MENTAL HEALTH: School is already stressful enough without a pandemic and polarizing election thrown in. Nate and Sam wondered how students can take care of their mental health during these historically stressful times. Kate Staley, director of outreach for counseling and psychological services at Penn State and Chris Palma, associate dean for undergraduate students, join Nate and Sam to discuss coping strategies and resources for students.Links for this episode: - studentaffairs.psu.edu/counseling- you.psu.eduLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

GRAD SCHOOL: It’s season two of “Hey, I got a question about that” and Nate and Sam are back and better than ever. In this episode (with an interview filmed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), Nicole Famularo and Albanie Hendrickson-Stives visit the studio to talk about graduate school and their research in Christine Keating’s lab in the Department of Chemistry. What is graduate school like? Do graduate students have “free time”?Links for this episode: - research.chem.psu.edu/cdkgroup/- sites.psu.edu/gwisstatecollege/Links to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

PANDEMIC: Nate and Same talk to Doug Cavener, the Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Eberly College of Science at Penn State via Zoom about how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the college. Can the dean work from home? How did remote learning work for science classes? Did research continue?For more information on the response to Covid-19 or to find ways to support Penn State and our students: - https://science.psu.edu/covid-19-contingency-resources- https://raise.psu.eduLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

GENETIC TESTING: Cheryl Keller, associate research professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State, stops by the studio to talk about genetic testing and direct-to-consumer genetics. What can these genetics tests tell us? How are tests for things like Tay-Sachs disease or Sickle-cell disease different from direct-to-consumer genetic tests? How reliable are they?Links to Cheryl's work: - @KellerCaponePhD on Twitter - https://twitter.com/KellerCaponePhD- Cheryl's Website - cherylkellercapone.wordpress.comLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

MICROBIOME: Emily Davenport, assistant professor of biology at Penn State, visits Nate and Sam in the newly-revamped studio to talk sh*t. Well, sort of. Emily studies the human microbiome, how it evolved, and how it is related to human health. So, what is the microbiome? What kind of organisms make up our microbiome? How come it seems to be in the news so much lately? And, should we take probiotics?Links to Emily's work: - @emo_davenport on Twitter - https://twitter.com/emo_davenport- Emily's Website - davenport-lab.github.ioLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

EMERGING DISEASES AND BATS: Nita Bharti, Lloyd Huck Early Career Professor and assistant professor of biology at Penn State, drops in to the studio to help Nate and Sam understand how human encroachment into animal habitats is impacting emerging diseases and how satellite data can help us understand this process. Where do emerging diseases come from? What do bats have to do with it, anyway?Links to Nita's work: - @nitanother on Twitter - https://twitter.com/nitanother- Nita's Website - https://www.humidlab.comLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

BIG DATA: Francesca Chiaromonte, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Statistics for the Life Sciences at Penn State, joins Nate and Sam in the studio to talk about data, BIG data. Massive amounts of data are being collected constantly from genome sequences, to digital health records, and trends on social media. What is making the data so big? What are statisticians doing to manage this influx of information?Links to Francesca's work: - Francesca's website: https://sites.psu.edu/chiaromonte/Links to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

PLANETS: Chris Palma, associate dean for undergraduate students in the Eberly College of Science and teaching professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, visits the studio to explain to Nate and Sam that nostalgia is not a proper scientific argument and that Pluto is not a planet. So, what is a planet and what defines them? What else is out there in the solar system? Find out on this month’s episode of “Hey! I got a question about that.”Links to Chris's work: - @dfrctionspikes on Twitter - https://twitter.com/dfrctionspikes- Chris's Website - sites.psu.edu/chrispalma/- Tales from the Outer Solar System (Dr. Mike Brown's talk mentioned in the podcast): https://live.libraries.psu.edu/Mediasite/Play/a802036989ac471583276e03e825d15b1d?catalog=8376d4b2-4dd1-457e-a3bf-e4cf9163fedaLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

ANIMALS ADAPT: Tracy Langkilde, professor and head of the Department of Biology at Penn State, joins Nate and Sam in the studio to discuss how animals respond to changes in their environment, like invasive species and traffic noise. How do lizards and frogs respond to such abrupt changes? Can they adapt? Is there a cost?Links to Tracy's work: - @TracyLangkilde on Twitter - https://twitter.com/TracyLangkilde- Tracy's Website - bio.psu.edu/directory/tll30Links to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

VACCINES: Too many guests to fit into our tiny studio this month!  So, Nate and Sam take a trip to the Millennium Science Complex at Penn State to talk to Scott Lindner, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; Matt Ferrari, associate professor of biology and of statistics; and Troy Sutton, assistant professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, about vaccines. What are vaccines? Are they safe and effective? Spoiler alert: YES!Links to Scott's work: - @LindnerLab on Twitter - https://twitter.com/LindnerLab- Scott's Website - http://sites.psu.edu/lindnerlabLinks to Matt's work: - @TheFerrariLab on Twitter - https://twitter.com/TheFerrariLab- Scott's Website - http://www.theferrarilab.comLinks to Troy's work: - Troy's Website - http://huck.psu.edu/people/troy-suttonMore sites:Epidemics: http://epidemics.psu.edu/CIDD: https://www.huck.psu.edu/institutes-and-centers/center-for-infectious-disease-dynamicsCMaR: https://www.huck.psu.edu/institutes-and-centers/center-for-malaria-researchLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

GENOME VARIATION: Nate and Sam talk to Santhosh Girirajan, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and of anthropology at Penn State, about what variation in the human genome means and how it relates to complex neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. How do genomes differ between individuals? What can these differences tell us about disease risk? What is normal and is bigger better when it comes to genomes?Links to Santhosh's work:- @girirajan16 on Twitter - https://twitter.com/girirajan16- Santhosh's Website - http://autism.bx.psu.eduLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateSci...- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatesc...- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

NITTANY LION GENOME: Nate and Sam are in their new studio for this conversation with Shaun Mahony, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State, and George “PJ” Perry, Harry J. & Elissa M. Sichi Early Career Professor in Anthropology and associate professor of anthropology and of biology at Penn State, joins via satellite all the way from Germany. Can DNA sequencing tell us if the “Nittany Lion” is an actual separate species of mountain lion?Links to Shaun's work: - @MahonyLab on Twitter - https://twitter.com/MahonyLab- Shaun's Website - http://www.mahonylab.orgLinks to PJ's work:- @Grg_Perry on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Grg_Perry- PJ's Website - http://www.anthgenomicslab.comLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

STRUCTURAL COLOR: Nate and Sam visit Lauren Zarzar, assistant professor of chemistry at Penn State, to talk about color and a cool kitchen science experiment. Where does color come from and what makes things like opals and butterfly wings iridescent?Links to Lauren's work: - @LaurenZarzar on Twitter - https://twitter.com/LaurenZarzar- Lauren's Website - http://www.zarzarlab.comLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PennStateScience- Eberly College of Science Twitter - https://twitter.com/PSUScience- Eberly College of Science Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pennstatescience- Eberly College of Science Website - http://science.psu.edu/

ALIEN LIFE: In this inaugural episode, Nate and Sam travel to Penn State’s observatory on the roof of Davey Laboratory to talk to Jason Wright, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics, about the possibility of life out there in the universe. Does it exist and what are the methods that researchers are using to look for it?Links to Jason's work: - @Astro_Wright on Twitter- Jason's WebsiteLinks to the Eberly College of Science:- Eberly College of Science Facebook- Eberly College of Science Twitter- Eberly College of Science Instagram- Eberly College of Science Website