best videos and podcasts of 2016
posted on december 21, 2016 by anand jagatia
we’ve been busy this year producing lots of multimedia content about microbiology! if you missed some of it the first time, we’ve rounded up some of our favourites below. don’t forget, you can subscribe to our youtube channel and to our podcast too.
6. podcast: does a pipette work in space? with nasa astronaut dr kate rubins
it was amazing to be able to talk to a real life astronaut and virologist for this episode of the podcast. kate has since become the the first person to sequence dna in space, and has safely returned to earth with the rest of the crew.
5. video: why do mosquitoes bite some people more than others?
we went along to new scientist live this year, which was really great fun. aside from playing around with vr headsets (what exhibition would be complete without them?), we interviewed a bunch of scientists about their work.
dr james logan showed us his cage of mosquitoes, and explained why some people get bitten to shreds while others are left unscathed.
4. podcast: i contain multitudes: an interview with ed yong
ed yong’s new book on the microbiome (the trillions of microbes that live on us and within us) is an absolute cracker. in this interview, ed read some extracts from the book, and told us about some of the amazing stories he came across while writing it.
3. video: archaea and the tree of life
every living thing on this planet belongs to one of three branches on the tree of life. bacteria make up one branch, while animals, plants and fungi together make up another.
but the third domain of life wasn’t even discovered until the 1970s. this mysterious group of micro-organisms, the archaea, remain one of the biggest puzzles in microbiology. watch our mini documentary on archaea below.
2. podcast: inside one of america’s highest containment laboratories
for this podcast, ben was given inside access to a new high-containment facility in boston called the neidl. researchers here study the most dangerous pathogens in world, like ebola virus and nipah virus.
1. video: what is crispr-cas?
one of our most watched videos this year was a stop-motion explainer about crispr-cas, the powerful new gene editing technique revolutionising biology. crispr has been making headlines this year, but we didn’t invent it – in fact, we borrowed it from microbes.
we’ll be back next year with more fascinating research and cool stories from the world of microbiology. thanks for your support in 2016, see you in 2017!
