OIST Podcast

The Connectomics podcast, a spin-off from the OIST podcast, explores the intersection between embodied cognitive science, philosophy, culture, technology and design. 

In this intro episode of Connectomics, host, Mark James, research fellow in OIST's Embodied Cognitive Science Unit, asks the question 'Where is my mind?' and introduces you to some ideas that will provide some – possibly – surprising answers. 

Mark also talks about some of the central topics for the podcast going forward (e.g., embodied cognition, social cognition), and why he thinks these ideas are relevant to thinking about and maybe even addressing some of the problems of our present age. 

Will robots become researchers? On this episode, Prof. Hiroaki Kitano talks about his vision for utilizing AI to move beyond human limitations in the lab and to revolutionize scientific discovery.

In this episode of the OIST podcast, Dr. Dan Warren talks about his many research projects, or ‘hobbies’, that use quantitative methods to answer questions about the natural world.

Podcast host, Lucy Dickie, speaks to four female researchers about the challenges that come with being a woman working in STEM, their own personal experiences, and what they would like to see change.

In this episode, Prof. Filip Husnik, who leads the Evolution, Cell Biology, and Symbiosis Unit, talks about his research on symbiosis. Tune in to hear about coral reefs, insects, the deep sea, and Okinawa’s star sand.

This episode, Lucy Dickie speaks to Prof. Sam Reiter about cephalopods, the emerging field of neuroethology, and how we can learn more about the brain and intelligence.

This episode is all about scientific outreach. Science Communicator Lucy Dickie speaks to a community relations staff member and two scientists about outreach and what it was like running the annual OIST science festival during the time of COVID-19. 

It’s part two of our clownfish podcast! Professor Tim Ravasi uses clownfish to determine how a warmer, more acidic ocean might impact fish communities. Science Communicator Lucy Dickie caught up with him to find out more.

This episode is all about clownfish! Science Communicator Lucy Dickie speaks to Professor Vincent Laudet who leads OIST’s Marine Eco-Evo-Devo Unit and uses the well-known orange-and-white fish as his model species. 

Margaret Mars Brisbin is a recent OIST graduate whose PhD focused on Acantharians – tiny, marine organisms. Science communication fellow, Lucy Dickie, spoke to Maggi about this research, marine conservation more broadly, and why it’s important for marine scientists to inspire others to care about the ocean. 

In this episode, we speak to OIST Provost Professor Mary Collins about COVID-19. We talk about the virus but also OIST’s response to the outbreak in Okinawa, and the many projects that have been started here to help contain the spread within the community.

This episode Lucy Dickie speaks to OIST adjunct researcher Professor Greg Stephens about quantifying behavior. Greg looks at systems across the biological world, from tiny wiggling worms and rowdy zebrafish to crowds of people.

This episode we're I’m talking with James Higa, Okinawan raised luminary of Silicon Valley. We talk Apple, philanthropy, and the future of tech in Okinawa and beyond.

This episode, we talk with OIST Researcher Dr. Tamar Gutnick about working with animals, choosy tortoises, petting stingrays and the mysterious lives of wibbly-wobbly cephalopods.

Today we're chatting with Dr GP. Yeh - veteran of FermiLab for 30 years, and now heading up the GP Yeh Foundation as well as being a member of the advisory board fro the OIST Foundation.

Dr. Yeh talks with us about his foundation's projects to develop particle therapies for cancer sufferers, sustainable energy, and his boundless enthusiasm for the solutions science offers.

This episode, we talk to Dr. Thomas Kornberg, professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. He obtained his BA and PhD degrees at Columbia University in New York. 

His work on cellular communication mechanisms led to the discovery of cytonemes, the thin cellular projections that are specialized for the exchange of signaling proteins between cells - and might just hold the key to significant medical breakthroughs!

Tadashi Tokieda is a professor in the Department of Mathematics, Stanford University.  He grew up as a painter in Japan, became a classical philologist in France, and has been an applied mathematician in Europe and elsewhere.  He is active in outreach in the developing world, especially via the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.  At the last International Congress of Mathematicians he gave a plenary public lecture, and his demos are popular on the youtube channel Numberphile.

We sit down for an enthralling chat with Prof. Tokeida that takes us on journey through mathematics, child prodigies and how language frames science. Get ready for an enthralling 30 minutes!

For more from Prof. Tokeida, see his website at MSRI

Samaya Nissanke is an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam’s center of excellence for Gravitation and Astroparticle Physics (GRAPPA). She is also a joint faculty member at the Anton Pannekoek Institute and the Institute for High Energy Physics.

This episode, Dr. Nissanke talks about a cosmic scavenger hunt to find evidence of merging events in binary neutron stars using an array of telescopes to detect gravitational and electromagnetic waves - and also how they disrupted a family holiday!

Professor Tom Froese is the head of the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). He studies the interaction between agents and their environment, and the role of these interactions in cognition.

In this episode we cover the possibilities and limitations of considering brains as isolated computers, the alternative positions adopted in embodied cognitive science, and the experimental setups used to make sense of agent-environment interactions. We also move beyond the lab to consider the implications of this work on wider culture.

To find out more about Professor Froese's work, head over to groups.oist.jp/ecsu.

Enjoy!