Clear and vivid is sponsored by the Covley Foundation dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity.

I'm Alan Alder and this is Clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

We're doing something a little different in this episode of Clear and vivid.

A couple of days ago the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced the winners of the 2020 Covley prizes,

which is an award of a million dollars in each of three research areas, the very big astrophysics, understanding the universe,

the very small nanoscience down in the world of atoms and molecules, and the very complex neuroscience, the study of the brain and nervous system.

We managed to catch up with two of these years honorees as well as one of the judges who were given the challenging task of nominating who should be awarded the Covley prize.

David Julius of the University of California San Francisco found molecules that allow us to feel heat as well as cold,

while Ardom Pataputi in working at Scripps Research discovered the gene that allows ourselves to sense pressure.

David Julius started out by trying to understand why chili peppers are hot, as a lifelong addict to the tang of hot peppers, I was eager to learn more.

This is great that we can speak today because we almost met once.

We did, about 20 years ago, or something.

And the reason was I was so interested in research you were doing, but I wasn't there when you were film talking about it, but the research was in something that's so important to my life, which is hot peppers.

Yeah, I hear you are a chili pepper of fission auto.

I think I've eaten hot chili pepper flakes every day of my life, so I was 12.

You're better living through chemistry, yeah.

How about you? Do you actually like hot peppers?

I do, I probably, I don't think I am at your level, but I do enjoy some spicy stuff.

And what got you, I mean your research turned out to be have an extraordinary effect in the future on our lives, but it started out quite different.

Didn't you were interested in natural things like hot peppers and yeah, I've always had this bent towards using natural products to understand physiology, something I've been interested in since I got into the area of neuroscience.

So that's part of it, but the other thing is that you know it'd been known for years before we started this research mostly from scientists and hungry where paprika is a big part of their industry.

That capsace and chili peppers activates neurons that are specifically involved in pain sensation.

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