Hi Reddit, My name is Professor Damien Keating and I am a cell physiologist at Flinders University in the School of Medicine. My research focuses on understanding how cells release chemical signals to each other and how this relates to certain diseases such as diabetes. I recently published a paper titled A Syntenic Cross Species Aneuploidy Genetic Screen Links RCAN1 Expression to β-Cell Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetes in PLOS Genetics. In this study we wanted to identify what might drive pancreatic beta cell dysfunction and reduced plasma insulin in type 2 diabetes (T2D). If those beta cell changes don’t happen people don’t develop T2D. We tackled this in a different way by looking at diabetes in Down syndrome (where chromosome 21 is triplicated), as beta cells in individuals with Down syndrome show the same defects observed in T2D beta cells. Using a screening approach combining Down syndrome mouse models and human T2D beta cells, we arrived at a single lead candidate, RCAN1. We then provided functional evidence that increased RCAN1 expression causes defects in beta cell mitochondrial function and insulin release that are observed in T2D beta cells. We hope this will provide a platform to examine whether affecting RCAN1 function or expression could have positive influences in T2D. I look forward to chatting with you all on this topic from Australia. I will be answering your questions at 1pm ET – Ask Me Anything! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @dj_keating.

Hello, everyone! I am Paul Dietze, and I’m here to chat with you about a career in patent law. A little bit about me: I’ve always liked science. When I was a kid, I had a chemistry set, I had a microscope, and I had one of those van de Graaff generators that you crank and make static electricity. I went to Queens College at the City University of New York, and that was a wonderful place. I got my undergraduate degree in chemistry from there. I worked a 40 hour week all through college, in an ice cream store. I never borrowed a dime to go to college. I paid for it as I went. I got a job as an analytical chemist within a year after I graduated college. I remember the job market was not real good when I graduated in 1976. I got a job at a flavor and fragrance company in Manhattan, Fritzsche, Dodge & Olcott. I went to NYU at night for my master’s in chemistry. I liked school much better than I liked the job, so I applied to the Ph.D. program and got accepted. I really enjoyed the teaching part, and I decided I wanted to teach. When I graduated I was offered a teaching position at a small liberal arts college in Indiana, Earlham College. I taught there for two years. I missed doing research, so I did a postdoc in the lab of William P. Jencks at Brandeis University. In 1987, I got a position as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. In 1993, I was not offered a tenure position, and I was always interested in law, so I applied for law school. At the same time, I applied for a job at the FDA to be a review chemist in the division of oncologic drug products anticancer drugs. I loved law school. I looked forward each day to getting out of work to go to school. Today, as a special counsel for Haynes and Boone, LLP, I provide counseling to clients in the generic pharmaceutical industry. I get to use my chemistry, and I get to use my law degree. It’s really a perfect blend of everything. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it exactly the same way. I’m here to answer any questions you have about a career in patent law or how to use your chemistry degree for a nontraditional career. I’ll be online at 11:00am EDT to begin answering your questions! For more on nontraditional careers in chemistry, check out C&EN’s new Career Ladder series in the first issue of every month in C&EN. My Career Ladder profile appears in the inaugural June 6th issue of Career Ladder in C&EN. For a C&EN article on how to get a career in patent law, see: A Patently Satisfying Career updated links 08:35 EDT -acs Thank you for your questions. I have enjoyed chatting with you. –Paul

Hi Everyone! I hosted a previous Reddit AMA and thoroughly enjoyed all of your thought-provoking questions. I am back now because I want to discuss how the Congressional subpoenas issued by Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and her House Select Panel on Infant Lives is creating at atmosphere of fear and political intimidation that is hindering important, life-saving fetal tissue research. I am also happy to entertain any questions about my research transplanting human fetal hearts and kidneys into animals in the hope of ending the pediatric donor organ shortage. The following links may provide a little background info if you guys are interested: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/01/congress-subpoenas-fetal-tissue-research-abortion https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/31/fetal-tissue-congress/ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/us/politics/house-panel-issues-subpoenas-in-fetal-tissue-research-inquiry.html?_r=0 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/04/01/higher-ed-associations-join-protests-of-house-fetal-tissue-subpoenas/ Thanks and I will be back at 1 pm ET and I very much look forward to answering any questions you may have! Edit: Wow, I very much enjoyed my Reddit AMA with you guys. There were lots of interesting questions and I learned a lot as well! Signing off now, but feel free to PM me with any questions!

SIGNING OFF. It’s 8:50pm. What a great way to spend three hours! If you still desperately want your questions answered and I could not get to you, they are probably addressed in my book “The Memory Illusion”… or you can Tweet me your question @drjuliashaw or email me through my website www.drjuliashaw.com Over and out, Julia I also encourage you to take a peek my last AMA favourites post, because I have probably already answered some of your questions!: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/how-false-memory-changes-what-happened-yesterday/ Hi Reddit! I really enjoyed my last AMA and I’ve come back for another to coincide with the publication of my book The Memory Illusion on June 16th. You can watch a trailer about it here: https://youtu.be/72dhjGWB0gg I study how we can create incredibly detailed memories of things that never actually happened. In particular, I implant rich false memories of committing crime with police contact and other highly emotional autobiographical events. I thought I’d share my work with the community since I’m an avid Redditor. The technique I use in my research is essentially a combination of what’s called “mis-information” (telling people convincingly that something happened that didn’t) and an imagination exercise which makes a participant picture the event happening. The goal is to get my participants to confuse their imagination with their memory. I find, as do many other scientists who study memory, that it is often surprisingly easy to implant memories. All of my participants are healthy young adults, and in my last study 70% of them were classified as having formed these full false memories of crime by the end of the study. I am currently working on further research and analysis to see whether I can replicate this, since this success rate was incredibly high. Last year some of this research, which I did with Stephen Porter at UBC, went viral. It was so amazing to see such a great reaction from the press and public. There really seems to be a thirst for wanting to understand our faulty memories. You can see my favourite write up of the research here. In “Memory Hackers,” a NOVA documentary that aired on PBS, you can actually see some real footage from the videos that I made during the interviews, which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfPLTtlo2oY My book, The Memory Illusion, is the first popular science book of its kind, and I’m super excited about it! If you find my research interesting you’ll definitely like the book. The book will be released in 12 languages over the next year (English, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Russian, Czech, and Serbian). I’ve put a couple of links below. The eagle-eyed of you should spot a few Reddit references throughout my book when you read it, along with some Easter eggs, including my favourite Kurt Vonnegut quote (very) hidden in the text! UK: http://bit.ly/MemoryIllusion US: http://bit.ly/MemoryIllusionUS English language version internationally: http://bit.ly/TMIinternational If you want to know more about me and my science, and get free access to all the research I have published to date, go here: http://www.drjuliashaw.com/ Read my Scientific American contributions (almost all of which focus on memory errors) here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/search/?q=julia+shaw Follow me on Twitter: @drjuliashaw Proof Julia

Hi Reddit! I’m Ali Torkamani, Director of Drug Discovery at the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, CA. Edit: And Director of Genome Informatics My colleagues and I believe studying the genetics of healthy aging is potentially a powerful means for the identification of genetic mechanisms for resistance to age-associated disease. We recently completed a comprehensive whole genome analysis of healthy aging individuals and found that these individuals have lower overall genetic risk for Alzheimer’s and coronary artery disease, and that genetic factors for cognitive performance appear to be important for overall resistance to age-associated disease. Surprisingly, we found no decrease in the genetic risk for other common killers like cancer and diabetes, suggesting there are other hidden protective factors to be discovered. Here’s a summary! And a video! I’ll be back at 1 pm EST (10 am PST, 6 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask me anything about genetics, genomics, healthy aging, and individualized medicine!

Hey Reddit, I’m Matt O’Dowd, and I’m involved in two grand experiments! The first is to make the best hardcore physics/astrophysics YouTube show in the local universe: PBS Space Time (youtube.com/pbsspacetime)! The second is to use the Hubble Space Telescope and gravitational lensing to understand how the largest black holes in the universe feed and grow via the quasar phenomenon. I just made a mini documentary with AMNH on the project! http://www.amnh.org/explore/science-bulletins I will be back at 12pm (noon) EST to answer your questions, Ask me anything about spacetime, and Space Time. UPDATE: Hey guys, taking a couple of hours break to film an episode (deeper into quantum stuff!) I’ll be back in a while to answer some more questions. http://imgur.com/4vctwe0 UP-UPDATE: It’s 6:30pm EST and I’m back for a few more questions. I think we just shot a pretty great episode… DOWN-UPDATE: OK fair Reddit, I’m calling it a night. But for the sake of my brothers downunder I’ll come back tomorrow morning to answer another smattering. Damn though, it’s been fun. Thanks for the great questions!

Hi Reddit! We are Drs. Huda Akil, Edda (Floh) Thiels, S. Murray Sherman, Todd Sherer, David Cardozo, and Walter Koroshetz – Neuroscientists who are passionate about rethinking neuroscience graduate and post-graduate training. We recently published a Perspective in Neuron that discuss the training and workforce needs for the neuroscience field in light of the changing scientific and career development landscape. With the launch of the US BRAIN initiative and similar large-scale neuroscience research programs being developed, globally important questions are being raised about whether we’re training and developing students and postdocs in the right way to meet the ambitious aims of Neuroscience in the 21st century. We see a need for deeper quantitative, analytical skills and interdisciplinary skills amongst neuroscientists, as well as a more integrative training that better prepares students for careers both inside and outside of the academic system. Neuroscience as a discipline has been changing and growing, with an increasing emphasis on new technologies, more extensive collaborations, and big data increasingly requiring different kinds of experimental and analysis approaches. There are also more interactions at the edges of the field with other disciplines like translational medicine, engineering, and computer science. Students and postdocs, this is about you and your future, and we want to hear from you. What do you see as the key challenges for training and career development for neuroscientists? How do you feel about the vision proposed in the Perspective? Read the full text of the Perspective at Neuron Huda Akil, Ph.D.: Gardner Quarton Distinguished University Professor of Neuroscience & Psychiatry and Co-Director & Research Professor The Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan Edda (Floh) Thiels, Ph.D: I am a member of the faculty in Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh and a Program Director of the National Science Foundation. I can discuss neuroscience research and training from the perspective of a principal investigator and mentor, as well as training in neuroscience and related disciplines from the perspective of a funding agency. S. Murray Sherman, Ph.D.: Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Chicago. My research involves very basic questions using animal models to investigate the functional organization of the thalamus and cerebral cortex. Todd Sherer, Ph.D.: Chief Executive Officer, The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research David Cardozo, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School. I am attempting to isolate neural stem cells from rat and human tissue. Walter Koroshetz, M.D.: Director of National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke We’re here from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET (10 am PST, 6 pm UTC) to answer your questions about developing the expertise needed to advance neuroscience in the 21st century! Ask Us Anything!

Hi reddit! We’re Drs. Jessica Hellmann and Tessa Hill and we are here to talk to you about improving how scientists can talk with the public about climate change. Climate scientists see firsthand the current and potential impacts of climate change, and often feel compelled to share these scenarios with the public and highlight the way their science intersects with critical societal interests. Yet, even the most capable science communicators can improve how they talk with non-scientists about crucial social and scientific issues in ways that both capture their complexity and move the dialogue forward. The science of scicomm suggests it’s important to find common ground. There are promising practices developing within scicomm, and many scientists have had communication successes. We’re here to help you improve your scicomm skills and share our stories from the field—Ask us anything! This AMA is being facilitated as part of the AAAS Leshner Leadership Institute, a fellowship program that helps foster scientists’ scicomm and public engagement skills. Jessica Hellmann: I lead the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. I study global change and was among the first to propose and study new techniques for protecting ecosystems and people from climate change. Tessa Hill: I am at UC Davis and I study the impact of climate change on the ocean. I am experienced in science communication, including working with teachers and engaging stakeholders. I recently served on the West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Panel. For background: Sara K. Yeo’s 2015 paper, “Public Engagement with and Communication of Science in a Web-2.0 Media Environment” is an excellent literature review of the scicomm field as it applies to social media. Perhaps nowhere are the insights she collects more needed than when discussing climate change. We’ll be back at 1 pm EST (10 am PST, 6 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask us anything! Mod note: Listen to NPR’s Joe Palca interview our AMA guests recorded yesterday, (only 2 minutes 43 seconds)

Hi Reddit, My name is Emily Bucholz. I am a pediatric resident at Boston Children’s Hospital but did my doctorate at Yale School of Medicine. My doctoral research focuses on sociodemographic and clinical predictors of life expectancy after heart attacks. I am particularly interested in how risk factors for the development of coronary heart disease affect long-term survival after heart attacks. I am the lead author of a study recently published in PLOS Medicine titled “Underweight, Markers of Cachexia, and Mortality in Acute Myocardial Infarction: a Prospective Cohort Study of Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries”. In this study, we studied over 50,000 Medicare beneficiaries to examine the effect of underweight on survival after heart attack. We used two techniques (adjustment and stratification) to disentangle the effects of low weight from comorbidity and frailty, which can also lead to weight loss and poor health outcomes. We found that being underweight was an independent risk factor for higher short- and long-term mortality after heart attack. There are several potential explanations for these findings including decreased physiologic reserve, lower rates of guideline-based therapies, and genetic predisposition. Regardless of the mechanism, we conclude that strategies to promote weight gain after heart attack – both in the hospital and after discharge –are worthy of testing. My co-authors were Ms. Hannah Krumholz and Dr. Harlan Krumholz. I will be answering your questions at 1pm ET – Ask Me Anything!

Hi everyone! I’m Scott Berinato, senior editor at Harvard Business Review and author of ​Good Charts​, a new book about dataviz for managers. As a senior editor at HBR, I write for the magazine and website, but also spend a lot of time editing big ideas from academics and others. When I’m not doing that, I’m probably in my garden getting my hands dirty. While most of you on here are at the cutting edge of dataviz trends, there are countless managers who recognize the need to improve themselves beyond the typical ‘click-and-dataviz-and-paste-into-powerpoint’ approach that has dominated the business world for two decades. ​Good Charts​ is meant to help these folks get better at using dataviz, largely through a design-focused approach. Let’s talk about what I’m hearing from executives and non-specialists about what they’re excited about, what they’re intimidated by, and why the first question is still, always, ‘can I use a pie chart?’ I’ll be back at 12pm ET to answer all of your questions. In the meantime, Ask Me Anything! Okay I’m ready to get started. Some great questions already. Let’s get going. Hey, thanks for coming out for this. I’ll check back here the rest of the day and for the rest of the week to answer more questions. Keep up the good and positive work r/DataIsBeautiful!

Hi Reddit, My name is Nicholas Money. I’m a biologist at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and specialize in the study of fungal growth and reproduction. I am fascinated by the extraordinary mechanisms of spore discharge in these organisms that include high-velocity spurts, exploding gas bubbles, and a catapult that launches mushroom spores. I am the senior author of a 2015 paper in PLOS ONE titled, “Mushrooms as rainmakers: How spores act as nuclei for raindrops”. A couple of years ago I was struck by research by atmospheric chemists that suggested that 50 million tons of fungal spores are ejected into the atmosphere every year. This made me wonder whether the mechanism of drop expansion that powers the discharge of mushroom spores could be reactivated once the spores were airborne. If this happened in clouds, it could play a significant role in the condensation of water and stimulate rainfall. The PLOS ONE paper reports experiments that offer a proof of concept using environmental scanning electron microscopy. This work was co-authored by my doctoral student, Maribeth Hassett, and long-term collaborator Mark Fischer, a physicist at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati. I’ll be answering questions at 1pm ET – Ask Me Anything!

Hi Reddit! I’m Nick Warren Ruktanonchai, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Southampton. I’m interested in understanding how people move, which helps us predict when, where, and why some people become exposed to areas with infectious diseases. And I am Cori Warren Ruktanonchai, a PhD student in Geography & Environment at the University of Southampton–as you may have noticed by the names, I also happen to be Nick’s wife! I’m interested in using spatial statistics to better locate pregnant women, mothers and newborns at risk of adverse health outcomes. We recently published an article titled “Identifying Malaria Transmission Foci for Elimination Using Human Mobility Data” in PLOS Computational Biology, mapping where people got malaria based on their travel patterns. We combined data from 1.19 million mobile phones in Namibia with a map of malaria prevalence to predict areas where the most people get infected. We hope that by targeting these hotspots, elimination efforts can both send help where it’s most needed and reduce transmission nationwide. Call and text locations from mobile phones are a great tool for knowing where people have been. At Flowminder, we’ve used mobile phone data to not only help governments and NGOs predict the spread of disease, we’ve also used it to understand how people move after catastrophes, including a PLOS Medicine paper on the 2010 Haiti earthquake and a PLOS Currents paper on the 2015 Nepal earthquake. We’ll be answering your questions at 1pm ET – Ask Us Anything! Don’t forget to follow Nick on Twitter at @nruktanonchai and Cori at @cwruktanonchai. Also, the Flowminder Foundation can be found at @flowminder, and the WorldPop Project at @WorldPopProject!