In Chapter 4 of "Not My Thesis," Jane Panangaden explains the abstract world of pure math and the delights of exploring it, as well as her work advocating for tenants' rights in Pasadena. While dividing her time between writing proofs and legis

NMT 3: Mia de los Reyes

Aug 7th, 2020 50m 50s

In Chapter 3 of Not My Thesis, Mia de los Reyes discusses the galaxies lurking in the empty parts of space, the constraint of light, and how she’s helped expand the membership of the scientific community. Astronomy, Mia reminds us, may not alwa

Biosphere 7: Mistakes

Jul 24th, 2020 41m 40s

How does evolution give rise to new features of living things? Mistakes drive the vast diversity of life on earth through mutations (random errors in the information carrying molecules of a cell). A core question of evolutionary biology is how

Biosphere 6: Aggression and Fear

May 8th, 2020 33m 42s

In the current pandemic, many normally harmless activities like grocery shopping are suddenly frightening. But is fear a necessary, or even good, function of our nervous system? Where does it originate from in the brain? Can we directly control

Biosphere 5: Instability

Apr 10th, 2020 45m 37s

As the world grapples with an ongoing pandemic and billions face financial uncertainty to a higher degree than ever before, it’s easy to feel like the rug’s been pulled out from under us. But as we face our own fragility, we can also remember t

NMT 2: Shyam Saladi

Apr 6th, 2020 45m 47s

Scientific impact can take many forms. Sometimes a highly-cited paper influences the most people, sometimes it’s a nifty website, and sometimes it can be just a few words of kindness.In Chapter 2 of Not My Thesis, Shyam Saladi talks about eve

Biosphere 4: Assimilation

Mar 13th, 2020 39m 48s

In this episode, we talk about Assimilation, both in the case of a very clever sea creature and in the case of academia--that mysterious college and university setting where so many scientists strive to do their science. For this topic, we are

Biosphere 3: Fitting In

Feb 14th, 2020 41m 2s

It’s easy to think of socially rich cultures as a uniquely human phenomenon. However, even animals with much smaller brains exhibit culture all their own! We discuss what this looks like in macaques (monkeys) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/arc

NMT 1: Tal Einav

Feb 7th, 2020 44m 21s

Answering an unanswered research question is a struggle. You do not know what the solution is, what it might look like, or if it even exists. In Chapter 1 of Not My Thesis, Tal Einav talks about his particular version of this struggle, when b

NMT 0: Introduction

Feb 7th, 2020 3m 52s

Not My Thesis is a podcast that explores the unpublished parts of the scientific process. We interview graduate students at Caltech about what their thesis is, but also what their thesis is not. We want to understand not just what they do, but

Biosphere 2: Poetic Justice

Jan 10th, 2020 31m 1s

When their crops are plagued by caterpillars, farmers often turn to wasps for help. These wasps are hardened parasites: they lay their eggs inside the caterpillars, and once these eggs hatch the baby wasps eat the caterpillar from inside out. B

Biosphere 1: New Beginnings

Dec 9th, 2019 38m 42s

To celebrate the launch of Biosphere, we invite you to join our conversation about some new beginnings in the microbial world and in our scientific paths. We often think that the birth of live young is a special characteristic of some animals.

Biosphere 0: Trailer

Dec 9th, 2019 3m 52s

Biosphere is a podcast that captures the curiosity, bewilderment, elation, and occasional frustration that we, Caltech Biology PhD students, experience as scientists. In every episode of Biosphere, we have unscripted discussions about the livin

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