Red Cross apologises for distributing HIV infected blood (BMJ) | ABCs of eligibility to donating blood (Canadian Blood Services) | Collaboration, Competition, and Coercion: Canadian Federalism and Blood System Governance (Adam David McDonald) | Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada: Krever Report (Publications du ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec) | The Krever Commission Recommendations: What They May Mean for Hospital (Longwoods) | The Krever Commission – 10 years later (CMAJ) | Commemoration of the Tainted Blood Tragedy (Canadian Hemophilia Society) | Canada’s Tainted Blood Disaster (CBC Archives) | Unspeakable: the truth about HIV-tainted blood in Canada (The Lancet Infectious Diseases) | Today’s blood system no longer unsafe or “Unspeakable” (Canadian Blood Services) | Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada (Wikipedia) | Research shows promising development in hunt for HIV vaccine (ABC News)

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Episode 166: The Wellness Industry

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Laura leads Ashlyn, Gem, and Lauren in a discussion of the wellness industry, including a brief detour into QAnon conspiracies, and together the panel tries to figure out what wellness even is, anyway.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Additional Music: In addition to original music by Ian James, this episode also features Cavatina performed by the Mangoré Duo.

Wellness, Defined: Frequently asked questions (World Health Organization) | Twenty-first century health promotion: the public health revolution meets the wellness revolution (Health Promotion International, Oxford Academic) | The dark side of the wellness industry (New Statesman) | What is Wellness? (Global Wellness Institute)

Apps and Plans: Why The Wellness Industry is So Utterly Broken (In Fitness and in Health) | Public Health and Online Misinformation: Challenges and Recommendations (Annual Review of Public Health) | The Truth Behind Weight Loss Ads (FTC Consumer Information) | Tons of Weight-Loss Ads Show Fake Before/After Photos: Report (Women’s Health) | The History of Dieting (Skyterra Wellness) | Is Fasting Healthy? (WebMD) | “Find Your Fit”: Wearable technology and the cultural politics of disability (Journal of New Media and Society)

QAnon and the Wellness Industry: How Instagram Aesthetics Repackage QAnon (The Atlantic) | How COVID-19 Guided Wellness Influencers to QAnon (Bitch Media) | This yoga instructor is fighting the rise of QAnon in the wellness community (CBC Radio) | New Agers and Wellness Influencers Are Falling for Far-Right COVID Conspiracies (Vice)

Police Officers and Domestic Violence: Police Domestic Violence: Data Shows 40 Percent of Cops Abuse Family (Fatherly)

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Episode 163: Limitless

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Laura, Lauren, and Gem discuss people who push their bodies to the limit, including saturation divers, ultramarathoners, mountaineers, and stratospheric skydivers.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Additional Music: “Friends” by Dragon Sound, “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service

Saturation Diving: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver (Atlas Obscura) | Nutritional considerations during prolonged exposure to a confined, hyperbaric, hyperoxic environment: recommendations for saturation divers (Extreme Physiology & Medicine) | What It’s Like to be a Saturation Diver (ScubaDiving.com) | High Pressure Diving Nervous Syndrome (NCBI Bookshelf) | Saturation diving (Wikipedia) | SEALAB (Wikipedia) | Saturation diving; physiology and pathophysiology (PubMed)

Ultramarathons: 120 Minutes Over 26.2 Miles: A Statistical Approach (FloTrack.org) | The new Vaporfly NEXT% (Nike) | Eliud Kipchoge Two-Hour Nike Shoes (Runner’s World Inside Look) | What happens to your body during an ultramarathon (Washington Post) | Why ultramarathons are easier than you think (RedBull.com) | Eliud Kipchoge Marathon Strategy (Runner’s World) | The sub-2 hour marathon attempt: The pacing strategy (The Science of Sport) | Craziest Ultramarathon Races (Men’s Journal) | Barkley Marathons (Wikipedia) | Nike Vaporfly Shoes Controversy (NPR) | LZR Racer (Wikipedia)

Such Great Heights: 14 Fast Facts about Mount Everest (The Explorer’s Passage) | There Are Over 200 Bodies on Mount Everest, And They’re Used as Landmarks (Smithsonian Magazine) | Climbing Mount Everest, explained (National Geographic) | Edmund Hillary (Wikipedia) | Tenzing Norgay (Wikipedia) | Tourism, Waste, and the Effects of Climate Change on Everest (National Geographic) | The Problem (Mount Everest Biogas Project) | Reinhold Messner (Wikipedia) | Peter Habeler (Wikipedia) | Mountaineering (Wikipedia) | Interview with Climbers About Reaching Mount Everest Summit Without Oxygen (National Geographic) | Norton Couloir (Wikipedia) | Astronauts Hail Skydiver Felix Baumgartner’s Record-Breaking Supersonic Jump (Space) | Alan Eustace Jumps From Stratosphere, Breaking Felix Baumgartner’s World Record (The New York Times) | Space diving (Wikipedia) | Red Bull Stratos (Wikipedia) | World’s Highest Skydive! Daredevil Felix Baumgartner Makes Record-Breaking Supersonic ‘Space Jump’ (Space) | Skydiving From the Edge of Space (The Atlantic) | All About Stratosphere Jumps (Skydive Taft) | Ask the Captain: Highest altitudes for planes (USA Today) | The Composition of the Stratosphere (Encyklopedia klimatologiczna) | Helium shortage: Why the world’s supply is drying up (CNBC)

Something Nice: Whoops! We forgot to actually say the name of the show that Ashlyn recommended (or maybe I accidentally cut it out)! It’s called Taskmaster.

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Episode 158: Public Health History

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Gem, Laura, and Lauren discuss the history of several public health initiatives: handwashing, toothbrushing, and nutrient fortification of food.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

Updated: During his segment, Gem mistakenly said “postpartum examination” when he meant to say “postmortem examination”. This has been corrected.

Handwashing: Hand washing (Wikipedia) | When and How to Wash Your Hands (CDC) | Ignaz Semmelweis (Wikipedia) | Daily Deaths, 2018 (Statistics Canada) | Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System (Maternal and Infant Health, CDC)

Oral Hygiene: Monkeys may have better dental hygiene than you (Science, AAAS) | Miswak (Wikipedia) | Efficiency of traditional chewing stick (miswak) as an oral hygiene aid among Muslim school children in Lucknow: A cross-sectional study (NIH) | The evolution of the toothbrush | Who invented the toothbrush? (HISTORY)

Nutrient Fortification: Overview of Food Fortification in the United States and Canada (NCBI Bookshelf) | A brief history of food fortification (Baking Business) | History of U.S. Iodine Fortification and Supplementation (NIH) | Iodine (Wikipedia) | Fortification and Health: Challenges and Opportunities (Advances in Nutrition, Oxford Academic) | Rationale and Plan for Vitamin D Food Fortification: A Review and Guidance Paper (NIH)

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Episode 144: Twenty Questions

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem talks about Google’s search autocomplete feature, then Lauren, Ashlyn, Laura, and Gem answer twenty of the most popular questions suggested by Google.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that delves into issues of science, critical thinking, and secular humanism.

Correction: When answering the question, “Where is your liver?” Ashlyn misspoke: the liver is of course located below the diaphragm, not above it. Whoops!

Google and Autocomplete: How Google autocomplete works in Search (Google Blog) | Censorship by Google (Wikipedia) | Leaked Google research shows company grappling with censorship and free speech (The Verge) | Google to End Pentagon AI Contract, Will Remain a Defense Contractor (Tom’s Hardware)

How: Avoirdupois system (Wikipedia) | Troy weight (Wikipedia) | How to Make Slime: Our 4 Most Popular Slime Recipes (Home Science Tools) | How to Tie a Windsor Knot (Ties.com) | How to write a cover letter (Youth Central) | Hard Boiled Eggs Recipe (Food Network)

Where: Stages of transcription: initiation, elongation & termination (Khan Academy) | Archibald (Wikipedia) | Where is Xur? | History of pizza (Wikipedia)

Can: Can You Start a Sentence with "Because"? (Writer’s Digest) | Can I give my pet…? (Park Road Veterinary Clinic) | Ibuprofen Poisoning in Dogs (VCA Animal Hospital) | What Shall You Not Wear to an Indian Wedding Reception as a Guest? (Discover India) | Is it Legal to Marry Yourself? (Parry & Pfau)

Why: Rayleigh scattering (Wikipedia) | Diffuse sky radiation (Wikipedia) | Photosynthesis (Wikipedia) | Polar bear (Wikipedia) | Effects of Earlier Sea Ice Breakup on Survival and Population Size of Polar Bears in Western Hudson Bay (Journal of Wildlife Management) | Why Asparagus Makes Your Urine Smell (Smithsonian) | Benjamin Franklin’s Letter to the Royal Academy of Brussels (Early Americas Digital Archive) | Moore’s law (Wikipedia) | Why is Caillou bald? (Chouette Publishing)

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Episode 142: Rare Diseases

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Lauren, Ashlyn, and Laura discuss rare diseases and regulatory responses to them. Specific diseases discussed include diabetes insipidus, toxic shock syndrome, and the Cotard delusion.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that delves into issues of science, critical thinking, and secular humanism.

How Rare is Rare?: Useful Information on Rare Diseases from an EU Perspective (EU Health & Consumer Protection Directorate General) | What is a rare disease? (RareDiseaseDay.org) | Pitfalls in Canada’s Approach to Orphan Drugs (Rare Disease Review) | Rare disease (Wikipedia)

Orphan Drugs and Neglected Diseases: Neglected Diseases (WHO) | RARE Facts (Global Genes) | Rare Diseases (Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center) | Rare disease (Wikipedia) | Neglected tropical diseases (Wikipedia)

Diabetes Insipidus: Diabetes mellitus and deafness (Wikipedia) | Diabetes insipidus (Wikipedia) | Diabetes insipidus: Symptoms and causes (Mayo Clinic) | Diabetes Insipidus (NIDDK) | Diabetes: Study proposes five types, not two (Medical News Today) | Are there actually 5 types of diabetes? (NHS)

Toxic Shock Syndrome: Everything You Know About Toxic Shock Syndrome Is Probably Wrong (Lifehacker) | The Symptoms of Toxic Shock Syndrome You Need to Know (SELF) | Killer Tampons from Outer Space or Why We Don’t Hear About Toxic Shock Syndrome Anymore (McGill University Office for Science and Society) | A Brief History of the Tampon and Who Invented It (ThoughtCo) | Toxic-Shock Researcher’s Discovery Hailed (The Washington Post) | Vaginoplasty procedures, complications and aftercare (UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health) | Influence of the Normal Menstrual Cycle on Vaginal Tissue, Discharge, and Microflora (Clinical Infectious Diseases) | Toxic Shock Syndrome: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment (HealthLine)

The Cotard Delusion: Cotard Syndrome: “I’m Dead, So Why Do I Need to Eat?” (The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders) | What is Truth? And What is “Walking-Dead” Syndrome? (Nature’s Artful Brain Blog) | Cotard delusion (Wikipedia) | Capgras delusion (Wikipedia)

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Episode 80: Near-Death Experiences

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Donna Harris and Greg Christensen discuss near-death experiences (NDEs) and some of the possible psychological, physiological, and transcendental explanations for them.

Note: Shortly after this episode was recorded, we learned that Steven Novella and Sean Carroll would be participating in an Intelligence Squared debate on the resolution “Death Is Not Final”. Arguing for the resolution was Eben Alexander, author of Proof of Heaven, who was mentioned in this episode. We link to a video of the debate in the show notes.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: Death Is Not Final (Intelligence Squared Debate) | Near-death Experiences (Wikipedia) | Heaven Is for Real | Eben Alexander | Francis Collins | Pim van Lommel | Sam Parnia | The God Helmet | International Association for Near-death Studies | Impact Factor (Wikipedia)

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