Science’s leading role in the restoration of Notre Dame and the surprising biology behind how our body develops its tough skin

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News, News Commentary, Science

4.3 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2020

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s show, freelance writer Christa Lesté-Lasserre talks with host Sarah Crespi about the scientists working on the restoration of Notre Dame, from testing the changing weight of wet limestone, to how to remove lead contamination from four-story stained glass windows. As the emergency phase of work winds down, scientists are also starting to use the lull in tourist activity to investigate the mysteries of the cathedral’s construction. Also this week, Felipe Quiroz, an assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, talks with Sarah about his paper on the cellular mechanism of liquid-liquid phase separation in the formation of the tough outer layer of the skin. Liquid-liquid phase separation is when two liquids “demix,” or separate, like oil and water. In cells, this process created membraneless organelles that are just now starting to be understood. In this work, Quiroz and colleagues create a sensor for phase separation in the cell that works in living tissue, and show how phase separation is tied to the formation of the outer layers of skin in mice. Read the related Insight. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF). [Image: r. nial bradshaw/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Authors: Sarah Crespi; Christa Lesté-Lasserre Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Morgan State University, a Baltimore, Maryland Carnegie R2 doctoral research institution,
0:05.0	offers more than 100 academic programs and awards degrees at the Baccliorate, Masters, and Doctoral Levels,
0:12.0	is furthering their mission of growing the future leading the world.
0:16.0	Morgan continues to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment.
0:20.0	With a four-year quadrupling of research, more than a dozen new doctoral programs,
0:25.7	and eight new National Centers of Excellence, Morgan is positioned to achieve Carnegie R1 designation in the next five years.
0:33.7	To learn more about Morgan and their ascension to R1, visit morgan.edu slash research.
0:46.1	Welcome to the science podcast for March 13, 2020. I'm Sarah Crespi. First up this week, I talk with freelance science writer Krista Lyssaire
0:55.4	about the role of scientists at the Notre Dame Cathedral, both in the restoration of the structure
1:01.3	and for the investigation of its past. Then we have researcher Felipe Carose. He's going to talk
1:08.1	about how our skin forms a tough barrier against the outside world
1:11.7	and how this barrier's formation depends on phase separation, a very hot area of cell biology.
1:22.5	First up today, we have freelance science writer Krista Lister L Leicester. She wrote a feature this week on the
1:28.5	scientist leading Notre Dame's restoration after the April 2019 fire and their use of the fire
1:35.5	to probe the mysteries of this cathedral. Hi, Krista. Hi, Sarah. Okay, the way you describe the scientific
1:42.6	work that's going on at the cathedral after the fire,
1:45.7	it can almost be broken down into these categories by material. Stone, glass, lead, and wood.
1:53.7	Each has experts, it has its own challenges and its own mysteries. All of the teams that are
1:59.5	working together on the restoration, on these
2:01.5	different categories of materials, are working together in the same organization.
2:06.6	Can you tell us a little bit more about this group?
2:09.1	They're all working out at the same laboratory, which is part of the Minister of Culture.
	...

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