Exploradio

Girls today are under enormous pressure. Pressures from social media, sexism, school, sports, peers. All of it has made what should be an exuberant time of life overwhelmed with stress and anxiety. Researchers in Cleveland are finding ways to help teens manage stress and other issues. In this week’s Exploradio, we meet the women behind the country’s first school-based center for research on girls.

America has a long tradition of the lone inventor, and Ohio has long been a leader in aerospace innovation. An inventor in Oberlin combines the two by creating a new form of aircraft in his backyard. On this week’s Exploradio, we look at the quest for a flying machine with no moving parts.

First impressions can have lasting consequences. New research is delving into how we evaluate a stranger’s face, and pass judgments based on fleeting impressions. A new, worldwide collaborative started at Ashland University is helping explain that process, and tackle other questions. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair looks at how the Psychological Science Accelerator is putting a new face on how science is done.

There is an ecosystem living inside of us that scientists are only beginning to comprehend. Our microbiome aids in digestion and metabolism, but when out of whack, can cause discomfort, disease… even depression. In this week’s Exploradio, we meet researchers in Cleveland who are working toward a better understanding of how to have a happy gut.

Cleveland’s greatest export may not be world-class healthcare, auto parts, or even LeBron James, it might be a management philosophy. Appreciative Inquiry was invented at Case Western Reserve University three decades ago and has become a transformative tool for companies and organizations around the world. The process was used recently to help create a new vision for Cleveland. In this week’s Exploradio, we look into the science of positive planning.

Like death and taxes, being hit by a computer virus seems inevitable. Cybercrime took a $100 billion bite out of the U.S. economy last year alone. It’s not just individuals who are hacked. Cities, schools and small businesses are increasingly targeted. In this week’s Exploradio, a look at local efforts to fight the onslaught by training the next generation of cyber warriors. Kelly Kendrick is IT director at Coventry Local Schools, a small district south of Akron. She says what began as an ordinary school day earlier this year began to go awry as the Internet slowed and files got jammed. “And then we realized there was a pattern,” says Kendrick. Soon it dawned on her that the school was under attack. “Within a 24 hour period we had to shut down the entire district,” she says. A malicious virus had not only taken over their computer network, it had disabled the heating and cooling systems and wiped out phone service. Luckily, she says they were able to stop the virus before it put a lock

The schistosome worm causes schistosomiasis, which just might be the biggest parasitic disease you’ve never heard of. “You get it walking in water that's infected with infectious snails,” said Emmitt Jolly, associate professor of biology at Case Western Reserve University. “There are almost 240 million people infected with schistosomes, and about 300,000 people are dying.” Jolly is unravelling the genetics of the schistosome to find ways to attack it with drugs. Step one is to figure out which genes do what. “Our lab developed over-expression technology in schistosomes. You put in a gene, and over-express that gene,” Jolly said. “Whatever targets that that gene normally turns on now get up-regulated, and it gives you a clue as to what the function of that gene is.” By turning up a gene, or over-expressing it, you make it easier to see what that gene might be doing in the organism. Jolly’s next step is to take advantage of recently developed CRISPR-Cas gene-editing technology, which

Additive Manufacturing, better known as 3-D printing, is one of the fastest growing technology sectors. It’s a printing process where plastic or metal parts are built-up layer by layer. In this week’s Exploradio, we look at where the industry is headed and how Northeast Ohio is building itself into the nation’s additive leader.

Lake Erie has one of the highest concentrations of microplastic pollution in the world. Sherri Mason, a researcher at Penn State Behrend in Erie, was the first to report that finding. Her discovery led to congressional action banning microbeads in consumer products. On this week’s Exploradio, we spend some time with Mason finding out how microplastic pollution remains a health hazard.

A mysterious disease is killing one of the most majestic trees in American forests, the beech. Known for its smooth gray bark, the beech is an important anchor species. No one knows exactly what causes Beech Leaf Disease, but a team of tree scientists is narrowing down the list of culprits in this botanical whodunit.

WKSU asked listeners for ideas for what to explore in the next episode of our Exploradio science series. We had some great suggestions. When the ideas were put to a vote, the top choice was – “Is enough being done to find a cure for type-1 diabetes…?” In this week’s Exploradio, we try to find the answer. Around 1.25 million Americans have type-1, or insulin dependent diabetes. Rich Janus is one of them. He takes a glass vial out of the fridge at his home near Cleveland. “This is the Humalog that I take right before I eat,” Janus said. He’s been injecting it three or four times a day for 45 years. It isn't cheap. Humalog insulin earned drug maker Eli Lily $3 billion last year . Worldwide around $280 billion is spent managing diabetes and its complications. Janus wonders if all of this money has been a disincentive for drug makers and the medical industry to find a cure for type-1 diabetes. “If I weren’t so cynical, I’d be really cynical,” he said. This cynicism led Janus, as a WKSU

Our local zoos are changing. The Akron Zoo is in the midst of a $17 million expansion, making new homes for lions and tigers. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo recently opened exhibits featuring Asian wildlife and rare Siberian tigers. In this week’s Exploradio, we examine the research that goes into making captive animals a little more comfortable.

Nearly one million Americans will have hip or knee replacement surgery this year. They’re among the fastest growing procedures in medicine. For most people, the implants function just fine, but sometimes, that artificial knee or hip needs taken out … And in this week’s Exploradio, we investigate what those discarded devices can tell us.

The brain remains one of the final frontiers of science. Researchers are only beginning to unlock how addiction works, how the brain controls other organs, the causes of brain diseases, among other mysteries. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair meets a pair of researchers who are launching a new collaborative at Kent State University to tap into Northeast Ohio’s ‘brain trust.’

Bald eagles were nearly wiped out in Ohio a generation ago. But now they’re back, and a pair is nesting close to the industrial heart of Cleveland. On this week’s Exploradio, we explore one of the most encouraging signs of a rebounding waterway.

They’re the largest of the great apes. Imposing and impressive, gorillas inspire fear and admiration. But local researchers say they also serve as models of gentleness and family harmony. In this week’s Exploradio, we look at Ohio’s role in gorilla conservation and visit the gorillas in our midst.

The American Psychological Association has issued new guidelines for understanding and treating the unique problems faced by men. The project took more than a decade to complete and was launched by a researcher at the University of Akron. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair examines the evolving definition of what it means to be a man in America.

How do you measure the value of something that’s free? It’s a challenge for economists who study the economic impact of the Internet revolution. In this week’s Exploradio, we look at research that puts a price on your network of virtual friends. How much would someone need to pay you for you to stop using Facebook?

It's something our health depends on, but it's often hard to get. That something is a good night's sleep. Researchers are only beginning to understand the consequences of interrupted sleep, and the long-term health effects of poor sleep habits. In this week’s Exploradio, we visit a sleep clinic where doctors are developing new treatments for an age-old problem. We’re visiting one of the Cleveland Clinic’s sleep labs. It’s actually a hotel room near the Clinic where director Ralph Downey and his team conduct sleep studies. It has all the ammentities of a luxury suite, a big comfy bed, TV, and kitchenette. What’s not so comfy is the tangle of wires and straps that Downey uses to monitor his subjects. “Most of these electrodes go on the head to measure brain waves," says Downey. There’re also straps to measure respiration, sensors for oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, cuffs to sense leg movement. Diagnosing sleep issues means a lot of data, and down the hall from the bedroom banks of