Hey! I Got a Question About That
Nate Follmer, videographer extraordinaire and science newb, and Sam Sholtis, science writer and former research scientist, discuss burning—and sometimes not so burning—questions on the leading edge of science with researchers in the Penn State Eberly College of Science who are actually doing the work.
Episodes
14 episodes
How Can Students Care for their Mental Health?
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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41:06
What is Graduate School Like? Do Graduate Students Have “Free Time”?
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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37:52
What's Going On at the Eberly College of Science During Covid-19?
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 learni...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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34:17
What are Genetic Tests? Are They Reliable?
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? H...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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31:23
What is a Microbiome?
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 h...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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24:00
Where Do Emerging Diseases Come From?
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 ...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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24:31
What is Big Data? How Does Data Get Big?
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 con...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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38:28
Is Pluto a Planet? What is a Planet Anyway?
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 pro...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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41:38
How Do Animals Handle Environmental Change? Can They Adapt?
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 ...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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23:08
How Do Vaccines Work? Are Vaccines Safe?
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; Mat...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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39:16
How Do Our Genomes Differ? What Does That Variation Mean?
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 neurodev...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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23:16
What Was The Nittany Lion?
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 Caree...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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33:12
Where Does Color Come From? What Causes Iridescence?
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 wing...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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19:41
Is There Life On Other Planets? How Do We Look For It?
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...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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20:00