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Undisciplined: November Science News Roundup

Utah Public Radio | By Matthew LaPlante

Published November 27, 2020 at 7:57 AM MST

This week on Undisciplined, we’re talking about monarch caterpillars, ancient big-game hunters, and of course we’ll be talking about the biggest news in science this month — two apparently effective vaccines for COVID-19.

We're joined by a frequent guest of our show, an amazingly brilliant scientist, and a good friend: Utah State University geneticist Mirella Meyer-Ficca.

And also with us today is Ryan Haupt, a paleontologist and podcaster and one of the hosts of a super-cool show called “Science… sort of,” which you can find wherever you get your podcasts.

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Matthew LaPlante

Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something donned on him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be brutally depressing all the time. Today, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects by writing books about the intersection of science, human health and society, including the New York Times best-selling Lifespan with geneticist David Sinclair and the Nautilus Award-winning Longevity Plan with cardiologist John Day. His first solo book, Superlative, looks at what scientists are learning by studying organisms that have evolved in record-setting ways, and his is currently at work on another book about embracing the inevitability of human-caused climate change with an optimistic outlook on the future.

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