Charlotte is a PhD student in Epidemiology and Geography at the University of Cambridge. Her research explores the ways in which “wild foods”, such as bushmeat, insects, wild fruits and vegetables, can be used to support the health and nutritional security of rural communities. In particular, she is looking at the use of wild foods by indigenous peoples in northeastern India.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Charlotte was actively involved in epidemiology-related science communication. She has written multiple articles on zoonotic diseases, how they are linked to human behaviour and how we might mitigate their spread. She produced an incredibly popular Instagram page, “epidummyology” which has nearly 400 posts simplifying COVID-19 science and research, and what it means for the UK population. The page closed recently with almost 60K followers, but off the back of this, Charlotte now works with some NHS regional teams on their COVID-19 communications.

You can find find out more about Charlotte, and her research, at:

Today, Mark and Georgia spoke to Orla Woodward who is a final year PhD student at the Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge. Her research looks into advancing our understanding of the hormone responses and physiological mechanisms that regulate appetite, body weight and obesity. Understanding how these hormones work will be greatly beneficial for obesity therapy and prevention strategies for other food intake-related disorders. Throughout her PhD she has published articles on important public health concerns such as obesity-prevention through policy, and health inequality in Cambridge. She has also been involved in Stem for Britain, presenting science-backed public health ideas to MPs and policy makers.

You can find out more about Orla and her research at

In this episode, Ruby and Laura spoke to Bianca De Sanctis, a PhD student in Professor Eske Willerslev’s research group in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. Bianca's research focuses on genome reconstruction using ancient DNA samples to gain a snapshot of what ancient ecosystems looked like. Bianca fills us in on a recently published study where she and her colleagues reconstructed the genomes of a Stone Age American black bear and an extinct short-faced bear using environmental DNA samples from a remote cave in Mexico. She also discusses the difficulty of working with ancient DNA samples, and how the use of ancient environmental DNA samples has provided a huge leap forward in the world of ancient genomics.  

You can find out more about Bianca's latest paper here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/stone-age-bear-genome-reconstructed-from-dna-in-mexican-cave 

We're back back back! Tune in to find out more about our latest news, we hope you're as excited as we are about our ever-expanding team! In this season launch episode we introduce Georgia Nixon, Mark Grimes and Laura Chilver, who will be joining familiar voices Ruby Coates and Simone Eizagirre to bring you an exciting new season. Make sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss our first episode coming out next week!

This week we spoke to Dr Fotis Sampaziotis, a hepatologist and clinical lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Dr Sampaziotis is part of a team who has recently demonstrated successful liver repair using two methods: repair of damaged bile ducts using lab-grown bile duct cell infusions, and transplantation of bioengineered bile duct organoids to replace damaged regions of the liver. We also discuss how these methods could promote bile duct repair in donor livers prior to transplantation. Finally, Dr Sampaziotis explains how he enjoys a dual career as a clinician and a scientific researcher. 

We're back and we have some exciting news - join us in welcoming Laura Chilver to our podcasting team! Laura is studying Natural Sciences and has a keen passion for science communication. 

This week we spoke to Dr Livia Tomova, a postdoctoral researcher who studies the impact of stress, social isolation and loneliness on the mind, particularly in adolescence. Livia explains how she uses brain imaging to understand how loneliness can affect the brain, and how some people maybe be more vulnerable to loneliness that others. Finally, we also discuss the impact of social media on the mind, and how it can both alleviate and worsen loneliness depending on how it is used. 

Our guest this week is Thomas Parton, a PhD student in the Vignolini Lab in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. His research studies how colour emerges from the micro-structure of different materials that are found in nature. In this episode, we discuss his recent work studying structural colour in bio-films of rod-shaped bacteria, as well as discussing the importance of interdisciplinarity in science, and the value of taking inspiration from nature.

This week we spoke to Dr Paul Bays, the group leader of the Computational Cognition Group in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on visual working memory, which is our ability to recall details of what we have just seen. Paul explains how visual working memory is different to other forms of memory, and how his group uses a combination of computational modelling and volunteer trial data to form an understanding about how visual working memory works. We also discuss eidetic or "photographic" memory, and how neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease can impact visual working memory. 

This week we spoke to Amelia Drew a junior research fellow at Homerton College, who has just completed her PhD in Cosmology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. We discuss how the discovery of gravitational waves could allow the detection of phenomena from the early universe such as cosmic strings, which formed the basis of Amelia's PhD research.  Amelia also tells us what it's like to work in the world of theoretical cosmology, the implications of cosmological research and what cosmologists hope to understand about the universe in the future. 

This week we spoke to Dr. Adam Pellegrini, a Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge. His research specialises in disturbance ecology and ecosystem function, where he studies how changes to fire regimes can impact an ecosystem. We learn about the types of data that can be collected from both controlled and spontaneous fires in the wilderness, and how it can be used to model the impact on the ecosystem. We also discuss how the rates of savannah and forest fires are changing in relation to climate change, and what the future holds for this area of research. 

Constanza Toro-Valdivieso is a PhD student in the Department of Vetenary Medicine at the University of Cambridge. She studies Juan Fernández fur seals in Chile, focusing on how their gut microbiome can be used as an indicator for wildlife health, and provide a non-invasive way to monitor changes in habitat, food networks,  and genetic diversity.

In this episode we speak to Kobi Felton, a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. As part of the Sustainable Reaction Engineering group, Kobi's research focuses on the design and optimisation of chemical reactions using software development and machine-based learning approaches. We chat about how applying data science techniques to chemistry problems is useful for industry, sustainability, and the development of new materials and technologies. He also tells us what it's like to be working on bringing together concepts from such different fields, and how open-access mentality is changing collaborations between researchers and industry.

This week we talk to Cynthia Okoye and Sandile Mtetwa, PhD students at the University of Cambridge. Sandile and Cynthia are two of the founders of Africans in STEM, a student-run initiative that provides a platform and a community for Africans across STEM disciplines to network, collaborate and share ideas - both locally and globally. Recently, to mark Black History Month, the initiative has held an exhibition online and in departments at the University of Cambridge showcasing Black scientists from around the world, as well as a panel discussion spotlighting Black female scientist in Cambridge. In this episode, we learn about Sandile and Cynthia's research, how Africans in STEM was founded, the impact that their activism has had so far, and their hopes and goals for the future.

This week we speak to Dr Giorgio Divitini, the Advanced TEM Officer in the High Resolution Electron Microscopy Group in the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. Giorgio tells us about the background, history and science of electron microscopy, as well as the incredible architectural processes that must take place before setting up an electron microscope facility. We also learn about the vast applications of electron microscopy, all the way from biology to engineering, and find out how this often overlooked technology is likely to evolve in the future. 

Welcome back to the BlueSci Podcast! We are fresh from our summer break and have a lot of new exciting science to share! 

This week our guest is Dr Jerelle Joseph, a post-doc in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Jerelle completed her PhD in atomistic protein modelling and is now doing post-doc studying intracellular liquid-liquid phase separation. She talks to us about how understanding protein biochemistry at a single protein level as well as a multi-protein level is crucial for biomedical research. 

Jerelle also talks to us about the CariScholar organisation, a mentorship initiative she founded in order to link Caribbean students to academics and professionals worldwide. 

In this week's episode it's just your hosts, Ruby and Simone! We thought we’d use this episode to share some of the things that we’ve been up to as part of our work as the hosts of the podcast, and make some announcements. 

Firstly, we share our thoughts following our podcast collaboration with Simone Erlingfeld from Cambridge Quaranchats, a humanities-based podcast. In this 2-episode collaboration, we discussed some of the best fragments from both of our podcasts, and explored how each connected to both the sciences and humanities. We also talked about how politics and ethics affect scientific research, and how society's perception and understanding of science can help inform policymaking and encourage positive change. Make sure to check these episodes out! 

Secondly, we are going to take a short break from the podcast to refresh and plan more episodes for you to enjoy! In the meantime - please get in contact us with any questions, comments or suggestions for the podcast on Twitter (@bluescipod) or email (podcast@bluesci.co.uk). Do you know someone we should interview? Do you want us to interview you? Let us know!

See you in August! 

This week we're learning about additive manufacturing and bioelectronics! Our guest is Tanyaradzwa Mangoma, a PhD candidate based at the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing group in the Institute of Manufacturing and the Bioelectronics group in the Department of Engineering. Her research focuses on fabricating additively manufactured neuromorphic and neural network devices based on organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs).  She chats to us about her work, what it’s like working in such a fast-paced interdisciplinary field, and what the future could hold for personalised bioelectronic medicine.

A transcript of this episode will be up on our website shortly.

For today's episode we've invited PhD students Daniel Muthukrishna and Nick Taylor to tell us about a COVID-19 modelling web-app they made in collaboration with Dr Cerian Webb. The website, calledlowhighcovid, is an educational resource which allows users to learn about mathematical modelling and infectious disease statistics, interactively set and observe the outcomes of control measures, and visualise COVID-19 data in real time from a global data feed. 

Dan (Astrophysics) and Nick (Plant Epidemiology) tell us how they came up with the idea for the app whilst having a drink at their college bar, and how it evolved into the resource it is today. They explain what it takes to build an interactive modelling app from scratch and what they have learned along the way. 

Taking a break from our coronavirus reporting, this week we're transporting our listeners to the Antarctic! Join us for this episode of escapism where we interview Dr Anna Belcher, a postdoctoral researcher at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Her research focuses on how marine life in the ocean can capture atmospheric carbon, and she has been on several voyages to the Artic and Antarctic circles to gather data. She tells us why protecting marine ecosystems is so important, and what it's like to carry out polar marine research.

This episode was recorded in Cambridge in early March before the lockdown began.

What can we learn from the genetic information of a virus? This week our guest is Grant Hall, an MPhil student in Department of Pathology at Cambridge University, currently working in the Cambridge COVID-19 Genomics Lab led by Professor Ian Goodfellow, which is part of the nationwide effort (COG-UK) to sequence the genomes of SARS-Cov-2 viruses isolated from COVID-19 positive patients.

Grant talks us through how the genetic sequencing is performed, how this information can help scientists better understand and fight the pandemic, and what it is like to be at the forefront of coronavirus research in the UK. 

This week we spoke to Stephen Baker, Professor of Molecular Microbiology at the University of Cambridge. His laboratory was one of the first academic labs converted to a COVID-19 screening lab, now carrying out validated rapid testing of staff at Cambridge's Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Remarkably, the lab was set up and running in under 2 weeks.

We speak to him about how he set his lab up for COVID-19 testing, discuss the differences between PCR and antibody tests, the current challenges to to achieving mass testing capacity, and the role that academic labs can play in speeding up that process.

This week we have a 2-part interview with Professor Andrea Armani! Prof Armani is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California.  She was co-chair of the Photonics Online Meetup, which was held in January 2020 and was one of the first fully-virtual online scientific conferences, with over 1000 attendees! In this second interview, she tells us how the idea originated, and how they managed to co-ordinate it, including a virtual poster session! We also reflect on what this experience teaches us about traditional conferences, and how the scientific community can foster more productive and more accessible interactions between researchers.

This week we have a 2-part interview with Professor Andrea Armani, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California!  In this first part, we discuss the benefits of crossing the boundaries between traditional fields, and adopting an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving in research. She also gives out some handy tips on succeeding as a graduate student and making decisions about careers in academia.

She is also pioneering changes to scientific networking, and advocates the importance of increasing accessibility to scientific conferences worldwide.  Earlier this year, Prof Armani co-chaired one of the first ever fully online conferences - the Photonics Online Meet Up. Listen to her tell us all about it in our next episode!

This week our guest is Sam Langford, an award winning science communicator who currently works as Science Learning Coordinator at the Glasgow Science Centre, and coordinator of the first global virtual science show on Twitter! We chat to him about what makes for good science communication, the biggest hurdles we face when communicating science to wider society, and what this pandemic can teach us about how our society feels about science.

Surprise! This week we have an BONUS episode to celebrate International Women's Day! In this special episode, we highlight the work being done by academics, student-led groups, and other voluntary organisations who advocate for equal opportunities, inclusion and diversity in science. 

Our guests include Professor Rachel Oliver  (04:48), leader of The Inclusion Group for Equity in Research (TIGER) in STEMM, Hope Bretscher (32:46), co-President of the student-led Cavendish Inspiring Women (CiW) group in the Cavendish Laboratory, and Raheela Rehman (53:20), chair of the Cambridge Association for Women in Science and Engineering (CamAWiSE).