010 - NatSci News Rewind April 2020 Transcript

You're listening to NatSci News Rewind a podcast that looks back at the monthly news headlines in the world of NatSci. Let's take a look back at the news for the month of April, 2020.

MSU's Tammy Long receives prestigious Excellence in Education Award
MSU plant biology scientist and educator Tammy Long is the recipient of an Excellence in Education Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists. The award recognizes excellence in teaching, leadership in curricular development, or authorship of effective teaching materials in the science of plant biology.

MSU College  of Natural Science names 2020 award winners
The MSU College of Natural Science selected several alumni, faculty members and students to receive 2020 awards for outstanding achievements and excellence. Claudia Turro received the Outstanding Alumni Award; Kristina Martin received the Recent Alumni Award; and Gemma Reguera, MSU professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, received the Meritorious Faculty Award.

Innovating the peer-review research process
A team of scientists led by MSU astronomer Wolfgang Kerzendorf has found that a new process of evaluating proposed scientific research projects is as effective – if not more so – than the traditional peer-review method. The results were recently published in Nature Astronomy.

Emily Steffke receives MSU's Richard Lee Featherstone Endowed Prize
Emily Steffke, a graduating senior majoring in neuroscience and English at Michigan State University, has been named the 2020 recipient of MSU’s Richard Lee Featherstone Endowed Prize. 

Neutrinos hint at why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe
One of the great mysteries for physicists is why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. This question lies at the core of our understanding of the laws of Nature and the evolution of the cosmos. An international collaboration of 500 members including MSU scientists, has published a paper in this week’s issue of Nature that suggests that differences between neutrinos and antineutrinos might help to shed light on this.

Seeing the light: MSU research finds new way novae light up the sky
For many years, astronomers have believed that nuclear burning of material on the surface of the white dwarf directly powered all the light from the explosion. More recently, however, astronomers started debating that “shocks” from the explosion might power most of the brightness. Now, an international team of astronomers led by MSU's Elias Aydi has found that it is indeed shocks that cause most of the nova’s brightness.

Academic ecosystems critical to sustainable postdoctoral workforce
Postdoctoral students comprise an invaluable component of global research communities, yet their support and training systems are poorly aligned with today’s job market. To address this deficiency, a team of current and former MSU postdoctoral scholars co-authored a paper in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution that outlines strategic reforms to better support the world’s growing postdoctoral workforce.

Plants control microbiome diversity inside leaves to promote health
In a new study, published in the journal Nature, MSU scientists, led by Sheng Yang He, show how plant genes directly select which microbes get to live inside their leaves in order to stay healthy.

The BEACON, the bacteria and the rough-skinned newt
The textbook example goes like this: The poisonous rough-skinned newt and the garter snake are locked in an evolutionary arms race. The more resistant the snakes become to the newt’s neurotoxic defense, the more deadly toxin the newts produce—in some newts, enough to kill two dozen humans. But in a study published in the journal eLife led by MSU scientists, the story of the rough-skinned newt just got a lot more complex. It turns out the arms race has an invisible, and highly influential, third party: neurotoxin-producing bacteria living on the newts’ skin.

MSU scientists discover legacy of past weather inscribed in stories of prairie plant restoration
Michigan State University’s Lars Brudvig, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology, and former MSU graduate student Anna Funk, investigated fields of data going back 20 years to find out why some replanted prairies are healthier than others. Their research was recently published in Scientific Reports.

Federica Brandizzi named 2020 MSU Innovator of the Year
Federica Brandizzi, MSU Foundation Professor of plant biology and a member of the MSU-DOE Plant Research Lab, is the recipient of the MSU Innovation Center’s 2020 Innovator of the Year Award in recognition of her research on increasing plant size to maximize the space needed for more crops.

And that will wrap up the rewind for the month of April, 2020. To read more about these stories, head on over to our website at natsci.msu.edu/news. You can also stay up to date by following us on social. You can find us on Twitter @msu_natsci, on Facebook @MSUCNS, and on Instagram @msunatsci. Thanks for tuning in and be sure to check us out next month.