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Science Friday

5G, Pig Brains, Privacy For Nature. April 19, 2019, Part 1

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Science, Life Sciences, Wnyc, Natural Sciences, Friday

4.4 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2019

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last week, President Trump announced a new initiative to push forward the implementation of 5G, the next generation of wireless connectivity for smartphones and other devices. How is this faster speed possible, and how quickly will it become accessible to consumers? Washington Post technology reporter Brian Fung explains the innovations that would enable greater rates of data transmission. Plus: Harold Feld, a lawyer and consumer advocate, says not everyone will benefit equally from 5G as plans currently stand—including rural communities. One of the top technology candidates for 5G relies on higher frequencies and bringing more smaller-signal base stations much closer to the people using them. But what does research say about how it will affect human health? Researchers review what the literature has suggested so far about non-ionizing radiation from 2G and 3G, including a 2018 study from the National Toxicology Program (NTP) that found an increase in tumors for male rats. The NTP’s John Bucher and Jonathan Samet of the Colorado School of Public Health join Ira to discuss the data, and the limitations of research to date. Plus, toxicologist and epidemiologist Devra Davis of the Environmental Health Trust provides a statement on the health concerns of 5G.   Plus: Spring is a great time to get out and enjoy the outdoors—and increasingly, people are using citizen science apps like eBird and iNaturalist to record sightings and share data. But the public nature of some citizen science platforms can make them liable for abuse, such as people using location data collected by the apps to disturb—or even poach—threatened species. April Glaser, a technology reporter for Slate, tells Ira more. And Sarah Kaplan, science reporter at the Washington Post, joins Ira to talk about post-death pig brains, Jovian moons, and more in this week's News Roundup.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato.

0:02.8

Later in the hour, the fifth generation of wireless is on its way, but how soon will your phone actually be using 5G?

0:11.4

Plus why some people, including several lawmakers, are opposing the rollout over potential health concerns.

0:17.8

But first this week, a story that sounds like something out of science fiction.

0:22.1

Scientists report in the journal Nature that they have been able to restore some of the cellular

0:27.2

and circulatory function in pig brains, hours after death. Here to talk about and other selected

0:34.3

short subjects in science as Washington Post Science reporter, Sarah Kaplan, happily to see you in our studio.

0:39.7

Great to be here.

0:40.5

This week.

0:41.1

All right, let's talk about this.

0:43.2

It almost sounds like some of the headlines are making it sound like a Franken brain, that's what they create.

0:48.4

But it's not what they have done, right?

0:49.8

Yeah, we're not quite at the zombie apocalypse yet.

0:52.7

Basically, researchers from the Yale School of Medicine

0:55.2

were able to take some brains from pigs that had been previously killed at a slaughterhouse

1:00.8

hours before, take them out of the heads, and then infuse them with a sort of cocktail of

1:06.7

synthetic fluids that prevent the cells from degenerating and actually help restore some

1:11.7

of the functions like the metabolic activity consuming sugar and oxygen in order to function

1:19.6

and even some of the electrical activity if they stimulated the cells they were able to

1:25.6

fire some synapses.

1:30.6

But it was really, really far from actually getting the brain.

1:32.7

It wasn't really functioning.

...

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