My name is Clive Page and I am a Professor of Pharmacology at King’s College London and Director of the Sackler Institute of Pulmonary Pharmacology, King’s College London. I have spent my career working on understanding why people have asthma and other inflammatory diseases of the lung. I have also been very interested in the treatment of these diseases and have been involved in the discovery and development of a new drug for the treatment of asthma and COPD (smokers disease), RPL554, which is currently in clinical trials. I recently gave the 81st Stephen Paget Memorial Lecture about the role animals have played in the development of medicines to treat asthma. I have always advocated openness in discussing the role of animals in research and have contributed widely to the public debate about this important issue. This is my first AMA, I’m here to talk about asthma and other inflammatory diseases of the lung, the treatment of these diseases, and how animal research plays an important role, so Ask Me Anything! This AMA has been organised by Understanding Animal Research. Thanks for your questions and I hope the information supplied is of some help

EDIT: Thank you SO much for your very insightful and thought-provoking questions! We had a blast, and we are so excited so many of you are interested in medical physics! We’re signing off for now, but will answer a few more questions throughout the day. Thanks again!   So, who IS a medical physicist? We’re concerned with three areas of activity: clinical service and consultation, research and development and teaching. In clinical work, medical physicists are heavily involved with responsibilities in areas of diagnosis and treatment, for individual patients and across the entire clinical environment. In radiation oncology departments, one important example is the planning of radiation treatments for cancer patients, using either external radiation or internal radioactive sources. In imaging departments, the focus is not only to take pictures of body form and function safely, but to more importantly achieve precise quantitative benefit. We also can play a lead role on medical research teams. For example, we design new imaging methods to see through the human body most effectively. In cancer, we work primarily on issues involving radiation, such as the basic physical mechanisms of biological change after irradiation, the application of new high-energy machines for patient treatment and the development of new techniques for precise measurement of radiation. We do important things – but the challenge of our work lies in trying to marry the basic science of physics with the applied art of medicine. We’re strong proponents of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine’s Medical Physics 3.0 initiative, which is based on the core premise that medical physicists have a unique calling and expertise to be scientific agents (i.e., catalysts): agents for precision and innovation in the development and practice of medicine. Within the medical physics community, we’re focused on fostering a culture that empowers better communication, enabling better patient care. Ask us anything about our careers, research goals, trends in medical physics or anything else you can dream of! We’re here to spread the word about how awesome it is to be a medical physicist and maybe inspire a few of you to join us someday!   We are: Ehsan Samei, PhD, DABR, FAAPM, FSPIE, FAIMBE, a Persian-American medical physicist. As an imaging scientist and a clinical practitioner, I am passionate about bridging the gap between scientific scholarship and clinical practice. I like to see high-quality research effectively translated to benefit individual patients. Robin Miller, MS DABR FAAPM, a medical physicist focusing on clinical radiation therapy. As a part of the cancer care team, my passion is providing the highest quality care possible for each patient treated. Paul Naine, MSc. MIPEM, IEng, a medical physicist working for a device manufacturer. I work alongside teams of medical professionals whose vocation is to design and deliver products and services to enable healthcare providers to focus on providing the safest and most effective treatments to their patients.

The YEARS Project is a multimedia storytelling and education effort designed to inform, empower, and unite the world in the face of climate change. We’ve had two seasons of storytelling on TV, first on Showtime, which won the Primetime Emmy for best documentary series, and second on National Geographic, where the show was broadcast in 171 countries and 45 languages. We’re currently producing short-form video content for social media at the rate of 1-2 pieces each day, covering climate impacts, solutions, politics and science. Our average video gets over a million views on Facebook alone. We also partnered with the National Wildlife Federation to create educational materials based on the TV series for use in middle schools, high schools and colleges across the country. We’re live now to answer your questions, AMA! So ask away, because David can barely contain himself. Website: http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/ Facebook Watch Climate Classroom

Hi Reddit, My name is Nathalie Miebach and I am Boston-based artist who translates scientific data related to ecology, climate change, and meteorology into woven sculptures and musical scores. I find data very poetic. By using somewhat unorthodox ways of representing data, I’m trying to tap into more nuanced stories embedded in data that traditional ways of scientific representations have a harder time tapping into. My method of translation is principally that of weaving—in particular, basket weaving—as it provides me with a simple yet highly effective grid through which to interpret data in three-dimensional space. Central to this work is my desire to explore the role visual aesthetics play in the translation and understanding of scientific information. I also translate weather data into musical scores that are build entirely of weather data, but integrate human experiences and interpretations of weather events. The juxtaposition of objective data and more nuanced, subjective readings of weather, lead to a musical/sculptural translation that explores how human emotions and experiences influence the perception of weather. These musical scores are translated into woven sculptures and are used in collaborative performances with musicians / composers all over the country. We’ve had over 11 concerts, called Weather Scores, and I’m getting ready to organize the next one this Summer in Montreal, Canada! Check out my work here and don’t miss my TED Talk as well as this BrainPickings write-up of my work. My friends over at NOVA PBS (where some of my work is featured on Instagram today: @novapbs) have a whole vertical dedicated to climate change, they’re been reporting on it in their email newsletter—sign up here, and their film, “Decoding the Weather Machine,” premieres April 18 at 9/8c on PBS. One of the questions I wrestle with in the studio everyday is whether or not data can ever be approached and treated as an artistic medium or if the very act of translating data into art destroys its objectivity that is part of the integrity of information. Ask me any questions you have about data, art / science collaborations, data translation into 3D and music, or anything else you’d like.

Hello Reddit! We are filmmakers working with NOVA PBS on a film about artificial intelligence entitled NOVA Wonders: Can We Build a Brain. In the course of making the show, we spent a lot of time reporting on self-driving cars. As we’re sure you are aware, there is a lot of hype around autonomous vehicles these days. And, as this week’s accident in Phoenix shows, there is still a ways to go. If you’re interested in when you might see one of these babies in your driveway, the economic/social implications of self-driving cars, or just have general questions about the state of AI, we’ll be back at 12 noon ET to chat, AMA! —Michael Bicks/Anna Lee Strachan, producers of NOVA Wonders: Can We Build a Brain

Research on indoor environments has been conducted for decades, but new molecular tools and collaborative efforts are generating a deeper understanding of the complex interactions among human occupants, built environments, and associated microbial communities. Let us introduce ourselves – we’re: Diane Gold, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Professor in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and Associate Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Vivian Loftness, University Professor, Paul Mellon Professor, and Andrew Mellon Professor in the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University; Jordan Peccia, Thomas E. Golden, Jr. Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering at Yale University Today we’ll be discussing the current state of this knowledge, examples of knowledge gaps and challenges, and areas where a research agenda is needed so that indoor interactions can be better predicated and managed. Learn more about the report at http://nas-sites.org/builtmicrobiome/. We’ll be back at 1 pm ET to answer your questions, AMA!

Hi Reddit! I’m Teun Bousema and I’m an epidemiologist in the Department of Medical Microbiology at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. My research focuses on understanding the transmission of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) – that is, how malaria-infected humans are able to infect mosquitoes. I lived and worked for many years in Kenya, Tanzania and the United Kingdom before moving to Radboud University Medical Center. One of the unique achievements of my department is the development of a safe controlled human infection model for malaria. In our current publication in eLife, we utilized this model to study the biology and transmission potential of controlled P. falciparum infections in Dutch volunteers who were exposed to malaria-infected mosquitoes. Our volunteers received treatment that controlled the pathogenic forms of malaria (and thus kept them safe) but stimulated the production of non-pathogenic transmissible stages of malaria parasites – the so-called gametocytes. We successfully induced gametocytes in all volunteers in sex ratios that resemble those observed in natural infections, and found that parasites start producing gametocytes immediately upon appearing in the bloodstream. Our model provides a new way to investigate malaria infection, and could help to test the impact of drugs and vaccines on gametocytes in the future. I look forward to talking more about our findings and anything related to my area of expertise more broadly. Together with Isaie Reuling, a clinician researcher and first author on the eLife manuscript, I’ll start answering questions at 2pm EDT. You can read the full eLife paper, and use the annotation tool to make notes and discuss the findings further. A plain-language summary is also available here. AMA!

On February 16, my colleague Gerald Oppenheimer and I published an article in Science that challenged high-profile claims in the academic literature and popular press alleging that the sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and “shift the blame” to dietary fat instead. Our article focuses on documents unearthed in historical archives about sugar industry funding of Harvard nutrition scientists in the 1960s, which some experts have identified as “smoking gun” evidence that the sugar industry successfully meddled in science and “derailed” the course of dietary policy. We disagree with these widely publicized claims. As we write in our article, there was no “smoking gun.” Previously, my colleagues and I have explored the scientific debates around another controversial ingredient: salt. We analyzed a wide body of scientific reports on the health effects of a salty diet, and showed in a 2016 study that the field is sharply polarized between those who believe population-wide reduction of salt intake will lead to improved health and those who think the data are not convincing. I am not a nutrition scientist, and I don’t claim to have the final answers on the risks of consuming too much sugar or salt! But still: AMA! EDIT: I’M HERE! Thanks for the questions. I am going to start answering right now!!! EDIT 2: I have really enjoyed answering all of your excellent questions. Cheers! Sugar research: https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/researchers-challenge-claims-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-fat http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6377/747.full Salt research: https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/science-salt-polarized-study-finds https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/45/1/251/2363485 https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/48x6dv/askscience_ama_series_im_david_johns_a_doctoral/

The human microbiome is one of the most fascinating areas of science and medicine, and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface. Jack Gilbert is the Faculty Director at the Microbiome Center and a Professor at the University of Chicago; his research focuses mainly on microbial ecosystems, and in 2014, his thought experiment on a ‘World Without Microbes’ went viral in the microbiology community — Jack recently appeared in a video on the subject at https://youtu.be/80tPR5HH9Zo. In 2017, Jack co-authored the popular science book “Dirt is Good: The advantage of germs for your child’s developing immune system.” Mark Smith is a leader in the field of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, or FMT — one of the most buzzworthy practices in bacterial research. In 2012, Mark founded the nonprofit OpenBiome to expand the study and application of fecal transplants to patients suffering from diseases like infection from Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, which kills tens of thousands of people in the US each year. He now serves as the CEO of Finch Therapeutics Group, a mission-driven microbiome engineering company pursuing the first FDA approved FMT product. Mark featured in a video on the topic of FMTs available at https://youtu.be/ZZxRp-f3ElY. As us anything about the microbiome and the study of gut bacteria!

Hi, I am Yaniv Erlich – the Chief Science Officer of MyHeritage and an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. We published a paper yesterday in Science describing a family tree of 13 million people by crowd sourcing the hard work of millions of genealogists. This pedigree spans all habitable continents and over 500 hundred years. We used the pedigree to understand the genetics of human longevity and found that genetics explain a smaller role in longevity. Genes account for only 5% on average of the differences in life span between individuals. For comparison, previous studies showed that smoking reduces life expectancy by 10yrs. We also used the data to trace migration patterns in the Western world. We looked at historical patterns of marriages and analyzed how long people had to migrate to find the love of their life and who is the person was (hint: someone in your family). Our data suggests that technological advancements did not change consanguineous marriages but rather cultural changes such as social taboos. Ask me anything!

Hi, I’m Anthony Goldbloom, co-founder and CEO of Kaggle. Kaggle is the world’s largest community of data scientists and machine learners with over 1.4 million members. Data scientists come to Kaggle to compete in machine learning competitions, find and share open datasets and use Kaggle Kernels (Kaggle’s cloud based data science workbench). Before starting Kaggle, I was a statistician at the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Treasury, building models that forecast economic activity. The MIT Review has named me one of the top 35 innovators under 35 and Forbes has named me as one of the 30 under 30 in technology. For the first time, Kaggle, Google Cloud, and the NCAA ® will join together for the largest data-driven bracketology competition to date. As part of our continued collaboration, we’ve partnered with the NCAA to make 10 years (2008-2018) of historical NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball data available. This competition will be your chance to forecast the outcomes of March Madness® for both the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships. In my spare time I do kitefoil racing. I’ve written a bunch of kitefoiling related apps: two smart watch apps - a training app and a wind reporting app a Strava App used Kaggle Kernels to create a ranking system for kitefoilers (at last update, I was ranked 109). Proof I will be here to answer your questions at 1pm ET. EDIT: THANKS FOR THE QUESTIONS. THIS WAS MY FIRST REDDIT AMA. PLAN TO POP BACK LATER TODAY TO TRY TO ANSWER A FEW MORE QUESTIONS.

Virtual reality, one of the most rapidly expanding areas of tech and gaming, is also playing important roles in the arenas of medicine and health – and for good reason! The ability to simulate experiences expands opportunities for biomedical researchers, clinicians and patients in ways that previously seemed limited to the imaginations of sci-fi writers. Patients can now reduce stress through VR experiences, doctors can practice surgical techniques through simulated experiences, and medical students can practice bedside manner in different scenarios in a virtual world. These experiences are just the tip of the iceberg on what can be done to improve our medical care and well-being with VR. Here at NIH, researchers are using VR to study a host of research questions. For example: How can VR be used to better our response to emergencies during natural disasters? In what applications is VR used for rehabilitation after brain trauma, and how can we improve upon this? Can VR be used to improve the way doctors talk to their patients about genetics? Will patients better understand how to take care of themselves by participating in VR scenarios powered by PubMed articles? Can we use VR to communicate with patients in a way that helps them understand and adhere to healthy living strategies? We’ve gathered our experts and are here to answer any questions you might about virtual reality in health and medicine! Ask us anything! Your hosts today are: Susan Persky, Ph.D., Head of the Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Area, and Associate Investigator in the Social Behavioral Research Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute. My research applies virtual reality tools to understand how genetics will change the interactions we have in medical settings, in society, and within our families. Patti Brennan, RN, Ph.D., Director, National Library of Medicine (NLM). Before I came to NIH I created the Living Environments Lab which used a c6 CAVE to accelerate design of home care technologies (http://www.vizhome.orghttp://www.vizhome.org/) At NIH, our Advanced Visualization Branch in the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) will use VR/AR to improve patients’ self-care and self-management skills. Victor Cid, M.S., Senior Computer Scientist, Disaster Information Management Research Center at the NLM. I conduct and manage research and development activities to support the work of emergency responders and managers before, during and after disaster situations. Among my projects, I develop virtual reality simulations to train emergency professionals, and explore the opportunities that immersive virtual environments can offer for professional development, collaboration, and as platforms for outreach and innovation. John Ostuni, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). My research focuses on developing virtual experiences for use with medical research. William Kistler, M.A., Lab Manager of the Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Area at NHGRI. My Master’s research focused on the human perception of motion and exploring its basic limits via stimuli created in virtual reality. Currently, my work is in support of social and behavioral researchers seeking to augment their own research with virtual reality tools. Jeremy Swan, B.A., Biovisualization Specialist with the Computer Support Services Core at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). My duties include helping investigators communicate their science and use emerging technologies in their research by producing graphics, diagrams, 3D prints, VR apps, photos, videos, websites and applications. UPDATE: Thanks all for the wonderful questions! We had a great time answering them and can’t wait to do this again in the near future. Cheers, Reddit-ers!