Using Twitter to Track the Flu

Using Twitter to Track the Flu

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 561 , Segment 2

Episode: Self-Awareness, Pirate Next Door, End of Obamacare?

  • May 25, 2017 11:00 pm
  • 8:43 mins

Guest: Alessandro Vespignani, PhD, Professor of Physics, Computer Science and Health Sciences, Northeastern University Have you ever been so miserable with the flu, complete with fever, stuffy nose, body aches, coughs that keep you up at night, that you felt like you had to tweet about it? Well if you ever have, someone may have used your tweet to track the flu in real time. And that someone could be Alessandro Vespignani, a professor of physics, computer science and health sciences at Northeastern University. He has successfully answered the CDC’s 2013 challenge to figure out how to predict the influenza season and his method involves social media, not doctors’ reports.

Other Segments

The Pirate Next Door—Myths and Unexpected Truths

19 MINS

(originally aired March 20, 2017) Guest: Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos, DLS, Author of “The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates' Wives, Families and Communities” Captain Jack Sparrow is back in theaters this weekend with all his swashbuckling swagger in the fifth installment of Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, “Dead Men Tell No Tales.” Thanks in part to characters like Jack Sparrow, when we think of pirates, we tend to think about peg-legged men with parrots on their shoulders who are either drunk, immoral, or both. But, even in the “Golden Age” of piracy, it wasn’t exactly like that. In fact, the legendary pirate captains of the time were often just regular men—active participants in society pushed by economic forces to take a risky career path

(originally aired March 20, 2017) Guest: Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos, DLS, Author of “The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates' Wives, Families and Communities” Captain Jack Sparrow is back in theaters this weekend with all his swashbuckling swagger in the fifth installment of Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, “Dead Men Tell No Tales.” Thanks in part to characters like Jack Sparrow, when we think of pirates, we tend to think about peg-legged men with parrots on their shoulders who are either drunk, immoral, or both. But, even in the “Golden Age” of piracy, it wasn’t exactly like that. In fact, the legendary pirate captains of the time were often just regular men—active participants in society pushed by economic forces to take a risky career path

Potential Antidote to CO Poisoning

16 MINS

(Originally Aired Jan 25, 2017) Guest: Mark Gladwin, MD, Chair of the Department of Medicine and Director of the Pittsburgh Heart, Lung, Blood, and Vascular Medicine Institute, University of Pittsburgh Thousands of people every year are sent to the emergency room as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, often from a heater, generator, or fireplace. Carbon monoxide is invisible – you can’t taste, smell or see it. There’s no known antidote for it, but research led by critical care physician/scientist Mark Gladwin at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine has discovered a promising lead. They were able to reverse a fatal dose of carbon monoxide in mice by giving them a mutated brain protein they’ve made in the lab.

(Originally Aired Jan 25, 2017) Guest: Mark Gladwin, MD, Chair of the Department of Medicine and Director of the Pittsburgh Heart, Lung, Blood, and Vascular Medicine Institute, University of Pittsburgh Thousands of people every year are sent to the emergency room as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, often from a heater, generator, or fireplace. Carbon monoxide is invisible – you can’t taste, smell or see it. There’s no known antidote for it, but research led by critical care physician/scientist Mark Gladwin at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine has discovered a promising lead. They were able to reverse a fatal dose of carbon monoxide in mice by giving them a mutated brain protein they’ve made in the lab.