Episode Details

Today you’ll learn about a robot with the ability to pick up a single drop of water, how scientists have created a computer algorithm that can predict Malaria hotspots, and what naked mole rats have to teach us about human fertility. 

One Drop Robot 

• “New robot can pick up a single drop of liquid” by Stephen Ornes
  • https://www.snexplores.org/article/innovation-2023-robot-can-pick-up-drop-of-liquid
• “On-demand, remote and lossless manipulation of biofluid droplets” by Wei Wang et al. (PAYWALL)
  • https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/mh/d2mh00695b
• “Novel soft robotic droplet manipulator for hazardous liquid cleanup” by ASHWINI SAKHARKAR
  • https://www.inceptivemind.com/novel-soft-robotic-droplet-manipulator-hazardous-liquid-cleanup/28367/
• “Soft Robotics” by Techopedia
  • https://www.techopedia.com/definition/32895/soft-robotics

Malaria Forecast 

• “WHO Coronavirus Dashboard”
  • https://covid19.who.int/
• “New analysis could help forecast malaria outbreaks” by Rob Jordan
  • https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-analysis-malaria-outbreaks.html
• “Climatic, land-use and socio-economic factors can predict malaria dynamics at fine spatial scales relevant to local health actors: Evidence from rural Madagascar” by Julie D. Pourtois et al.
  • https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0001607
• “Estimating the local spatio‐temporal distribution of malaria from routine health information systems in areas of low health care access and reporting” by Elizabeth Hyde et al.
  • https://ij-healthgeographics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12942-021-00262-4

Naked Mole Rat Fertility 

• “Naked mole rats reveal biological secrets of lifelong fertility” by Christa Lesté-Lasserre
  • https://www.newscientist.com/article/2360377-naked-mole-rats-reveal-biological-secrets-of-lifelong-fertility/
• “Postnatal oogenesis leads to an exceptionally large ovarian reserve in naked mole-rats” by Miguel Angel Brieño-Enríquez et al.
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36284-8
• “Germ cell nests in adult ovaries and an unusually large ovarian reserve in the naked mole-rat” by Ned J. Place et al.
  • https://rep.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/rep/161/1/REP-20-0304.xml

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