Heat Wave, Memory, and the Obesity Gene

Guest: Deke Arndt, Monitoring Branch Chief for NOAA’s National  Center for Environmental Information  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says July was the hottest month on record for the planet. Climate scientists believe 2015 is on track to overtake last year as the warmest ever.

Guest: John Kounios, Ph.D., Professor at Drexel University  Have you ever had an “Aha! moment?” Psychologist Dr. John Kounios of Drexel University has discovered that there’s a lot more to those lightbulb moments than the flash of inspiration we call an “epiphany.” The  Aha! itself is really just the tip of the iceberg. Kounios summarized much of his research in a book last year called “The Eureka Factor.” Now he’s taking our understanding of insight further with support from the National Science Foundation.

Guests: Ross Alloway, Ph.D., Research Associate at University of North Florida; Tracy Alloway, Ph.D, Professor of Psychology at University of North Florida  Do you struggle with proprioception? Proprioceptive activities relate to the position and movement of the body. It turns out that Proprioception has to do with working memory, and if you struggle with one you’ll struggle with the other.

Guest: Naima Moustad-Moussa, Ph.D., Professor at Texas Tech University  Researchers at Harvard and MIT recently made headlines by claiming that FTO, a gene that has long been associated with obesity, could be “turned off” to genetically stop weight gain. Could turning off this gene be the silver bullet we’ve been looking for?

Guest: Sandra Burnett Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology at BYU; Mike Alder, Director at BYU’s Technology Transfer Office  Honey bees continue to disappear at a staggering rate in the US. Just between April of last year and April this year, 42 percent of managed honey bee colonies were lost due to a variety of factors, according to the US Department of Agriculture. BYU microbiology professor Sandra Burnett has pioneered a novel solution to one disease so contagious beekeepers are often forced to incinerate their infected hives.