Welcome to 2026! We’re ringing in the new year with an episode featuring environmental science undergraduate Devin Guthrie. Devin’s full of ideas about collaborative world building and scientific solutions designed with and for the communities they’re implemented in. His passion for urban ecology and environmental science has led him to watch pollinators amongst the hydrangeas of Chicago, operate telescopes, start a science fiction club, and do much, much, MUCH more.

Researcher, assistant professor, and host of the Neuro Network podcast Nick Burgraff studies opioid overdoses and how to prevent them. He’s here to answer all our host’s questions about naloxone (brand name: Narcan), the autonomic nervous system, and goat treats. He might even walk away with the prize for best science name mentioned before the year is over (hint: it’s a region of the brain a bunch of scientists named over a bottle of wine).

If you want to know what things were used to research this episode, a list of sources can be found here.

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are commonly used to treat depression and other brain chemical imbalances, but how does that affect the other 90% of serotonin floating around the body? What about a developing body? PhD student McKenna Crossen talks about her work studying different ways SSRIs might affect placental and fetal development in mice.

If you want to know what things were used to research this episode, a list of sources can be found here.

For more information on the Hernandez lab where McKenna works, visit this website.

Spooky scary skeletons send shivers down your spine and regulate your blood calcium levels. Professor and Principal Investigator of the Weaver lab Samantha Weaver answers all the questions you didn’t know you had about dairy cows, pac man, and osteoporosis

The background for this episode was all taken from my biocore unit on the endocrine system taught by Professor Weaver herself.

If Professor Weaver’s work intrigues you, please read up all about it on her lab website.

All Alzheimer’s is dementia, but not all dementia is Alzheimer’s. Nalina Cherr and biochemical major Matteo Meyer attempt to unravel the tangle of neurons and brain glue that causes this neurological disease.

For more on the Pehar lab, where Matteo works, you can visit the lab website here.

If you want to know what things were used to research this episode, a list of sources can be found here.

From dog guts to flower gardens, worms are everywhere. But how did they get there? Should they even be there? Host Nalina Cherr and biological systems engineering undergraduate student Claire Foote discuss the biology of worms, invasive worms, and whether worms can live underwater.

For more on Claire’s mentor, Bradley Herrick, and further readings on jumping worms, you can find a list of his publications on the subject here.

If you want to know what things were used to research this episode, a list of sources can be found here.