Pocket Science

Meet your new favorite organ, the thymus. Scientists have since discovered a whole world within this little wad of tissue in your chest – a complex system that trains and equips some of your body's most important fighters against disease.
Jarrod Dudakov, professor of immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, explains how the thymus can help us understand why our bodies get worse at fighting disease as we age.
More resources:
Jarrod Dudakov at the Fred Hutchinson Canter Research Center
The landmark 1961 research article in The Lancet, “The Immunological Function of the Thymus”
Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Anna Boiko-Weyrauch.
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A full wiring diagram of the brain could show how its different parts work together, and it could potentially reveal new insights into diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Gabe visits the electron microscopy connectomics project at Seattle’s Allen Institute, and learns how they are using AI to parse over 100 million high resolution pictures of a slice of mouse brain the size of a poppyseed.
More resources:
The Connectomics team at the Allen Institute's brain science accelerator
Forrest Collman
Andrew Hickl
Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Shane Mehling and Anna Boiko-Weyrauch.
We can only make Pocket Science because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Pocket Science in your feed.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mud is everywhere…under our shoes, our buildings, our crops. How it behaves affects where we can build, what we can grow and the shape of the land itself. But on a microscopic level we barely understand why it does what it does. Gabriel heads out with mud expert Kendall Valentine who gets ankle-deep in the stuff in order to unlock its mysteries.

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More resources:
Kendall Valentine
Coastal Ecogeomorphology Lab
UW Sediment Dynamics Lab
Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited and produced by Jim Gates.
We can only make Pocket Science because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Pocket Science in your feed.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you look up at the night sky, it’s easy to think of it as static and permanent, like the stars are painted on up there and never change. But if you look really carefully, sometimes you can catch something dramatic unfolding. Andy Tzanidakis is a PhD candidate in astronomy at the University of Washington. His job is to look through massive amounts of data produced from telescope sky surveys to search out anomalies in space. One time, when he was going through the data he discovered something amazing. It was a rare catastrophic event…two planets colliding.
Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Shane Mehling.
We can only make Pocket Science because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Pocket Science in your feed.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scientists have learned how to edit DNA and reprogram cells to fix a mutation and fight diseases. But the process requires a lab, is expensive and involves rounds of chemotherapy that are grueling for the patient. But Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem is working on a new technology with the goal of delivering the gene therapy directly into the body with a syringe. It has the potential to make the procedure far more accessible especially for those living far from hospitals and in need of the therapy most.
More resources:
Hans-Peter Kiem
Kiem Lab
Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Shane Mehling.
We can only make Pocket Science because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Pocket Science in your feed.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.